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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-17 Daily Xml
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State Budget

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:45): As is becoming customary practice, I am grieving today on the subject of the waste and mismanagement of this Labor government. I thought we had a budget situation here in South Australia. I thought we were maybe a bit short of a quid as a government and that we should be quite prudent in our government spending. I know that we always try to look for the big headline-grabbing savings and things like that, but surely it is the small amounts, the counting of the small dollars and cents, that add up to bigger numbers and that add up to a budget that is under control and kept in surplus.

The reason I know we are in a budget situation is that the Treasurer last year in his budget speech was almost panicked in the way that I think he gave the speech and was very ready to point the blame and point the finger at others, because his budget has been exposed. His budget has been exposed and he has been relying on the South Australian public looking somewhere else rather than looking at his own record as Treasurer and this government's record at looking after the books and being exposed to the mess.

Debt is forecast now, according to the Mid-Year Budget Review, to reach $13.1 billion. In 2012-13, we had a net operating loss of $948 million and $1,071 million in 2013-14. The ABS cash deficit in 2011-12 was $1,038 million, in 2012-13 it was $1,166 million, and it was $1,797 million in 2013-14. If I put those figures together, which are disgraceful and dastardly in their own right, we also see the fact that they say, 'We're spending money for the future. We're investing in infrastructure.' Any business owner would say, 'Okay, if you invest in debt, then we should see a corresponding increase in assets. If we are going to build infrastructure or an asset, it is going to be productive into the future.'

But, interestingly, I did a very simple calculation that took the non-financial sector net debt and put that together with the non-financial sector net worth of the government. It is interesting to see how that figure has deteriorated from 12.4 per cent net debt to net worth ratio in 2010, and it is projected in 2017 to get out to 31 per cent. So, the idea that this government is saying that they are investing in productive infrastructure does not hold water when we see that their debt to net worth ratio is increasing and increasing, which really means that we are spending money, but we are not spending it as efficiently and as properly as we can.

What I really want to talk about today and what really frustrates me is how this government keeps talking about the fact that we need to save our dollars and cents and we need to do things to get back into surplus, yet we see them wasting money on blatantly political ad campaigns, whether that be the More Than Cars campaign for $450,000, the first campaign against federal cuts for $1.1 million, the submarine advertising campaign for half a million, or lastly, and perhaps the most dastardly, the $1.1 million campaign against the federal concession cuts. On this one, can I say, I wait until after the state budget and after the federal budget, when miraculously I believe we will see this government reverse its position on the cuts to pensioner concession council rates, and when that day comes, we will be vindicated for exposing the sham that this political advertising campaign is.

They are wasting South Australian taxpayers' hard-earned money making an argument for which they have so many other pulpits. This is a government with countless media advisers, countless ministers who have the ear of radio, television and print journalists who would be able to sell their message in a way that does not cost the taxpayer as it does with these ad campaigns. They have so many voices and so many opportunities to shout their message from the rooftop, and the idea that they need to then go and spend taxpayers' hard-earned money on political ad campaigns is disgusting.

If the government made an alternative decision, there would be 16,500 pensioners who would still be able to receive their council concession rates, 16,5000 people who could actually be helped, as opposed to this political stunt—real help given to the pensioners of South Australia, instead of this blatant political ad campaign. It is just another example of waste that exists within this government and another example of the wrong and misguided priorities of this tired old Labor government.

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