STEVEN MARSHALL:
Thanks very much, Angelo. It’s great to be here at Bickford’s. It’s a great South Australian company. Congratulations to Angelo, George and the entire Kotses family for what they’re doing, believing in South Australia, investing in South Australia, employing more people, exporting more products and helping us to build a stronger future. That’s the key theme to this upcoming election. Building a stronger future, creating more opportunities for our next generation. That’s why we’re on the front foot, as you can see, with the $18 million that we’ve announced today that we will put into direct flights attraction fund for three more direct flights into South Australia. Now, I’ll tell you why we need more direct flights into South Australia, particularly the US, Japan and India. We need those flights coming in, bringing our international students, bringing in our international visitors and, importantly, being able to send products back out in those flights, fantastic products like we see here at Bickford’s. This company is a great exporter, but it is difficult to access markets without direct flights out of Adelaide. We want to concentrate fairly and squarely on growing the economy in South Australia. By continuing to grow the economy, it means that we have money to go and invest in hospitals, in schools, in roads, in sporting infrastructure, in public transport, the things that are important to the people of South Australia. One of the things that Peter Malinauskas simply doesn’t get is that we need to have a strong economy to be able to deliver those fantastic facilities and services for our state. That’s been one of our major focuses in our first four years. It’s our major focus going on after we come out of coronavirus on the other side of this election. We’re very happy with the way that our economy is performing at the moment. I gave the report card to the Treasurer this morning – the fastest growing economy in the country. More people employed in South Australia now than pre‑COVID. We’ve got record exports. We’ve got record investments and we’ve got a net migration back to South Australia for the first time in 20 years. In fact, it’s the second time in 40 years that we’ve been able to reverse that brain drain out of our state. And we haven’t even started. Coronavirus has been extraordinarily difficult for us here in South Australia, around the country and around the world. But what we’ve been able to do is to make sure that we can focus on continuing to grow our economy and opening up those opportunities for the next generation. We finally have some of the nations and the world’s most important companies setting up shop here in South Australia, companies like [inaudible] 1,600 desks which were announced just before Christmas. We have CommBank. We had NEXTDC and, of course, we had Salesforce announcing two weeks ago and, of course, that massive investment from PWC, 2,000 desks in a regional office based here in Adelaide. Now, these companies, companies like Google and Microsoft and Salesforce and Amazon, they were not even looking at South Australia before we came to Government. We focus on opening up those opportunities, and a big part of that is making sure that we continue it after the election. The biggest risk would be a change in Government while the momentum is on our side. Peter Malinauskas has never held an economic portfolio – never held an economic portfolio. He’s the ex‑union boss here in South Australia. Labor will do a major, major handbrake on the growth that we now have in our state. We’ve got to keep building a stronger future for South Australia, opening up opportunities, and a lot of that is focused on direct flights. And the second major issue is, of course, opening up our overseas trade offices. Some people look at our export performance best in the history of the state and they said how did that occur. Let me tell you. We’ve opened up around 10 new trade offices since coming to Government. We’ve got Paris opening up soon and we’re announcing today another three offices we’re opening up in Germany, we’re opening up in the ASEAN countries. In fact, we’re looking for every single opportunity, including a further opportunity in India. We’ve got good opportunities in those markets with international students, investment attraction into South Australia with our fantastic set‑up here for Defence and space and cyber. And we want to grab every opportunity because we want every single South Australian to have a wonderful, sustainable and attractive rewarding future right here in our state. I’ve got to say, though, that the work we’ve done over the past four years has been a great partnership. It’s a partnership with the Federal Coalition. We’ve cut out the fake fights that we saw under Labor when they were last in Government. We sat down. The Coalition has been a major partner in the transformation of our economy that we’ve seen over the last four years. I really want to thank and commend the Federal Government for backing us, for continue the full‑cycle docking. Federal Labor had given up. They said it’s going to Western Australia. In fact, everybody thought it was going to Western Australia, but we put a compelling and competitive case to the federal government for full‑cycle docking staying in South Australia. The Hobart‑class upgrade is going to take place in South Australia. The Collins‑class life‑of‑type extension is going to happen here in South Australia. These are billions of dollars’ worth of Defence contracts, which are going to be here creating jobs today, tomorrow and for decades to come. We also were very grateful when the Federal Government backed us to have the headquarters for the Australian Space Agency. They backed it up with mission control and the Space Discovery Centre. This is a massive, massive global sector. South Australia wasn’t even on the radar for space but since this announcement has been made, we’ve got a major, major attraction, now a magnet for startups and global companies coming to Australia, setting up here in South Australia, creating those rewarding jobs for the future. It was great to have the Prime Minister here a couple of weekends ago, $2.26 million coming from the Feds to complete the north–south corridor. This will ultimately be 78 kilometres of nonstop motorway right through the centre of our city, which will improve our productivity and also just enable people to get home, spend time on the things that they want to, faster and safer. The current part that’s being done, the Torrens to Darlington, will take about 21 sets of traffic lights. We couldn’t be doing that without the Federal Government. And as everybody in the state knows, we’ve got record investment in infrastructure at the moment; $17.9 million and our partners on that are the Federal Government. Cut out those fake fights. We’re working whether it be on infrastructure, on skills here in South Australia, or creating new and exciting opportunities for sections like Defence base and cyber, we’re very grateful for that. And it’s fantastic to have the Treasurer with us here today.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you very much, Steven. Firstly, to Angelo, to you and George and to Bickford’s group, thank you for the warm hospitality you’ve extended today. This is an Australian success story, a manufacturing success story to know that you’re exporting to more than 40 markets, that you employ close to 600 people, and to see firsthand how you’re investing in boosting the productivity and the innovation of your production lines with this new bottling facility, and to know that it’s improved your productivity by some sixfold and broadened out the range of products with a $25 million investment. And thank you for using the tax incentives that we have put in place to grow your business and provide for Australia. It’s a real pleasure to be here in South Australia with the Premier. Steven Marshall has provided outstanding leadership around the National Cabinet table and has helped see South Australia come out of this pandemic stronger than ever. These are the facts. Unemployment today in South Australia is 4.8 per cent. There are more South Australians employed today than at any time. Your economy is 10 per cent bigger than it was when Labor was last in office. That’s worth more than $10 billion to the South Australian economy. More than 70,000 South Australians are in work today compared to when Labor was last in office. The Morrison Government is providing tax cuts to South Australia. More than 750,000 South Australians have received tax relief from the Federal Government, and more than 250,000 small businesses in South Australia are seeing their taxes reduced down to 25 per cent, the lowest levels in some 50 years. And as Steven knows all too well, our government has partnered with the State Government to provide some $12 billion of direct economic support to South Australia during this pandemic. That includes around $5 billion for JobKeeper which helped more than 200,000 South Australian workers. We’ll continue to partner with South Australia as we keep managing this pandemic and the challenges that we face. The Morrison Government is sticking to its economic plan, an economic plan that is focusing on lower taxes, on driving investment, on seeing more skills, training programs, rolling out major infrastructure programs like the north–south corridor which Steven alluded to, investing in the digital economy as that transition helps to drive greater productivity, investing in more energy plants, which, of course, is so important here in South Australia. Electricity prices are down by eight per cent over the last two years. Under Labor, electricity prices doubled. And then manufacturing. We’ve identified the key areas of manufacturing. And what’s really pleasing about being here in South Australia is that you are attracting high‑paying, high‑skilled jobs in the industries of the future like space and to know that the space agency is here in South Australia doing everything from space suits to GPS technology to, in fact, developing a rover, a new Australian rover that can go on the moon or Mars expeditions and, of course, the defence industry whether it’s at Osborne or Edinburgh with the frigates or the upgrades to the Poseidon aircraft there’s a whole lot of investment from the federal government that is going on here in South Australia helping to create jobs. But it’s really important as we approach the budget in just over a month’s time to keep this momentum. And the economy is opening, and you want tourism announcements are really important in that respect. But also, Australians, South Australians, are learning to live safely with COVID. It would be terrific to get more and more people into the CBD. Sydney is leading by example in that respect and the more Australians we can get back into our CBDs, the more jobs that will be created and the better and stronger the economy will be. Thank you Angelo for having us here. Steven, thanks for your outstanding leadership on both the health and the economic front through the pandemic. You’ve been a terrific partner for Scott Morrison and I and our entire government and we look forward to working with you for the months and years ahead.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, despite the great relationship between you, the GST [inaudible] will South Australia be worse off [inaudible].
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The facts are South Australia is getting more money from the GST than ever before; $6.8 billion is what I announced in MYEFO in December of last year and that is an improvement on what we announced just at the budget last year, $74 million on what was announced at last year’s budget. As you know, GST, all goes to the states. And as consumption boosts, as the economic recovery takes hold, we actually seeing upgrades to our GST forecast. We will have a review, as we have said, before ‘26, ‘27. That will be done by the Productivity Commission. But what I can tell you, what the facts show is that there’s more money is flowing to the people of South Australia…
JOURNALIST:
Is South Australia likely to go backwards in its share of GST in the following – in this year?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, in 2021–22, this is financial year, we have upgraded the amount of money flowing to the people of South Australia through the GST and, as you know, the GST is simply a function of consumption across the economy. And the good news for the people of South Australia and indeed for the Government of South Australia and Steven’s coffers is that more money is being spent as more people are in work and our economy rebounds strongly. So, there has been an increase in the amount of money that is going to South Australia.
JOURNALIST:
But our position relative to other states you guarantee won’t deteriorate in the next years’ calculations?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as I said, there will be a review in ‘26, before ‘26, ‘27. It will be done by the Productivity Commission. But what we’re seeing is more money flow to South Australia.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, what are you feeling about Ukraine?
We understand that the UK has announced sanctions on Russia. Will Australia impose sanctions on Russia and what will they look like?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and I have already said very clearly that Australia will be part of an international effort to put in place sanctions as a result of Russia’s activities in the Ukraine. It’s very disturbing, Russia’s latest actions, Putin’s latest move only escalates an already very dangerous crisis. It brings us closer to an invasion by the Russian forces. Ukraine is not the aggressor here. Russia is. And the knock‑on effects for the global economy could be quite significant. We’ve already seen an escalation in gas and energy prices across Europe, which is very dependent on Russian supply. But what’s really important here is that Russia steps back from the brink and it doesn’t continue with its aggressive behaviour. We need a de‑escalation not an escalation in this very dangerous crisis.
JOURNALIST:
When it comes to sanctions, what options does Australia have?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We already have some sanctions in place and obviously there will be further deliberations by the Prime Minister, by the Foreign Minister, and by the National Security Committee on that.
JOURNALIST:
How do you see Australia impacted by any conflict in Europe?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
In terms of the global economy, we’re likely to see an increase in the price of energy, and a number of economic analysts have already made that point. I was in Indonesia last week at a G20 finance ministers meeting and there were significant concerns expressed by a number of countries as to what an invasion of the Ukraine could mean for the global economy. We’ve already seen the economy globally and in Australia recovering strongly. That could be a setback to that recovery. It would dent confidence, damage international equity markets and it would see the price of energy globally go higher.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] now that Putin has declared [inaudible] what could we do differently, what areas could we target [inaudible]?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, firstly, the main players in this would be the Europeans and the United States and Australia would be part of a global effort. But we’ve heard from President Biden that America’s reaction will be severe and swift and the American President carries a pretty big stick when it comes to economics, so obviously there is a way to go for that to play out and there will be further discussions and deliberations. Australia will be part of an international effort, the Prime Minister has made that very clear.
JOURNALIST:
Are you apprehensive about standing up next to the South Australian Premier or are you feeling more relaxed standing up with Steven Marshall than with his predecessor?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I don’t look back, I look forward, and when it comes to Steven Marshall, we have an outstanding partner at the federal level. But, more importantly than that, it’s what Steven Marshall has delivered for the people of South Australia. We have been through the biggest economic shock through the Great Depression. I spoke to your South Australian Chamber of Commerce this morning and I reminded them all as we sat there in a big conference room, hundreds of people, enjoying each other’s company, of what it was really like in March and April 2020 when 1.3 million Australians either lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero. And Treasury came to me and said that the unemployment rate nationally could reach as high as 15 per cent. The unemployment rate is now at a 13‑year low. And one of the reasons why we have seen such strong job creation and we have saved so many jobs is because the Morrison Government has been there with an unprecedented amount of economic support and so too has the Marshall Government. And it’s been a partnership across 1,000‑plus initiatives. Everything from JobKeeper and the cashflow boost, $750 payment to veterans and others on income support, the work we did through HomeBuilder, 50 per cent wage subsidies for apprentices. The work we did with the banking regulator, the prudential regulator, APRA, as well as the Banking Association; you see $250 billion worth of loans having repayments paused. The work we did with Steven here in South Australia seeing commercial landlords provide relents relief to commercial tenants. The work we did with zoos and aquariums and wildlife sanctuaries to help feed their animals as the tourists didn’t come because of the closed borders. The work we did to underwrite freight routes because when tourists are not travelling interstate or overseas, the planes are not going in the same way. Yet we underwrote the freight routes in order to ensure that goods could get from the paddock to the plate. We took 1,000‑plus decisions in every sector of the economy that now sees Australia with one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere in the world, one of the highest vaccination rates anywhere in the world and certainly one of the strongest economic recoveries in the world, and Steven Marshall has been a big part of that.
JOURNALIST:
On AGL [inaudible] if Mike Cannon-Brookes comes after that will the Government try and block that [inaudible]?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The first thing to say about that bid for AGL, there’s a long way for that to play out. The shareholders, the board has not recommended that bid and so obviously that would be a precondition for it to move to the next stage and the next phase would be regulatory approval. And obviously Foreign Investment Review Board would be involved because there is an international investor. The competition regulator as well would have a very close look at it because Brookfield currently have other assets in the energy area. The key point for the Government is we understand, we support, the transition that is occurring in our energy systems as we bring more renewables in. Our record shows we are doing that in a responsible way that has seen energy prices fall by eight per cent in the last two years, whereas energy prices doubled under Labor. But we look at what happened with Labor here in South Australia, if we look at what happened here under Labor in South Australia, when that transition didn’t go as smoothly as it should have. In Victoria, when the brown coal‑fired power generator closed, 25 per cent of that generation came out of the Victorian system. Victoria went from being a net energy exporter to being an importer at times of peak demand and the wholesale price of energy lifted by 85 per cent. And the people who pay the highest price for that are the low‑income households, because they pay a huge – a great proportion of their disposable income to meet their electricity costs. Plus, we’re seeking simultaneously to meet three objectives. a smaller carbon footprint with lower emissions; cheaper power because that’s in businesses and households; but also a stable and reliable grid. And when you get more intermittent power in, wind and solar and the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all the time, and you reduce some of the thermal generation, you need to ensure you have the sufficient backup and that’s why we’re investing in programs like Snowy 2.0.
JOURNALIST:
You know that the most significant change since Hazelwood closed, [inaudible] we are not asking to close these down they’re looking at 2030 something, [inaudible]?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know, we’ve signed up to get Net Zero by 2050, that’s importantly backed up by a plan, backed up by incredible and unprecedented investment in everything from the development of hydrogen technology to carbon capture and storage, to low cost solar, all of which is our technology, not taxes, approach. We welcome more investment in sustainable low‑emissions technology. In fact, we facilitate it. What I’m saying very clearly is that we need to ensure the grid remains stable, because a business like this can only continue to run with a reliable source of power and, as Steven knows, households across South Australia under Labor paid a pretty painful price for higher electricity prices that have come down under the Coalition.
JOURNALIST:
This morning you were addressing the business community, how important was that as part of your unofficial campaign, and can we expect you back to South Australia several more times in the next few weeks?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Steven is the one who’s kick‑started a campaign and I welcome his announcements already like around tourism. From the Federal Government, I’ve got a budget to deliver on the 29th March. The Prime Minister and I were yesterday together in Tasmania and after today I’ll be spending more time in Canberra, head down in the books, putting together the final touches on the Budget. This will be another important part of our economic plan, which is seeking to lock in an economic recovery that is not yet locked in. That’s what’s really important. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic, and Steven Marshall provides great certainty to the people of South Australia through these very challenging times. That’s what my focus will be, and I’m sure I will be back to South Australia many a time.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, can I just ask you about unemployment, we know Australia has record low unemployment at the moment. Would you be encouraging workers to have conversations with their bosses about a pay rise right now?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
When it comes to wages, we have upgraded the forecast in MYEFO as to where those wages pressures will go. The Reserve Bank Governor has also pointed to that. The key to lifting wages is getting a tighter labour market to get employers such as this one competing for more workers. Here, in South Australia, yesterday in Tasmania and other parts of the country that I’ve travelled, one of the key issues for businesses is, in fact, workforce shortages. We’re going to be seeing that upward pressure on wages but something that Steven and I and the Prime Minister firmly believe in is highly skilled, high‑paying jobs and what Steven outlined with google, with Microsoft, with some of the big accounting firms, all of whom are investing here in South Australia, what we’re doing is partnering on in space and Defence industry is about attracting South Australia those high‑paying and highly skilled jobs and that’s good news for South Australians and that will be good news for wages.
JOURNALIST:
One quick one, [inaudible] do you personally have any reservations about spending ¾ of a million dollars on an [inaudible].
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, we’re investing in infrastructure, particularly in regional Australia and northern Australia. You won’t see the Labor Party do that. You won’t see them do that. What you’ll see from our Coalition is significant investment and, for example, one of the big investments we’re making is the Inland Rail investment, which is a massive freight corridor, 1,700 kilometres long, which will ensure that we can get food from paddock to plate a lot faster. We’re investing in regional projects right around the country as whether they are infrastructure projects. Today, the Prime Minister is making a big announcement about Antarctica. Yesterday the Prime Minister and I spoke about investments in our sustainable forestry industry. We’ll continue to make investments in regional infrastructure over our 10‑year $110 billion pipeline, as well as that in other key areas.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, there was a net loss in population interstate in the June quarter last year by about 450 per cent. How do you reverse the brain drain in South Australia?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Absolutely. Look, one quarter there are movements always. There’s a proxy that the ABS use, which was when people change their Medicare address, so that’s the one that’s used. We do see it moving around a little bit, but the trajectory is very clear. Under Labor we lost thousands and thousands of people every single year for 16 years that’s now turned around and the future looks even brighter with the major national and global companies setting up office in South Australia.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, is it just a symptom of the pandemic and we have had hard borders for most of that time and there are expats trying to get home.
STEVEN MARSHALL:
I think it’s a really good question, but Tom, I just encourage you to look at those ABS statistics and they were back to neutral before the pandemic hit. I think what people do where they see opportunity, they grab it. People are seeing opportunity in South Australia, whether it be young people, whether it be capital, people wanting to invest in our state, that whole exodus of capital and young people out of state has been completely reversed. We’ve got record investment in South Australia. The announcement only last week that construction had begun on the interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales is going to attract between $5 billion and $10 billion worth of investment in our state in renewable energy – wind and solar. I think we’ve got a great track record at, basically, attracting that capital, attracting those young people back to South Australia. The only risk is to this is Peter Malinauskas. Never had an economic portfolio. A former union boss. He would be a major handbrake on the very strong future that we have with a continuing Liberal Government.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think growing Adelaide to two million people by 2030 is sustainable?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
I think we need to set goals. There is no doubt about it. And we are looking at our population strategy at the moment. We’ve made no secret of the fact that we do significantly want to grow our population in South Australia. We haven’t put a number on it yet. Our bicentenary is coming up in 2036 and I think we should be setting a number for our bicentenary. What we see now is instead of South Australia every single quarter getting further and further behind the peloton of fast‑growth states around the country, South Australia has caught up. In fact, last year we were only .1 of a per cent off that national growth rate. Of course, the national growth rate was down because of international borders being closed, but now that we’re opening up these borders, now that we’re opening up the opportunities in South Australia, we do want to have that sustainable population growth in South Australia. It’s good for the entire state for attracting further investment in facilities in our state, giving our construction sector great opportunities, our hospitality, our tourism sector, a lot of opportunities. We’ve been left behind with Labor when they were in power; they were a major handbrake on economic activity. Those times have changed. We’re asking people to continue that momentum, to continue building a stronger future for South Australia at the March 19 election.
JOURNALIST:
Paramedics are continuing their industrial action. What are you doing to try to address that industrial action?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
We’ve sent this dispute now to the independent umpire. We are the best funded per capita ambulance service on mainland Australia. We haven’t been able to reach an agreement with the union, so we’ve sent it off to the independent umpire.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, I’ve got to ask you, what are your plans to grow the state’s nursing workforce over next four years if you’re re‑elected?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Let’s be really clear. We have increased the number of nurses in South Australia by more than 1,000 in our first year. We’ve massively invested in improving our facilities in South Australia, our workforce in South Australia and that’s going to continue into the future. What we have from Labor are slogans. We had promises before the election, but I invite every South Australian to look at the promises that Labor makes before every election and whether they actually deliver on them. Last time Labor were in power, they introduced Transforming Health; which they cut 500 to 1,000 beds out of our system. They downgraded Noarlunga. They downgraded the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They downgraded the Modbury Hospital. Peter Malinauskas was the Health Minister who closed the Repat. He broke the heart of every veteran in South Australia. That is what you get from Labor. Do not trust Labor in terms of promises made before the election. I remind you again going back to yesterday’s press conference, in the lead‑up to the 2014 election, they promised a brand‑new collocated Women’s and Children’s Hospital with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. Promptly after the election they got rid of it and then they introduced Transforming Health and we knew the chaos that came from Transforming Health. By contrast, we have massively reinvested in workforce and upgrades to our hospitals in South Australia. We’ve still got eight emergency departments being upgraded in South Australia, trying to undo the mess of Labor’s Transforming Health. But there’s still much more work to be done. The key issue here is to continue to invest in hospitals, in schools, in roads and sporting infrastructure you need a strong economy if you don’t have a strong economy, it means higher taxes. We all know what Labor stands for. Higher taxes, higher unemployment, cuts to the health system.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] at the Australia Institutehad the Liberals behind 51-49, Australian [inaudible] had you ahead what do you make of that. Do you feel like you’re the underdog in this campaign?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Look, I always said I think it’s going to be a very tight election. We’re going to be offering to build a stronger future for South Australia. I think people can really weigh the selection up. They know what they’re going to get with the Liberal Party, a strong economy, keeping our health a very much high priority in South Australia. You also know what you’re going to get. Peter Malinauskas is the former union boss. He’s never had an economic portfolio. Labor always delivers higher taxes, higher unemployment and cuts to health.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible].
STEVEN MARSHALL:
I’m not going to comment on individual polls. I think they jump around a lot. It’s been pretty tumultuous times in Australia over recent months with Omicron coming in. What I know, though, is when we go to the polls, people have a very, very clear choice. Continued strong, economic and health leadership here in South Australia or back to the bad old days of Labor in charge, higher taxes, higher unemployment, cuts to health.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, [inaudible] are we going to do away with mask wearing?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
We don’t want to keep any restriction in place for one day later than we need to. I haven’t seen the numbers for today, but we do know that they’re plateauing now. They’re not increasing. We’ve got more people back behind their desks at work. We’ve got all of our school students back. We’ve lifted the caps on home gatherings and also hospitality venues. That’s been going really well. That’s been about 10 days now. We’ll sit down in the next day or so and we’ll have an announcement later in the week. I think we will gradually see all of those restrictions reduced over the next two, four, six weeks.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] cost you an election?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
We were probably the most prepared place in the country to deal with the Delta wave. In fact, we’ve done extraordinarily well in terms of ramping up our response. We’ve seen code browns over in Victoria. We’ve got the lowest positive rate of any place outside of Western Australia and, of course, now that they’re opening up, we see their numbers increasing.
JOURNALIST:
Are you saying we were prepared for the Delta wave and not prepared for the Omicron wave?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
I don’t think anybody was prepared for the Omicron wave. We simply need to look at the dates there. We opened the borders before Omicron was even discovered. Labor is running around. We know what they would do. They would say, “You should close those borders.&rdquo. Well, how is that good for the economy. Close the borders. Do South Australians really want to go back to being a hermit state. It makes no sense. Yes, it’s been tough, it’s been tough on every individual, every family, every business but we got through this by working together. We’ve been able to do or get the balance right where we’ve kept South Australia safe, but we’ve also kept our economy strong. The fastest growing economy in the country for the very first time ever. If we kept the borders closed, like Labor have been pleading, undermining the public health messaging in South Australia, then we would have a major handbrake on our economy, we would have thousands and thousands of people unemployed and nobody wants that.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] China that you had is that a reflection on what’s going to happen?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
No, the Direct Flight Attraction Fund is there to get into new markets. We had strong markets in terms of China and they have not required subsidy.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, can I ask you on that one, $18 million, is that really going to be sufficient to attract flights to the US and back?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Absolutely. This is a massive boost for international direct flights. We know this will bring more people into South Australia, international students, people who are spending money as tourists in South Australia, but also, very importantly, allows us to ship out our fantastic produce to the world.
JOURNALIST:
Is South Australia going to be worse off under the GST [inaudible]?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
We’ve never had more money from the Federal Government ever. I know Labor are out there at the moment with their scare campaigns. There must be an election coming up because Labor are running a scare campaign. Let me tell you, the only GST policy that Labor has put on the table in recent years was to massively increase the GST. They had plans to increase it to 15 per cent. That should send a shiver up the spine of every single South Australian business, family and individual. And who was sitting around the cabinet table when that decision was arrived at. Peter Malinauskas, Stephen Mulligan, increasing taxes. It’s in Labor’s DNA.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible]?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Absolutely not. We’ve got three scheduled in the next three weeks.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible]?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
We’ve got a schedule of debates and we’ve got three very high‑profile debates. I look forward to them.
JOURNALIST:
Premier, just briefly on the report released a report today relating to rental affordability. What promises will you be taking forward [inaudible]?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
Well, you would have seen in our most recent done a lot and in the midyear budget review we’ve been able to put more money into affordable housing. One of the projects that’s going to increase affordable housing and, therefore, affordable representing in South Australia is of course the [inaudible] development. Now Labor wants to overturn an independent decision to attract one of Australia’s largest builders and developers into South Australia, bringing dollars in from interstate. They want to turn it over to the [inaudible]. This is exactly what you’re going to get with Peter Malinauskas. It’s blank cheques, novelty cheques, overturning decisions to attract investment into South Australia. It is a massive risk. It would be a massive handbrake on our economy.
JOURNALIST:
A couple of days ago at Business SA, you were talking specifically about this kind of fund and [inaudible] avoid in South Australia?
STEVEN MARSHALL:
No, we do want to attract but where there is market failure, international flights into South Australia and products going out of Australia. This is exactly and precisely what our job of economic growth fund is all about. Not picking individual winners but looking how to help the entire economy benefit. Thank you.