Bills

Appropriation Bill 2021

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (16:04): As I was saying before the lunch break, interminably we hear the clichéd slogan over and over again from those opposite that they are building what matters—hollow, clichéd words without substance, and often uttered to avoid answering questions, given by a government that absolutely does not understand nor has compassion for what actually matters to our community.

It speaks to this government's lack of priority for those who are ill, unsafe, looking for a home, struggling to keep their family together. It says to many in our community that a basketball stadium planned for sometime in the distant future is of more value to this government than ensuring every South Australian is safe, can access the health care and housing they need and is able to equally participate in community life, experience equality of opportunity and economic equality.

This budget says to our community that this government does not understand that these are at the heart of what matters to our community, that these are the issues that occupy the minds and the hearts of South Australians every single day. They are certainly issues that matter deeply to our community in the south. This is a budget that pays scant attention to growing crises in health, child protection, domestic violence prevention and our environment whilst simultaneously splashing $662 million on a city basketball stadium.

What do we actually have to show for the huge billions of dollars of debt Treasurer Rob Lucas has saddled our state with as his swan song? Debt is understood by people and there is some acceptance of it, particularly given the challenges our community has recently traversed, but South Australians want to know what the purpose of accruing this debt is. They want to know that it will address those issues that impact them and their families in their minds and hearts and that they spend days and nights worrying about.

This debt does not address those issues. What this debt delivers is shallow, long-range, vague promises that might or might not be delivered in the very, very distant future. It certainly was not spent on improving prevention and early intervention programs in child protection, nor on supports and prevention services for women who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing domestic violence.

How can we amass an eyewatering $1.8 billion deficit and end up with 371 fewer jobs across the health sector? How can we commit to a $662 million inner city basketball stadium when we cannot afford $200,000 for the City-Bay, an event that has attracted up to 40,000 participants each year for almost half a century? How can we spend $49 million on a new headquarters for elite sport whilst community sporting organisations are folding due to a lack of recurrent funding?

As our leader made very clear this morning, Labor will not proceed with the Liberals' $662 million basketball stadium whilst our health system is in crisis. Our priorities are to ensure that our health system can cope with growing demand, that we address hospital overcrowding and ambulance ramping and that South Australians who need care can access that care when they need to do so—and access that care they must.

It has been absolutely heartbreaking to hear story after story, day after day, of South Australian people, including children and senior members of our community, when faced with the terror that comes with needing urgent medical care, waiting and waiting for that care, often whilst ramped in the back of an ambulance outside a hospital whose emergency department is already full.

It has been absolute devastating to see how hard this situation is for our incredible health heroes: ambos, nurses, doctors, PSAs, cleaners in our hospitals, people who are here today who know just how hard this budget's cuts to health will be. Every one of those people undertakes the work they do because they care and because they want to be there for people at their hardest moments. The sadness, stress and anger they have felt as a result of their frustration at not being able to provide the care in the way they know is best because of a lack of resources is something that these outstanding people should not have to feel.

As our leader has done today, I commend every single one of them and express my gratitude for their work and for their advocacy for a system that is best for South Australians. Unlike those opposite, I applaud them for taking their message to the streets. Again, whilst the Marshall Liberal government focuses negatively on chalked messages, South Australians who know exactly what matters are sharing messages of support for these health heroes. Budgets should always be about people, not about vague announcements.

Ensuring every single South Australian child can physically, mentally, emotionally and socially thrive must always be at the heart of what we do in this place. This state budget offers little new spending on child protection over and above what is desperately needed to address the huge continuously increasing numbers of children going into care. Our child protection system is in crisis, with chronic staff shortages in residential care homes, foster carers leaving the system en masse, children being abused and injured whilst in care, and families crying out for the support they desperately need to keep them strong and to keep them together.

Despite its own projected increase in the number of children expected to go into state care over the next 12 months, very little is being done to address the dire lack of early intervention and prevention programs. In this budget, we see very little investment in any programs that will address these issues. We see no commitment to implement Nyland recommendation 150 to ensure that there are always two staff members in residential care homes.

We do not see any commitment for a community visitor scheme for children in residential care homes, which would provide them with an extra layer of protection, support and advocacy which the Guardian for Children and Young People has expressly asked for amidst dire warnings that children in care are at ongoing risk of exploitation and abuse. We see very little in the way of resources to address the absolutely shocking fact that one in every 11 Aboriginal children in South Australia is in state care or anything to address the fact that just 23.3 per cent of young Aboriginal offenders are being diverted away from the courts—the lowest number since records began, compared with 55.6 per cent of non-Aboriginal young people.

Recent figures show 10,166 missing person reports concerning children in state care were made in 2019-20, up from 8,968 the previous year. Again, what in this budget will address this shocking statistic? There were 4,542 children in care as of April this year including a staggering 582 in residential care. Residential care staff say that they just cannot keep up with the demand and are often forced to do a second shift once they have completed their first day's shift. This has led to protests outside the minister's office by staff who are absolutely at breaking point.

Earlier this year, it was reported in the media that children in state care are being looked after in state government offices. The Public Service Association told InDaily that about 20 children have been cared for in nine different metropolitan offices over the holiday period, yet we have a Liberal government that is focused on basketball stadiums.

This is a government that is forcing foster carers to rely on emergency food relief charities to feed children in state care, a leaked Department for Child Protection memo showed. So on one hand, we are urging Department for Child Protection staff to refer young people and carers to charities including the amazing Foodbank, Fred's Van and the Salvation Army for their food needs, while on the other the government is running around proposing stadiums very few people seem to want.

Along with Department for Child Protection workers, our foster carers are the backbone of our child protection system. Yet they are leaving in droves because they feel undervalued, disrespected and are often out of pocket by a cumbersome reimbursement process. Yet there was no money for foster carers—no support whatsoever—despite repeated requests from peak bodies.

We see nothing, shamefully, by way of support for outstanding organisations like Grandparents for Grandchildren, who undertake exemplary work to support and empower the growing numbers of grandparents who look after their grandchildren full time. Again, this budget fails to focus on what actually matters to South Australian families and places no value whatsoever on what the most vulnerable South Australian children and their families need to thrive.

This budget further highlights the Marshall Liberal government's neglect of grassroots and community sport. It allocates $662 million for a basketball stadium and $49 million for a new SASI headquarters, whilst leaving the City-Bay, Reclink, state sporting organisations and community sporting clubs across our state to wither on the vine.

This follows a pattern of cuts to community sport that is the hallmark of this Liberal government—a government that cut the dedicated $24 million Female Facilities Program and the synthetic surfaces program almost immediately upon coming into government in 2018. Of course we should support elite-level sport; however, never ever at the expense of organisations, clubs, associations and leagues across our state that bring our community together week in, week out and include people and support them to be their best.

Demonstrating his lack of regard for community sport, the minister recently diverted a large proportion of $2.3 million in Partnerships Program grants away from community sport toward private providers. The awarding of these grants came after a flawed grants review process that was finalised almost 18 months after it was scheduled to be concluded. More than 70 per cent of the Partnerships Program grants went to private providers instead of state sporting organisations and others that rely on these grants to run competitions across South Australia.

Meanwhile the government, as I have said, has simultaneously announced it will spend $49 million on new headquarters for SASI. This prompted Sport SA CEO, Leah Cassidy, to tell ABC radio on Tuesday that the government's funding arrangements contradict its own Game On strategy. Ms Cassidy said:

It's a massive shift…We can't produce SASI athletes if we don't grow participation at the grassroots level…Every athlete I talked to says, 'We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our local clubs.'…I just question this investment by the government. If your agenda is Game On participation, and then you put [millions of dollars] into elite where we know we get less than 1 per cent of the population who'll make that elite level.

Indeed. How can we train elite athletes when we are starving feeder clubs and associations? While Labor welcomes any investment in sport, we are seeing money flow to elite sports whilst many community clubs, peak bodies and state sporting organisations are struggling to attract small grants to keep their operations going.

Our sporting peak bodies, associations and clubs were severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and this restructuring of infrastructure funding is just compounding that pain. This is particularly the case in areas where we have seen the government systematically award grants to wealthy clubs in wealthy areas that can afford the exorbitant co-contributions required under the flawed Liberal government's program.

The Marshall Liberal government's latest round of the Grassroots Facilities Program again saw an overwhelming number of projects go to Liberal-held seats. Just 11 of 70 projects went to Labor areas. Its predecessor, the Grassroots Football, Cricket and Netball Facility Program saw just six clubs in Labor electorates receive funding from no less than 47 successful bids.

In the case of Reclink—founder of The Choir of Hard Knocks and the hugely popular Reclink Cup—it is struggling to survive in South Australia after losing $50,000 of recurring state government funding. This is a group whose innovative programs help develop people experiencing significant disadvantage and to improve their physical and mental health through engaging in sport, recreation and the arts.

The Victorian and the Tasmanian governments recently provided $4 million and $500,000 respectively in long-term funding to Reclink, recognising the important role that they play in getting people back on their feet. Reclink is just one amongst a number of community organisations to have missed out. It is the same story with the City-Bay, which has also missed out on funding through grants and other government funding.

The City-Bay, a not-for-profit event, which is used by a multitude of community organisations for fundraising activities, began in 1973 and, as I mentioned, now attracts up to 40,000 participants and is one of the nation's biggest fun runs. Its future is uncertain. As well as missing out on grants through this government's skewed programs, it asked and asked for the government's support and got punted from office to office. It was only after a Labor media conference that anything changed, and a meagre, inadequate $50,000 was offered up.

This is yet another event that could disappear under this Liberal government, following in the footsteps of the Adelaide Fashion Festival, the Adelaide 500 and the Adelaide Motor Sport Festival. Organisations like Reclink and the City-Bay, and our state sporting organisations and peak bodies that engage thousands of South Australians in sport week in and week out, should not have to beg or miss out altogether as numerous other clubs repeatedly have in this government's flawed grants program.

The South Adelaide Football Club, for example, again misses out on its desperately needed women's change rooms. Again, this government, through this area of the budget, shows that they do not understand what is actually important to South Australians and what matters in their day-to-day lives. We know that women bore the brunt of economic loss experienced through COVID, with industries that women predominantly work in heavily impacted.

We also know that women are more likely to work in insecure work, to earn less and to be subject to sexual harassment at work. We know that a stringent focus on these issues is required if we are to make meaningful changes that enable women to equally participate in our economy.

Sadly, last year we heard horrific stories about women locked at home with their abusers and the resulting increase in domestic violence. Despite all this, this budget shows a 25 per cent cut in staffing at the Office for Women and an enormous reduction in its budget line overall. The rate of domestic violence in South Australia has significantly increased over the past year, with more than 1,100 additional domestic violence related offences, yet despite these and other shocking figures that show the detrimental effect COVID has had on the rates of domestic violence this government refuses to properly fund domestic violence services.

In last year's budget estimates, the human services minister confirmed that there were no ongoing funds for their much-lauded domestic violence prevention hubs, saying:

We have been clear in relation to the safety hubs that they needed to be quite lean. There was not any election commitment funding attached…

And later that, no, there was not a budget allocation. So, here we are again, a year later. The government is vowing to continue to 'support the establishment of safety hubs', yet still there is no dedicated funding. Their budget talks vaguely in last year's highlights about developing a service model for the statewide perpetrator response—

The SPEAKER: The time for the member for Reynell's contribution to the debate has expired.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:24): Adelaide is a great place to live, the third greatest city in the world on some measures, and it can be a lot better. Budgets are complex documents, and most South Australians want their elected members to analyse the details and represent them and their interests in the debates ahead. This budget, at the beginning of the election campaign cycle, provides the background of the contest of ideas voters will consider, and it itemises the priorities for this government's future agenda.

So it is an exciting time, especially for people like me who think democracy happens every day and not just once every four years. South Australia will always need to plan ahead and continue to fight above its weight. We have been leaders before and, with purpose and faith in our people and Public Service, must continue to strive to be leaders again.

There is an old saying, 'The devil is in the detail,' and all budget announcements have a lot of detail. Then there is the much older saying of looking after the pennies, the pre-decimal equivalent of the cent, while the eye-watering number of dollars in this budget are seemingly looking after themselves. The people of South Australia could be referred to as the pennies, and they are not feeling well looked after when you consider that the focus is no longer on them and the basic services they rely on for their daily lives and wellbeing. The penny does need to drop.

I want the major parties to tell us the truth, stop the spin, keep their promises and show us the money when they tell us what they will do so we know when they are going to do it. I have seen and heard it all and will stand up, as I have always done, when things need to change. However you look at it, the big picture impacts of COVID and this government's reaction to the pandemic will be with us for years.

Here I must put on the record how grateful I am to each and every frontline worker, especially in the health, paramedic and police sectors, who have contributed to our COVID response. To everyone who has been involved—the retail workers, those working in the community and caring for others, or those just doing the right thing—thanks to you too. The outlay to combat COVID had to be significant, and it is a sobering thought when you consider the amount of pain we have had to endure so far to receive any gains at all.

Under often exciting headings, there is sometimes very little or immediate change to see in any budget at first glance, and, while technically not untrue, some of the projects or initiatives are not what they first seem. Sometimes they are scheduled to start so far into the future you can see promises made several elections ago still being announced years later, and so it is in this budget, with some of the local announcements for the north-east—and I deliberately say north-east because I think the people of the north-east are missing out in several areas—big announcements and smaller ones and ones not due for years when examined.

Meanwhile there is good news in the budget, but there is also bad news. Access delayed is access denied, and the new park-and-ride at Modbury TTP Interchange, which was first funded in 2017, might finally be delivered by 2023. It is now projected to cost $48.5 million over two years, almost five years since it was first mooted. What happened to the park-and-ride promised as part of the campaign last election? Well, it was moved to an adjoining electorate, to Golden Grove, and while we do not begrudge anyone at Golden Grove anything it would have been much better if it had not meant people at Modbury had to miss out.

What some people may not realise at first glance is the distance from the concourse for both park-and-rides. That will be an issue, as will be the exposure to the weather for commuters using the facility. It lacks amenity and is like a lunar landscape, well below par when you look at interchanges both interstate and internationally. Hopefully those who currently park in the allotment earmarked at the site for the new build at Modbury, those who work at Datacom or the kindy cohort at the Modbury Community Children's Centre, will receive adequate notice of the commencement of the work to be done, unlike those in Golden Grove, who were left without any alternative place to park for more than two months.

The rush to have the project up and running by the next election has also meant the parking problems have piled up over to all the stations on the O-Bahn line, seeing congestion returning to the streets around the Modbury, Klemzig and Paradise interchanges. That brings me to the associated issues of parking charges at TTP and improvements to public transport.

Paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza is something that has hung over our heads in the north-east for many years and may, in fact, soon become a reality. This could be sheeted home to the delay in building the new park-and-ride at Modbury, which allowed Westfield the excuse of saying they had to turn over parked vehicles at their shops faster. Mind you, once the parking equipment has been installed there will be no way to stop charging for parking.

While it may seem we are complaining before there is a problem, the number of car parks at Tea Tree Plaza has been reducing for years, and though charges may start low they will definitely increase. Shame on the person who thought the decision to delay building a second park-and-ride at Modbury would have little consequence, and shame on those who allowed it to happen without greater opposition.

For better public transport and higher patronage you need new ideas, and bus rapid transit (BRT) is one of them. When I first had a close look at the new parts of Florey following the last election's boundary changes, there were a couple of stand-out gaps. One was the lack of cross-suburban linkages in the public transport system.

Public transport use in South Australia is low compared with other states because the current bus system runs slow due to the congestion caused by other road users. A BRT can provide a more efficient solution, requiring less time, energy, land and resources to move people between destinations. This system can reduce the average kilometres travelled by vehicles, petrol costs, parking charges and greenhouse gas emissions, especially with the eventual use of hybrid or electric buses.

I did some work at the Southgate Institute at Flinders University on BRT, and their vision for better communities. I am grateful to Fran Baum and Michael McGreevy for their work outlining how simple initiatives and measures can make a real difference. I also thank Renewal SA for their in-kind support in this ongoing work.

Adelaide's O-Bahn was the first guided busway in the Southern Hemisphere and, until 2011, when Cambridge put in a 25-kilometre one, it was the longest in the world. The 15 kilometres from Tea Tree Plaza to the city via Paradise and Klemzig now takes 20 minutes and has been deemed far more efficient than the rail network.

The no-longer-in-use model of the Footy Express to West Lakes encouraged and increased the use of BRT as buses were able to navigate through traffic more efficiently, reducing travel times and costs for commuters. Connecting the Modbury Interchange to the Mawson Lakes railway via Ingle Farm would provide residents of the north-east with an east-west connector and greater use of the whole public transport network.

A BRT of this type can be built for less than 10 per cent of the cost of light rail. It can be built in months rather than years and with little or minimal disruption to surrounding businesses and residents. It will be an opportunity lost forever if the existing vacant Walkleys Road Corridor MATS land from Ingle Farm through to Pooraka is built on, as per plans already out for consultation. An east-west connection of north-eastern suburbs would take people to the job centres at Mawson Lakes, UniSA, Parafield and Edinburgh Parks.

Over recent years, Adelaide has seen the trial phase of electric and hybrid buses being integrated onto our roads. This budget is set to deliver $17.3 million over five years for the purchase of 20 new Adelaide Metro buses to cater for the year 7 transition to high school, but it does not consider any investment into the RBT east-west connector in the north-east.

Health is an issue on which people are really focused, especially if they have ever had experience of the system. One of my constituents recently said to me that being sick is a tough, full-time job. In this budget, we see $48 million allocated to building a new 20-bed older persons mental health unit at Modbury Hospital. I know the dedicated and brilliant medical professionals who have long been urging for improved dementia care in the north-east will appreciate this upgrade, as will the families of the patients who receive this care. While this money will not deliver everything hoped for, it certainly is a step in the right direction and one which can hopefully be supplemented in future budgets, particularly with a veterans' mental health hub of some kind.

But there is a devil existing in this measure, a bit of pea-and-thimble announcement: part of the upgrade will see the decommissioning of Woodleigh House, the acute adult mental health facility at Modbury Hospital, which is a tired facility desperately in need of rejuvenation. Instead, its 20 beds will go and the services provided there will be relocated to the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Elizabeth. It is yet another example of the shifting resources within the health system, with more services lost from Modbury. It is a continuation of the worst aspects of Transforming Health, which was rejected by the north-east community, with the same bureaucrats professing the same flawed thinking to the detriment of the healthcare services at Modbury Hospital.

We in the north-east have seen many health announcements and plans over the years. No-one ever will forget the failed Healthscope experiment, which is something the then Liberal government began at Modbury, with The QEH firmly in its sights. What it did was decimate the workforce and the corporate knowledge that goes with employees of long standing. I do not think Modbury Hospital has ever really recovered from that—being picked off first because it was a strong and well-performing hospital.

The failed Healthscope experiment was the beginning of Liberal moves to rein in the healthcare budget, and now KordaMentha is their latest reiteration of that sort of approach. These sorts of approaches to me suggest that someone somewhere does not think access to health care is a right, so all the gains of Medibank and Medicare are being unwound and the delivery of a one-tier health system is being lost forever. Unfortunately, the rising costs of private health insurance and the shift to health services being delivered in private hospitals mean health care will remain an enormous worry for nearly everyone.

The much-touted and often announced rebuild at Modbury Hospital has nearly finished, and I acknowledge and thank this government for that. However, it has taken four years longer than we were led to expect during the last election campaign and in large part was budgeted before the 2018 election, after I had undertaken years of lobbying, finally having to stand hard and fast in the face of a decision I could not tolerate.

Sadly, patients are still being transferred to Lyell McEwin Hospital and not all services will be performed at the newly revamped Modbury Hospital. Here, again, the devil is in the detail: Modbury's operating theatres will not be delivering a full suite of procedures, and waiting lists, while reducing, are still unacceptably high. For example, paediatric ear, nose and throat wait times remain at 4½ years—no longer the nine years experienced until recently—and they are no longer delivered at Modbury Hospital. Some of the services do not even happen at the Lyell McEwin Hospital, meaning the promise of services closer to home has not been kept.

The damage done to a child's learning and development while waiting that long for a procedure at that young age can mean lifelong learning difficulties and a gap that cannot be made up. This is disgraceful, and no amount of speech pathology or audio equipment can make amends.

Waiting for a hip or knee replacement can also have huge impacts, mostly on older people, although I have seen much younger people in a similar situation. While we may see this sort of surgery become commonplace at Modbury, too many people have had to wait too long for a reduction in chronic pain and a return to acceptable standards of life.

Palliative care will be eventually delivered in the north-east in a recently started purpose-built facility—again, announced years ago, but nevertheless it will be welcomed. Its integrated services are provided by a team of dedicated healthcare professionals who rightly enjoy a wonderful reputation. We are grateful to them for all they do for us at the end of life. Ambulance ramping cannot be resolved easily or it would have been. This is another example of staggered expenditure announcements not being implemented in a timely manner, meaning little or no change to poor services.

Aged care is another area needing attention and, while there will always be discussion about the responsibilities being either federal or state, that is not what older people and their families want to hear. They want to know there are standards and protections in place and know they can afford care in the final years when independent living is no longer possible. Retirement villages are another area of concern and, while many are happy in well-managed facilities, many are not. The residents who feel trapped are expecting to have assistance, and I am looking forward to seeing the results of the review that is already underway.

For those unable to afford their own homes, affordable social housing is desperately needed, and there is nothing about increased number of homes in this budget. Rather, there seems to be a leaning to encourage people into private rental accommodation with all the associated vulnerabilities. With a housing market pricing out entry-level buyers, first-home owners especially, this is an area needing a lot more thought and attention. Access to affordable, secure and clean rental homes should be a basic right, particularly for families struggling on low fixed incomes.

Jobs, secure employment, unemployment and underemployment are all connected to the education system, and parents should not have to feel they must send their children to private schools, as not all parents can or have the opportunity to give these children a future they need. Education at well-resourced and staffed schools with reasonable course choices is another right. There seems to be plenty of money around for some schools but not for others. I congratulate the government and education minister on their work on the education portfolio. Early learning is now truly a focus: a concept that has been around since Muriel Matters was teaching over 100 years ago.

While speaking of Muriel, I particularly want to acknowledge the Speaker and the Minister for Education for instituting the Muriel Matters award in every South Australian high school, and I look forward to working with them to make sure activism is nurtured and delivers the leadership so necessary in a progressive world.

There is a massive education infrastructure build program underway and, while I appreciate the need to prioritise, merit must also be part of the process. What do we see? Money for schools in marginal seats: Golden Grove gets $15.5 million, Modbury High gets $7 million and Banksia Park International High School gets $9 million. All constructions have started versus funding for schools in safe seats, often the schools most in need. Again, while not begrudging any other school help, I bring this up merely as an example of what could be called a sort of pork-barrelling. It occurs perhaps more so in sports club funding too, and there are many examples of this sort of funding bias at both state and federal levels. I will talk about sports projects and funding a little later.

All these education projects are intended to primarily accommodate the inclusion of year 7 into high school in 2022. The impact of these changes on the funding for small primary schools is not yet known. Schools like Ingle Farm East Primary School and Modbury South Primary School provide vital education for all students, including disadvantaged students and those with specific needs, whether in special classes or disability units. Public education must remain strong so every child has the chance to reach their full potential.

Compare the marginal seat funding with funding for Valley View Secondary School and Para Hills High School—each part of either the current or the 2018 Florey, and what will soon be what I call 2022 Florey, considered by the boundaries commission to be a safe seat. Para Hills High gets $5 million (construction has commenced) while Valley View Secondary School gets $10 million, but nothing has commenced and, as far as I know, no architect or builder has been assigned.

I contend these high schools must provide better opportunities for our local students. Programs like Pedal Prix and Ice Factor must be maintained to keep students engaged and extended and, more broadly, the question must be asked: are our local students being prepared for the new jobs coming online—jobs in defence and the space industries we hear so much about? What will be our north-eastern students' chances in the competitive job markets of the future? This is where TAFE comes in. You cannot cut jobs at TAFE or privatise the number of courses at TAFE and still hope the students who need this pathway will succeed.

I want to talk more about how essential training and jobs are—jobs with good conditions and entitlements. They are essential, and I will address this area along with Aboriginal issues, safer communities, police and crime, courts and the Coroners Court in detail in my appropriation grievance.

Arts, heritage and the environment are important to the people of the north-east. We are already working with councils, Greening Adelaide and Aboriginal groups around the Dry Creek Linear Park section from Walkley's Road to Bridge Road and Stockade Botanical Park. It is an exciting opportunity, with links to RM Williams at his original property. This area will connect up with cycling, hockey and soccer in the sports area at Gepps Cross. Although light on big art and heritage sites in our area, there is a keen interest in maintaining and expanding on what we have, and contributing to the broader debate.

To finish off my time today, I want to look at cost-of-living expenditure measures—increases in fees and charges, hard to meet when wages are static. The cost of petrol is something I have worked on all year and, while I am happy the app regime is in place, I still contend a 24-hour rather than 30-minute window for price changes would have served us all better and flattened out the fuel cycle. No other commodity can change its price as often as petrol.

Navigating the world of contracts for services like gas, electricity, phones and data, to name a few, gets harder, and a better consumer system could help. Access to Service SA offices remains not negotiable, and downsizing to a few terminals and fewer information offices will not be acceptable to my community. More than 20,000 of them will not be happy with any cuts made here. Deregulation of shopping hours is not something people ask me about. They seem more happy with what they have, and when they understand enjoying the cheapest grocery prices in Australia could be jeopardised it is a no-brainer. They are happy to support local independent retailers and buy Australian whenever they can.

One issue that touches on parts of Florey and more so in Newland is the Community Wastewater Management System (CWMS), something that has been around since the area mushroomed too quickly for services to be installed before homes sprang up. It does not affect everyone; around 4,700 properties are involved. Contrary to what you may have heard, not everyone on the system does want to change over, even though there is no way to opt out.

The project will be staged over how many years? That's right! According to the budget documents, seven years: it will be going until 2028. Will all the planning work be done in South Australia? Is this the most cost-effective solution? Is council being squeezed? Are they being forced to continue ownership and therefore charging ratepayers for maintenance of a system due to be replaced within seven years?

New builds are being forced to go onto the CWMS even though they will be moved onto mains sewerage eventually. Someone should ask them. They are not very happy at all. The state government should stop council bashing and take responsibility. After all, everyone else in Tea Tree Gully will be paying as a taxpayer to support the 4,700 ratepayers make the move, and they, those ratepayers—the 4,700 that is—could end up paying twice, as a taxpayer and as a ratepayer.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Public Service, the staff who support parliament and its functions and, lastly but by no means least, the staff of the Florey electorate office who work tirelessly with me to support the people in our part of the north-eastern suburbs, who will continue to do so in the lead-up to the election and beyond, we hope. We have an exciting plan to put to the government—the new government—at the time or after the next election.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Frome) (16:41): I would also like to speak about the Appropriation Bill 2021. Before I start, I would like to pay my respects to the Hon. Rob Lucas in the other place, who is retiring. Over 40 years of service in the parliament is a testament to anyone's patience. I would like to contribute today, and I will concentrate my comments on my current electorate in particular.

The budget appears to be a very important part of our future direction following the COVID-19 pandemic. I have spoken in this house previously regarding my concerns about the services that may be available to people suffering from any type of mental health issue. Whilst everyone states that there are funds available for the sector, my concerns are that there appears to be a lack of an actual workforce on the ground, particularly in regional South Australia.

There is $163.5 million in the mental health package, including the establishment of a crisis stabilisation centre in the northern suburbs. What about those from the regions? The issues that will eventuate from the pandemic have not, in my opinion, reached their peak. The tsunami is coming later, when reality actually sets in. Do not get me wrong: there are lots of issues out there that we are all aware of, but there are lots of people out there who have not faced the reality of issues of concern or who have not brought their concerns to the relevant authorities due to their pride, especially males.

I would just like to mention the mental health services in the budget. There is $163.5 million over four years to respond to the Mental Health Services Plan. Support for our mental health system includes $20.4 million over three years and $8.5 million per annum ongoing, a new crisis stabilisation centre in the northern suburbs, $12 million in 2021-22 for the creation of an additional psychiatric intensive care bed capacity, $48 million over four years for a new older persons mental health facility and $5 million in 2021-22 for additional housing for people with a mental health disability.

Whilst I mentioned earlier that these services are welcome, I really question how many services and how much of these funds will be established in regional communities. If it is all in Adelaide, we again have the issue of these struggling people having to come to Adelaide or having a teleconference. There will be opportunities to transfer metropolitan patients in Adelaide to peri-urban hospitals for ongoing care in peak periods, which is very simple and should create more spare beds in metropolitan hospitals. However, to be able to do this, we will need to have far more Ambulance Service staff and ambulances to get these people to these hospitals.

We have ramping in metropolitan Adelaide all the time. Every day we hear about that. We are not too bad in the regional areas, but there is an issue out there. There is a private ambulance service in Port Pirie, ActFas, which has the contract for hospital-to-hospital transfers. I know our metropolitan Ambulance Service staff work under extreme pressure, but so do our regional staff, who at times have to work a complete shift without any breaks. This is unacceptable. I hear this all the time from people.

I had a stroke just before the new year and was very fortunate as there was an ambulance readily available there, but there are times when ambulance staff are at their wits' end. They are at the extreme end of their shift. They are under extreme pressure out there. I ask the Minister for Health and Wellbeing to put more staff on and more ambulances and to not forget about our regional services.

Another issue is the shortage of GPs across all regional areas, and Port Pirie and Port Augusta are no exceptions. Recently, the Goyder's Line clinic at Peterborough stated they were closing that facility, which would mean that people from Peterborough would have to travel to Orroroo some distance away. Some of these people may not have a motor vehicle, may not have the funds for petrol or may not be capable of driving to the required services. I have been pushing this for the last 18 months. I have had discussions with the minister and I have had discussions with the federal member.

The issue is that we get doctors here, but we are not getting them into regional areas. Everybody says there are plenty of funds, but the issue of getting doctors into regional areas is of the utmost importance because people are starting to go into the regions from metropolitan Adelaide and interstate. They are going into regional South Australia because it is a lot safer and it is a better lifestyle. If they are going to be doing that, we need those services out there, so I ask the government to address this as a matter of urgency.

I also see that there is new funding for our most vulnerable people, with $1.3 million over two years to help children who are at risk of being remanded in custody due to a lack of accommodation and support services by connecting them to appropriate supports. I will be looking forward to how this works, especially when we already have over 500 people in my region who are homeless.

In question time today, I asked a question about vacant Housing SA homes and how many Housing SA homes have been sold over the last 12 months and the outstanding preventative maintenance. The issue is that everybody says there is a lot of money there. There are plenty of funds, but they are not expending those out there. I know tradespeople in the regions who are only too happy to do that.

One of the concerns is the maintenance services facilities management. The government is looking at transferring it from the regions back into metropolitan Adelaide. Both parties need to realise that the regions really do matter. It is a logo that the government has: regions matter. But we have to put the job there and say, 'Let's put the stuff out there.' Let's not make it about terminology. Do not just talk about it. Let's have a bit of action on this.

With schools in my electorate, the rebuilds that were approved previously—and most of those were by the previous government—are nearly completed and will be a great asset to those students and teachers using the facilities. We have some great schools in my area. Balaklava High School and the primary school and Clare High School are absolutely fantastic. They have a trade school in there.

Roger Nottage, the principal at John Pirie Secondary School, has done a fantastic job. He has transformed that school into what it is today. It has great pride. The $11 million redevelopment is going well there. It is a school that people are taking pride in at the moment. Years ago, it had a bad image, but at the moment they have a very good image. The SACE has around a 98 per cent success rate, so I am very happy with that. But, again, I really have to say thank you to the previous government because they committed those funds. The actual work was done in the term of the Liberal government now.

When the government spruiked the $17.9 billion infrastructure spend, it sounded very impressive and it is. However, this is over many years and nearly half is being carried in the north-south connector—nearly $10 billion—and $662 million is for the sports stadium. I will talk about the sports stadium. We have issues out there with health, ramping, ambulances, nurses and doctors, yet we are going to put $662 million into a sports facility on the River Torrens. I hear everybody say that it is going to be good for South Australia, that it is going to bring in more attractions and concerts and things like that, but we really need to be very serious about what we have to concentrate on.

As I said, all the stuff being produced for the operation and the running of this state is from the regions, yet we do not get anything out there. We will talk about roads in a minute, but for that $662 million I would rather see more MFS trucks and CFS vehicles out there. I would rather see more ambulances out there. I would rather see more staff out there and more people out there on the ground to help these people out. Get more doctors out into the regions and into the hospitals and you will save money.

Again, I note that some members here say they believe in it. I do not believe in it. I do not think that this particular point is the right time to do it. I really would ask that the government reconsider it and put that $662 million into other opportunities, particularly into health and education, which I will talk about it in a minute. I also thank the commonwealth government for their 80 per cent contribution to the $786 million, being $628 million, with $158 million from the state. We can see that without federal contribution these works probably would not succeed.

I notice there is no extra funding to complete the Horrocks Highway. There are several sections, particularly south of Tarlee, where the surface is very dangerous. That is around Roseworthy and surrounds. Two or three years ago, $55 million was put in there. They transferred $8 million to a rail crossing and $3 million to a bridge, which left $44 million for the Horrocks Highway.

The Horrocks Highway is a long road. It stretches to the Clare Valley and is used for tourism and so on. I see bits and pieces being done there, but we really have to concentrate on it. That $44 million is not going to be anywhere near enough to complete that road. I always say that if you are going to do something, do it properly the first time. I can see that we are going to do half-baked work on the Horrocks Highway and that in three to five years' time we are going to have to come back and do more work on it.

I welcome the extra funding for the Augusta Highway duplication from Port Wakefield to Port Augusta, the extra $100 million for the planning and commencement of the highway from Nantawarra to Lochiel and the extra $80 million towards the previously announced section from Port Wakefield to Nantawarra.

I have been harping on about the duplication of the highway from Port Wakefield for the last two or three years. We are going to have the overpass there and we are going to have the bypass going up on the eastern side, but we are going to have more and more traffic going to the north, with the renewable energy projects up around Upper Spencer Gulf, and to Yorke Peninsula, with the tourism opportunities there.

We need to have that opportunity for the duplication from Port Wakefield to Port Augusta. I was going back to Port Pirie one night and from Port Wakefield to Port Pirie I counted 176 semitrailers coming the other way. That is not what was in front of me or behind me. There are more caravans out there and there are more RVs out there. If we want to be safe and look at safety, we need to duplicate that highway.

It was also really great to see $5 million towards a business case for the duplication of the Augusta Highway from Crystal Brook to Port Pirie. As I said, I have been a great advocate of the duplication for many years and these small sections that are being done will be going towards the total duplication.

I noticed that the budget papers state that the commencement of this duplication from Nantawarra to Lochiel should commence—and I say 'should commence'—in 2021-22. We have not even started the construction of the road from Port Wakefield to Nantawarra, which is just a bit south of Lochiel. I do not even think we have a design for the Nantawarra to Lochiel section, yet the budget papers say they need to commence it. I am sorry, but we work very, very slowly in these departments.

From a quick glance at the budget papers, these areas are included in the $786 million: Truro bypass, at $202 million; Augusta Highway, at $180 million; KI roads, at $40 million; Fleurieu Peninsula, at $31 million; the Strzelecki Track, at $80 million; the Old Murray Bridge refurbishment, at $36 million, and $105 million for safety concerns, including shoulder sealing, which is absolutely fantastic.

Shoulder sealing does it make it easier. There is more and more traffic on those roads. As I said, I travel nearly 80,000 to 100,000 kilometres per year, so I see the traffic on those roads. It is getting to the situation where there are going to be more and more accidents or deaths on those roads.

The sealing of the Strzelecki Track will be a great asset to enable trade and goods to come to South Australia for export processing instead of going to Queensland. That has been on the cards for many years. I think the previous government committed $40 million and then the feds put some money in, but that is absolutely necessary.

I have driven on the Strzelecki Track with the previous minister, the Hon. Stephen Mullighan. We did see that little sections, about seven kilometres each, were sealed at that particular point. We did drive the Strzelecki Track. We did not just fly in there. This is the issue: if you are going to have a look at things, you do not just fly in. You actually have to drive on those roads to appreciate how bad they are.

The Strzelecki will also assist with the viability of a proposed Pirie meatworks announced on Monday by Reg Smyth at Adelaide University. This will use the new technology of harvesting seaweed, drying the seaweed and using it to feed to the animals. This will result in 90 per cent less methane from those animals, both cows and sheep, and it will also mean 15 per cent less energy used by those animals, so it will give them more weight.

I have mentioned, not only in this house but wherever I travel across the Upper Spencer Gulf, that these cities and the surrounding regions are the home of renewable energy and battery storage and the best location in the world for any renewable projects, whether they be solar, PV, thermal pumped hydro or others. The Upper Spencer Gulf has everything in the location, including an abundance of renewable energy, national rail networks, national highways, deep sea ports, airports, reliable gas supplies, the Morgan-Whyalla water pipeline, a great lifestyle and plenty of available workforce. These are really great facilities up there.

With everything that has happened in the past couple of years, and in particular with the above assets of Upper Spencer Gulf, I believe it is the right time for both the state and federal governments to put in place a master plan for utilisation and value-adding of the resources we have on our doorstep.

With the uncertainty of the future of the Whyalla Steelworks, with Gupta—I understand that he has a reprieve now, and I hope that that goes forward—and the stimulus packages that are being offered by the state and the federal governments following the pandemic, it is time to harness the assets we already have in place, and future emerging opportunities, to look at utilising these vital assets to achieve more value-adding opportunities for industries to look at relocating to the Upper Spencer Gulf to produce their products and transport their goods across the whole of Australia and also overseas.

Some time ago I was at a conference in Port Augusta where Ross Garnaut, a world-renowned economist on renewable energy projects, commented that the Upper Spencer Gulf in particular is the best place in the world for any renewable energy projects, as I said earlier. He said it would be silly for industries not to look at relocating and establishing in the Upper Spencer Gulf. As I said, we have everything there. We are at the crossroads from Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and also the Eastern States. I implore the state government and the federal government to look at a master plan for the Upper Spencer Gulf because we are and will continue to be the powerhouse of the state, and we are going to be a bigger powerhouse in the next two years.

Another concern has been the continuation of our regional development associations across the state. As we know, our partnership with this operation is unique. We are the only state to have federal, state and local government as funding partners. We need to have those people there because the regional development associations need to have the security and the certainty that they have a long-term contract and funding, both state and the federal, to allow them to retain the best people for their jobs.

It is great to see targets for 2022 to innovate and transform TAFE SA campuses with modern and accessible facilities. I have questioned ministers in this house previously about the continuation of the TAFE campuses, especially in regional South Australia. TAFE facilities are out there, and I think both sides have not put enough into them. TAFE is out there, and I mentioned before: do we charge our children to go to primary school? No. Do we charge them to go to high school? No. But when they go to TAFE, yes, we have to, but we subsidise it. We need to do that because regional people need to be able to get those certificates without having to come to Adelaide. It is the cost of transportation, it is away from their family, it is away from their employment, and it is also the cost of the accommodation.

Our regions continue to struggle due to the pandemic. However, there are several tourism operators who are looking to expand and diversify to be able to capture more of the market. Those who currently have not been able to travel overseas are now experiencing the great attractions that our regions have. The Tourist Industry Development Fund is vital to these people, and I would like to see this increased to be able to facilitate the increasing demand from my operators.

It is great to see under trade and investment that the government will support 140 South Australian businesses to become new exporters or enter new markets. In the Upper Spencer Gulf there are several wineries, feed processors, and other industries including the great Golden North Dairies at Laura. Golden North has been the best ice cream in Australia for four years running. They have the opportunity, they have nearly 80 people there and they are exporting overseas.

They want to diversify but they cannot get any assistance from the government to be able to go into other products. If they could do that, they would then increase that workforce from 80 to about 130 people. That is in the little community of Laura and that would be a great stimulus. With the renewable energy projects that are happening around Crystal Brook and Bungama, and in the Upper Spencer Gulf around Port Augusta, we now have an opportunity for transition in those areas. We need the government to look at training facilities to make certain they have plenty at TAFE, and we also need accommodation, which is a big issue.

It is also pleasing to see that they are going to complete the service planning and implementation of the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network governing board strategic plan, which is well and truly overdue. Our current hospital at Port Pirie has been there for about 60 years and has had numerous reports on the structural integrity of the current building, and I am informed this includes subsiding of areas such as the kitchen, X-ray department and other locations.

What needs to happen is either major remedial works or preferably building a new hospital. I will be pushing for a new hospital because I understand this facility contains a lot of public servants who work in allied health, but 50 per cent of it is closed off due to OH&S issues. I will be asking for copies of reports about things like that, and I will be pushing for either a new hospital or a massive rehabilitation and repair job. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (17:01): As I rise to speak in relation to the state budget, I reflect upon one of my earliest political interactions which was out on the steps of this parliament with my mother, who has been a teacher in public schools in this state for over 30 years. She was campaigning with the Australian Education Union, and I was a little boy, and we were campaigning against the Hon. Rob Lucas. This was during the Brown-Olsen government when the Hon. Rob Lucas was closing schools, and defying teachers' pay rises and appropriate conditions.

I also reflect that I am now 38 years of age and I have been in this parliament for over seven years. When I was born, Rob Lucas had been in this parliament for two months already, and he is still the Treasurer and he has now handed down his eighth budget. I like Rob. I think he is one of the people with whom you can get along with on a personal level in this house, but I certainly do not like his policies. I certainly do not like the consistency that we have seen throughout his career in terms of cutting budgets, cutting essential services and attacks on public servants that have been consistent right through his, coming up to soon, 39 years in the state parliament, and eight budgets across many decades.

I am sure it is disappointing for him that he has had to continue on this long because of the complete dearth of talent on the treasury benches of the Liberal Party. We still do not know which of the worst possible options they are going to pick to be their next, they hope, Treasurer, but I am sure it will be shadow treasurer after the election. It will be interesting to see if we do get an announcement of that before the election or not.

As I say, this budget is very consistent with what we have seen from Rob Lucas over his career. There are no surprises there. South Australians over a long period of time, whether you are a teacher, a nurse, a doctor or a paramedic, know whose side Rob Lucas is on, and it is not on the side of those public servants in South Australia.

We have seen the most unprecedented war going on at the moment, with the government and our frontline paramedics over the past year. I think all South Australians are just absolutely shocked by how this government has not listened, has not acted and has gone out of their way to attack paramedics rather than to listen to them and provide them the services they need.

Nothing highlights this more than what we saw recently in Rob Lucas going out to attack one of our paramedics for putting some chalk on an ambulance and apparently causing this massive damage to the ambulance, which it turned out was this tiny little dent, which has certainly caused no issues for our health system whatsoever.

But this shamed that person, with pictures in the paper, pictures on the news, which then forced 'Nick', otherwise known as the Hills Ambo, to have to speak publicly on social media and express the shame and embarrassment that he has felt because of the actions of this government—that they have taken to shame and embarrass him—and to explain the reasons why he is so upset.

That is because it struck him particularly when, as I said, being from the Hills, he was stuck on an ambulance ramp, having taken the only ambulance from his station and waiting, stuck with a patient, for hours to get treated outside a hospital emergency department and hearing on the radio a case in his own community that needed an urgent ambulance to respond.

He knew he could have responded if he had not been on that ambulance ramp. He knew that an ambulance was going to have to come from too far away, that it was going to be late and that that was going to have serious implications for that person. He then found out that that person was a friend of his. Then he found out that that person passed away. This is the reality that our paramedics are dealing with day in, day out.

Today, the Leader of the Opposition and I hosted a number of our frontline health heroes here in the parliament for this debate. We heard from paramedics, from nurses, from allied health professionals and from our support staff across our health system what a perilous state services are in; how patients are being impacted day in, day out; and how staff are getting increasingly burned out, and it is having a real impact upon them as well.

We heard about the injuries paramedics are getting, both physically and mentally, because they are not getting breaks. They are working 12, sometimes more, hours without a break. They are meant to get breaks, but they do not get breaks, because there is not enough resources and because ambulances end up getting ramped.

We heard from the people who work in the coordination and the dispatch roles who have to make these awful decisions where you have got a whole lot of cases that have been triaged as needing urgent ambulance responses, but you have got no ambulances available to respond to them, or, if you do have one, you have to pick which of these awful cases—that all need ambulances urgently—you are going to send that ambulance to, knowing the others are going to miss out. That is an awful situation to be in.

In my role, I also hear about the patients, the people who are affected day in, day out—people's loved ones who end up ramped, end up stuck in emergency departments for many days. That has a real impact upon people's lives, and sadly some people lose their lives, because we are not providing an appropriate level of care.

The stats paint the picture very clearly, but those real-world stories really make it hit home. The stats show that ramping has doubled since this government was elected. The stats show that ambulance response times have got dramatically worse. The stats show that emergency departments in South Australia and Adelaide are amongst the worst in the country.

The stats show very clearly in terms of the budget that over the past year the government has cut 112 nurses from our hospitals. The Productivity Commission shows that this is the only state that has cut funding to the ambulance service. Every other state has increased funding. It also shows that this budget is going to see 371 frontline healthcare staff cut. These are the people in our hospitals, not the people in head office in Hindmarsh Square—371 across the state. That includes every single local country hospital area. Every country LHN will be affected by these cuts, not just the city.

The city is most affected—the Royal Adelaide Hospital, The QEH and part of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network—and they have already seen significant job cuts take place there, but there are set to be another 164 this year. But 164 fewer people in some of our busiest hospitals will not address ramping; it will only make the situation so much worse. We heard it from the paramedics in their own words today in speaking to the media when they said that this idea from the Premier that this budget will somehow fix ramping is a complete lie, an absolute lie. That is what the paramedics themselves said to the media today.

At the same time, the government has proposed a $662 million inner-city basketball stadium. It is just astonishing how far off the mark that priority is, considering what we are seeing in the health system. I have not heard from any member of my constituency who is advocating in favour of this basketball stadium in the inner city.

I am sure a lot of people like basketball, but even those people I do not think are saying, 'We really need this. This is a top priority. We really need to replace the Entertainment Centre and build an entirely new stadium or arena for $662 million right now', let alone all those people across regional South Australia who missed out 100 per cent in this budget. They are now seeing this mountain of cash being delivered for this inner-city CBD stadium, while their services are crumbling. We see regional health services crumbling right across the state.

There was another story just out this morning in terms of doctors not being available at Minlaton hospital. We have heard this recently at Balaklava hospital, with surgeries being stopped there. We have heard about cancellations and suspensions of obstetric services at places like Waikerie and Ceduna. We have heard about some of the violent incidents that have happened in places like Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln and Whyalla. All those places need additional help in this budget; none of these places are getting additional help in this budget.

Compared to the $662 million arena, I think there is a tiny new little budget for Leigh Creek Health Service, and this complete fabrication of a promise to the people of the Barossa where we have the local candidate, Ashton Hurn, running around saying, 'We are going to deliver a new hospital.' But there is not one cent to build a new hospital in this budget.

They said that they did a business case; now they are promising another business case and are putting in another $1 million to do a second business case. What was wrong with the first business case? They have never released that first business case, now apparently they have to do a second business case, and right at the end of the forward estimates they will buy some land. But, there is not $1 in this budget for actually building anything.

There is no commitment in this budget for building any hospital, and that is just one example of how regional South Australia has been let down, from the edge of our borders to the other edge of our borders, right across our coastline, right through the whole state. We are absolutely letting down regional South Australia. That is why a very important announcement has been made today by the opposition leader that an elected Labor government will cancel that basketball stadium.

We will not spend one cent on that basketball stadium, and we will deliver that $662 million to our ambos and our hospitals, and we will make sure that at least $100 million of that goes to country health services. So people in the country will have a very clear choice at the next election: do you want an investment in your local regional country health services, or do you want a CBD basketball stadium? That will be a topic in the South-East, a topic in the Mid North, a topic in Port Augusta and Port Pirie, and a topic on the West Coast.

We will be reminding people at every turn that they have that very stark choice at the next election, because this budget has been aptly described by a member of this chamber as not being a state budget but an Adelaide budget. Health is just one of those areas where that is very apparent, and that is why we have made that major commitment today.

I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the issues in the mental health care system that have completely failed to be addressed by this budget as well. Mental health is in an absolutely shocking state of affairs in South Australia at the moment, and it is getting a lot worse. Statistics out recently showed that people were waiting five days in emergency departments to get a bed; five days in an emergency department bay or sometimes five days in one of the emergency department padded cells is not a situation any South Australian should be put in. It would only make their mental health condition so much worse.

They are stuck in that situation not because they could have seen their GP or another primary health care provider; these are people who are acutely unwell who need to be in an acute mental health care facility. There simply is not enough availability for that, and there are no extra beds in this budget to address that. They are pretending there is, but there is absolutely not. We see eight beds being promised, but when you look at the budget detail there is only money to refit somewhere. There is no money to actually open those beds and provide doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, peer workers, and allied health to provide services for those patients. Those beds are just going to be sitting there empty, according to the state budget.

We have seen investment in Modbury Hospital which is, of course, welcome, but it will deliver zero extra beds for people in the north-eastern suburbs. They are knocking down 20 beds to build 20 beds. That is not going to provide any additional capacity for our system. What we heard from our stakeholders, across a whole range of different groups, is that this absolutely ignored the issues. Australian Medical Association President Dr Michelle Atchison said:

For example we asked for 136 acute adult in-patient beds to help this crisis and we got eight so that's fallen 126 beds short of what we actually need to help this service for mental health patients here in South Australia.

We heard from the former RAH and QEH mental health boss, Professor John Mendoza, who was spectacularly basically sacked for speaking out about the awful situation of SA Health and the department. He said:

…it looks like one of those planks you pick up at the dump with a whole lot of termites through it. It's not clear to me what strategy and what is the purpose in your investment in mental health. And I might say the overall investment, while welcome, is way, way short of what is required to even address the longstanding problems, let alone COVID.

Then we heard from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, their SA branch chair, Dr Paul Furst, who said:

On paper today's budget sounds nice but it's just the government forging ahead with their own plan, providing Band-Aids and quick fixes, without listening to what is needed. Not nearly enough is going to be spent on the things that are important and their biggest spend is on something we didn't ask for and won't improve the ramping crisis in our emergency departments.

So this variety of groups is saying very clearly that this is not going to address the problem. In addition to that, there is nothing to address the ramping problem.

I think everyone acknowledges that one of the major problems is about making sure that there is throughput through hospitals, and making sure that there are discharge options available for people. I have even heard this being talked about by the current health minister. There is nothing in here to address that. There are no additional resources for that.

The only resources they point to in regard to ramping were in previous budgets, some of which go right back to previous budgets and the budgets of the Labor government. They are using this as part of some apparent $110 million for emergency departments, which includes money committed under the previous government. None of it whatsoever is new in this budget, and none of it will address those discharge issues that everybody in the health sector knows are so important. From the ramping perspective, you hear very clearly from the stakeholders that this is not going to address the issue. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation's Professor Elizabeth Dabars says:

You can broaden the funnel as much as you like and that is what this budget tends to do but if you haven't actually addressed the back of house and how to actually get people out of hospital and prevent their entry in the first place the chronic overcrowding and the rampant ramping will continue.

The Salaried Medical Officers Association's Bernadette Mulholland said:

There's no addressing of the ramping, there's no addressing of the current shortage of resources in our Women's and Children's Hospital. Now we'll continue to see ramping, we'll continue to see bed blocks.

The Ambulance Employees Association's Phil Palmer said:

First of all, we are disappointed that the only extra funding for the Ambulance Service is that small number of paramedics that will provide a small number of crews. So the capacity of the Ambulance Service is not increased enough to make it safe. We've already got a Coroner inquiring into two cases where there was long response times and the patient died. Fiddling around the edges is not going to resolve ramping, we need increases in capacity right across the board.

From all the key stakeholder groups, you see that this is definitely not going to address the issue. As I was talking about, take what is happening in regional South Australia. The SA Rural Doctors Association's Dr Peter Rischbieth said:

There doesn't seem to be anything as far as support for the rural mental health beds that many of us have been advocating for, for acutely disturbed intensive care-type patients who are transferred down from country areas into the metro system.

That is another issue where we clearly have a lack of capacity in our mental health care system that is causing bed blocks and is causing ramping.

This is another very consistent Rob Lucas budget. We have cuts to frontline health services, we have ignoring of pleas from our frontline clinicians and we have continuation of the problems that are going to make things worse for ordinary South Australians. That is why we will stop the stadium and we will invest in health care in South Australia.

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:21): I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill, and I do so conscious of the current circumstances that this budget ought to be seeking to make better, to make South Australia fairer and safer and more sustainable. Of all the challenges we face collectively, climate change and the transformation in our economy it demands are by far the most difficult to manage. Dealing with climate change takes understanding multiple disciplines, economics, science and politics and a willingness to make changes now for the benefit of others, including future generations.

Our emerging and future economy must be one of high complexity and low carbon. It cannot be otherwise, or we will not only fail to pull our weight in the urgent need to reduce the threat of climate change but be left behind as the rest of the world's economy tilts away from carbon and every nation seeks to be the home of good jobs and a high standard of living.

If we are to make the transition to a high-complexity economy—and we are very far from being one now—we need to invest in education, higher education, research and commercialisation of innovation. We need in this state a top 100 university. This will not happen by itself; it will only be by an act of will by those invested in a smarter state. The minimal engagement in universities in this budget suggests this government is not so invested.

It is true that this budget does not entirely ignore the new economy. We know that the Premier likes space and likes Lot Fourteen, which is fine but not enough. What will guide the $200 million Jobs and Economic Growth Fund? How will it work with research institutions? What kind of manufacturing sector does the government envisage in South Australia? There is nothing clear, nothing defined.

What our universities need is support in this hard time, with COVID-19 keeping international students out and a hostile federal government forcing them to teach more domestic students without more funding and without any support for international students who were stranded here by the virus. The Marshall government was silent in defence of our universities when the Prime Minister told international students that they should just go home.

The government was silent when the federal government put a wrecking ball through the fee structure for domestic students in the greatest act of attempting to narrow the education of future generations I have seen. As happens too often, the Marshall government is timid when dealing with Canberra, which means our universities are left to fend for themselves. Without them being unleashed, we will not make the transition to good jobs and a sustainable economy.

We also need a low-carbon economy, and it is here that the government has gone completely missing. There is no mention of climate change in the Treasurer's speech, even though this is the most pressing challenge we face. What does the transition to a low-carbon economy look like? Two significant features are, firstly, making renewable energy work reliably by harnessing the power of storage technology and, secondly, reducing emissions from transport. Yet the government has derided Labor's Hydrogen Jobs Plan, which achieves the former, and is proudly reannouncing a tax on the use of electric vehicles, which will impede achieving the latter.

As an excuse for reannouncing the electric vehicle tax, the government has used the fact that interstate there is now such a tax in Victoria. While I do not support the Victorian government's approach, at least they have the good grace to give subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles while at the same time slugging owners for their use. This government proposes only to do the latter.

Alongside the serious task of shifting our economic base to one that has good, secure jobs and is resilient as the world decarbonises is the equally serious task of caring for Mother Nature. Nature requires our protection and every effort to restore its resilience so that it can continue to nurture us, including all the primary production that feeds and clothes us. Every farmer and landholder knows how important a healthy environment is. You would think that the party that purports to represent the regions would understand this better, yet we have a government that has gone on a spree of environmental damage.

It started badly by miscalculating the intentions of the Eastern States and Canberra when it came to the Murray, with the government thinking its new environment and water minister could land a deal something like the magic pudding: keep giving and yet get more. Capitulate in haste and repent at leisure. Ever since that capitulation, we have seen, day after day and week after week, the news getting worse about our prospects of getting the water our environment desperately needs down the River Murray.

The Premier said that he looks forward to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan being delivered in full and on time. Well, wake up. That is simply not possible while there is a Coalition government in Canberra, and pretending otherwise lets down all South Australians because it gives the Eastern States and Canberra free rein to keep up their vandalism without a word being raised in protest beyond expressing mild disappointment.

Pretending that Barnaby's vandalism is nothing more than a stunt lets down every South Australian who is dependent on a healthy River Murray. Barnaby Joyce's actions yesterday, through the National Party in the Senate, are entirely consistent with his actions as water minister previously. He does not want South Australia to have the additional 450 gigalitres. We will not have the additional 450 gigalitres—not only not by 2024 but ever—while the current settings are in place and while the current government in Canberra continues to put National Party MPs in as water minister.

The government has also turned to marine park sanctuaries that were set up to protect our extraordinary offshore biodiversity. Having commissioned a scientific review, the government promptly ignored it—because it found that the sanctuaries should be maintained—and has ripped up the sanctuaries. Only the good work of the Hon. Connie Bonaros MLC in the other place gives us any hope that the government may yet agree with a compromise that she has hammered out. We wait with our disallowance motion ready should the government not deliver.

Not content with threatening nature in the water, the government has decided to bring in regulations to allow fast-tracked clearance of native vegetation for private developments in Flinders Chase National Park, one of the most precious and vulnerable parks we have. It is a true national park. This was in the face of sincere opposition by the Friends of Flinders Chase National Park—a pattern which is becoming all the more common in the way the government treats people who care about the environment. There is nothing in this budget to protect or restore nature in our parks.

Native vegetation more broadly indeed is under serious threat, with this government allowing the Native Vegetation Council—which is legislatively charged to protect vegetation from illegal clearance—not being fully constituted for some time and seeming not to have met since February, a far cry from the previous regime of meeting every two months. There is nothing in this budget that supports the Native Vegetation Council in its work.

This government has embarked on a highly divisive attempt to alter the management of the pastoral lands which has to date seen South Australia have much healthier and much better managed rangelands than interstate. It has done so without seeming interested in recognising First Nations' interests in land management. It has done so dangling the prospect of 100-year leases rather than recognising that the real need is to increase the effort in assessing lease extensions under the current regime.

It has done so, one might suspect, because big corporations have bought up leases and it suits them to keep officers charged with making sure that the land is well managed off their properties. There is nothing in the budget to better manage the rangelands—40 per cent of South Australia—which is an absolute dereliction of responsibility. In all, this budget is more than a disappointment, as it was described by the Conservation Council, the peak body for the environment. It is a wasted opportunity to make the investments necessary if South Australia is to shift to an economy that is low carbon, complex with good sustainable jobs, and is biodiversity sensitive.

Children come to this parliament—when they are allowed to under the COVID restrictions—and they want to know how our democracy works. They want to know why our democracy works, what is it that it is trying to do in this place? I cannot see much in this budget that one could proudly explain to a group of schoolchildren coming in. What they expect is that they will have the hope of good, secure, decent jobs and a future that will not be constrained by carbon. What they expect is investment in education that is not merely the investment that was made by previous governments flowing through the system.

What they expect is that if they should go to university that they will be part of a thriving research institution that will be capable of generating innovation, that will be commercialised and turned into good jobs for all in the future. What they expect is to see our economy based on sustainability: that means from primary production through to every aspect of the economy, reflecting that we must have a healthy environment if we are to have a sustainable future. None of that is reflected in this budget.

However, I would like to say that there are a few things in this budget that I do like, and it is important to acknowledge them. One that was spoken about by our leader earlier today was the health checks that have been included for early childhood development. At present, what we see is a very sad reduction in the percentage of young children who are seen by doctors for their development health checks. We see well over 90 per cent in that very first check, done in the first few weeks of life, dipping down to under 30 per cent, down to 20 per cent in later checks, and then back up to 50 per cent at the age of four at preschool—because I guess kids are going to preschool and that is a good thing—but 50 per cent is not enough.

I am pleased to see an addition of two extra stages of health checks at 12 months and at three years; 12 months is an important check because much of the physical development and serious intellectual development issues are very apparent by the age of 12 months. One hopes that if parents avail themselves of the opportunity they will identify those serious issues and, with good fortune, be able to have some of them addressed through early intervention.

The three-year health check is extremely important because it is at the age of three years that we start to see the social interactions and the language capacity where, if the child is not hitting that developmental milestone, it might well illustrate challenges that can in fact be very responsive to early intervention. So I am pleased to see those health checks. I will be interested to understand how the government proposes to make sure that more than the 20 per cent of children that are seen at some of the ages are seen at those stages.

It is important to offer these health checks. It is equally important to make sure that parents are aware of them, that there are adequate facilities to make sure that they can go and have them done and that they are then able to take advantage of early intervention: the kinds of services offered by speech therapists, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals who will be able to assess young children if, indeed, there are concerns that are picked up. So I support that.

Another element I support, which sits in the environment portfolio, is the investment in the recycling funding; the attempts to see us turn our waste better into resources. This was, of course, provoked by China in the National China Sword program when refusing to continue to take waste that they regarded as contaminated and too difficult and expensive to clean up and turn into proper resources.

Having severed that line of being able to get rid of a whole lot of what we regard as waste, the federal and state governments have taken some time to work out what their alternative is. It now looks like there is a proper national partnership that is giving significant funding to South Australia to make sure that there is the proper level of new technology and equipment in order to take the mixed plastics to be reprocessed. This is essential.

If we do not shift the way in which we treat our household, industrial, commercial and, overwhelmingly, construction waste, if we do not make the shift to treating that differently, the high complexity/low-carbon economy that I talked about at the beginning of my contribution will be very difficult to achieve. If we cannot shift to a circular economy where we treat waste as a resource—as an input, not just an output—then that becomes all the more difficult to achieve.

I am also happy to see the Greener Neighbourhoods program, which partners with councils to provide more trees. When one is confronted with the extent of challenges to the proper management of the rangelands, which is occurring through the revision of the Pastoral Act; when one sees the willingness to fast-track native vegetation clearance, as we have seen in Flinders Chase; and when one sees the proposal, later overturned, to put seven soccer pitches into Belair, it is easy to overlook the significance of the simple street tree and the trees that exist in our cities.

Yet that is a very significant way in which we can encourage the biodiversity that lives in Adelaide and the other cities—I think they need to have a population greater than 10,000 people—and also the importance to people living there of living in an environment that feels more natural, that feels more connected to nature. I have seen this $5.5 million over four years criticised because it does not seem to be enough to some of the stakeholders, and I respect their views. I nonetheless think that it is the kind of initiative that ought to be supported.

My final comment will be about the sand replenishment program, which does not get any new money in this budget but nonetheless gets a little bit of a blurb in the budget summary. It appears to me very likely that the cost of the pipeline, which is being paid for through the dramatic increase in the waste levy which was announced a couple of budgets ago, is being largely but not entirely put into digging up about 15 to 18 kilometres of the coastline to put a pipe down through my electorate, the member for Lee's electorate and the member for Colton's electorate to reach West Beach.

That cost is probably greater than the cost would be to simply continue to source external sand. I think we need to tease that out because, although it might seem to people who do not live in a place that is having to have graders dig up their beach and huge machines rattling away to clean out all the material that actually keeps the sand together—all the larger shells and seagrass wrack—it may not seem if you do not live there or you do not like visiting that beach that that does not really matter and that it is nice just to keep pumping it down, that it is a nice and simple engineering solution.

But when we see what happens down at Kingston Park, where the sand simply washes straight off once it is pushed out from Glenelg, and we see what looks like significant damage to seagrass beds as a result of that big washing out, we have to question whether that is the best approach and whether we ought to be better investing in understanding how we can keep the sand on the beaches in the first place.

We are told that this is all an entirely natural process and that this is about sand naturally moving from south to north, but if it were simply entirely natural it would have happened long before European Australians showed up here. We would not have beaches the shape that they are if it had been natural for thousands of years. What we have is a coastline that has been affected through the development of Holdfast Shores at Glenelg, when the Liberals were last in government, and the development of a marina at West Beach, which has interrupted the flow of sand.

You can see the big hollowing out of sand at West Beach as a result of that, which was not the case previously, and also the enormous damage done to seagrasses along the shoreline that played a very significant role in keeping sand on the beach, slowing down the wave action. If we do not look at those causes and we simply regard this as an engineering problem to be solved with heavy machinery disrupting nature further north and disrupting people's enjoyment and pleasure in spending time on beaches, we are missing an important opportunity to really treat our environment with respect rather than somewhere Tonka toys can drive around and shift sand and it does not matter what disruption that causes. With that, I conclude my contribution to the appropriation.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. S.C. Mullighan.