House of Assembly: Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Contents

Emergency Services Levy

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (17:10): Thank you, sir. My question is to the Premier. Why is RevenueSA telling emergency services levy payers who have been overcharged that they can only receive a refund for overpayments on this and last year's levy payments, when section 17C of the Emergency Services Funding Act directs that refunds may be sought for up to five years where overpayments have been made?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (17:11): If the member for MacKillop would like to show me examples of that, I will remedy that immediately if anyone has overpaid their bills and is seeking a refund, or there has been an error in charging the bill. I know that a number of regional communities who have contiguous land have not made applications to have the $50 flat fee removed from their land but are being charged that rate.

If he can contact my office directly (you've got my mobile phone number as well), I am happy to help your constituents in that matter. We don't want anyone paying more than they need to. And I will point this out: if the commonwealth government removed their cuts to our hospitals, schools and to our pensioners, we would immediately reinstate the remissions to our emergency services levy.