Question Time

Council Rate Concessions

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Treasurer. Given the extra $977 million in funding the state government is set to receive under last night's federal budget, will the Treasurer now cease his threats to end pensioner concessions on council rates?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:10): First and foremost, it is not us who have ended council concessions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Shouting doesn't make it true. It is not the state government that has cut funding for concessions for pensioners. There was a very clear commitment made in the 2013 federal election by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister often said that he wanted to make an honest prime minister of former prime minister Gillard. That is what we aspire to, as well, for him: we want to make him an honest prime minister.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Shouting won't change your support for these cuts.

The SPEAKER: No, I don't support these cuts.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is not us who have made these cuts. I refer members opposite to the commonwealth's own budget papers. I refer them to their own budget papers. But I say this: whatever the number the Leader of the Opposition is relying on, our state Treasury does its own analysis on the relativity of our GST receipts from the commonwealth. I note that from the Mid-Year Budget Review, as I said this morning, yes, we are receiving an extra $136 million in GST, and that is welcome. That is through no work of the commonwealth government; that is because of the nature of the Commonwealth Grants Commission and the GST implementation.

However, it pales into insignificance with the cuts made to our hospitals, our schools and our pensioners, to training, to education, to national partnerships and special purpose payments. It doesn't touch the sides. The problem has always been this: the GST was always intended to be an unencumbered grant so that we could spend it on growing our economy, on investing in small business, on investing in tax cuts, on investing in products and infrastructure.

What has happened is that the commonwealth government, by making cuts to health and education in recurrent funding, are forcing the states to allocate more and more of the GST money to recurrent funding in health and education because the commonwealth is making these cuts. They don't make up the difference for the cut. I give this warning to the opposition: these cuts grow and every year there's a new surprise—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: it was a fairly specific question about whether the Treasurer will end his threats on pensioner concessions on council rates, and he is well into debate now.

Mr Treloar interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders is called to order. Yes, pensioner concessions—I think the Treasurer is on the outer edge of the scope of relevance.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: He is within the orbit.

Mr Pederick: He's somewhere near Darth Vader.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: A personal hero of mine, Darth Vader. Let's talk about pensioner concessions. Let's talk about pensions. I think it is important to note the changes in this budget towards pensioners. I think we can claim a small part in that victory. Let's be serious about this. Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition can point to a public statement where he has called on the government to reverse its changes to pensions—silence. Perhaps we can see the public calls for them to reverse their cuts to health and education—silence.

We ran a campaign, and the commonwealth government was prepared to change the way pensions were indexed from average weekly earnings to CPI which would have meant a real cut for South Australian pensioners. That decision has been reversed, and we take credit for it. We held the flame to the Liberal Party and now they have reversed that decision—victory! They have not gone far enough on concessions, and every state government acknowledges that those cuts were made by Canberra. It is not true to say that we have not stepped in.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, alas, time, like an ever-rolling stream, has carried you away. Before we get to the next question, I call to order the members for Heysen, Hartley, leader, deputy leader, Mitchell, Kavel, Schubert, Chaffey, Finniss, Stuart and Morialta; and I warn for the first time the member for Unley. The leader.