State Budget

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:17): I rise to speak again about the cruel, heartless, cash-grabbing budget of those opposite and its terrible impact on South Australians—a budget all about higher costs and higher debt, not at all focused on the wellbeing of South Australians. In particular, I want to relate to the house the story of a woman who lives in Reynell who came to see me, distressed about what the unprecedented increase in the cost of living will mean for her.

Sue lives in Christie Downs. She is a lovely, clever, hardworking 64-year-old woman who sadly lost her husband 11 years ago. She spoke with me about him and the life they shared together with their children, who are now grown and living elsewhere, and how during his life he had worked hard alongside her to make sure that they were set up for retirement, a retirement that she will now face without him since his passing.

Sue is a cleaner at Flinders Medical Centre, employed by Spotless, and has been doing that work for five years. It is hard, physical work that she does to keep one of our major hospitals clean for all who are ill, have treatment, visit loved ones or work there. She does this day in and day out to make ends meet. Sue often finishes work around 11pm and it is solely her income that pays bills and her mortgage and contributes to her retirement savings. Her entitlements were also recently negatively affected by the change of contractors by SA Health, making things even harder.

Sue came to my office, deeply distressed, angry and worried, immediately on hearing about the unprecedented increase in the cost for her to park at work. Sue brought her pay slips in with her and she showed me how she would lose between one and two weeks' pay per year because of this increase—a financial situation which, for Sue, is utterly untenable and will mean she can no longer make ends meet. Sue was stressed about how she would manage this. Was it less food she would buy, a bill she would not pay or her mortgage she would default on?

Sue is so worried about this that she went to see her employer to find out if it would be acceptable if she parked in free, two-hour public spaces and then left work every two hours to go out and move her car. This was apparently not possible, so Sue began to check out the bus routes to see if this could work. In the past, she had caught a bus from FMC to the Reynella Interchange and then from there the 733 to Flaxmill Road to walk a short distance to her home.

Sue checked out the routes to see if this was still possible but, no, it was not. Lo and behold, the last 733 bus of the night has been cut. Shocking; but, being the resilient woman that she is, she checked out the other routes. She can catch a different second bus to get home, the 721 to Noarlunga. What this will mean for Sue is two buses and a 1.2 kilometre walk in the dark, close to midnight, to get home from work. Well, it will mean that whilst it is still running because—surprise, surprise—that service will potentially have route cuts as well.

What I would love to know from those opposite is how on earth this government's sickening, phony mantra of lower costs and better services was ever envisaged to work for Sue. Sue's situation, and the situation of many others in our community, highlights that this empty promise has no substance and that what they are actually focused on is the complete opposite of those words. I am writing to the government about this and I cannot wait for their answer, and neither can Sue or the many others they have cruelly disregarded with these increases in the cost of living and their cuts to essential services.

Sue and many, many others are angry, upset and worried about how they will make ends meet. They are also deeply worried about the selling off, by those opposite, of parts of our public transport system, not something contemplated in the empty 'lower costs' words. In fact, something it was they said was not on their agenda at all. We know that the Sues of the world are also not on their agenda. Well, they are on ours, and we will keep fighting for Sue and for every South Australian to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.