State Government Concessions

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My supplementary is to the Premier. What does the Premier say to the 20,000 self-funded retirees in South Australia who are going to be worse off under the government's new pensioner concession proposal?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Little Para is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:09): I will address those 20,000 people after I have spoken to the 45,000 people who actually have a concession for the first time—$100 to those who are doing it tough, who are renters, who deserve the support from this government because they are struggling with the cost of living. That is the priority for this government; that is, to first address those who are doing it toughest, because we care for those South Australians who are struggling with cost of living pressures as they sit in whether it is their retirement village, their Housing Trust property, their residential parks or their tenancies where many of them are paying very significant rents, often very much more than they can receive in either community housing or public housing. We will address our first remarks to those 45,000 people.

In relation to the 20,000 people, what we are saying to that group in the community is that we are better targeting our concessions. We are targeting our concessions to those who, basically, are most in need. We will be saying to, for instance, Mr Rob Gerard, who potentially is one of those 20,000 people, who is a self-funded retiree, that he may not be receiving his $100 again. For those for whom there is no means test as self-funded retirees, we do not think it is appropriate that they continue to receive that $100 payment, and we are better targeting.

The whole scheme, of course, costs the government more money even after the better targeting of the scheme because we are substantially expanding the scope and, of course, we are increasing the actual amount for those people who are presently getting their $190 concession. We are increasing that to $200.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members for Adelaide and Unley are called to order, the members for Morialta and, Chaffey and the Treasurer are warned a first time, and the member for Morphett is warned a second and final time. Leader.