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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-12-04 Daily Xml
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State Budget

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): Supplementary: what is the value of discretionary funds that come from the commonwealth to the South Australian budget each year?

The SPEAKER: I am glad that supplementary was extempore.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:00): We publish budgets yearly and the commonwealth publishes its budgets yearly.

Mr Marshall: Do you know the answer?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Hang on a second. They publish their figures yearly as well. We publish the previous year, our budgets and our spending in health and education and, of course, the agreements signed by the commonwealth where they would ramp up their funding to meet activity funding. We were given five weeks' notice of $898 million worth of cuts to health and education.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I think the stress is showing, sir. It's okay. It will be over soon. Don't worry.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will return to the substance of the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sorry, sir; I apologise. We were given five weeks to come up with a response to these cuts. I have to say that in our first treasurers' meeting with Treasurer Hockey and all the treasurers from the commonwealth and all the state jurisdictions in Canberra—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Hang on a second. The Treasurer made it very clear to us that he would consult widely with the states because he used to work for a state government he claimed and knew how difficult it was for states to budget in terms of the way the commonwealth has signed their grants. He also said in those remarks that special purpose payments and national partnerships, by and large, would be honoured. You have to say the government allocates its unallocated discretionary spending from the commonwealth fairly early on, usually budgets in advance.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Hang on a second. So when the commonwealth cut special purpose payments that match activity funding for infrastructure that we have built and cannot move and—

Ms Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Hang on a second. Hospitals are key to that and the reason that those hospitals and activity funding are so important is that every South Australian who attends a hospital does not walk into that hospital with a budget allocation over their head. In fact, it is up to the clinicians and the medical tests that are performed and the triage that occurs in those hospitals and they decide what the allocation of funding is on that individual, not someone in this room—and that is the way it should be. The reason we signed those agreements with the commonwealth for activity funding is that activity funding grows on average per annum by about 8 per cent.

Ms Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Just hang on a second. Eight per cent, Mr Speaker. So that means the take of health every year grows more and more, and as our population ages and as medical advances improve and cost more money, what you see—

Mr Treloar interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders, not usually an offender, is called to order, and so is the member for Morialta.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Very clever. That's very good. Mr Speaker, I am doing my best to restrain myself from the Leader of the Opposition. I will maintain this even keel that you have asked me to have on our last day. But it is important to remember that what the Leader of the Opposition will not tell the people of South Australia is that activity funding is the key to making sure that the commonwealth gets to stay in our hospitals.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order: we have had 3½ minutes and so far the Treasurer—

The SPEAKER: Now the point of order is what?

Ms CHAPMAN: Relevance; the Treasurer—

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order. Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The idea that we are keeping massive amounts of funds in reserve on the basis that the commonwealth may somehow one day remove and tear up an agreement that they signed with the commonwealth to meet activity funding for the next decade, ending forever this farce that we have with the states and commonwealth, who are always arguing about health funding—something, sir, that prime minister Howard and prime minister Rudd both said needed to end, and indeed, sir—

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer's time has expired. Leader.

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