Council Rate Concessions

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (14:42): Sir, this question is directed to the Minister for Local Government as it related to my initial question. Indeed, as the minister's agreement with the Premier for government to be formed included the need for review of local government pensioner concessions and council rates, how has he allowed that to be flagged to be cut completely from 1 July 2015?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:42): My agreement with the member for Frome permits him to advance all of the measures that he wishes to advance as an Independent member of parliament in the context of cabinet. Can I say that the member for Frome was pivotal. In a budget where we had $898 million ripped out of us by the federal government, he played a pivotal role in ensuring that we stood up for pensioners and resisted this federal cut. Of course, it is intelligent for us to campaign against those cuts.

I know those opposite are fond of saying that around the nation all except Western Australia have actually accommodated these cuts, but remember: each of those states and territories, or almost every one of those states and territories, were facing state elections. They realised, because they were incumbent Liberal governments, that they didn't want to be tarred with the federal Liberal cut, so they were hardly going to stand up. We were in a much better position to stand up against these cuts than those poor old state Liberal governments, some of which were absentmindedly misplaced by their electors, according to the Prime Minister, at the last two most recent state elections.

So, this is the reason the pattern of changes has occurred across the nation. We’re standing up. When I attend COAG on 17 April, we will be pressing again for the Prime Minister to resist those cuts. The member for Frome played a pivotal role. In a budget where we could barely afford it, we stepped in for one year to cover that $30 million cut from the commonwealth.

We will have to consider our position after the federal budget. But all eyes should be on the federal budget. We are going to concentrate the attention of every federal and state member of parliament in South Australia on this crucial question. I must say that the federal members—and I know those opposite have very close, personal relationships with a number of federal members, including the member of Sturt, who has had a—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, he's had a big week.

An honourable member: He's a fixer.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: He is a fixer. Let's see whether he can fix this because this will be a test of his capacity to fix things. We will be inviting him to fix this little problem, otherwise the people of Sturt may fix him.

Mr Whetstone: You want him to fix your useless government.

Mr WILLIAMS: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned a second and final time. The member for MacKillop.