Government Programs

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:55): More jobs, lower costs, better services. Here we are, two years in, and it is my privilege to talk about the great strides that have been made by the Marshall Liberal government over the course of the first two years of this government. We know that we have made significant strides on the job front: 13,000 more people in this state are in jobs and in training. I emphasise the matter of training because, in the process, we have resurrected the skilled training opportunities for young people in this state, so more jobs and more on the way as we create an enterprise culture in this state—Lot Fourteen, the Australian Space Agency, together with the record spend that is coming on infrastructure, just to name a very few statewide.

As to lower costs, it is hard to list all the significant measures that have already taken place delivering on election commitments that this government made at the last campaign. We have delivered lower taxes already, slashing payroll tax for small business, cutting in half the emergency services levy and reforming land tax to significantly reduce that burden. As well as that, we have significantly reduced household power bills.

Under Labor in 2017-18, as we know, there was an increase of more than $268 to electricity bills. So far this new government has delivered $62 in savings with more to come, and I applaud the work of the Minister for Energy in that respect. But it is in the day-to-day measures as well, from reductions in the cost of car registration, the increase in the availability of sports vouchers, taken up in great measure in my seat of Heysen I am very pleased to say, and in the delivery of free volunteer screening checks to name a few, so more jobs and lower costs.

I really want to emphasise the delivery of better services because it is a story that for my area of Heysen in the Hills ought to be trumpeted and trumpeted for years to come. It is an example of what this government has been able to achieve by governing for the whole state and by working toward the delivery of improved services for all people in South Australia and particularly in the Hills. I can think of no better example than the commitment that has been made to the reopening of Kalimna Hostel at Strathalbyn for aged residential living, and together with that, off the back of years of sustained work by the community in response to the sudden closure of Kalimna Hostel in February 2017 by the former government, the building of a long overdue 36-bed aged-care facility at Strathalbyn. This will include an open ward, a memory support unit and new communal open spaces. It is due for completion in July 2021.

It is, I say, an extraordinarily good example of the better services that have been delivered by this Marshall Liberal government because it has involved listening to and working with the community towards a merits-driven outcome and it has reversed the trend towards a centralised, bureaucracy-driven regime that we saw on the other side in the dying days of the last government.

What we have seen is a generational investment in aged care at Strathalbyn. It is a story that should be told for years to come, it is a story that tells again of the great work that the community did 30 years ago in building the original Kalimna Hostel and it is a story of a government that is committed to backing communities and the region and improving the lives of all South Australians.