Local Government Reform

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government.

An honourable member: He can't help you.

Mr MURRAY: Yes, he can. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall government's local government reform program is progressing and can he also detail how the reform will lower costs for ratepayers?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:51): I thank the member for Davenport for his question—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Elizabeth can leave for the remainder of question time. You have been doing it all day. The member for Waite will be joining him.

The honourable member for Elizabeth having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I thank the member for Davenport for his question and his very intense interest in helping to lower council rates for his constituents. Can I also thank the member for Davenport for the work that I know he is doing in his local community to raise the issue of council rates.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Ramsay is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: This is a government that is keen, dare I say very keen, to deliver lower council rates to South Australians. It is a policy that we took to the last election.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There are those who laugh because they are the ones who thwarted it, but, undeterred, we are a government that is going to get on and undertake a reform process that will deliver lower costs for ratepayers. We have done a lot in that area. Apart from the discussion papers, which are now out there for people to provide feedback on, there are a whole host of ideas—some 70-odd—for how we are going to improve the local government system and make it more efficient, as well as a draft Productivity Commission report that also outlines some of the difficulties that currently face our councils. We are keen to work with them, as we have already to date in helping them to lower their costs.

I thank the Minister for Environment and Water for lowering dredging fees, getting rid of dredging fees for councils, and the Minister for Energy and Mining, who got rid of rubble royalties, which was a bane on the existence of many regional councils. We stood with the Local Government Association to push the federal government to reinstate the supplementary local road funding that was running out in the middle of this year and have that extended, a further $60 million provided to local government, and increased the boating facilities fund, an idea that the member for Chaffey had in opposition, to help put more money back into councils for them to upgrade their own facilities.

We are also working with councils to open up state government contracts to allow councils to undertake cheaper road maintenance, to essentially use the economies of scale and work together with the state government to deliver better road funding priorities and a better way to deliver more road maintenance, especially in regional areas.

Also, through this reform process, we are looking at the very structure of local government: how is it that we can help them be more efficient and how can we make sure that those savings are passed on to the ratepayers who have had to bear the burden of rate increases at twice the rate of inflation?

We also are working through our boundaries reform process with a new boundaries commission in place, receiving submissions and looking at how we can move boundaries around to, again, deliver better outcomes for ratepayers. We are also working with councils at the moment to lower the exorbitant legal fees that they pay in dealing with code of conduct complaints right across the state. The amount of feedback that I have had of both councils' time in the chamber and also the money that they pay to law firms to deal with vexatious code of conduct claims is outrageous.

We have not one but three ideas on the table at the moment about how we want to work together with local government to fix that. There is a whole list of measures that we have already undertaken and are seeking to undertake as part of our reform process to lower the costs on the way that councils do business and then to look at ways to make sure that money flows its way back into the pockets of hardworking South Australian families.