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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-19 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2023

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 17 October 2023.)

The Hon. T.T. NGO (16:13): I rise to speak in support of the 2023-24 Appropriation Bill. This bill is a testament to Labor's commitment to address the present needs of South Australians while preparing our state's economy for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. With thoughtful allocations and a long-term focus on sustainable growth, Labor acknowledges that there are many people who are doing it really tough as they try to absorb rising interest rates and the increased cost of rent, food and utilities.

Labor's $471.3 million in cost-of-living relief will provide a range of support to these individuals and families, including a $254.4 million energy bill relief rebate. The rebate is jointly funded by state and commonwealth governments over two years and will provide up to $500 for households on income support and $650 for small businesses.

We are also providing an additional $44 million over five years to index existing concessions. These, along with the energy bill rebates, will provide up to an additional $580 for eligible pensioners in the next financial year. The Cost of Living Concession, the energy concession, the Medical Heating and Cooling Concession and the water and sewerage concessions will all be indexed by 8.64 per cent in 2023-24.

Through the budget, we have invested an additional $35.7 million for intensive family services and $13.4 million to expand family group conferencing, particularly for Aboriginal families. There will be $5 million over five years for a Financial Wellbeing Program to assist our financially vulnerable South Australians. This funding will provide help with establishing a manageable budget, negotiating debts and accessing emergency financial assistance for immediate pressures such as bills and food.

The sum of $12 million will go to continuing the $100 annual subsidy to help parents with the costs of school materials and school services for the 2024 school year; $6.5 million to expand the school breakfast program in our government schools so that more than one million additional breakfasts can be provided; and $57.2 million over four years to support higher wages and inflation costs so our non-government organisations can maintain social and community care, home care, child protection, and homelessness and disability services for vulnerable South Australians.

Our community centres play an important role in helping to improve the quality of life for individuals and families, and this is precisely why the Hon. Nat Cook MP, Minister for Human Services, and her department will contribute an additional $2.4 million to the Community and Neighbourhood Development Program.

This additional funding will increase the average funding per centre by more than 40 per cent and expand the number of community centres being funded in South Australia. Labor knows that it is wise to invest in social support programs and address issues like poverty and limited access to education. This form of strategic investment early on will have long-term economic benefits for the future prosperity of South Australia as a whole.

An important mantra of this Labor government is that everyone deserves a roof over their head and a place they can call home. However, having a place to call home is not a reality for many South Australians. Our state parliament is already leading the way when it comes to ensuring fairer processes are put in place for renters. Recent changes to the legislation in this space have created a better balance of power between renters and landlords. More will be done to improve in this sector.

With a diminishing supply of vacant rental properties, consecutive interest rate hikes and a crippling shortage of affordable housing, it is a difficult time for every Australian, especially for those in regional areas of our state, where vacancy rates are at a low and rent prices have surged.

The 2023-24 state budget includes a $474.7 million housing package to help increase our housing supply. Included in this comprehensive funding for housing is the single largest land release in our state's history. The Malinauskas Labor government is meeting the urgent need for more social housing with this first substantial increase to public housing in a long time.

The Labor government is opening up 16.6 hectares of land to deliver a much-needed mix of affordable homes for purchase and for rent, which will be part of the Playford Alive master-planned community. It will include 249 new homes to be built along the recently extended Newton Boulevard at Munno Para, and 65 per cent of these will be listed as affordable, totalling 161 new affordable homes. Renewal SA, the government agency that owns the land, will also develop 25 houses as affordable rental homes. These will be released to tenants at less than 75 per cent of the market rent and will be managed by a community housing provider to further ease pressure on supply.

Just to clarify, affordable rentals are assessed according to income, with the rent being capped at less than 75 per cent of market rent for a property. For eligible buyers, affordable homes are available to couples or families earning less than $130,000 per year, or $100,000 a year for a single person.

On Tuesday 12 September, this Labor government announced a deal to secure the passage through the federal parliament of the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), now set to be fast-tracked, enabling us to deliver our key projects as quickly as possible. Our prompt work on SA's housing projects has placed us in a good position for new investment, as the commonwealth seeks to build 30,000 new affordable social homes across Australia in the first five years of the HAFF project.

Labor also wants to help more people move into home ownership. A new 2 per cent deposit home loan will be available from 1 July 2024 for eligible first-home buyers who purchase or build a new property financed through HomeStart. This will not have the added cost of stamp duty because the Malinauskas government is abolishing stamp duty for first-home buyers on new homes valued up to $650,000, or for the purchase of vacant land up to $400,000 to build a new home. This means eligible first-home buyers can now receive up to $30,000 in stamp duty relief, as well as a First Home Owner Grant payment of $15,000, bringing relief of up to almost $45,000.

Supporting home ownership in this way, as well as plans to increase the number of social housing and affordable homes for purchase and rental, demonstrates that Labor wants to respond to the challenge of our housing crisis with prompt and practical action. Labor governments not only look after workers but also small business owners: $6.5 million over four years is allocated to help our small business owners increase their skills, capacity and capability, supporting them to create jobs and contribute to the economy.

This government wants to allow for a greater number of our small businesses to tender for and participate in public projects. Projects that come in at a cost above $500 million will be broken into smaller stages or smaller components, unless the nature of the plan makes this unworkable. This will give small businesses more opportunity to benefit from South Australian projects.

We will ensure our construction industry remains buoyant. In addition to increasing the number of houses to be constructed, this budget provides for government schools and preschools to have building upgrades, maintenance work and asset replacements. There has been $100.2 million set aside for upgrades from the $155.6 million allocated to education initiatives. These upgrades will ensure SA's preschoolers and school students have access to well-maintained and inspiring learning environments.

There is a huge body of evidence-based research confirming the impact that preschool education has on a child's ability to reach their full potential. South Australian families will now be able to access high-quality educational programs for their preschooler at a time that is more appropriate to their age and stage of development. Thanks to this government's commitment to bringing back a midyear preschool intake, this is a significant component of our $72.4 million education plan. Developmentally appropriate education is essential within our early childhood settings; however, it is also fundamental to providing the best learning environment for all children and students.

The sum of $4 million has been created and invested in the nation's first Office for Autism, and 427 schools now have an autism inclusion teacher. Our Assistant Minister for Autism, the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC, has worked tirelessly to promote a network of autism expertise in South Australia's primary schools so that school staff gain the skills and knowledge needed to work with our neurodiverse children and students. In time, we will show the nation as well as the world how this dedicated role in our South Australian parliament has improved educational and employment opportunities for our autistic community.

In recent times, South Australia's employers have been experiencing difficulties in finding workers to fill vacancies. This government wants to ensure the continual growth of our workers with the skills needed in sectors of high demand. Establishing five brand new technical colleges for years 10 to 12 students to move straight from school into jobs and become builders, electricians, mechanics and early childhood educators will help us achieve this.

This Labor government's investment of $63.8 million for current and future skill shortages will address these issues in the here and now while setting in place the path of study and training our future workforce will need. It is pleasing to know that $10.2 million of this has been allocated to support TAFE SA offering more courses in the rural and regional areas of our state.

In regard to supporting skills and training places, our government announced this week that an agreement with the commonwealth will mean the Labor Malinauskas government will invest more than $1.4 billion in skills and training in addition to receiving $850 million in commonwealth funding. This is the largest investment in our state's history and was secured under a landmark national skills agreement ratified by national cabinet on Monday 17 October 2023.

This comes on top of the additional 15,000 fee-free TAFE places for 2024 to 2026 recently announced with the commonwealth for the in-demand skill sectors, which include building and construction, health and community services, electrotechnology, early education, tourism and hospitality, and mining and engineering.

The Malinauskas Labor government has ambitious and progressive programs such as AUKUS and a hydrogen plant, and this funding will help to ensure we have the highly qualified workers we need. By investing in these critical sectors—and I have only touched on some of these today—we can create opportunities to maintain a resilient economy. I am proud to be part of a government that has focus on what really matters to South Australians right now without losing sight of a long-term vision that will make SA a truly great state. With that, I commend this 2023-24 Appropriation Bill to the house.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (16:30): Appropriation bills are always fun, are they not? Appropriation bills actually are fun, because appropriation bills work a little bit like your favourite blockbuster film. There have to be heroes, there have to be villains, and then we are all building up to this third act where they clash and someone has got to be a winner. And, frankly, it is always the heroes in a Marvel superhero battle.

Unfortunately, we then come back to real life, do we not? The villains in real life are often a lot more substantive, they are a lot harder, they are a lot more resilient and they are a lot more existential, in a way, too, to use a big word.

What are they at the moment? Well, they are pretty obvious, are they not? We all know what the problems facing us are. We know they are the cost of living, they are housing and they are health. We know who the heroes were when they first stepped up in the first act of the film to say they were going to do something about them. That was the Labor Party—I remember that—at the last election. We stood up and we said, 'Look, we're going to do something about the issues of housing, of health and of cost of living.'

That is why I love an opportunity like right now to talk about exactly what is happening in this fascinating film that is slowly unrolling. Certainly in the last couple of weeks—if you like, the last few acts of the film—it has got a little bit hectic, has it not? We have all been a little distracted from exactly what we are doing about some of these magnificent initiatives, which the heroes—sorry, the Labor government—are taking to the villains in this otherwise all too real blockbuster that we are in.

In a very broad sense, I am proud to be part of the heroes in this one. I am proud to be part of the government, because we are delivering on those promises that we made back at the election, back in the first act. We are getting on with the job. We are delivering results for the South Australian community, and we are delivering on good, responsive, responsible and conscientious government. We have some investments that support policy initiatives and achievements that I am proud of and that I think we all should be as South Australians. We should be proud to see the heroes starting to line up with the various special powers they always have in any good film.

The centrepieces of our government's spending, the hero's spending in this year's government, support the initiatives that will deliver tangible and much-needed outcomes for the South Australian community in that valuable third act, where we take on the villains. It is going to include investments in the three critical policy areas, like I said, of health, of housing and of cost of living. These are the areas which any person who gave Labor their vote quite rightly would expect us to focus on. They would expect us to focus our efforts, our special powers, and the Malinauskas Labor government's values are true to the movement and the cause in this respect.

I will deal with them to some extent predictably but somewhat sequentially. If we start to think about some of their superpowers our heroes are going to have, health is number one, is it not? Nothing is more important than health, I would say, certainly to the South Australian people and certainly to this government.

The Hon. R.A. Simms: And housing. Health and housing.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Mr Simms wants to jump to the second hero's powers in housing. I want to get there too—I do—but I am going to deal with health first, Hon. Mr Simms. Nothing is more important to our community than health and quite rightly so.

We have taken quite a deal of detail to addressing health and the prize that health delivers in terms of outcomes for South Australians needing health care and those needing emergency medical care, and we are seeing some encouraging signs arising from this government's pretty dedicated efforts to build up our special powers in this regard. I pay real tribute to those who are working hard on this, certainly Minister Picton in our government and, indeed, those in the Public Service and across the health system, including collaboration with our other superheroes in our future film in the federal arena.

The addition of $1.3 billion over five years to address the challenges and the pressures on hospitals—a pretty big investment, the kind of thing we promised back at the election—as well as to ensure that our health system is appropriately resourced to deliver quality and pretty timely—especially given ambulance attendance times—services to South Australians both now and in the future is a reflection, I think, of the Malinauskas government's understanding that we were elected with a strong mandate to get health done. Whatever it takes to get it done and, indeed, get it done right is what our community deserves and what we are working very hard to deliver.

In our first year of government, we recruited an extra 550 clinical staff, and you can start to see those special powers of your superheroes starting to build up here. This is how it is going to work. Health is going to be addressed by this critical need for strength and resilience, the Hulk, if you like, of the superhero world. We recruited an extra 550 clinical staff to deliver better health care and improve ambulance response times. Broken down, if you like, that was 278 extra nurses, 89 extra doctors, 141 extra ambos and 42 extra allied health workers. It almost takes your breath away literally in the time that it takes you to say it.

This means 550 extra clinical staff above attrition to support our commitment to open hundreds of sorely needed new hospital beds across our health system. We see $27.6 million over four years dedicated to increase medical staffing in our major metropolitan hospitals just on the weekends—that is just on the weekends—to enable an increase in the weekend discharge of patients who are ready to leave hospital, freeing up beds for new intake. As I said, this hero, the Hulk if you like, does not rest. It is 24/7 all the time for our hero taking on the villain of health.

Discharge of long stay patients will be further supported with $17.6 million over five years for individual patient in-home support such as short-term services, equipment hire and minor home modifications in order to facilitate the discharge of long stay patients from our hospitals. We see $2.1 million in 2023-24—time is moving, is it not, Mr President—to fit out new emergency department avoidance hubs for the northern suburbs and the western suburbs. I think that is a pretty important step in giving our community, if you like, the option of accessing urgent medical care locally without the need necessarily to present at a hospital, certainly something that a lot of community members have started to raise with me as I get out and about and talk to them about these fantastic health initiatives.

Those endeavours will, of course, be even further supported by the five bulk-billed urgent care centres that the federal government has announced for South Australia. That is five bulk-billed urgent care centres. This will include four in the metropolitan area and one in Mount Gambier, but I digress slightly from the scope of the debate because obviously, as I said, the federal arena is a future film. That is yet to come. We are going to see that come. The superheroes in that are so much bigger.

The Hon. R.A. Simms: There are more superheroes here, Justin.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: There are more superheroes here.

The Hon. R.A. Simms: They are much better here.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: The Hon. Mr Simms thinks there are a lot of superheroes in here, and I like that. We see $67.8 million over five years to expand virtual care services—wouldn't that be a special power?—for adults across South Australia and $30.8 million over four years to permanently extend virtual urgent care services for children aged between six months and 18 years.

In this regard, I think it is pretty important to say that virtual care offers a great deal of potential to help South Australians access care where it is appropriate and where it is feasible that might otherwise require them to present at a clinical location. I think this is a great mechanism to address congestion. Particularly for people living regionally, virtual care offers potential as a useful and beneficial service, as a more frequent and readily available alternative to having to travel sometimes quite a considerable distance to access the healthcare services they need. It certainly goes against some of the comments we have heard in this place about the Labor Party's commitments to regional health.

Very importantly, we are working to deliver on ambulance availability and response times. I welcome the $20 million we are going to see over three years in additional funding, bringing the total project funding for ambulance stations to $70 million. I have gone out and viewed some of these ambulance stations, which we are starting to kick off and get going so that this hulk, if you like, can build even more power in regard to how he is going to take on the villains.

I think it is really great to see not only the stations being constructed but also people, particularly in regional areas, starting to see them coming into effect, starting to see their local services being improved. Where this money is being spent will support the delivery of five brand new ambulance stations for Adelaide, Norwood, Woodville, Golden Grove and Edwardstown, to completely rebuild four stations for Campbelltown, Mount Barker, Gawler and Victor Harbor and to upgrade a further 10 stations for Marion, Elizabeth, Whyalla, Mount Gambier, Keith, Peterborough, Mallala, Goolwa—I always love saying that—Wallaroo and, indeed, Aldinga. For Hansard, I will make sure I provide that all to you in writing later on because sometimes my accent butchers it.

We are also delivering a brand new ambulance headquarters, Mr President; did you know that? We are going to house an emergency operations centre and a state health control centre on the purchase of 36 brand new ambulances. This is pretty crucial stuff so that this superhero has all of this strength. It will substantially assist in getting ambulances to South Australians who need them in a more rapid and more reliable time frame so that the issue—the villain, if you like—of poor response times and hospital beds can be addressed. That is really going to deliver that climactic outcome at the next election. It is going to make sure that if that is delivered on, the South Australian people will feel that that promise has come to fruition.

That is the kind of government that you want to be part of, one that is attempting to address the solution through proper investment and big investment in the right areas, where South Australians said they wanted that put. It was certainly something that we saw lacking in the last Liberal government.

Now we come to housing. The Hon. Mr Simms asked me about housing. I know he is over there champing at the bit to hear all about it, so let's talk about our next hero in our three-act structure of introduction. In the absolutely crucial policy area of housing, the Malinauskas Labor government, I am sure you will be very happy to hear, is taking I think pretty purposeful action for our community, with $474.7 million in a housing package. What will that do? That is a very good question. This investment will help deliver 564 new-build public homes—new-build public homes: over 500 of them, closer to 600—and to halt the sale of a further 580 public housing properties that were going to be sold by the previous Liberal government.

These initiatives will bring about the first real, significant increase in public housing in a generation. I think it is a pretty lamentable fact that over the past 30 years only during a single year has the overall South Australian public housing stock increased. It was in 2014-15 when the overall number of public homes increased by six. We have put an end to that. I do not think it can be sugar-coated, though, that this happened on the watch of both Labor and Liberal administrations. We are determined to change that.

We are determined to be a Labor government that better recognises and better respects the crucial role that public housing plays in supporting our community and in supporting, I think it is pretty safe to say, better outcomes across so many areas of social life for South Australians, especially amid the current conditions in the housing market. We recognise how important it is to deliver more public housing properties for both the metropolitan area and the regions, and we are getting on with doing just that.

The great Australian dream of home ownership has been stretched further and further out of the reach of young people, and this is why the biggest announcement in the Malinauskas government's recent budget was the abolishment of stamp duty for eligible first-home buyers on eligible properties. We also maintained the First Home Owner Grant and have opened mechanisms for first-home buyers to build a home with as little as a 2 per cent deposit.

Having said all that, like I said, it is a pretty big issue facing South Australians in the area of housing. It is a pretty big villain that is out there. As I said, I am prepared to admit that it is a villain that has been built over quite some years, under both Liberal and Labor governments. It is great that not only is the Malinauskas Labor government focused on this but, just as an aside, it is good to see that the member for Sturt, Mr Stevens, has also put his hat in the ring and said that he can see that it is a problem, too. I note an article from earlier this year where Mr Stevens is spearheading the new metropolitan grouping with Menzies MP Keith Wolahan, and he said that the Liberal Party:

…needed to pursue 'aggressive' changes to boost housing stock and consider handing Commonwealth funds to state governments in return for dumping taxes such as stamp duty.…The conversations have been informal and policy proposals, which are not necessarily supported by each of the group's members, have not been approved by shadow cabinet.

Nonetheless, Mr Stevens has said:

Supporting or not supporting government policies is far less important than having our own suite of ideas that make people say, you know what, I want the Liberals, that is going to make me feel better about my economic security.

It is interesting Mr Stevens would say that because we have not seen those kinds of initiatives come from his state heroes in our current act here, but given time, maybe we might see that. Certainly, the Malinauskas heroes have leapt ahead of them. They are already in the field. They are already saying, 'We can see what the South Australian people, including Mr Stevens, are saying, and we are starting to address that now. We are already out in front of it.' Mr Stevens maybe should be looking for other people to collaborate with in regard to the kinds of initiatives that he wants to see, certainly given the size of his margin out in Sturt.

After years of advocating for the abolishment or reduction of taxes by the Liberal Party, it has been the Labor Party that has leapt in and done so. With federal metropolitan Liberal MPs agreeing on the need to pursue, like I said, 'aggressive' changes to boost housing stock, it has been the Labor Party that has done that—how galling. After long claiming to be the party for the regions, it has been the Labor Party that has had to go out and advocate for workers in key industries such as health care and education to have access to housing in areas like the Copper Coast, the Riverland, Mount Gambier, Port Augusta and Ceduna. We, of course, have the key workers' scheme.

It is the Labor Party that has gone out and got on with the job of providing South Australia's housing needs for regional South Australians. Really, I think that is something that we cannot overstate. It is certainly a factor of much hyperbole in here. We hear often from the other side how much they care about regions, how much they are in touch with the community. Well, it seems like they are out of touch on this one. Maybe they will find their groove with time.

The cost of living is your third villain. This one is huge. To the extent that the Malinauskas government can step in as the hero in cost of living, because we know just how huge that is in regard to what the Australian people and indeed the South Australian people look to, the cost of living is something that we are looking at, with the biggest cost-of-living relief package in our state's history. To the extent that the Malinauskas heroes can do so, we are.

We are providing rebates of up to $500 on electricity bills for eligible households or up to $650 for eligible small businesses. We have $100 off the materials and services charge for public schools. For those who do not have kids in a public school, it is basically the fee that we pay as parents at the start of the year for things like books or stationary items: pens, pencils, and things like that. As a father of two, my son goes to a public primary school and I know how this is such a real help for so many families in my local community.

We are also increasing the investment in concessions by $44 million to help the most vulnerable in our community. We are extending the School Breakfast Program to put an extra one million breakfasts—a pretty fundamental thing. When you think about it, if a little kid comes to school or misses, as my son might put it, the most important meal of the day, and it is certainly not the only one he enjoys, it is really that much more difficult to concentrate throughout the day. They need fuel to learn and that is what is so important about the School Breakfast Program. It is an investment that I am very proud that our government has prioritised to deliver on so early in our term in government.

There are your villains and there are your heroes, so where is the action? Normally, you have to wait right up until the end of the film to see the action. Luckily, in this very exciting Malinauskas government film that we are seeing here, the action has already started. I just want to take a brief sideline to say that it started in the area of tourism. One area where it is clear the government is increasingly getting it started is in tourism.

It is an area of policy and of action that enjoys, I think, cross-partisan recognition in terms of how important it is but, of course, substantial differences of opinions can arise in relation to how you can best pursue strong tourism returns. I think it would be subtle to say that we have taken a pretty active approach and the claim could be made and could quite reasonably be substantiated that the Malinauskas Labor government are kind of smashing it.

To look at the numbers, for instance, we see $45 million allocated to market South Australia to people interstate and overseas, which represents a pretty significant increase in our election commitment. The spend was front-ended with $15 million this financial year to provide additional support to tourism businesses and an additional $10 million per year across the forward estimates, so it is not a flash-in-the-pan kind of action thing. This is ongoing, and is it not going well?

At points over the past year, the state has come alive like I have not really seen it before. Total visitor expenditure in South Australia in the 12 months to June 2023 hit $9.9 billion, just short of $10 billion, a new all-time high for the state—an all-time high. We are marking records month on month for tourism. July saw the 12th consecutive month, that is a full year of record high visitor expenditure in South Australia. Record highs, it does not get much more action than that. Fortunately, South Australia is doing a little better than me.

How good have the major events been? Which one was your favourite, Mr President? Admit it, it was the Gather Round, was it not? It was the Gather Round. It was so good. It really was. It was magic. People came in droves and they loved it. I bet the Gather Round will be even better next year or maybe the year after that or the year after that. I genuinely and emphatically congratulate the Premier, Mr Malinauskas, on securing that event for South Australia for the coming years. It is a massive coup. As I and I think many South Australians are, we should all be really excited about that.

Maybe, Mr President, your favourite was not the Gather Round, maybe it was Illuminate Adelaide. I know how much you get into those kind of esoteric events. You will be happy to know that you were not the only one. Illuminate Adelaide drove a record-breaking July tourism spend. Perhaps your favourite was the 2023 record-breaking WOMADelaide, I am not sure, or the 2023 record-breaking Fringe.

I think you might be seeing the theme here—record-breaking, and didn't South Australia break so many records in tourism? You can see why the action was so compelling for so many people, and they kept watching the film; they could not look away. Do you know what, Mr President, I know what it was: it was the triumphant return of the 2022 VALO Adelaide 500, that is what it was. You would not be alone there, Mr President. It generated a record $51.85 million benefit to the South Australian economy. Can you believe that someone wanted to get rid of that?

Was it LIV Golf? Maybe it was the Santos Tour Down Under. It may have been the Sounds by the River festival or the Harvest Rock Festival. Or was it the FIFA Women's World Cup? Maybe it was that. It could have been the State of Origin, maybe the Adelaide Equestrian Festival, maybe the T20 World Cup, the 36ers versus the two NBA teams, backed by our relaunched Brand SA.

There are so many things, it could have been any of them. It might have actually been one of the events that I have not mentioned. Do you know what, you do not need to tell me now, you can think about it and tell me tonight, Mr President, but I know how disappointing this is for a very small amount of South Australia, and that is those members opposite.

It is not just the city that is benefiting from our government's efforts. Eight of the state's 11 tourism regions have reached an all-time high, and 10 regions have surpassed their 2025 tourism budgets already—the 2025 tourism budgets. The latest available data from Tourism Research Australia shows that regional visitor expenditure hit a record $4.7 billion in the 12 months to June 2023, surpassing the target set for 2025 of $4 billion—surpassing that target already.

It has not been limited to one part of the year. They have been outperforming expectations all year round. This is great stuff, and our amazing regions so greatly deserve it. It is so much better than sheep and goats. We can feel genuinely proud of our government's investment in South Australian tourism, and the results of those investments are clear. They are being achieved. The records we are making and breaking are truly worth celebrating, much beyond the metaphor of my hero and villain story. We are always so pleased to support the hardworking operators across our tourism sector, and indeed right across our state. We truly are the place to be.

A really important thing about these strong tourism results is that they do not just bring life to our state. They mean that our hotels are full of people, that our restaurants and bars are full of people, and that is supporting hospitality jobs. We are proud that the economic benefits of record tourism are being spread across businesses and our regions and making South Australia an even better place for us all to call home and an even better place than any movie you would want to sit down and watch on TV, because why would you do that in South Australia? Get out, be part of it, and watch the film unfolding on the streets.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (16:57): I thank honourable members for their contributions and look forward to the committee stage of the bill.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

Bill taken through committee without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (16:59): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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