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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-29 Daily Xml
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Construction Industry

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier take action to protect South Australia's construction industry from the CFMEU? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: South Australia's construction industry peak bodies have today expressed concerns about the Premier's lack of action to protect their industry from CFMEU thuggery following reports that the CFMEU was, and I quote, 'using intimidation tactics to force workers on Adelaide construction sites to join the union and threatening builders with losing future work if they refuse'.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:27): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I note that the Leader of the Opposition sees that it is in his political interests to try to perpetuate a sense of crisis within the construction industry around the place today—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I note that the opposition cut a group of lonely figures on the steps of parliament while many of the stakeholders they met with in their emergency crisis meeting didn't actually stand up with them at the press conference, which we are advised they were requested to do but decided not to oblige. That might be a function of the fact that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the construction industry in South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —employs a very good cooperative working relationship with this government, a government that is working to be constructive and engaged with an industry that we value at this important time. What we know is that building more commercial accommodation—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Have you taken money from John Setka lately?

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —building more homes for South Australians at the moment is important, which is why this government has made a whole range of constructive decisions in collaboration with industry to make sure we drive change and accelerate growth—and growth we are having in this state. In fact, recently—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —we know that when it comes to the new home sales report there was interesting data coming from around the nation. July growth numbers from the HIA show us this: in Queensland, it went backwards by 11.6 per cent; concerningly, in Western Australia it went back by 9.3 per cent; New South Wales, down 1.6 per cent; Victoria went backwards, despite having a sustained period of growth; and the Australian average for a new home sales was actually negative 2.4 per cent across the nation.

In a housing crisis, new home sales are going backwards by 2.4 per cent, but in South Australia it was up by 35½ per cent. While the rest of the nation is going backwards, in South Australia, we are surging forward. We are surging forward because we have an industry working cooperatively with the government to be able to do that.

We also know that, in comparison with other parts of the country, the state is shooting the lights out in other important measures. We know that South Australia accounted for 2.7 per cent of all construction industry insolvencies during the last financial year, 60 out of 2,211. That is despite the fact that 6½ per cent of all construction industry work occurred here in South Australia. In fact, I am advised by the MBA that the industry built 14,266 new homes in South Australia over the course of the last financial year, which is up by 5.9 per cent on the year before.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We know that we vastly outperform the rest of the country, particularly the eastern seaboard, when it comes to the performance of our construction industry. Whether it be policy to invest in the trades and skills of people working in the industry, whether it be the abolition of stamp duty for new home builds here in South Australia—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —whether it be working with the Master Builders Association to encourage more young people to work in this industry—men and women—this is a government serious about working with the sector. More than that, it is actually delivering a result for the industry and for the people of South Australia in a way that stands in stark contrast to a former government that went to war with this industry by not engaging and also making broken promises on taxes. We are delivering. It is a big difference.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Hammond, I observe that the members for Chaffey, Morialta, Florey and Hartley are each on one warning.

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