State Government Concessions

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:11): Supplementary to the Treasurer: what will be the method of implementing this new arrangement? Will letters and cheques be sent to the individual people who are receiving the concession and what will be the cost of administering this new system?

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is called to order. Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:12): There will be no novelty cheques with large pictures of politicians on the novelty cheques. We will be paying the first round of payments to people probably in cheques but the government would like to transition to an electronic funds transfer method because we think that is more efficient and probably more convenient for people who will be receiving the payment. Given that we are dramatically increasing the scope of the payment and so many more people will be eligible for this scheme now, we need to find out exactly who they are, so we will be having a longer period for those people who are tenants.

As the Premier said, this is a new scheme and will include many more people who are living in council incorporated areas or tenancies that are being rented out to them at commercial rates (which factors in property-based taxes on them), who, previously, received no concession. They received no payment. For the first time, Labor is investing in those people who are in private rental and in non-government rental—and in government rental, indeed. They will be getting payments. The cost of administering the scheme will be about $800,000 a year initially but, of course, we want to make that as efficient as possible. We want to bring the cost down. We will be introducing legislation. I hope the legislation passes unencumbered. I hope members opposite support the legislation—it will be part of the budget bills—without anticipating debate or the introduction of any legislation.

The SPEAKER: No, because that would be out of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir: it would be out of order. It is important that we first find out the number of people out there who currently have a commonwealth Pensioner Concession Card, a DVA gold card or a DVA gold card with 80 or more overall impairment points, a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, commonwealth Low Income Health Care Card or State Concession Card, and recipients of the Newstart Allowance, Austudy payment, ABSTUDY payment, a parenting payment, a partner allowance, a sickness allowance, a special benefit, a widow allowance, a youth allowance and, of course, people receiving payments under the Community and Development Employment Projects and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.

We will be making these payments available to people. We will be out there encouraging them to contact our concessions hotline which will be made available on 1800 307 758. It is important that we distinguish that people who own their property and are currently receiving the $190 council concession will be getting an increase of $10 per year and you will not have to do anything. That money will be forthcoming to you in a payment before your council rates are due. For those people who were not eligible for the old concession, but are now eligible under the new concession, I encourage you to get onto the hotline and register.

I hope members opposite can assist us in getting members of their community who have become eligible to get onto the hotline. I can see the member for Hartley again nodding in agreement that this is a good arrangement for those people in getting them onto the hotline and involved so they can get access to this $100 payment for the first time. We do not want anyone to miss out. We want people who are eligible to get onto the hotline and speak to the government to get their new cost-of-living allowance.