Grievance Debate

FEDERAL BUDGET

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:09): I want to make a few comments about the federal budget and its implications for South Australia, in particular the issue with regard to South Road. In relation to the federal budget, let us look at the similarities between federal Labor's budget management and state Labor's budget management. The federal Labor government has run five deficits in five years; the state Labor government has run six deficits in seven years, and the only reason it got a surplus in that extra year was simply because the federal government bailed it out to the tune of $1 billion.

The federal government has a record debt of $192 million; the state government has a record debt of $14 billion. The federal government has no credible path back to surplus; the state government has no credible path back to surplus. The federal government is looking to raise an extra $25 billion in taxes over the forward estimates, and this state government is looking to introduce a car park tax. The reality is that if you look at Labor's DNA it is the same: high debt, lots of deficits, high taxes, and the budgets, both federally and at the state level, absolutely in tatters.

Let us have a look at the GST issue. The Premier is in here today crying poor, that the GST has been written down by $300 million over five years. That is $60 million a year on average. What the Premier is crying poor about is 30 days' interest on the state debt. The state debt is climbing to $14 billion and the interest is climbing to over $800 million a year, which turns out to be about $2 million a day. So if you are looking at a GST writedown, as the Premier puts it, of $60 million a year on average over five years, that is simply 30 days' interest. So when the Premier trots out that the level of debt does not matter, let us just remember that what he is whingeing about is a difference of 30 days' interest on the state debt.

I think we all realise that the state debt is causing us budget problems, and that is actually the Premier's problem. This government's problem is simply this: in 2005-06, in 2007-08, in 2008-09 the Auditor-General wrote to everyone in the parliament, in his annual report saying, 'hello, you're spending too much money. Be careful if your revenues drop.' What did the Auditor-General say? He said:

Given the forecast expectation that such revenue growth may not be sustained, control of expenses will be important.

What did the government do? It went and overspent by $370 million the next year. There was another warning in 2007-08, and what did the government do in response to that warning? It went and overspent by $304 million. In 2008-09 there was another warning from the Auditor-General and, just in case the Auditor-General missed it, the government went and overspent by $670 million.

This government's problem has been that in the good times it went out and spent every cent; that is the problem with this government. It has run six deficits in seven years and those deficits total $2,000 million dollars of over-expenditure. A total of $2,000 million dollars and the Premier comes in here today and cries poor over $300 million of GST over five years. What he forgets to say is that there is $285 million extra in special purpose payments coming in during that same time. So let us be clear: the state government's budget woes are of the state government's making.

I want to quickly touch on South Road. The Sturt Road/South Road intersection is in the electorate of Davenport, my electorate, and I remember the 2006 announcement by this government when it went out and said, on 18 March, that it was going to do the overpass at Sturt Road and South Road for $140 million. Now, Tony Abbott comes out and announces $500 million towards a project, and all of a sudden the government changes tune. The Darlington project was its priority in 2006, in 2007, in 2008, in 2009, in 2010, in 2011, and in 2012 and the only time the government changed its priority from fixing up the Darlington, South Road, Sturt Road intersection was the day after Tony Abbott said he would do it. This government is hopeless.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the member for Port Adelaide.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Port Adelaide has the call.