Economic and Finance Committee: Emergency Services Levy 2015-16

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Odenwalder:

That the 87^th report of the committee, entitled Emergency Services Levy 2015-16, be noted.

(Continued from 1 July 2015.)

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:24): I rise to speak on the Economic and Finance Committee 87^th report on the emergency services levy 2015-16. In regard to this levy, the total funding target for 2015-16 was $278.2 million and $7.5 million to the Community Emergency Services Fund, which was to do with costs associated with the emergency services responses to the 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires.

Certainly, what we see as time goes on with this emergency services levy and how it is raised through the state is that it is applied as soon as there is any reasonably sized emergency. It does not have to be a major fire, though we have had some big ones of recent times. We have had Sampson Flat and we have had Pinery, which was absolutely devastating. To get the agricultural year we had afterwards, which was more by the grace of higher authorities than anyone in here, we had plenty of rains, but they were some terrible scenes.

I was fortunate to tour there, and some of the tour was with the Natural Resources Committee, and I thank the committee for inviting me. In the sandy country, as anyone in agriculture knows, it was blowing and blowing. There was no way you could even cultivate it to try to hold the land, which was what they were doing on some of the heavier country. Maybe every 50 metres or so, they were cultivating strips, trying to cut back on the drift that was happening because things had burnt so hot on the couple of days that the fire was going. What really horrified me was how close the fire came to really settled towns like Gawler, where it actually jumped the Sturt Highway on the perimeter of the town.

The issue for me and for us on the Liberal benches is that this is just used as a land tax grab against South Australians. It keeps going up and there seems to be no end to it. This population is already suffering under unrealistic energy costs, state charges, water prices and electricity charges. The emergency services levy does not just hit home owners: it is levied on sporting clubs, community organisations, churches and independent schools.

Time and again we see the Weatherill Labor government just rip money out of South Australians' pockets. What we have seen over the last three years are massive emergency services levy hikes by the Weatherill Labor government, which is an absolute disgrace. Why I say that is that most of the population is struggling to make ends meet.

If we are successful in March next year, we will reduce by $90 million a year the cost of the emergency services levy to South Australian taxpayers, saving an average household up to $150 a year. We will do that by putting the remissions back in place to put that $90 million annually back into people's pockets because people are sick of having massive increases. Some of these increases have been by hundreds and hundreds of per cent of what their emergency services levy used to be.

Being a member of the CFS—and I know there are many other members in this house who are—it appals me that just because there is an incident you know that you are going to get money ripped out of your hip pocket—because that is the way this Labor Party operates. It is just appalling that that happens. I do not want to take away from the volunteers and the people who come from interstate to support us. It is magnificent work that goes on in fighting these fires and these emergencies, but people are literally getting taxed to death with these emergency services levy rises.

We have the highest level of unemployment in this state. We need to put money back into the pockets of South Australians, and that is exactly what we on this side of the house will do. People have a clear choice at the next election, Madam Independent Deputy Speaker. They will have a clear choice in the seat of Florey.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Technically, member for Hammond, it is a bit out of order to indicate someone's party or lack of party allegiance when you address them.

Mr PEDERICK: Thank you, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Get back to the people of Florey—that was a good bit.

Mr PEDERICK: Okay. I certainly believe there will be a lot of interesting outcomes at the next election. People need to make a clear choice as to whether they want good governance and money back in their pockets, especially in regard to the emergency services levy. It is a massive commitment from our side of the house to put $360 million over four years back into South Australian products while still contributing with appropriate amounts so that our emergency services operate. We will make this state great again.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:30): I rise today to speak to the Economic and Finance Committee report on the emergency services levy 2015-16. It all seems a long time ago. There have been a number of speakers and it still goes on, but hopefully we will wrap this up today. I congratulate the Economic and Finance Committee on the work they did. There are specific references for this committee in relation to the emergency services levy in regard to the act. The act requires these determinations to be made in respect of:

the amount that, in the minister's opinion, needs to be raised by means of the levy on property to fund emergency services;

the amounts to be expended in the forthcoming year on various kinds of emergency services and other purposes specified; and

as far as practicable, the extent to which the various parts of the state will benefit from the application of that amount.

It is a bit of a vexed issue, as the member for Hammond has just mentioned. We saw in recent times, just two years ago, the removal of the emergency services levy remission, which resulted in a significant increase in the levy payments required from landowners and others, including churches, sporting groups and all the rest of it. It is a direct hit on the taxpayers of South Australia that has effectively become a land tax. I do not believe there is any better demonstration of the arrogance of this Labor government than the removal of this emergency services levy remission.

The Liberal Party has made a significant commitment going into the next election. It has committed to returning $360 million over four years, which is $90 million per year, into the pockets of everyday South Australians. We will be reinstating the remission, which will be a very important part of the way we attack the cost of living pressures that the people of South Australia are under.

This levy is a land tax, and the removal of these remissions really stuck in the throat of many of the constituents in my electorate of Flinders. In fact, it was quite newsworthy for a time because a number of the CFS brigades on Eyre Peninsula decided, as a form of protest I guess, that they would no longer attend emergencies or fires on government land.

This was a very deliberate strategy to demonstrate their disapproval of the government's removal of this remission. As far as I am aware, none of this had to be enacted, but the reality means that, should there be a fire in a national park, conservation park or on SA Water land—all of which cover significant areas on Eyre Peninsula—then these brigades, such as Green Patch and Kapinnie, have made the decision not to attend. It demonstrates the frustration that these people felt. In relation to the report itself, the total funding target for the emergency services levy in 2015-16, which is nearly a full financial year ago—

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: —two, sorry. Thank you, member for Little Para. Time flies in this place. The total funding target for the emergency services levy had been set at that stage at $285.7 million, and that included projected expenditure on emergency services funded by the ESL of $278.2 million but also $7.5 million to the CFS fund to cover the costs associated with the emergency services response to the 2015 Sampson Flat bushfire. The member for Hammond mentioned that.

The Natural Resources Committee visited that fireground in the recovery phase. Fortunately, it was a very good cropping season in 2016 and a lot of that land recovered to its full production, but it does not take away the heartache felt by the people who were involved in that fire and the impact it had on their businesses. During this recovery stage, when the people were trying to marshal their efforts, rebuild their properties and come to grips with the trauma involved with a bushfire, guess what? They were hit with an increased emergency services levy.

As I said, nothing demonstrates the arrogance of this government more. Be that as it may, the Economic and Finance Committee has a legislative responsibility to review these levies, and we look forward to finally getting this report through. No doubt the next report on the emergency services levy is not far away.

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (11:36): The member for Flinders is right: it is not far away. It gives me great pleasure to bring to an end the debate on the emergency services levy report 2015-16 on the very day when the Economic and Finance Committee received the ESL briefing paper for 2017-18. That is a full two years, a full two turns of the clock. I do not have anything further to add to the extensive debate, other than that it gives me great pleasure to end it and I look forward to the next one. I want to thank all the current members of the committee and all the members of the committee as it was then, some of whom have, I think, since retired from this place. I look forward to the next debate in coming weeks.

Motion carried.