Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

You know Jay Weatherill is in trouble in South Australia when Senator Penny Wong comes in here and the best she's got is to throw around abuse and lies in her argument. That's the best South Australian Labor has to offer after 16 long years of driving the proud state of South Australia into the dust.

Frankly, South Australians rightly are fed up with a state Labor government that has overseen the slow and steady decline of the state. They're fed up with the many long months the state has suffered having the highest unemployment in the country. They're fed up with the circumstances of being in the state that has seen the lowest rate of employment growth across the country. They're fed up with the jokes that come from interstate because the state can't manage to keep the lights on. They're fed up with the fact that investment into the state dries up because people lack confidence after 16 years of Labor. They're fed up, of course, with the scandals that have beset Jay Weatherill's Labor government.

Jay Weatherill is a good factional ally of Senator Wong. No wonder she's here passionately standing up for him. But, of course, he's the Premier who has overseen the disgraceful circumstance of abuse of people in the care of the state—children in the care of the state, elderly citizens in the care of the state—and who has seen a train wreck of a disaster across the TAFE system in South Australia. It has been one disaster after another.

What I find incredible is that Senator Wong wants to come in here and talk about South Australia's GST funding. Jay Weatherill and his state government have been rolling in enormous revenue growth under the GST. It's up to some $6.3 billion flowing into South Australia. It's grown enormously—far ahead of all of their budget projections—and yet what has happened in that time? According to the Productivity Commission's assessment of state spending, investment in South Australian schools has gone backwards.

During that time, what else has happened? The state government has cut services out of South Australia's hospitals. We know that all of this GST largess that the Weatherill government has been receiving hasn't been spent on South Australian schools because funding's been cut. It hasn't been spent on South Australian hospitals because services have been cut. So where the hell has the money gone, Premier Weatherill? You've had 16 years of record revenues, and all we've seen is an endless decline in services. And what, of course, is the answer that we get from Senator Wong and the Labor Party? All we get is abuse of the member for Sturt, abuse of Mr Marshall, abuse of me and abuse of anybody that Senator Wong can think of because she has no defence of Jay. Senator Wong can't come in here and defend his school funding cuts or cuts to hospital services. She can't come in here and defend the disgrace that is the Oakden scandal—

Senator Wong interjecting—

Oh, here we go—bring it on, Senator Wong!