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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-05-13 Daily Xml
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Business Insolvencies

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:56): My question is again to the Minister for Small Business. Why are more businesses failing under Labor? With your leave, sir, and that of the house—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: standing order 97. That involved purported facts and argument in the question.

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders, did you want to rephrase?

Mr TELFER: I can try, thank you. With your leave, have business insolvencies increased in South Australia and, if so, why? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: According to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, business insolvencies have more than doubled in the last two years.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:57): I am pleased to report to the house that the number of businesses trading in South Australia has not only never been higher but has continued to increase year on year under this government. The ABS reports the business openings and closings data, and they do it on a regular basis. That data shows that there are more businesses operating in South Australia now than there were a year ago, and at that point in time—more than 12 months before that date, and so on—the number of businesses continued to expand here in South Australia.

The member asked about insolvencies and, of course, during the period of COVID the then federal Treasurer did ensure that the regulatory environment enabled businesses across the nation to effectively put off insolvency, put off going into bankruptcy or going into administration, recognising the significant challenge on their operating accounts as they tried to trade through the COVID period. But, of course, those times are over and so, for those people who read national media like the Financial Review and have been doing so over the last two years, as those temporary remissions have been removed by the commonwealth you are now seeing a catch-up effect across the nation of high levels of businesses becoming insolvent and ceasing to trade as a result.

But the good news here in South Australia, as I said at the commencement of my remarks, is we still see the total number of businesses in our state continue to increase. I think when you are the state that is regarded by the National Business Council of Australia as the best place in the country to do business, then it sends a pretty clear signal to the state's economy and to the nation's economy that if you want to get into business, if you want to open up your own operation anywhere in the country, this is the place to do it.

South Australia is the place to run a business. We are the lowest taxing state on the mainland. These are not my figures and not South Australian Treasury's figures but the figures that are reported in every state and territory's annual budget papers, some 32 per cent below the national average on tax effort per capita. That is because, to put a finer point on it, we are regarded as having the best payroll tax regime in the nation.

When the member for West Torrens was the Treasurer, he was the first Treasurer and the first government in the nation to abolish stamp duty on commercial property transactions—the first one in the nation—and that led to an absolute boom in commercial construction. In fact, if you look at construction figures in the pipeline, again reported nationally by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there was a huge spike in construction work in the pipeline, because this is regarded as not only the place to do business but the place to invest in commercial property.

So, yes, there is a national trend for higher levels of insolvency post COVID. Yes, we are seeing the Australian Tax Office commence their enforcement regime, catching up after two or three years of taking it easy on the business community in Australia. But here in South Australia, as the best place in the nation to do business, we are still seeing the numbers of businesses in total continue to grow.

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