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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-10-16 Daily Xml
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Emergency Services Levy

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:57): Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on how the recent reduction—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings, I remind him. The member for Kavel, sorry, could you start from the start, please.

Mr CREGAN: Thank you, sir. My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on how the recent reduction in emergency services levy bills is helping families in my electorate with the cost of living?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:57): As the member for Kavel would know, the emergency services levy bills have recently been hitting the letterboxes, and the good news for the people who are going to the letterboxes now is that there is not a massive increase in their emergency services levy as there was under the previous government. In fact, there has been a very substantial decrease.

In fact, if we look at this in total, sir, you would know that the budget, which was handed down only last month, provided a $90 million reduction in emergency services levy bills to South Australian households and businesses this year and next year, the year after and the year after that—so, in total, $360 million that the new government is putting back into the pockets of ordinary South Australians, those people who are living in Kavel and those people living in my electorate of Dunstan.

Only the other day—true story—I was out with the Treasurer, the Hon. Mr Rob Lucas, in my electorate having a coffee, and a young couple with a baby came up and said, 'Look, we waited until after you finished your coffee because we wanted to say thank you.' How often does a politician get a thankyou? Hopefully, mum is tuning in right about now.

It is a good policy. It is one that we committed to in the lead-up to the election, and it was one that we were very happy to hand down in our first budget, and the people of South Australia will be the beneficiaries not only this year but in future years as well. In fact, Mr Speaker, I am sure that you would be interested to know the magnitude of the implication for people living in South Australia.

The median house price in South Australia at the moment is $470,000. People living in that house would receive a reduction of $144.85 each year. That is absolutely fantastic. Despite the fact that there has been a massive reduction in the emergency services levy, which has been collected by this government, we haven't actually reduced the amount of money that is being spent to support our emergency services in South Australia.

I am sure you would be very interested to know, sir, that in the budget that was just handed down we know that emergency services expenditure is scheduled to be this year $318.4 million. That is an increase on the $302.9 million under the previous government. It's a big increase in expenditure in this area and a big reduction in the hit to households in this state, and that increase in expenditure is not the limit of our increase in expenditure on emergency services.

Over and above that $318 million in this year's budget, we are also spending additional money in terms of drones. This was a commitment we made in the lead-up to the election. We also made a commitment to upgrade CFS stations across South Australia, so this is additional money on top of the $318 million. We are very proud of what we are going to be doing in this area. It's a big contrast, as you would be aware, sir, to what happened under the previous government.

I know the member for Kavel would know from his electorate that it was a big shock to the people of South Australia after the 2014 election when the previous treasurer handed down his first budget. There was no reduction in the emergency services levy. There was a doubling because essentially what happened was that the remission that had been in place since the ESL was introduced had been removed. There was no warning whatsoever. It was a massive hit to households and a massive hit to our economy here in South Australia. Thankfully, we have a new government putting the people of South Australia first.

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