House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2) 52 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Budget Forecast BUDGET FORECAST Mr MARSHALL House of Assembly Norwood Leader of the Opposition BUDGET FORECAST Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Has the Premier had any discussions with the federal government about cuts to federal funding to South Australia, given the downward revisions to federal revenue announced by the Prime Minister? The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL House of Assembly Cheltenham Premier Minister for State Development Minister for the Public Sector Minister for the Arts BUDGET FORECAST The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:38): No. If I understand the member's question correctly, is he suggesting that the commonwealth has proposed reductions in commonwealth expenditure in South Australia as a consequence of their revenue rejections and, therefore, have I become aware of them? No, I have not become aware of them through any discussions that have been had with the commonwealth. The only caveat I would put on that is something that we are all aware of, and that is that there are a number of expiring national partnership arrangements that exist between the commonwealth and the state governments, and this has been the topic of regular agitation between all the states and territories and the commonwealth government, most recently at COAG. A number of those have been resolved favourably to the states and territories, so a continuation of those arrangements has meant that a number of those key risks no longer exist. There are still, though, some national partnership agreements which we are looking to see how the commonwealth will treat on budget night to see whether that money still will flow into South Australia. We have not been advised of what the intentions are about those matters, but budget night will reveal how the commonwealth has treated those matters.