David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

If we can think of Australia's federation of states being like a family, there is one family member that needs more than a good talking to—it needs an intervention. South Australia needs intervention because its problems are self-inflicted and because too many South Australian politicians have developed a monstrous sense of entitlement. If the South Australia government were a person, it would be an obese 40-year-old man with awful body odour who lives with his mother, refuses to work and plays Xbox all day. He pauses only to demand more Cheezels and iced coffee, or to complain when the lights go out. It really is that bad.

Over the last five years, every category of private investment in South Australia has fallen. While population and employment growth in other states have risen steadily, the graph for both indicators in South Australia is as flat as the Nullarbor Plain. And it is heading for a cliff, as thousands of young South Australians follow the jobs interstate. Unless its course changes, South Australia risks becoming one big barren candle-lit retirement village. The economy of Western Australia left South Australia far behind years ago, and now it appears the tiny ACT could overtake South Australia within 20 years. And the ACT can achieve this despite its primary products being bulldust and hot air. The only economic competition left open to South Australia will be the race with Tasmania to the bottom. Sadly, the lone positive influence that South Australian politicians are having on Australia right now is to make politicians from other states feel better about themselves.

It is hard to say exactly why South Australian legislators are so consistently terrible. But there seems to be a sizeable voting bloc of whingeing wendys and doctors' wives who like to be represented either by doe-eyed Greens who have never grown up or shameless populists and protectionists. They are professional virtue signallers. They might fly economy and wear cheap suits, but they are costing us billions with the most irresponsible approach to governance imaginable. They claim to be servants of the people, but they are every bit as dodgy with 'other people's money' as the shonkiest crony capitalist. Even the most reasonable South Australian politicians these days seem to believe their constituents will be unable to stand unless propped up by elaborate government schemes. They insult them with their low expectations.