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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-17 Daily Xml
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Emergency Services Levy

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): Does the Premier believe that his emergency services levy increases have gone too far, and does he or his government intend to provide relief for some categories of people affected by the emergency services levy hikes?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:19): I find it amazing that the Leader of the Opposition can be so colourblind as to not see the impact of the commonwealth's budget on our budget.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: 'Oh!' It's only $5½ billion. It's only hospitals, they are only pensioners, there are only schools—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: If the Treasurer's answer is going to canvass the merits of the opposition obviously the opposition is going to interject. If the Treasurer wants to go down that path, go ahead.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, I like to take the path less travelled. I am a more optimistic man than members opposite because I believe South Australia's future and its best days lie ahead of it, not behind it.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I hear interjections from members opposite about debt and deficit but we have cut in too deeply. The opposition's schizophrenic attack on the government doesn't really make much sense. It probably shows why they are still in opposition because one day—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Would the Treasurer like to review the use of the word 'schizophrenic'?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, sorry. I apologise. Given what is occurring to the state's finances through external factors, it seems to me when the government takes a direct action like removing remissions on the emergency services levy—remissions that were designed by members opposite which gave the largest remissions to the most wealthy in our community and the least remissions to those who can least afford to pay it—to fill a gap made to our hospitals, our schools and our pensioners from external factors, I would have thought the opposition would be more interested in helping the state and its citizens rather than those external factors with those external forces.

Mr Marshall: How is increasing taxation going to help our citizens?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will explain it just so that the—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When there are cuts made to hospital activity funding because that hospital activity funding is here, the Minister for Health can't send people who are sick to Victorian hospitals or hospitals in Sydney or Queensland—they present to South Australian hospitals. We have built the capacity and staffing and requirements of those hospitals to meet 2014 services and to meet 2014 demands on the basis of a funding agreement we had with our funding partner. That funding partner has now pulled that money.

We have also built our schools and taught our teachers to offer curriculum based on an activity that was funded by the commonwealth. We also have pensioners who live here and have requirements to meet on the basis of payments they thought they were going to receive from the commonwealth that have been cut. We have to fill that gap. How do we fill that gap?

What we have done quite prudently is take away discounts from the emergency services levy—we have taken away those discounts—and protected those who can least afford to pay. We have protected pensioners, we have protected people with disabilities—people who are under attack by the commonwealth, and we have protected them.

What we have done is we have moved that money into health and education. So, when we attempt to fund infrastructure to decongest our city and to improve the facilities and standards that South Australians have—

Ms Chapman: Blah, blah, blah.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: 'Blah, blah'—and bring our budget into surplus, members opposite vote against those measures—yet they will be the first to complain about congestion, the first to complain about hospital standards, the first to complain about standards in our schools and they will complain about pensioners and their entitlements. The Premier is right—they should just get out the way.

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary, sir.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary.

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