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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-26 Daily Xml
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Cost of Living Support

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (12:52): I move:

That his house urges the Malinauskas government to take urgent action to relieve cost-of-living pressures on South Australian families and businesses.

I rise today to move that this house urges the Malinauskas government to take urgent action to relieve cost-of-living pressures on South Australian families and businesses. The phrase 'cost of living' has become all too familiar, unfortunately. We know that there has been much government inaction, which has been unfortunately quite predictable from this government. We have seen a significant decline in various standards of living, as everyday expenses, we know, are unfortunately choking our state.

Today, for a Premier who likes to party—and he does not mind saying that himself—my fear is that this government has already, after nearly four years, lost touch with the common South Australian. It has completely lost touch, if I am honest. It is just absolutely outrageous to see the Premier stand up and gloat about the latest glossy report week after week, shake hands and smile for the cameras, celebrities, while literally throwing away public money to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, doing things like bragging about how the health system is somehow getting better, when we know that this government has delivered 41 months of the worst ramping in South Australia's history.

Let's dive into cost of living and start with the fundamentals. There is some recent data and it spoke about the true economic situation in South Australia. When you look at gross household disposable income per capita for 2024-25, what it showed—and this was only a few days ago—is that, under Labor, South Australia is the poorest state in the nation—the poorest. New South Wales is $65,200. We are much behind that. It is $61,600 in Queensland, $58,400 in Tasmania, $56,300 in Victoria and $54,800 in South Australia. When you have a government that continues to literally gouge South Australia on a whole range of measures, there is only so much that taxpayers can take. It is no wonder that, under this government, we are becoming literally the poorest state in the nation.

Let's dive back into another cost-of-living measure. Let's start with a fundamental. We are the party of Menzies. We believe in people being able to have their patch of dirt. We are about rewarding aspiration and encouraging home ownership and we understand the benefit of home ownership, which is that, if someone has a place to call home, they are more likely to stay in South Australia. What have we seen under this government? Net interstate migration going backwards not one quarter, not two quarters, but more than eight quarters.

Coming to the point about having a roof over your head, a place to raise a family and a place to effectively form community, what has happened to the housing crisis, the cost of housing, under what is becoming a complacent, lazy, arrogant government? But do not just take my word for it. We looked at some of the reports where little old Adelaide unfortunately has jumped to the sixth least affordable housing market in the world in 2025. Some are actually labelling it as 'impossibly unaffordable'. Those opposite do not want to talk about that we were in government for four out of the last 24 years. This is a situation that did not just creep up on us. This has come from years of neglect by Labor governments in this state. It does not seem to worry party Pete.

However, look at where we are now. It takes the average family not one year, not two years, but something like 12 years just to save for a house deposit in Adelaide. That also does not seem to worry the government at the moment. What about the rental market? How did we end up this way where the rental market is now the least affordable in the country. I urge the government to give hardworking South Australians, first-home buyers and renters alike, the decency of at least acknowledging the problem and admitting the fault.

What we do not need is what I saw not that long ago, where people are rushed into the Convention Centre, a bit like a TED Talk: PowerPoint, chicken and beef alternate drop, everyone is in there, sold a bit of a yarn. The problem is that this government is very big on promise, not so much on delivery. These stats show this because it now takes 12 years to save for a house deposit just in Adelaide. Not that long ago, this number was more like four or five years and the rental market, as I said, is the least affordable in the country.

So whatever they are doing, it is not working, and unfortunately the cost of living is biting. I urge the government to give hardworking South Australians, those first-home buyers, those renters alike, the decency of acknowledging it. They talk about things like stamp duty. Not that long ago, there may have been a Treasurer on the other side of the chamber who saw this evil, inefficient tax. Who was that? They eradicated this tax and did the sky fall in? No, it did not. Did property prices rise to a level immediately that were unsustainable? No, they did not. I think at the time we backed it because we are about inefficient taxes being able to be removed where we are able to do so.

We want to be bold and we want to be ambitious in respect of making sure that we offer a policy alternative. We are proud to say that we think South Australians should have more money in their pockets and they should be paying less tax, not more tax, but as soon as we offer that policy alternative, what do we get? We get the usual manipulation and fearmongering. We can see where it is going. You know what? We are up for the fight. Let's have the fight. I look forward to the fight.

We are at the election. We will want to lower taxes for people in this state and they will want to increase taxes for people in this state. We can point to the housing crisis. We can point to how long it takes people to save for a deposit now and how we have one of the worst affordable crises in our history. We want to make it easier for people to own a home, not harder. If they want to reject that, I look forward to the fight. I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later date.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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