Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I just happen to know a bit about the state of South Australia. That state has received over $17½ billion in GST revenue since the GST was introduced, including a windfall of $402 million over and above what it would have got if we had continued with the old Labor way. Yet, despite that windfall, South Australia’s budget is now heading into the red. The Rann government itself is projecting an operating surplus of just $9 million for 2006-07. But, if you look at the underlying cash position, which is how we measure the federal government budget, when using the same measure as the federal government budget for South Australia you will see that South Australia will run a deficit of $105 million in 2006-07. So Mr Rann has turned windfall revenue gains into a budget deficit and now has the hide to base his campaign for re-election in the state on his economic credentials.

Mr Rann runs around taking credit for the air warfare destroyer contract, which he had nothing to do with. The person who should be commended for the air warfare destroyer contract is Senator Robert Hill, my esteemed colleague. It was the federal government that let that contract, not the Rann government. All that we heard from Mr Rann and Mr Bracks just meant that they cancelled each other out. Mr Rann also had the hide to try and take credit for the expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, ignoring the fact that it is the mine’s owners who are putting the capital at risk to expand that mine. And it is absolutely no thanks to the Labor Party, which actually forbids new uranium mines. It is all right to expand an existing mine, but apparently you are not allowed to open new mines. Of course, Mr Rann takes credit for the growth in the South Australian economy, which, again, he had absolutely nothing to do with. That is all the effect of sound economic management at the federal level. So the South Australian government is doing what other state governments are doing under Labor—cruising on national economic strength, pocketing windfall GST revenues and squandering all of those revenues on misplaced priorities. The disastrous financial situation in New South Wales is clearly a sign of what awaits South Australia if they re-elect the Rann government.