Supply Bill 2016

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 12 April 2016.)

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (12:32): It is a great time, as always, to be speaking in the South Australian parliament: the Supply Bill 2016. It seems to come round quicker and quicker every year, does it not, Deputy Speaker? The government is requesting $3.444 billion to ensure that it can continue to pay the bills. This is obviously an administrative matter really, but it does give members of the house the opportunity, that only comes up two or three times a year at most, to reflect more broadly on things that government should and might be doing and to connect that back to the expenditure. I do appreciate the opportunity to have perhaps broader thoughts and musings than the normal restrictive nature of what might be discussed in this chamber.

As members would know, members who have listened to my speeches on supply bills and estimates, addresses in reply, etc., I try to be as positive as possible, although admittedly that does become increasingly difficult the longer I come in to this place, as I try to reflect on positive aspects with this hopeless Labor government. We will try, regardless, to cast a positive alternative vision for South Australia. Today I will discuss some of the things that I hope to be part of if privileged enough to be part of an incoming Liberal government after the 2018 state election.

Members would be aware that a few weeks ago the Liberal Party launched 2036, a clear, strong and credible platform outlining what we as a political party stand for. This is a foundation which aims to give us as a party a clear way of communicating to the South Australian public and key stakeholders in South Australia what we will stand for. It is a foundation upon which we can build policies going into the future. It is a positive document and a really good direction-setting document for the opposition moving towards the 2018 election.

Since the launch of 2036, it has been really good to see a number of policies released under that framework which aim to progress one or more of the nine key pillars which make up the 2036 manifesto. I want to briefly touch on three of those policy areas which the Liberal opposition has launched in the last few weeks and canvass some of what I think are the really positive aspects of these policy announcements that have been put out into the public realm.

The first is our rate capping announcement, and that is a very clear announcement by the Liberal Party. It is saying that if elected in 2018, if the government does not pass the legislation that we currently have before the parliament beforehand, we will bring in a cap on the level of rate rises that local governments in South Australia can set. At the moment, we have significant concerns, and it is a real cost-of-living burden for many households. Council rate bills are among the largest single bills that a household will receive in any given year, including things like water bills and electricity bills. Mortgage bills tend to be split up into quarterly or monthly bills, but often a significant bill shock is received by householders when they receive their council rate bill in August or September each year, and that is a significant concern for us.

I was proud to be able to lead a push for an inquiry by the state parliament's Economic and Finance Committee into council rate capping. That inquiry has not yet handed down its final findings, but it was certainly clear to me and my colleagues on this side of the house that there is a need to rein councils in with their unnecessary rate rises and to actually say to them, 'You have to be working harder to become as efficient as possible, to get back to basics and deliver the things that your community expect you to deliver in a high-quality way that is not too flashy, things such as the pavements, roads, rubbish collection, sporting ovals, parks and the local environment.' Get the basics right before the long arm of local government wanders into all manner of other areas.

Hopefully, the introduction of a rate cap, set by an independent commission based on an analysis of the cost pressures facing local government, will go some way to enabling local government to start thinking more about the cost pressures it places on South Australian households. That is a policy we have put forward following the launch of the 2036 manifesto and I look forward to the government perhaps supporting that in the current legislation before the parliament and, if not, seeing it introduced after the Liberal Party forms government in 2018.

The other policy, which we released a couple of weeks ago, was that we would legislate to allow ride sharing technology to be made legal in South Australia, enabling a whole range of small microbusinesses to take off, which can be the case and has been the case interstate and overseas, through people providing ride sharing services using apps such as UberX.

It has been really disappointing to see how slow the current government has been in taking up these new technologies and having a real position against ride sharing. I am pretty convinced that the younger members and the newer members of the government, people like the member for Lee and the member for Kaurna, are very much in favour of us moving towards a more modern economy, embracing new technologies and trying to encourage these activities, but it does appear that some of the old guard in the Labor Party are less excited about embracing UberX and may even have particular conflicts along the way.

It is good to see that the government is chasing the Liberal Party's policy announcement and has announced, albeit with perhaps a bit too much regulation and red tape surrounding it, this week that there will be a move to legalise UberX being used in South Australia.

Mr Goldsworthy: Catch-up.

Mr SPEIRS: As the member for Kavel reminds me, the government is very much chasing the opposition, and has been for most of this year, I think.

Mr Goldsworthy: Leading the way.

Mr SPEIRS: Leading the way, indeed.