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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-03 Daily Xml
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (15:58): My question is again to the Treasurer. As total commonwealth revenue has been revised down by the order of $75 billion since November, by how much does the Treasurer expect health, education or other specific purpose payments in South Australia to decline, and can he rule out a decline in those categories?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:59): You cannot ask me that question; that is a question that your federal shadow treasurer, Julie Bishop, would need to ask of the commonwealth Treasurer. But the state government's—

Ms Chapman: You are the Treasurer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, I cannot answer for the federal Treasurer, but if you listen I will give you the answer. Just chill, chill!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No; you asked a question that would be more appropriately asked of the federal Treasurer. I will answer it from my perspective, and that is that state governments and the national government have binding agreements on special purpose payments. I think it would be fair to say—and members may not have caught up with this—that there will not be a reduction in education spending coming out of the commonwealth, because it has just announced over $14 billion for every primary school in the nation to receive a gymnasium, or a library, or an arts centre—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley will come to order.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Labor is investing in the largest ever recapitalisation of our schooling physical stock this nation has ever seen. So, I do not expect a reduction; in fact, on behalf of the government, I am very thankful to be receiving what will end up being hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars of new expenditure in this state that we will have to expend over the next two years. It will be a mighty challenge, but we will do it. We will rise to the challenge.

I am very confident that, under the binding agreement between the states and the national government, there will be no reduction in SPPs. As we have heard today, there is a serious amount of additional money coming into this state.

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