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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-18 Daily Xml
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Emergency Services Levy

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:11): To the Premier: a constituent of mine has shown me their emergency services levy bill which has increased from $131.10 last year to $431.75 this year, an increase of 229 per cent. Why didn't the Premier come clean with the public before the election that he was going to slug households with a land tax on the family home?

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The question contained argument and I ask that either you rule the question out of order or, alternatively, give the Premier plenty of latitude in his answer.

The SPEAKER: Yes, the expression, 'why didn't the Premier come clean' is comment, so the Premier has scope.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:11): Thank you, Mr Speaker. There is one rich fact that was not known before the election, and that was the fact that the Prime Minister of Australia was going to break his solemn promise to the people of Australia when he said that there would be no cuts to healthcare funding.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

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

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Of course, we couldn't have known that that was going to happen but we wanted to maintain our commitments. We were not going to let his broken promises have the effect of us breaking our promises to the South Australian people, so we had to find a way of grappling with these very deep cuts.

Rather than the member for Unley coming in here and advancing these constituent concerns to me, he should be sending them to the Prime Minister. While he is at it, he might also, on behalf of his own electorate of Unley—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is called to order and the member for Hartley is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: While he is at it, on behalf of his own electorate of Unley, he might want to, as the shadow minister in the education area, say to the Prime Minister that his electorate will lose $4.2 million in lost education funding through the commonwealth cuts, and Glenunga International High School, which I understand services his electorate, has, in fact, lost $1.95 million. These are cruel and deep cuts to his own electorate and, rather than questioning me, he should be questioning the person who was the perpetrator of the cuts, the Prime Minister.

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is warned a second and final time. Supplementary, leader.

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