State Budget

Mr SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): Supplementary to the Treasurer: how much money will be saved by the 1.7 per cent efficiency dividend, and has the Treasurer had advice as to whether, with rising inflation, that is going to provide enough funding to cover the anticipated election commitment costs?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:12): Again, I am not quite sure that the Leader of the Opposition understands how budgets are annually set in South Australia. Separate to the regular inflation rate, which does on a lagging basis have a partial impact on the fees and charges that we might set, there is a wholly separate way of indexing agency budgets which is not attached to or aligned with inflation.

The leader seems to be confused about whether or not agency budgets will be indexed by a particular amount and that that is tied to inflation. Well, I can advise the Leader of the Opposition that that is not how budgeting is done here in South Australia. It's not how budgeting has been done for the last 20 years, and it's not how budgeting will be done over the next four or, God willing, eight or 12 years under this government.

We will be handing down our budget on 2 June, and I am sure that all the curiosities that are eating away at the Leader of the Opposition will be satisfied by the figures that will be published in the budget papers.