Grievance Debate

State Budget

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:56): In our continuing series of grievances in this place about the waste and mismanagement of this Labor government, I thought I would take a bit of a trip down memory lane to some of the greatest hits this government has perpetrated on the people of South Australia. Indeed, I will be up-front: if the Treasurer is looking for some budget savings, I have $1.968 billion worth of examples of waste and mismanagement in blowouts that this government has perpetrated on the people of South Australia over the last 12 years.

Can we start off at the top with the great Adelaide Oval and its $66 million worth of blowouts. We could go on to any number of road projects—you can take your pick—but the Southern Expressway blew out by $55 million, the Northern Expressway blew out by $264 million, the Port River bridges blew out by $34 million, the Anzac Highway blew out by $55 million and the Port-Grange Road blew out by $123 million. Generally, when it comes to road infrastructure, you cannot trust this government to actually deliver something that it promises. When it gives you a figure up-front, basically you should squint a little bit then double it and maybe we will be getting somewhere close to the truth.

We can go on and talk about the blowouts in IT services. I know it is such an issue that even the Auditor-General took the time to write a supplementary report just to make sure that everybody knew what was going on when it comes to the $54 million blowout in EPAS, the absolute debacle that is RISTEC, with about $31 million or $32 million worth of blowouts we have had there, and the $5.2 million blowout in CASIS. When it comes to IT projects, you cannot trust this government to actually deliver what it promises.

Can I say that, as members of the opposition, we are sometimes strident in our wish to hold this government to account, so strident that some people may say that all we do is carp and whinge, but I have an example where the opposition had a great policy that we took to the 2010 election, and that was the upgrade of the Royal Adelaide Hospital on the current site at a total cost of $750 million. We will have a beautiful new hospital, a beautiful big monolith. No doubt, there will be many ribbons cut—not for the fact, mind you, that it has an increase in beds—but we will cut those ribbons at an extra cost to the taxpayer of $1.35 billion. That is an ego boost worth $1.35 billion that this government perpetrates on the people of South Australia.

Over the course of my time in this place over the past eight months, it has amazed me to look at the litany of failures this government has perpetrated on the people of South Australia and the cost that has had to the budget. When the Treasurer comes in here and wants to talk with bleeding heart about getting this $90 million a year he needs by getting rid of the remissions on the ESL levy, he really needs to go back and have a look at some of his own government's processes, and the waste that has existed within his government over such a long period of time, to understand how it is we got here. As part of the Labor government, he could have fixed these problems before we got here.

After 13 years, it is very difficult for them to stand here and blame anyone else because the proof is in the pudding. It has been a long and consistent failure, and there is such a long list of examples as we look back over the life of this government that we can point to that show why the budget is in such a mess, why they have had to increase taxes and go down the path of folly of trying to charge people a car park tax and decrease the ESL remissions, amongst a variety of other increases in taxes and charges. Then there is the $100 million of overpayments that the people of South Australia have to spend on their water bills for a bunch of overinflated assets that this government has charged in a cynical move to prop up its otherwise disgusting budget.

It has been the most surprising thing that I have come into this place, which I would have thought was the pinnacle of management in South Australia, the pinnacle of fiscal responsibility—responsibility that this government has over $16 billion a year of revenue—and I have been able to see that they have been able to waste so much of it, and it is all money that the hardworking taxpayers of South Australia have given them.