Seniors Card Fuel Discount

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. Will the minister increase the fuel discount for Seniors Card holders from 4¢ to 8¢ a litre and provide a larger range of participating fuel outlets. Mr Speaker, with your leave, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: In February the government announced that Seniors Card holders would get a 4¢ discount for seniors at participating United Fuel outlets. While this is welcome, there is only one United Fuel outlet in my entire electorate of MacKillop. The cost-of-living crisis is real. Those living in regional areas are further disadvantaged with less choice and access to services.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services, Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well) (15:03): I thank the member for the question, for his commitment to local constituents and also for including us in his various activities whenever we can get down there. I really enjoyed visiting recently and being able to congratulate some of the recipients of local grant funding.

The Seniors Card really is a fantastic initiative from the state government. There are actually about 415,000 people as recipients of the Seniors Card. After the 2022 election we made public transport free 24 hours a day for all Seniors Card holders, and our recent—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I'll get there, relax. Our recent budget expanded public transport concessions even further to help thousands of people with Health Care Cards. Whilst I do appreciate that public transport provides much greater benefits for people in Greater Adelaide compared to regional areas, it's one of the reasons we have been working to redesign our community passenger networks and help more people in areas where there are fewer transport options.

Seniors Card holders get access to a range of discounts and special offers. Apart from free public transport, they are offered as voluntary measures by private businesses. Businesses get involved on the same basis that Origin Energy provides a special offer for people who receive the energy concession, and businesses offer discounts both to be better corporate citizens and to get better access to hundreds and thousands of South Australian consumers.

The discount offers not only benefit businesses and consumers but they come at no cost to government, which is a great outcome for all of us. Consistent with this, the United offer of 4¢ per litre discount is funded entirely by United. So that's not through a government subsidy. I am really pleased, though, to advise that while the member is asking for more, 32,000 people already have registered for the fuel offer since its launch by the health minister earlier this year.

I appreciate the member for MacKillop's request. The government doesn't fund the current offer, so it's not in a position to fund an expanded offer, as that is through the private company. Of course, people are welcome to write letters to the private organisations to encourage them to do more but, despite that, I think the outcome already has been fantastic.

If other members do have businesses in their local electorates that they would like to encourage to link with the Seniors Card, I would be happy to hear from them. Also, I am sure those businesses would welcome the hand of friendship to be included.