Service SA

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): Thanks, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. How will elderly South Australians without the internet access services provided by Service SA when their local service centre closes down?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:08): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is very important that we provide quality services for the people of South Australia. The Leader of the Opposition's question is sort of laden with innuendo that, for some reason, we don't care about the people of South Australia with regard to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —service centres. We are going to be working very hard to make sure that we maintain access to all government departments. The simple fact of the matter is—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, the simple fact of the matter is that more and more people are accessing services digitally.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I spoke to my father today, my 78-year-old father, and he said that he had not accessed one of those centres for more than 15 years.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Well, that was unbiased advice.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, how many times do you go into a Service SA centre?

The reality is that nearly 90 per cent—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, please do not respond to interjections—

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They are probably handing out doughnuts or something.

The SPEAKER: —as enticing as it may be.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It seems to be what they do.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They go around to all state government departments handing out doughnuts and muffins or something.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is that—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will be heard in silence.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we were elected to clean up Labor's mess.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We were elected to clean up Labor's mess, and what a massive mess it was. The former government completely and utterly misled the people of South Australia with regard to the books. Those opposite should hang their heads in shame for the lies they told to the people of South Australia. It was only days before Christmas when the former government said that they were going to have a $12 million surplus last financial year—a $12 million surplus.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Only a few days after that, Treasury produced a document that said that South Australia was heading towards, I think at the time, almost $200 million in deficit, so they missed it by that much. Yesterday, of course, we had the Treasurer—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —come in here and tell the people of South Australia exactly what the deficit for last year was, which was $397 million. That's what we have inherited from those opposite. It is always difficult to make the tough decisions. Those opposite didn't like making tough decisions, but sometimes tough decisions do need to be made. We have made a commitment to ensure that the budget is balanced, and what we have projected—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —over the forward estimates is a balanced budget—in fact, a budget in surplus over each of the years in the forward estimates. What we inherited from those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is a monumental mess. We know that they had deficits in seven of their last 10 budgets that they brought down. In fact, the only time they were anywhere close to a surplus was if they flogged off an asset. Every time they flogged off an asset, they trousered the money and put up these fake surpluses for the people of South Australia. Well, none of that anymore—none of that anymore.

We have brought down a responsible budget. It was a budget that the people of South Australia voted for. Yes, there are some elements of it which are difficult to swallow, but we will make the tough decisions on behalf of all the taxpayers of South Australia.