House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-27 Daily Xml

Contents

Answers to Questions

Government Payments and Transfers

277 The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (25 July 2018). Have any payments or transfers been made in the 2017-18 financial year that were previously scheduled or budgeted to occur in the 2018-19 financial year? Can the Treasurer provide the details of these payments, including the payer, payee, amount, and purpose of the payment?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier): I have been advised:

There are many financial movements and timing adjustments for payment which occurred between 2017-18 and 2018-19. There are too many of these adjustments to list. There was expenditure which was budgeted to occur in 2017-18 at the time of the 2017-18 MYBR but which was re-scheduled in the 2018-19 budget to now occur in 2018-19 or beyond. Some examples include:

$2.7 million in Child Protection as a result of delays in recruitment in the Protective Intervention Backlog Team

$2.0 million for courts relating to delays in engaging resources and installing equipment for two IT projects

$1.9 million in Education for the Teacher Quality program, the Aboriginal Children and Family Centres program and the Walk Along program

$3.2 million for SAFECOM relating to provisions for the Natural Disaster Resilience Program and the Emergency Alert system

$5.1 million relating to various industry support measures in Health Industries SA.

More generally, each year there is budgeted expenditure that is carried over to future years. In the 2018-19 budget, $184.7 million of operating expenditure originally budgeted in 2017-18 was rescheduled into the 2018-19 and future years. Some of the major payments that were budgeted in 2018-19 but which occurred in 2017-18 follow.

Grant to the Legal Services Commission (LSC)—$21.99 million

The 2018-19 budget applied an efficiency dividend of $1.156 million per annum (indexed) to the LSC, which is implemented through a reduction in its grant. To partially offset the impact of the reduced grant, the Attorney-General's Department, through its Administered Items, paid the 2018-19 grant (of $21.99 million net of the efficiency dividend) to the LSC in 2017-18 to enable the LSC to maximise investment returns on its working capital.

Taxi Industry Assistance packages—$16.4 million

On 11 April 2016 the former government approved the development of a new regulatory regime for the Taxi and Chauffeur Vehicle Industry, including an amendment to the Passenger Transport Act 1994 and associated regulations. In response to this review and subsequent legislative amendments a budget of $17.4 million per annum in 2017-18 and 2018-19 was approved for assistance packages to the industry as a result of opening up the market. The assistance packages were in part to be funded by the introduction of a $1 levy on all metropolitan trips.

The assistance packages were paid in 2017-18 as requested by the previous Minister for Transport to commence at the same time as the collection of the $1 levy. A total of $16.4 million of expenditure budgeted in 2018-19, was paid in 2017-18 for the purpose of payment of taxi industry assistance packages to eligible parties.

Financial Assistance Grants to Local Government—$80.1 million

On 20 June 2018 the commonwealth government made an early payment of $80,079,264 to South Australia in relation to 2018-19 Local Government Financial Assistance Grant entitlements. The Local Government Grants Commission on-passed this funding to the relevant councils by way of a payment made on 21 June 2018. Both the commonwealth revenue and on-passing payment to the councils were originally budgeted in 2018-19.

Public Electoral Funding (pursuant to the Electoral Act 1985)—$6.051 million

Division 4 of the Electoral Act 1985 outlines the entitlement to public funding of candidates and groups for elections. The Electoral Regulations 2009 stipulate the Electoral Commissioner will make payment of such entitlements within a period of 120 days after polling day (i.e. before 13 July 2018). A central provision of $6 million was budgeted for these payments in 2018-19 pending finalisation of the amounts payable following the March 2018 election.

The Electoral Commissioner completed the required calculations prior to 30 June 2018 and subsequently approved the payment of $6.051 million in 2017-18 to eligible candidates.

Sport, Recreation and Community projects—$8.992 million​

Through the reallocation of existing capacity within the Fund My Neighbourhood Program, Female Facilities and Sporting Surfaces Programs, Planning and Development Fund and existing resources within the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing's budget, commitments of $8.992 million that were initially intended to be paid in 2018-19 were paid in 2017-18 by the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure.