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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-15 Daily Xml
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Federal Budget

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:27): I would like to speak today about the recently released University of Adelaide Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre paper, Impacts of the 2014-15 Federal Budget measures on South Australia. I am particularly concerned about the information I have read in this document regarding my electorate and the northern suburbs based around Taylor.

Over the past months we have spoken in this house extensively about the federal budget, but this federal budget is very bad for the most vulnerable families. Particularly for me, in my electorate, the figures I have read are profoundly affecting my constituents—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

Mrs VLAHOS: I need to stand up and voice their concerns to this chamber, member for Chaffey, and I will have my time with respect and quiet, just as we have sat and listened to you. The area of Paralowie in my electorate is amongst the 10 most affected areas that will be worse off, with families losing income and support over the 2017-18 year. In fact, the percentage of families in Paralowie that will be worse off in the 2014-15 year is 34 per cent. The average cost per family will be $230.80 per annum. In the 2017-18 year, the percentage of families that will be worse off will be 39.9 per cent; that is minus $839.10 per annum.

Also, 33.1 per cent of Salisbury North families will be worse off, moving out in the 2017-18 year to 40.4 per cent. Also, in the regional areas, because I cover a peri-urban seat, the Lewiston-Two Wells area will be profoundly affected, with 27.1 per cent of families being worse off in the 2014-15 year, rising to 30.1 per cent in the 2017-18 year. These are profound figures that will affect my constituents, and I have every right to reflect their concerns. They are telling me their concerns at shopping centres as I hold my regular listening posts in the northern suburbs.

The federal budget, as I have said, is affecting the most vulnerable families in our community. More than 265,000 people, or 29.4 per cent of South Australians, will be worse off over the 2017-18 year as a result of this year's federal budget. By 2017-18, the most regressive budget measures will come to the fore as the long-term measures impact families and the unemployed, introduced on 1 July 2015, are played out. As a member of the Australian Labor Party, I believe that we should be giving a hand to those who are most in need in our society, giving them a fair go and sharing opportunity to all.

This federal budget is also bad for our economy. The proposed health and education spending reductions result in a loss of gross state product ranging as high as $1.6 billion. The most significant decline in gross state product will occur in the 2017-18 year, ranging between $285.1 million, at a low-base scenario, out to $449 million, in a high-base scenario, which is a loss to our state of GSP. Overall, the impact on health funding alone is profound. I am sure the Transforming Health work we are working to deliver for this state will be profoundly affected by these figures.

Direct and flow-on GSP impacts in South Australia of the school education measures are expected to reduce GSP by between $98 million, as a low, and $155.1 million, as a high, in 2018, with a further decline between $247.1 million to $391 million as a high in 2019. For the high schools and schools and preschools in my electorate, that is profound. In my recent newsletter after the state budget, I also highlighted these figures to local communities. Many of the people I met at the school gate were profoundly shocked to know that this money would be stripped out of their schools and the impact it would have on their children's education and, in fact, on their employment prospects in the future without having the support for services at their grassroots.

The federal budget, as I said, is bad for our health system. It is also bad for local infrastructure. South Australian road funding is to be affected in two ways in the 2014-15 commonwealth budget: once by the pausing of indexation for funding under the financial assistance grants and again by the removal of the local roads supplementary funding program. This affects our local governments and how they are dealt with.

The failure to index the FAGs results in a cumulative loss of road funding to South Australian local government of about $55 million in the 2017-18 year, and the South Australian local roads supplementary funding was devised to overcome the inequity, but the 2015 budget has removed it. Described by the LGA as a body blow to the councils and their communities, it leaves an $18 million pothole created just for South Australia. I will continue my remarks on another day.

Time expired.

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