Economic and Finance Committee: Emergency Services Levy 2019-20

Mr DULUK (Waite) (11:46): I move:

That the third report of the committee, entitled Emergency Services Levy 2019-20, be noted.

The Economic and Finance Committee has an annual statutory duty to inquire into, consider and report on the Treasurer's determinations in relation to the emergency services levy. The committee has 21 days in which to report on the written determinations after they are referred to the committee.

This year, the committee received the Treasurer's Statement on 24 May. The Emergency Services Funding Act 1998 requires the statement to include determinations in respect of the amount that needs to be raised by means of the levy to fund emergency services, the amount to be expended for various kinds of emergency services and the extent to which the various parts of the state will benefit from the application of that amount.

The services funded by the emergency services levy as defined in the act are the South Australian Country Fire Service, the South Australia Metropolitan Fire Service, the South Australian State Emergency Service, Surf Life Saving SA, a member of Volunteer Marine Rescue SA and a service provided by the South Australian police department related to, assisting with or incidental to those organisations I have listed.

On 29 May, the Economic and Finance Committee held a public hearing and invited representatives from the Department of Treasury and Finance, SAFECOM, MFS, CFS and SES. The witnesses provided the committee with details on the proposed levy for 2019-20, and we are debating what was tabled. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous work our volunteer and paid emergency services responders do for our community, which we rely on, whether it be the CFS or MFS, Surf Life Saving or those who put themselves at the front line to protect our community.

In particular, I would like to recognise the Sturt SES Group in my community, whose members look after an area that covers approximately 320 square kilometres, and the Sturt CFS Group, comprising five brigades, including Belair, Blackwood, Cherry Gardens, Coromandel Valley and Eden Hills. These groups are made up of local volunteers who work incredibly hard to protect the people living in my electorate of Waite by attending to fires, vehicle accidents and rescues, amongst other situations.

On another note, I would like to congratulate the Coromandel Valley Country Fire Service, which celebrated its 80^th birthday on 25 May. Every single volunteer past and present at the Coromandel Valley CFS has shown extraordinary dedication to their local community. It was great to be there and to present to Peter Magarey his 10-year service medal. Peter's grandfather was a founding member of the Coromandel Valley CFS when they started with an old truck and a couple of hessian bags, as the story relates, to put out fires in the orchards around Coromandel Valley at the time. It is fantastic to see that organisation still serving the community to this day.

The committee notes that the total expenditure on emergency services for the 2018-19 financial year is estimated to reach $324 million, which is higher than the $318 million that was originally projected. The committee notes that the total expenditure on emergency services is projected to be $326 million in the 2019-20 financial year, funded in part by the $145.8 million component through fixed property ESL payments on private land net of government-funded remissions.

The target expenditure is $1.7 million higher than in 2018-19. The committee was told that this takes into account a $7.6 million increase in the Community Emergency Services Fund expenditure, including $2.5 million of additional funding for the Department for Environment and Water for coordination of policy and planning for flood mitigation, prescribed burning on private lands, and support for bushfire response on private lands in regional areas. The additional investment in this year's ESL is just another example of how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting our regional communities, which we know is so important.

There is an additional $1.6 million to the MFS for PFAS investigations and $1.1 million for the CFS heavy vehicle compliance program. This includes the cost of our election commitments, which further increases emergency services expenditure. Once again, in this year's state budget there is additional money to support the CFS in terms of building replacement and asset replacement, which is so important. These costs will be funded outside of the rate-setting process to remove any impact on emergency services levy bills.

The committee notes that the remissions for general property, which were introduced in 2018-19, will continue in 2019-20, reducing the effect of ESL bills paid by property owners. These remissions will reduce 2019-20 ESL bills by $90 million for South Australian households, consistent with this government's election commitment—and, more importantly, consistent with our approach and desire to assist families and households with cost-of-living pressures.

We saw the previous government use ESL as a cash grab to fund various pet projects and not reinvest it into our emergency services. However, we as a government are giving money back to South Australian households and at the same time we are investing additional money into emergency services, which is fantastic.

The committee notes that the government will pay $129.5 million into the Community Emergency Services Fund in 2019-20, reflecting amounts equivalent to fixed property levy revenues forgone through remissions and pensioner concessions, in addition to contributions on its own property. The committee also notes that cash balances for the Community Emergency Services Fund are expected to be $26.8 million by 30 June 2019.

The committee has fulfilled its obligations under the Emergency Services Funding Act 1998. I would like to thank the members of the committee for participating in the process in terms of the determination under the act. One of the most important things for the committee to note, as I said earlier, is our desire to reduce cost-of-living pressures, and that is why $90 million a year is coming back into the pockets of South Australians through our management of this process.

I would also like to thank the departmental representatives from Treasury and Finance, the Chief Executive of SAFECOM and the chief officers of the MFS, CFS and SES who assisted the committee reporting on the Treasurer's determinations. Therefore, pursuant to section 6 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Economic and Finance Committee recommends to parliament that this report be noted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (11:53): I also rise to make a contribution on this matter. As a member of the Economic and Finance Committee, a standing committee of the parliament, we once again, as is our responsibility, inquired into the emergency services levy settings for the coming 2019-20 financial year, which I note is already upon us. This current year the government is set to recover $148 million from private property owners. That figure comes from the budget papers. This is a reduction from the last year of the former Labor government, which recovered $213.8 million from private property holders.

It was interesting listening to the member for Waite because he claimed that the Liberal government has made good on its promise to return $90 million in emergency services levy relief to households. The difference between these two figures, the difference between how much was raised by the former Labor government and how much is now being raised by the Liberal government, is not $90 million. It is not even $70 million. It is a whisker over $65 million, so the government has not kept its election commitment at all.

In fact, it is only barely achieving two-thirds of its election commitment, which is troubling because of course we have seen in the most recent state budget more than $100 million a year of extra fees and charges imposed on South Australian households and businesses. This welcome amount, at the time, of emergency services levy relief has been washed away in a deluge of higher fees, charges and taxes in the state budget. That is a huge disappointment to South Australian households and businesses, and it is also an extraordinary broken promise from the Marshall Liberal government, who promised to lower costs for South Australians.

They also promised last year, of course, that they would deliver $150 million of relief on average for households. They did not reach that figure either. For regional households the story is also not so good. The average saving outside metropolitan Adelaide is only $73, 45 per cent of what was promised by the Liberals at the 2018 election. But the good news is that if you live in metropolitan Adelaide, and if you happen to live in a reasonably safe seat held by the Liberal government—like Unley Park, for example—you can expect much more of a saving. For a house valued at $800,000, the ESL bill saving—

Mr DULUK: Point of order, Mr Speaker: there is no seat called Unley Park.

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order, member for Waite?

Mr DULUK: The point of order is relevance, debate and if the member for Lee could just correct the record there, please.

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite, that is a bogus point of order. If you do that again you will be departing the chamber. Member for Lee.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you for your protection, sir. For a house valued at $800,000, which is in fact below par in Unley Park, the remission for people is $270, nearly four times the amount of relief provided to regional Liberal constituencies. For a house valued at $1 million, the relief is $340, which of course is nearly five times the amount that major regional communities in the member for Stuart's electorate would receive. But I am pleased to report that still does not touch the sides of the maximum relief for the good burghers who live in the Liberal seat of Unley, and in the suburb of Unley Park in particular, because I am advised that the median house price in that safe Liberal seat in that particular suburb is a mere $2.1 million.

I do not have the accurate remission figure for that, but I am assured that it is over $500, nearly 12 times the amount of relief provided to the regional communities in the member for Stuart's electorate. Isn't it nice for the member for Unley that he has done so much better than his colleague? Unfortunately, though, there has been some cost shifting in the ESL settings for this coming financial year. We see that the Department for Environment and Water have managed to push off several million dollars of staffing costs from their agency budget onto ESL bills being paid by all South Australians.

We are also still concerned that with the exodus of senior staff that we have from the heads of emergency services, whether it is in SAFECOM, the MFS, or the SES, some of those recruitment costs may need to be borne by emergency services payers as well. We also have the curious matter of the treatment of pensioner concessions by this government, which continually changes year on year as if something needs to be hidden by the government. We have not got to the bottom of that; hopefully, the estimates process can help with that. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.