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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-03 Daily Xml
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Indian Housing Plan

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Minister, did you meet with the Indian government's union minister Piyush Goyal or any other government officials during your recent trade trip to India? If so, were any housing initiatives discussed?

The SPEAKER: There are a lot of questions there. The Minister for Trade.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:03): I am happy to answer the member's question; in fact, it's the first time the member has asked me any question on trade and investment now for probably 12 months. The good news is that not only did I meet with—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta can leave the chamber until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Morialta having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Trade, please resume your answer.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: The good news is that not only did I meet with a series of government leaders and officials in India, including the governor of Maharashtra, India's largest economy, but I also met with Minister Goyal, the subject of the member's question, right here in Adelaide. Such is the focus that our government is placing on our economic relationship with India, one of the most important and one of the most highly ranked Indian ministers travelled to Adelaide and met with myself, met with the Premier, met with the Governor, where we had an extraordinary discussion around the opportunities for economic collaboration between India and Australia. I can't recall at that point whether we did speak about housing, but I can certainly—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: Let me recall what we did speak about. Members across, particularly this member in question bleats and moans and goes quite red in the face, even in estimates this year, about no longer being able—as he did when he travelled to Modesto and when he travelled to Texas and when he bought a pair of ear pods on behalf of the taxpayers of South Australia—to travel overseas. Such is the role of a minister of the Crown that we did speak with Minister Goyal about a series of things, including improving our two-way trade, in which we have seen dramatic increases across the last three years of our government—in fact, a 40 per cent increase of trade out of South Australia in just the last three years. That's what we spoke about with Minister Goyal.

We also spoke about the extreme focus that the large Indian conglomerates like Tata Group and Mahindra are placing on jobs growth here in South Australia. In fact, in the last 12 months alone we have seen the number of Indian companies employing people here in South Australia grow. We have also seen the number of South Australians employed by Indian-owned companies here in South Australia grow. That's what we spoke about. We also spoke about the Australian wine industry, including the grape producers of the Riverland who, according to the member, and rightfully so, have been doing it tough in the Riverland. We met with Minister Goyal and we met with other ministers in India and discussed exactly that.

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