Appropriation Bill 2024

Appropriation Grievances

Adjourned debate on motion to note grievances.

(Continued from 18 June 2024.)

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (17:30): I am pleased to provide a grievance contribution to this debate. South Australia's Liberal Party is the party of small business. Small business needs a voice, it needs an advocate, it needs a champion and it needs a political party that has its back, and that is the role of the Liberal Party of South Australia.

We aim to be the party of small business and it is my view that we are the party of small business. Small business is a great part of our state's economy and 97 per cent of all businesses across our nation are categorised as small business. They employ the most people. They drive our communities forward in so many different ways. Small businesses grow out of passion. Small businesses involve people who are passionate about an issue, a cause, something that they would like to create a bit of wealth out of. It does not need to be a lot of wealth. Sometimes it is, but it does not need to be. They want to make it their job because that is their passion.

That is where the vast majority of small businesses emerge from: someone's, an individual's passion. It might be a family's passion, but often it is just one person who sets out on a mission to create a business out of their passion. It is hard work.

As the son of small business owners and growing up in a family of small business owners, I have seen day in, day out the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that goes into running a small business, establishing a small business, getting it off the ground, hoping that it survives, and hoping that it thrives. Perhaps it will create a bit of money for the individual, for the family, for extended people in the community—something that you can be proud of, something that you can grow, nurture and create meaning out of. That is what small business is all about.

Small business does not stay in the office. It is not a nine to five occupation. Small business comes home with you. It is at the dining room table, it is in the backyard with you, it is on the school run and it potentially is on the bus to work with you. It is in the bedroom, it is in the shower, it is with you day in, day out.

When things are going good, that is a good thing. When things are tough, that can be exceptionally hard because it is not just tough on you, it can be tough on your spouse, tough on your kids, tough on other family members, and tough on friends. Small business can be and often is tough. That is why small business in this state needs an advocate, it needs a champion, it needs a political party that has its back and it needs a political party that understands it. That is the Liberal Party of South Australia.

We are not a homogenous group on this side of the house. We are people who have had small businesses, who have made investments. Some of us have done okay, some of us have struggled along the way, but we have the experience of establishing small businesses, of getting them off the ground and of creating something out of them. We have experience in employing people: maybe a few, maybe more than that. That is what small business can do.

Small businesses take many different forms. Some are run out of the garage, some out of the spare bedroom. Some are run over thousands of hectares as farms. Farms and food and fibre producers are small businesses in this state as well, and we should not forget that. This side of the house is the side of the house that will have the backs of our farmers, our food and fibre producers, regional South Australians. That is what the Liberal Party stands for. That is who the Liberal Party stands for.

In our quest to be the voice of small business in this state, we have looked at what small business needs. We believe small businesses often need a situation that is not necessarily help from government: maybe it is government getting out of the way, less red tape, less green tape, less government intervention, less bureaucracy, less interference in the way that they go about running their business. We need regulations, of course. We need frameworks to keep people safe, to ensure that people do the right thing, to ensure that people do not commit activities that would not be acceptable to the broader community.

We need government frameworks. We need regulations and legislation, but we do not need too much of it, and we want to make sure that small businesses are not overburdened by the creeping arm of the bureaucracy into their day-to-day activities. Small businesses also need governments to keep an eye on how much they are taking from them. Small businesses have a lot of fees, a lot of charges, and pay numerous taxes, many of which are not even known by that small businessperson before they set out on their journey towards establishing and getting their small business off the ground.

One such tax that afflicts businesses when they get to a certain size—still usually a small business in a definitional sense—is payroll tax. Payroll tax is a tax on jobs. Payroll tax is a tax on growth. Payroll tax is a tax on ambition, and payroll tax is a tax on the independence of small businesses as well. Payroll tax is a problem in South Australia. When the Marshall Liberal government came to office in 2018, we fulfilled our commitment to lift the payroll tax threshold from $600,000 as an accumulative wage package up to $1.5 million. That relieved most small businesses in this state, and some medium-sized businesses as well, from needing to pay payroll tax.

But over the last five or six years, wages have grown. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but that has created a situation where many businesses have very unexpectedly—it has been a huge surprise—suddenly got payroll tax bills. That has been a significant impost on businesses, and it has created a situation where businesses have been discouraged from growing. In fact, some businesses have chosen to sell parts of their business in order to keep under the threshold. It discourages businesses from innovating. It discourages businesses from employing people.

We announced as a Liberal Party a couple of weeks ago that it is time for the payroll tax threshold to rise again. We want the payroll tax threshold to move from $1.5 million, where we took it following our election in 2018, up to $2.1 million. This has been advocated for by a range of business representative bodies, no more so than the South Australian Business Chamber, formerly known as Business SA. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia would also like to see this, as well as many other representative bodies, including the South Australian branch of the Australian Hotels Association.

This is a really necessary reform. We need this, and we cannot wait until 2026, until a potential change of government, to see that implemented. We need to see this occur in the very near future because that suppression on growth, that suppression on innovation, that suppression on job creation is something that is perverse in so many ways. The Liberal Party of South Australia is the party of entrepreneurial South Australians. It is the party of startups. It is the party of people who will invest a little bit of time, a little bit of money, a little bit of effort into creating something very special out of their passion.

That is why those small businesses need a party like ours: a party that has their back, a party that will advocate for them, a party that will pull government back from overly interfering in their day-to-day affairs and a party that will lower the tax burden that they face. That party is the Liberal Party of South Australia.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (17:39): I want to speak this evening about the significant economic opportunity within my electorate in particular. The electorate of Flinders is a significant part of regional South Australia, with a big footprint of over 220,000 square kilometres. We are on the edge of an amazing series of economic opportunities, but we need government to be proactive, to have some foresight, to have some vision to open up these opportunities with proactive decision-making.

We see the potential for some exciting mining opportunities, and there is a variety of different minerals, not just hematite and magnetite but kaolin and graphite and other rare minerals we know are going to be needed not just in the long term but closer and closer as technology is developing. There are exciting proposals that we are seeing come forward for hydrogen projects, renewable projects and export port facility proposals that are a way to be able to open up some of the constraints that are being faced in my region.

When you live as far away from Adelaide as I do, you realise the cost of doing business is significant because of the lack of proximity. The costs just for a raw product that is not able to be exported out of a facility on Eyre Peninsula and thus has to travel the 400 to 700-plus kilometres to Port Adelaide means that the significant cost burden is on those tonnages. We are talking from $60 to $80 a tonne-plus for a product which is not necessarily going to have that margin within it.

There are exciting opportunities knocking at our door with the investment that is being made into the Northern Water project. That is well and truly in the footprint of my electorate. I commend both the previous government and the current government for looking at that opportunity for that Northern Water project because it will open up the economic opportunity, not just for my region but for the far north as well, because without a reliable water source for the potential for industry growth that we see, that potential will be nullified.

Water has been one of the main restrictions for my half of the state since settlement. Because of the lack of water there has not been the ability to be able to sustain a lot of the potential industries. Even the existing industries—the agriculture, the fishing, the aquaculture—are facing constraints because of the lack of a water supply. So this Northern Water project is an exciting one.

As I said, subsequent governments have recognised that the mining proposals in our far north cannot continue to rely on the Great Artesian Basin. Since the Northern Water project proposal has moved further south into my electorate—and the latest proposal's preferred location is at Cape Hardy, which is very much in the lower parts of Spencer Gulf. Cape Hardy is the location for a significant proposal around a port infrastructure investment which will enable the Iron Road proposal, potentially at Warramboo, which will enable the potential for the value-adding of agricultural product, which will also open up a lot of these smaller mines for the potential for export which has not been before because of the cost of distance and the cost of doing business.

Unfortunately, I worry that we are going to miss opportunities because there is not that strategic decision-making over the top of all these opportunities that we are facing. I commend the work that the RDA on Eyre Peninsula have been doing to try to make sure that decision-makers understand the full range, the full gamut, of these proposals to see that there are certain roles that government need to be playing at local, state and federal levels of government to enable this to happen.

The Northern Water proposal at Cape Hardy, as a location, is only some 70 kilometres north of Port Lincoln. This is why the conversation that is being had in my community at the moment around the SA Water proposal for a 5½ gigalitre water supply desalination plant to be built down at Billy Lights Point at Port Lincoln is taken in the context of the potential for the site at Cape Hardy.

I had the opportunity, along with many members of my community, to present to the select committee which has been formed in the other place to look at Eyre Peninsula's water supply and distribution, specifically around my call for the need for there to be that big-picture perspective when it comes to water.

Let me tell this house, as I have told ministers and as I have told decision-makers and as I have told committee members, there is not the support for that desalination plant at Billy Lights Point because the concerns of our community, the concerns of industry and the concerns of fishers and aquaculture operators is that if you are going to build a desalination plant within that bay area of Port Lincoln, where there is very little water movement, where it is in the middle of aquaculture zones—as I always saying this place, Port Lincoln is the seafood capital of not just South Australia but Australia—the risk factors around what the impacts could be for those industries are in my mind too great.

We should not be putting the existing industry at risk by bringing this sort of construction in. This is why there is an opportunity. I think that with proper, strong leadership from government across departments and across ministerial levels, there is an opportunity to be able to invest in something that will be able to supply the short to medium-term water needs of the Eyre Peninsula at the Cape Hardy site. It will also provide a foundation for the potential growth of this greenfield site as an industrial hub for the Eyre Peninsula and it will open up economic opportunities for the whole state.

There are a lot of decisions that need to be made around making sure we are investing into some of the basics in my community so that we do not miss these opportunities. I speak often of the challenges around housing in my region because the workforce that will be needed, not just during construction but during the operation of a lot of these projects, just is not there on Eyre Peninsula. If these projects do go ahead it will not be people who are looking to fly in and fly out. They will be people who want—and why not—to live on Eyre Peninsula and to work on their doorstep on some of these exciting projects. But if we do not have the facilities, if we do not have the housing, if we do not have the educational facilities, if we do not have the health facilities, if we do not have the roads and infrastructure that go with that need, these projects are not going to come to fruition and we will miss an opportunity.

As I said, I am keen to work across party lines, across departments and ministers to make sure that we are putting a plan in place, a plan for the transport and infrastructure needs because the roads at the moment are only serving a small proportion of what the potential can be, a plan for housing growth, for the urban growth of our towns and our cities on the Eyre Peninsula, to make sure that there are not these barriers in place which I see currently: the planning challenges, the native vegetation restrictions, the things that are going to put the 'go slow' on the potential economic development of the Eyre Peninsula.

We need to be working with a vision. We need to be working with the foresight of what this can mean for our state because if we miss it I am afraid that this opportunity is going to go elsewhere. This is why, whenever I get the opportunity in this place, I always take the chance to point out that the investment in Eyre Peninsula is vital not just for my region but for the whole state.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (17:48): I rise to make another contribution just to give an overview of what the budget has meant not to only me as a regional MP but to most of regional South Australia. As I said yesterday, yesterday was the 14^th budget that I have sat through. Some of them have been better than others but this budget overall has been quite a disappointment. Really, what I have seen, what I have thought after reflection on the budget, was that there was a big noise in the city and bugger the country. My interest is funding for all things in South Australia, but obviously the regions are a focal point for myself, particularly the Riverland and Mallee.

As the member for Flinders has rightly pointed out, he has a very large electorate with a gem sitting along the coastline, and that is the fishing industry. It is in need of, I think, structural readjustment, and that is to have water supply, just like the Riverland does. It needs a constant, reliable water supply coming past our door, whether it is through feast or famine. It is inevitable that we have to prepare for when that feast happens, so that when the famine does come, we are better prepared, we are futureproofing the electorate.

What I have seen is that regional roads have seen a significant budget reduction in programs. The $20 million that is coming into the electorate I am grateful for, but it is for a study; it is not there for road safety programs. It is not there to deal with the vagaries of travelling on a regional road, particularly a federal highway coming right through the centre. There are arterial state roads that have seen some safety upgrades and, finally, they have just been finished. That has been four years that I have experienced upgrades, as have many road users, particularly on the Sturt Highway.

What I continue to need and ask for is to deal with sections of our highways that are blackspots, that we have serious issues with, particularly with the intersections. I am not looking for tens and hundreds of kilometres of bitumen, hot pave and spray pave, but I have concerns, as I told the police minister this morning.

As an example, I have an intersection on the federal highway at Monash. This section of highway is a federal highway. It is a skinny bit of road. It runs past the town. It has Stobie poles either side of the road. There is nowhere to go if there is a car turning into Monash. If you want to see the tell-tale of what is going on, on that road, the skid marks are pretty good evidence. There are skid marks from top to bottom, from the entrance to Monash and right the way past it. They are near misses at every opportunity or every time.

They are the sort of projects that I called out for, that I have asked, respectfully, of ministers to come out and reassess. I was given the opportunity to meet with department officials, and they are going to have a look at it, but it is a responsibility of a government to make sure that they are continuing to implement road safety programs, particularly with the impacts of having a federal highway running through the middle of the electorate.

Four-and-a-half thousand vehicles cross that point every day. It is one of the busiest heavy truck freight routes in the state. What we are seeing now is a reduction in truck numbers, but we are now starting to see larger configurations. Yes, they are modern-day technology vehicles, and these new configurations are state-of-the-art, but when they have to stop in a hurry when a mother is taking children to school or a local is turning off the highway into that town, people just shudder, they close their eyes, and they wonder just when someone is going to die at that intersection.

Again, I guess, as a regional MP I continue to look at health as a priority, and making sure that we do have satisfactory services for people who live within the electorate, making sure that we have services that are there to give opportunity to people who are looking to relocate or people who are looking to come into the electorate as a sea change or as a career move. Recently, we saw very little come into the country hospitals in the electorate of Chaffey.

Energy is something that I will just touch on before I run out of time. The electorate is a large power user. We pump a lot of water, we manufacture a lot of primary product, and the issue of reliable power is becoming more and more evident. We are seeing more and more brownouts. That is just one issue; the cost of power is obviously the other issue. What we are seeing now is that the cost of power is becoming the major component of running a business. It is not about wages, it is not about the cost of upgrading, it is not about the cost of planting. It is power, and that is something that is of real concern.

It is also about living in a harsh environment. The Riverland is a harsh environment. We have some of the colder mornings in the state and we have some of the hotter days in the summer. What we are seeing now is that climate control in homes, in businesses, in packhouses is something that we have to pay particular attention to.

Of course, there are many other issues that I wanted to talk about. The trade economy is of concern, and obviously so is housing. I just touch on apprentices. The state is critically short in skills. Apprentices are a big part of that solution, but with the cost of living the way it is, on low income, we are going to see a significant challenge in attracting apprentices to a regional setting. We are going to see apprentices attracted to a metropolitan Adelaide setting to deal with the cost of living, the cost of running a home and the cost of running a vehicle. That is just the start of some of the challenges of being an up-and-coming apprentice. I will conclude my remarks, with the budget getting a five out of 10.

Motion carried.

Estimates Committees

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (17:57): I may need some guidance to make sure I read all of these in the correct order. I move:

That the proposed expenditures for the departments and services contained in the Appropriation Bill be referred to Estimates Committees A and B for examination and report by 27 June, in accordance with the timetables distributed.

Motion carried.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I seek leave to incorporate the timetables in Hansard without my reading them.

Leave granted.

APPROPRIATION BILL 2024

TIMETABLE FOR ESTIMATES COMMITTEES

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE A

THURSDAY 20 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Premier

State Governor's Establishment

Auditor-General's Department

Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Attorney-General

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs

Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector

Courts Administration Authority

Attorney-General's Department (part)

Administered Items for the Attorney-General's Department (part)

FRIDAY 21 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Energy and Mining

Department for Energy and Mining (part)

Office of Hydrogen Power South Australia

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport

Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

MONDAY 24 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Climate, Environment and Water

Department for Environment and Water

Administered Items for the Department for Environment and Water

Department for Energy and Mining (part)

Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science

Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy

Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (part)

TUESDAY 25 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Multicultural Affairs

Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Minister for Tourism

South Australian Tourism Commission

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services

South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission

South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service

South Australian State Emergency Service

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

South Australia Police

Administered Items for South Australia Police

Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Department for Correctional Services

Special Minister for State

Electoral Commission of South Australia

Administered Items for Electoral Commission of South Australia

Legislative Council

House of Assembly

Joint Parliamentary Services

Administered Items for Joint Parliamentary Services

WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Education, Training and Skills

Department for Education

Administered Items for the Department for Education

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE B

THURSDAY 20 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Treasurer

Department of Treasury and Finance

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Minister for Defence and Space Industries

Defence SA (part)

FRIDAY 21 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing

Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Minister for Child Protection

Department for Child Protection

Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence

Department of Human Services (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Human Services (part)

Minister for Health and Wellbeing

Department for Health and Wellbeing

Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Preventative Health South Australia

MONDAY 24 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Human Services

Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well

Department of Human Services (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Human Services (part)

TUESDAY 25 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development

Minister for Forest Industries

Department of Primary Industries and Regions

Administered Items for the Department of Primary Industries and Regions

Minister for Small and Family Business

Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs

Attorney-General's Department (part)

Administered Items for the Attorney-General's Department (part)

Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (part)

Minister for Arts

Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Trade and Investment

Minister for Local Government

Minister for Veterans Affairs

Minister for Housing and Urban Development

Minister for Planning

Department for Trade and Investment

Administered Items for the Department for Trade and Investment

Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport (part)

Defence SA (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I move:

That Estimates Committee A be appointed, consisting of Hon. A. Piccolo, Mr Batty, Ms Clancy, Ms O'Hanlon, Hon. D.J. Speirs, Hon. V.A. Tarzia and Ms Wortley.

Motion carried.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I move:

That Estimates Committee B be appointed, consisting of Mr Odenwalder, S.E. Andrews, Mr Basham, Mr Brown, Mr Cowdrey, Mr Patterson and Mrs Pearce.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 17:58 to 19:30.