Emergency Services Levy

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question about the ESL.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Given that South Australian families are struggling to make ends meet, with $8.4 million in ESL bills still owed to the state government following three consecutive hikes by this Labor government, will the minister rule out a fourth consecutive hike to the emergency services levy?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:27): I will tell you what I will rule out, and that is an $80 million cut to the emergency services sector, which is very much on the cards if the opposition were to win government at the next state election. This government firmly believes in well funding our emergency services sector to ensure they have everything they reasonably need to be able to do the incredibly important work of serving our community to keep it safe.

We have a number of agencies that fall within the emergency services sector that rely, essentially, entirely on the revenue derived from the emergency services levy, and within those agencies we have literally thousands of volunteers who go out of their way to volunteer to serve our community. I think, and this government believes, that we should be resourcing those volunteers with everything they reasonably need to be able to do the incredible job they do in as safe an environment as reasonably possible, and that means that they need to be funded adequately.

The emergency services levy, and the funds that have been derived as a result of that levy, have been able to ensure that emergency services under this state Labor government are well resourced, can conduct their operations safely in the full knowledge that they have the support of the government and the South Australian people when it comes to having things like appropriate trucks and vehicles (in the case of the CFS), PPE clothing, which is absolutely critical when it comes to conducting operations against bushfires, and also training.

Training is an incredibly important component of the work done by the emergency services sector, to ensure that those people who volunteer their time and effort can undertake their operations in a way that is consistent with best practice globally, and also in a way that they can maintain their safety while they put themselves in harm's way. We are committed to making sure they have the resources they can. Of course, whenever decisions are taken in respect to what happens to the ESL going forward, the government takes into account a whole range of different variables, as we do on each and every occasion.