Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (16:18): My submission was abruptly terminated last time. It was a shame, because I was beginning to get some momentum, but I will aim to close with the same amount of gusto. In summary, this is an appalling bill, and I will certainly be opposing the Budget Measures Bill in relation to the car park tax 2014.
I honestly call on the government to retract it and stop this atrocious levy on parking spaces within the Adelaide CBD. There are many reasons: first, to reiterate, this is a tax that is not only going to hurt small business but it is going to hurt students, it is going to hurt retailers, it is going to hurt parents, and it is going to hurt anyone who goes into the city and parks their car. The government does not have a mandate to pass this bill. It only got 47 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. Let's not forget that.
They think they can come in here when they claim to be trying to grow the economy and what are they going to do? They are going to punish people for coming into the city. That is hardly the way to grow the economy and to instil more confidence in consumers and retailers who are already struggling in the economic state that this government has cast its eye over. This is a tax on middle class South Australia—as I said, the mums and dads, and the students.
Mr Knoll: The forgotten people.
Mr TARZIA: The forgotten people—exactly right, member for Schubert, the forgotten people. The aspirational middle class, because this government thinks—
Mr Knoll: Working families.
Mr TARZIA: Working families—exactly right. This government thinks that people who drive cars are rich. You know what, they are not rich, and I will tell you why: because there are a lot of people who cannot use public transport services because they are not good enough, which the member for Lee oversees. This car park tax is going to hit these people who go to university in the city. They have no other way of getting there, so what do they have to do? They have to use their cars. I ask the government to listen to retailers, to the students and to the parents who are going to be hit by this tax. It is a disgraceful tax.
We have heard not only from opposition members but also industry experts in relation to this bill both here and interstate on the effect that it has had interstate. There is nothing more punitive than to put another tax in the city. How do you expect more money to flow into the city when you are punishing people for coming here? When the government was looking at introducing the bill, Nathan Paine, the executive director of the Property Council of Australia, said in May 2013 that this tax is designed to reduce the number of people driving into the city.
To wind up, I cannot support this bill. This is a bill that attacks middle class South Australia and there is no way that I am going to stand here on behalf of the residents of Hartley and support such a bill when I want this state to grow and flourish. I want to support retailers, students and middle class South Australia, and that is why I cannot support this bill.
