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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-25 Daily Xml
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State Budget

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (17:25): I rise today to try to put a number of things we have been debating over the past few days into perspective by giving the house a series of numbers. I am a fan of numbers and I enjoy what they represent. What we have had over the past couple of days, especially from this Treasurer, is a level of hypocrisy that I had not yet seen in my short time in this place. I thought the bar was set pretty low but it seems that we have sunk lower.

In the last day, the Treasurer has sought fit to lay the blame for all congestion in the city on the opposition's opposition to the car park tax. The idea that a tax is the best way to influence people's behaviour, especially when it comes to driving into the CBD, is extremely naive. The idea that a tax such as the transport development levy was the panacea that was going to solve all of South Australia's transport and infrastructure issues is misleading in the extreme.

The idea that the opposition to the car park tax by the Liberal Party and others in the upper house was somehow going to bring down all of the plans of the government is completely erroneous, and it is a style of debate that may sound all bluff and bluster on the radio but it does not bear further scrutiny. In that context, I would like to give some numbers.

The two numbers that the Treasurer will talk about is the $30 million a year for the transport development levy, the $120 million black hole, and today we talked about the $90 million a year worth of remissions that the leader said we would look to wind back if we were to have the numbers in the house today. Again, he said there is a $360 million black hole that we have put into the budget, on a hypothetical basis.

I would like to put that $30 million per year and $90 million per year into perspective. This year, in the 2014 year, the budget was $16.487 billion. To suggest that $30 million and $90 million a year are the only real things on the table that are the panacea is absolutely disgusting when you look at these figures over the life of this government. This government, in the 2013-14 year, is $311 million over budget on their spending.

Maybe we could forgive the government if this was a once-off, but I do fear that this is a trend. This is a trend that began in the heady days of 2002-03 when the young Rann government was finding its feet when it was $184 million over budget. Nevertheless, I would have thought that they were learning and finding their feet in the job and we may see a return to something a bit more normalised and maybe a little bit more fiscal responsibility in later years.

But, in 2003-04, they blew out spending by $467 million and then $487 million in 2004-05, $370 million in 2005-06, in 2006-07 it was $374 million, $304 million in 2007-08, and the real kicker, in 2008-09 it was $670 million and in 2009-10 it was $559 million. This government has never been able to actually abide by the numbers that they bring forward to the house. It is not the Liberal Party setting the budget, it is the Labor Party setting the budget. It is the Labor government that sets the budget and they are not even able to stick to their own figures.

Over the life of this government, they have overspent on their own budget estimates by $3,890 million. To suggest that somehow the Liberal Party is bringing down the budget of the Labor government is absolutely erroneous. You may consider that all of the figures I have just quoted are in the past. What about the present day? What about today? What about into the future? The recent history of this government is that they are no better. Since 2011-12, they have spent $841 million over their own budget.

To go on radio this morning and then stand in the house today and suggest, as the Treasurer did, that somehow the Liberal Party has managed to ruin the budget figures of this government is completely erroneous. I would say to the Treasurer and to the government that what we would dearly love in this place is a government that stands up and takes responsibility, that says: we have a budget of $16.5 billion and we are going to use it to best effect. But no, we do not have that. What we have are threats from the Treasurer about a potential future Liberal government and the fact that what we have done over the past few days may be revisited on us.

The hypocrisy even here, the hypocrisy even in the now is breathtaking, when we hear the comments in recent months from the Premier urging members of the federal opposition to try to scurry the budget of the federal government. How, on the one hand, can the Premier go out and say, 'I urge my federal colleagues to oppose the federal Liberal government's budget,' but in the same breath the Treasurer comes in here and says, 'No, please don't oppose our budget, members, because we've got the right to govern.' I am sorry, you cannot have it both ways. Either governments have the ability to govern and there should not be any opposition from oppositions on budget measures, or opposition members have the ability to use the processes of parliament to achieve outcomes.

I am glad to have been given the opportunity this afternoon to make this contribution because to listen to the rhetoric and hypocrisy from members opposite over the past couple of days has been difficult to take. Thank you very much to the house for your indulgence on this matter.

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