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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-20 Daily Xml
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Concessions

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion. Can the minister update the house on any changes to funding arrangements on concessions in South Australia?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:51): I thank the member for her question. The South Australian government, through the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion, administers a range of concessions to help ease the cost of living pressure for individuals and families on low or fixed incomes. These include concessions for energy, water and sewerage charges, council rates, public transport, and the emergency services levy.

There is currently a National Partnership agreement for certain concessions in place between the South Australian government and the commonwealth government. This agreement provides for part pensioners to be treated the same as all other pensioners for all South Australian government concessions. The agreement also facilitates a reciprocal arrangement between the states and territories to provide transport concession to holders of an Australian Seniors Card. In 2013-14 the South Australian government will provide more than $230 million in funding for concessions, with the commonwealth government providing around $27.7 million.

However, the commonwealth government has announced it will abolish the National Partnership from 1 July 2014, ripping more than $27 million in funding out of South Australia, in just over 40 days' time. What this means is that from 1 July 2014 South Australia will no longer receive funding to provide concessions to part pensioners and will no longer receive funding to provide transport concessions to visitors from interstate that hold an Australian Seniors Card.

This will be a significant impact to the household budgets of some of South Australia's most vulnerable members in our community. When you couple these changes to other measures announced by the commonwealth government including:

changes to the indexation of pension payments;

the ceasing of the Seniors Supplement for eligible commonwealth Seniors Health Card;

reduced capacity to earn an income without impacting on commonwealth benefits received; and

the introduction of $7 for the GP tax for every time you visit the doctor or buy medicine,

balancing the budget just became a whole lot harder for families who are doing it tough. To place this into context, removing almost $30 million from our concession system is the equivalent of cancelling the council rate concession across South Australia, removing financial assistance to households to help pay council rates.

Of course, we on this side of the house understand that government has a role to play in making sure that no South Australian is left behind. That is why I am proud this Labor government made a commitment at the last election to increase the energy concession by $50 a year from 1 July 2014, because we understand that families and households who are doing it tough need our support to help make ends meet.

Families and households will be having some tough conversations around the kitchen table over the next few weeks as they grapple with the devastating impact of measures announced by the commonwealth just last week. I encourage all members of the house to join Premier Jay Weatherill in fighting the commonwealth against these harsh measures which will impact on families in all our electorates right across South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion doesn't need to remind us of the name of the Premier.

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