SA Lib leader stands firm on net-zero target despite local party exodus
As senior federal Liberals squabble over net-zero emissions target policy, state Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia is holding firm amid reports of SA members leaving the party in droves over the contentious issue.
In a pitch to South Australia’s top end of town, Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia promised that the Liberals would prioritise small government policies, ruled out dumping net-zero, and said the state needed “an honest conversation about levels of migration”.
He ruled out any changes to the SA Liberals’ position on net-zero, despite reports that his parliamentary colleagues in Canberra were fighting over dumping net-zero targets from their policy platform.
“Of course, in this country, when you see the debate around the economy and cost of living, and just the disparity and the size of the country, of course, you’re always going to have, from time to time, aspects of our country and different parties will potentially challenge those ideas,” said Tarzia.
“But from a state level, we haven’t changed our position. We remain pretty clear on that.”
Tarzia laid out his vision for the state to members of South Australia’s business and not-for-profit community at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) forum on Wednesday.
Today, Tarzia declined to comment on reports that more than 200 state Liberal party members had abandoned the party or how he would stand firm over being at odds with the South Australian division of the Liberal Party, which formally rejected net-zero targets at its State Council Meeting in June.
It is understood that State Director Alex Hyde, in a presentation on Monday, told how two key issues were raised when about five per cent of members handed in their cards – dissatisfaction with Sussan Ley’s federal leadership and her commitment to keeping net-zero emission targets as federal party policy.
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In his pitch to the CEDA forum, Tarzia also outlined the state party’s position on migration, saying while he does not support recent anti-immigration marches, “we’ve got to have an honest conversation about levels of migration”.
He said that his government would prioritise bringing in “the right migrants” in areas where there were workforce shortages, including among nurses, police officers and builders.
“We need to make sure that we’re bringing the people that we’re going to have here and have a dignity of work and value for themselves and the state,” he said.
Tarzia also spruiked the benefits of maintaining a fiscally responsible budget, criticising Premier Malinauskas for pursuing “vanity projects” such as the shelved $600 million hydrogen plant.
“In your businesses and companies, you can’t overspend your budget. If you overspend your budget, then you get in trouble for it … and it should be the same thing for government,” he said.
Tarzia also used the speech to introduce a recently announced policy promise, stating that his government would abolish stamp duty on houses if elected at next March’s State Election.
The Liberals would remove stamp duty for first-home owners on existing houses up to $1 million, with the plan to eventually phase out stamp duty entirely by 2041.
Tarzia claimed that stamp duty was an inefficient tax “standing in the way of people actually owning a piece of the Australian dream”.
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“It stops young people trying to get into their first home and it stops older people from trying to downsize,” he said.
SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis MP slammed the proposed abolition of stamp duty, labelling it “one of the most dangerous and incompetent pieces of economic policy ever proposed in the history of South Australia”.
“This is a reckless, dangerous and foolhardy policy from an Opposition that wants to take the executioner’s axe to South Australian services,” he said.
Other policy pledges Tarzia listed were investing in modular houses to address the housing crisis, working towards a growth target of three per cent, establishing a Royal Commission into the algal bloom and introducing 50-cent bus fares.
He also said a Liberal government would aim to recruit and retain more police officers to address what he claimed were increasing crime levels, raise the payroll tax threshold for GPs, open up more land for development in areas such as Dublin and look into establishing economic zones.
Summarising his vision for South Australia, Tarzia said the SA Liberals were “trying to develop more economic prosperity in this state”.
“We’re going to enhance liveability and things like housing, public transport and incentivising more people to come and stay and enjoy the state,” he said.
“We want to remove the impost of tax, but also the red tape of government intervention, so that businesses can grow; it’s so important.
“And of course, we want people to keep more of their hard-earnt money, because we think that you spend it much better than governments do.”
The Opposition Leader’s speech came as exclusive polling data published by InDaily in October showed Tarzia would likely lose his seat if the election were held today.
The DemosAU/Ace Strategies poll projected a landslide victory for Labor with a prediction of 66 per cent to 34 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
