Question Time

Emergency Services Levy

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question about the emergency services levy.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Go, Ridgie, better than yesterday, bring down the government.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Can you chuck him out right now, please?

The PRESIDENT: It is a little bit early in the question time for this, the honourable Leader of the Government, so allow the Leader of the Opposition to ask his question.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Ridgway.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: He's a bit late for the Fringe. The Labor government has increased the emergency services levy three years running.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: A massive increase.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: A massive increase, as the Hon. Robert Brokenshire says. The government is gouging South Australian households, businesses, and community organisations, such as charities, schools and sporting clubs, with over $90 million of additional taxes every year. The government has also continually, and in my view inappropriately, sought to hide behind natural disasters to continually raise the ESL. My question to the minister is: can the minister rule out any further increases to the ESL following the recent floods?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:21): I thank the honourable member for the opportunity to talk to the opposition, and the public more generally, about the importance of the ESL and the importance of our being able to ensure that our emergency services volunteers have the resources they need to be able to service our community.

Only this morning, the Hon. Ian Hunter and I had the opportunity of engaging with CFS volunteers and representatives of DEWNR, who have just received additional funds to the tune of $4 million per annum, which will enable them to employ an additional 22 people who will be able to go about the business of putting out fires but also, importantly, undertaking incredibly important work for preparedness of bushfires through burn-off at times of the year that are appropriate.

We want to be a government that mitigates the risk of bushfire as much as we can, but just as importantly we want to make sure that we are a government that is resourcing our volunteers, who frequently put themselves in harm's way, with all the resources and kit that is available to protect them.

A good example of this, of course, is burn-over protection. Only last week, I released the report into the Pinery bushfire. Yesterday, I tabled that report. I am sure that members of the opposition have been poring over that document since it was publicly released, but within it specifically is reference to the importance of burn-over technology in protecting volunteer firefighters for events such as Pinery.

With the emergency services levy this year we were able to facilitate and fund an increased expenditure towards the introduction of burn-over technology which will see a more rapid introduction of that technology and which will ensure that more volunteer firefighters who find themselves on the fire front this year, hopefully not dealing with a tragic fire like Pinery but if they were to confront such a tragedy or such an event they will have more protection than would otherwise be the case if we weren't administering the ESL in a productive and efficient manner.

The government does not have any intentions, as it stands currently, to increase the ESL. The increase to the ESL through this budget was incredibly modest: the ESL increased from a total funding of $279.3 million last financial year to $292.4 million this financial year. This represents a modest increase, but an important one nevertheless.

What it does is it provides the government with the ability to ensure that our emergency services volunteers, who have our support 100 per cent, are able to have the protection that they need. The question for those volunteers is which government is more likely to support them? I attest that it is this one because our track record is second to none when it comes to making sure that they have all the equipment and kit they need to keep themselves safe while they keep us safe.