House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate Grievance Debate Cost of Living Cost of Living The Hon. V.A. TARZIA House of Assembly Hartley Leader of the Opposition The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:06): Today I rise to speak about the cost-of-living crisis that is impacting the lives and livelihoods of South Australians. As we approach the delivery of the budget, which is the final one of this Labor government before the next state election, we hear a lot of conjecture from those opposite about how great they think things are going out there in the community. Let's have a look at how they are really going. We have seen this Labor government's press releases and heard their speeches, often citing the NAB Business Confidence Survey—but not now, because for three consecutive months South Australia has had the worst business confidence of all states in the nation. We have heard this Labor Premier point to the CommSec State of the States report—a whole range of events in the business community—yet by that measure the state has now slipped to sixth in real economic growth under Labor. Similarly, the South Australian Business Chamber's Survey of Business Expectations this month found that South Australian businesses are actually experiencing conditions similar to the peak of the COVID pandemic, citing the impact of government red tape. Just today, if you look at the ABS labour force statistics, you will see that they reveal that this month more South Australians are working fewer hours than they would like and more have chosen to exit the labour force altogether. So there is a pattern emerging here. These are not some abstract sets of figures plucked from the sky. There are people and small businesses, lives and livelihoods, behind these statistics. What South Australian workers and small businesses are doing is signalling a problem. Confidence is down. Investment in new plant and equipment is at a national low, while costs continue to skyrocket. Just this past week, I actually met with Steven, the owner of a small business in the seat of Dunstan, who told us how water bills are actually becoming an increasingly large expense, jumping from around $1,300 to nearly $2,200 in a year. We need to be doing everything we can to relieve the cost-of-living pressure for South Australians, not increase the pressure through unfair price hikes to pay for this Labor government's failure to adequately and appropriately fund water infrastructure upgrades. We know that at the end of January this year there were around 55,000 people who owed around $63 million to SA Water due to bills that are past their due date. South Australians are hurting. It is a cost-of-living crisis, well and truly. People are struggling to make ends meet and to afford essentials, even for things as basic as water and also electricity. The last thing South Australians need right now is higher fees and charges. We are pleading with this Labor government to see reason and, as we have already called for, to end the water bill price hike of 3.5 per cent above CPI. We know hardworking South Australian families should not have to foot an extra $85, and small business owners around an extra $348, annually for their water bills because of Labor's poor planning. What is worse is that this is compounded by this government's mismanagement of the electricity grid. Under Labor, we have seen that the average household is paying around $800 more on their annual power bill, or nearly 44 per cent more, which is a substantial rise for South Australian families during a cost-of-living crisis. This bill crunch continues; it flows on to small business. We see electricity prices for small businesses rising from around $3,679 under the former Liberal government to $5,364 under the Malinauskas Labor government. That is an increase of $1,685 or nearly 46 per cent. Do not forget that in 2021, what did Labor do? They promised to deliver a $593 million Hydrogen Jobs Plan, including a power plant, by the end of 2025 that they said would reduce wholesale electricity prices by 8 per cent. That has not happened and that is another broken promise. There is no plan from them to reduce electricity prices, no plan to reduce water bill price hikes and seemingly no plan to return confidence to small business. The upcoming state budget offers the last and best chance for this government to show that it is listening. It is an opportunity to deliver real relief for households and small businesses. We need to ease the cost-of-living pressure on people and on businesses, and we need to unshackle small businesses from these exorbitant input costs and reignite what is needed in this state: an entrepreneurial spirit. Only then can we return confidence to workers and a small business community that at the moment is struggling under three years of hard Labor. If this Labor government will not improve the situation, then we will.