Emergency Services Levy

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the Treasurer. What advice does the Treasurer have for the local government sector with regard to their increasing emergency services levy obligations?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:24): Far be it from me to tell the councils how to do their budgeting. That was the Leader of the Opposition's plan—to put a cap on their rates. We do not believe in telling elected governments how they should be rating their constituents. That is a matter for—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is called to order. The member for Unley is warned a first time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is a matter for councils and their constituents. The government believes in autonomy in the local government sector. We believe that elected members of parliament and elected members of councils should be held responsible to their communities. As we have said in the most recent council elections, some mayors were more successful than others dependent on how they perform. I suspect—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned a second time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I suspect that councils have bigger fish to fry than the emergency services levy. The removal of the $190 concession for pensioners—a direct result of the reduction of funding from the commonwealth which opposition members have remained silent on—$30 million per annum taken away from our most vulnerable South Australians, where will they find that $190? Where will they find it? Well, for year 1, this government stepped in after councils had already formulated their budgets and filled in the gap of that funding.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker. I suggest that the Treasurer is now straying. It is not relevant—

The SPEAKER: No.

Ms CHAPMAN: —to the question of advice given to the local government.

The SPEAKER: Look, I do not uphold the deputy leader's point of order. The purport of the question is how is local government going to cope with paying the emergency services levy, and I think it is germane to refer to local government being unable now to have its pensioner ratepayers and self-funded retiree ratepayers have a discount on their rates.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker. It has nothing to do with concessions. This was a question of emergency services levy and the question was—

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader will be seated. There is no validity in the point of order and, if she takes the point of order again, I will have to remove her from the house.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We protected pensioners from the cruellest cuts of the commonwealth, and the very reason councils have seen a larger emergency services levy billed because the remissions were removed is because of cuts made by the commonwealth.

Mr Whetstone: Rubbish!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The reason we are attempting to protect people is because those cuts are unbearable. I heard the senior tactician, the member for Chaffey, interject 'Rubbish!' and that there are no cuts from the commonwealth. I will give the house a rundown of what they are because I think it is important that when you have misinformation—

The SPEAKER: Alas, the Treasurer will not give us a rundown because the Treasurer should not respond to interjections. He should answer the substance of the question which is: how is local government going to cope with the changes?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: So, Mr Speaker, I say to the Local Government Association—and I note that the head of the LGA and a number of mayors were on radio this morning on the Leon Byner program talking about roughly between an 80¢ to $1 increase across every household in their constituencies. I say to them this: while at the same time you are fighting funding cuts for road maintenance, you are fighting funding cuts to pensioners for concessions and self-funded retirees that have been cut by the commonwealth. If they join with us and reverse these cuts, there will not be an issue at all.