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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-11 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2020

Second Reading

Debate resumed.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (20:14): It is a great pleasure to be able to rise this evening to make a contribution on the bill that is before the house. This is a bill that will position South Australia for economic, social and, to an extent, environmental recovery as we come out of a very difficult season. Both bushfires and coronavirus have wreaked havoc across South Australia and Australia and, in the case of coronavirus, across the world in 2020.

The Marshall Liberal government and Treasurer Rob Lucas have worked incredibly hard to ensure that the 2020 state budget turbocharges our state to be best positioned to come through these difficult times and come through the other side stronger than we were before. This is a real turning point for our state; it has to be. We have been hit by a number of crises this year. We had the bushfires and then we had the health crisis and the economic crisis wrought by coronavirus.

This budget seeks to settle things in this state and give us a launching pad towards sustained recovery and economic resilience. It is a big budget. It takes on a substantial amount of debt, but it has to. This is the right time to borrow. Interest rates are obviously at historic lows, so it is absolutely the responsibility of a responsible government to borrow and to apply funds to projects that will keep South Australians in employment now, that will set up South Australians for employment in the future and that will invest in high quality strategic and productive infrastructure that will enable South Australia to have that launchpad to not only recovery but also an extended period of sustained growth heading into the future.

I am proud of this budget. I am proud to have seen the way the government has worked to ensure that, right across the board, economic, social, environment and community are built up as a consequence of this budget. I have every confidence that South Australian businesses and the residents of this great state will grab hold of the opportunities this budget creates, will run with them and will be part of a real recovery story for South Australia.

I am also exceptionally proud that this budget applies more funding than ever before to our natural environment. We are so proud of our environment in South Australia. I come across people day in and day out who, like me, love our natural environment. We do value it. When we talk about building what matters, which is a bit of a theme for our state budget, one of the things that matters to South Australians is the natural environment, the natural world. It's part of our DNA. It creates the very character, the fabric, of our state and ensures that the lifestyle, the livability, the things that we see as being inherently what South Australia is all about—the natural world, our national parks, our coastline, our wilderness areas, our expansive outback—are the things that make South Australia what it is.

We have to invest in them. We have to invest in them in the face of a changing climate. We have to deal with pest plants and animals that unpick their resilience. We have to create opportunities for South Australians to get into the natural world, to enjoy it. It is only with the opportunities to access natural world—to experience it, to smell it, to touch it, to experience the uniqueness and the vitality of it—that people will come to love it and want to fight for its protection, its reinvigoration and its nurturing, and that is what this budget does.

This budget is the strongest state budget we have ever had in terms of climate action. It puts dealing with climate change at its heart and seeks to set us up to reduce emissions over time. Of course, not only do we have a target of net zero emissions by 2050, but we have that interim target announced by Governor Hieu Van Le in his speech opening the parliament in February this year of 50 per cent reductions in 2005 emissions by 2030. That target gives us that interim goal to work towards. We need a pathway to get there and this budget enables a whole range of initiatives that will help us get to that 2030 target and will certainly set us up for success for 2050 as well.

These initiatives stretch across my portfolio and into the portfolio held by the Minister for Energy and Mining as well. I want to go through some of those climate action initiatives that sit in the energy and mining portfolio because they are so important, the big ticket initiatives that will help that transition to a low or no-carbon society and set this state up for success when aiming for both the 2030 and 2050 goals.

We made a significant announcement around developing the hydrogen industry here in South Australia. This is an industry that we believe has immense potential to service the world's hydrogen needs. We know there are countries such as Japan and Korea, not that far from Australia, certainly in our Pacific region, that are hungry for hydrogen. South Australia can provide that resource. That will, in turn, provide many clean, green jobs here as well as part of our decarbonised economy. I am excited by the fact that the budget applies significant funding towards our hydrogen strategy, getting that still embryonic industry off the ground and then pushing it forward so that it does create jobs and it can satisfy that hunger for this clean, green fuel, not only in Australia but overseas as well. The potential there is immense.

I am also excited that this budget extends our Home Battery Scheme, a scheme that we introduced following our formation of government in March 2018. This is a scheme that not only reduces cost pressures at the household level but, importantly, creates stability within our fairly fragile energy grid. That program has gone very well to date but we want to extend it because the more people who have home batteries installed, the more stability is found within the grid, which enables us to deploy energy when we need to, or choose not to draw from the grid when it would be difficult to do so. The extension of the Home Battery Scheme is something that I think is really an excellent strategy.

It was also great to see in the budget the announcement of the government's energy contract, purchasing renewable energy as used by the government of South Australia for our facilities and us going into that deal with the private sector, which will not only provide the energy but, as part of the deal, will see a solar farm constructed at Cultana on Eyre Peninsula and the development of a very large battery, the Playford utility battery, located at Port Augusta.

That really creates a triangle of renewable energy in Spencer Gulf and is really one of the most significant places, not only in Australia but in the world, for renewable energy, right here in South Australia. The communities of Whyalla and Port Augusta in particular are shedding the past, the old clothing of dirty energy production, particularly that coal-powered power station that was formerly at Port Augusta.

They are shedding that history and embracing this exciting new cutting-edge clean, green provision of energy and giving themselves an economic and employment future as well. It is incredibly exciting for both those towns to see that transition away from the old and embracing the new and also connecting a little bit of the energy heritage, the manufacturing heritage, the fact that they create things. They can continue to create things, whether that is energy production through renewables or perhaps manufacturing, creating products through low or no-emissions energy production. We know there is demand for that both in Australia and overseas, and the opportunity, the potential, for a town like Whyalla to create green steel and export it to the world is abundant.

The budget also includes $60 million to help government buildings transition to more energy-efficient processes, whether that be lighting or retrofitting of their existing infrastructure. This will help government demonstrate that it can lead the way, that government is best practice. It is one thing expecting businesses and the community to transition, but government has to as well, government has to lead the way. This is what that $60 million in energy-efficient retrofits for government buildings is all about, government reducing its costs, government leading the way in, again, that green energy transformation that our state is really pushing the boundaries with.

I want to talk about electric vehicles in our transition to a new energy future. We know that one of the statewide changes we need to reduce our emissions, going into the future, is ensuring that our vehicles are transformed to either electric vehicles or hydrogen vehicles. So the budget included $18.3 million towards a charging infrastructure network right across the state to give people confidence that they can invest in electric vehicles and can do so knowing they can head out into more regional parts of the state and not be left high and dry.

While that might not necessarily be the case, on most occasions it is important to create that confidence so people do not see that as a barrier to purchasing electric vehicles. We also announced the transition of the government fleet to electric vehicles. Because of the quick turnover of government-owned vehicles, that will enable us to establish an electric vehicle second-hand market. That is so important for that broader penetration of the market with electric vehicles.

There has been some commentary about the introduction of a charge or levy, so to speak, for electric vehicles. That is a difficult decision for the government to make. Of course, all states and territories across the nation will likely move in this direction in the coming weeks and months. We are the first mover on it, but it is a necessary thing to do. We need to—and I think we will be—rapidly transitioning to electric vehicles in the coming years, and by the 2030s we want these to be the product of choice. With that, fuel excise will drop away dramatically.

So this levy is necessary. Some say it is a disincentive, but in my view that is a mischaracterisation. We need to make this transition and we need to do it at the beginning. We know we will accelerate towards more and more electric vehicles into the future, so let us get it right from day one. Let's not bring in that levy down the track: let's do it now. That is what good governance is all about. Yes, it is a difficult decision to have made, but we really need to do it.

There are a few naysayers. I saw the Conservation Council make a comment that it was not the right thing to do, and the electric vehicles peak body said that as well, but we have to do it. I cannot make any apologies for that. It was a difficult decision, but sometimes government requires difficult decisions.

The other part of this budget I am exceptionally proud of is our historic investment in our parks. South Australia is blessed that 21 per cent of our state is held within our parks. That is a huge area; if you add it all together it is the size of the United Kingdom. It is a phenomenal area to be protected, and it is protected for our wildlife, our flora and fauna, and often our heritage and cultural items that are held within these parks as well, places of significance to our traditional owners.

Our parks are something to be proud of. Our parks are something that stimulate our economy because people visit them, particularly in regional South Australia. One of the great things about our parks is that they stretch from one end of our state to the other. In my job as the state's Minister for Environment I get out there and see our parks whenever I can. I know that has not always been the case with previous ministers for the environment, but I want to get out there and visit as many of our parks as possible. There are 356 parks in our state. While I am the minister, I hope to get to as many as I can.

Just a few weeks ago, I went over, way over, to the Nullarbor National Park near the Western Australian border. We have parks on Kangaroo Island. This weekend, I head over to Innes National Park at the foot of Yorke Peninsula, and last week I was at some of the Eyre Peninsula national parks. We are just so fortunate to have these great parks and we want to share them with people. We want to create parks that are safe and accessible and can be set up in such a way that they have a reasonable level of amenity—good toilets, good pathways, good picnic and barbecue areas and decent, safe camp sites—and safe and sensitive access to iconic locations.

We are investing a huge amount in our parks through our Parks 2025 program. Off the back of bushfires, we announced $22 million in Parks 2025, and this budget includes a further $17 million. In fact, it takes our capital investment, plus a bit of operational investment through prescribed bushfires and cool burns in our parks, to $130 million since we formed government. The parks part of my portfolio was withered, forgotten and run-down. Our ranger service had been reduced from around 300 to 93; in fact, it fell as low as 88 around 2016 and 2017. It was only 93 when we took office.

We have reinvigorated the National Parks and Wildlife Service. We have increased the number of park rangers to 133, and we have established a volunteer ranger workforce working alongside the National Parks and Wildlife Service and our incredibly important friends groups to sustain our national parks. What we have done is created pride and respect for our National Parks and Wildlife Service, and we are backing that now by lifting the amenity of our national parks. I am not going to apologise for making our parks more accessible. I will not lock up our national parks.

There are many wilderness areas and more inaccessible areas in our national parks than there are accessible areas but, where there are accessible areas, where we want to take people in to experience nature—to fall in love with nature and, as I said earlier, then become great advocates for our environment—I want us to be making that investment. All across the state, that is what we are doing. This budget includes funding for Innes National Park. It includes funding for the Eyre Peninsula national parks.

The Deputy Speaker will be delighted by that news—money going in to lift the amenity of parks in his electorate, such as Lincoln National Park, Coffin Bay National Park and some of those offshore islands held within our park system as well. It is a great part of the world over there. The Mount Lofty precinct, with Cleland Conservation Park and Cleland Wildlife Park, will be invested in. We will be investing in the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, an incredible and very Instagrammable part of our state that has huge visitation. We will be lifting the amenity there.

We are going to create a world-class mountain biking and hiking destination at the heart of Fleurieu Peninsula. We are investing in the parks on Kangaroo Island. They were fire ravaged in the west end. We will be rebuilding those. We will be rebuilding them stronger than before and more relevant and exciting than before. We will also be providing funding for projects in the east end, the part of the island that was not impacted by fire but where we want to create visitation opportunities. We will be putting funding into the Antechamber Bay area, bridging Chapman River. We will be putting money into the Cape Willoughby precinct and Cape Gantheaume as well, lifting the amenity and creating sensitive visitation experiences.

The budget includes funding for the Southern Flinders and the Northern Flinders Ranges. It includes funding for the Mount Remarkable precinct, which we want to be a destination for mountain biking as well as for hiking and other forms of visitation. We see huge opportunity there in the Southern Flinders Ranges. We are investing in the Nilpena fossil conservation park in the Northern Flinders Ranges and also the Wilpena area around Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. There are so many opportunities through this budget to lift the amenity of our national parks, to show pride in them, to encourage people to visit our regions and to get not only conservation wins but economic wins as well.

This budget has investment in our national parks like never before. This government has $203 million of new investment included in the budget. I am happy to table this graph because I know we should not use props in these speeches. I will table this graph that really shows the huge spike in investment in the environment portfolio. It is historic. We are looking after our parks. We are looking after our natural environment. We are creating a climate-resilient South Australia and I am incredibly proud of this budget.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (20:34): I, too, rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill. What a fantastic budget we have. In light of the COVID pandemic, this is the budget that we truly had to have. This is all about creating jobs, backing business and building what matters. We are investing a record of $16.7 billion in job-creating infrastructure projects over the next four years. This is an extra $3.8 billion over last year's budget. Spending will be on local roads, major sporting facilities, schools and hospitals and is expected to create over 19,000 jobs.

In education, there will be $37 million spent over the next two years on government schools and preschools for priority maintenance works, in addition to the $32 million already provided in the 2019-20 year that was over and above the department's usual maintenance spent. This will include grants of between $20,000 and $100,000 for government schools and an extra $30,000 for every government preschool to engage local tradespeople to deliver priority maintenance works. That is on top of the $20,000 they already received this year.

In health, there is a $676 million increase in health dollars, with the Marshall Liberal government reaffirming its commitment to a new world-class Women's and Children's Hospital, co-located with the Royal Adelaide Hospital, by budgeting $685 million over the forward estimates for the landmark build. This is an additional $50 million on top of the sustainment works on the current location that will be delivered by government, and that will include at the current site a new specialist care baby unit and a paediatric emergency department upgrade.

In mental health, there will be an extra $15.1 million to support the mental health of South Australians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The Marshall Liberal government is providing better services closer to home, with a $14 million investment to establish and operate an adult mental health centre in Adelaide. The centre will deliver cutting-edge, out-of-hospital care, with community-based organisation Neami National selected as the service provider. The mental health centre will be established in the CBD and link people with community mental health services and non-government mental health crisis services that can provide follow-up care at home or in the community.

Funding of $5.3 million over two years for the Statewide Wellbeing Strategy, which encourages South Australians to open their world to sports, arts and physical activities during the pandemic, has also been secured. The Marshall Liberal government is investing more than $130 million in South Australia's parks in the state budget 2021—the most in the state's history. The Marshall Liberal government's Parks 2025 initiative is boosted to a total of $44 million over four years to improve park infrastructure and conserve our natural landscapes and wildlife across South Australia.

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens will receive $9.2 million over three years for a range of capital upgrades. These include investment in night lighting, new public toilets and other activation upgrades, making the gardens more accessible to visitors and a more flexible location for community and cultural events. Critical roof and building works for the heritage-listed Goodman and Tram Barn A building, as well as utility upgrades, including a new irrigation system at Botanic Park, will also be included.

In arts and culture, an additional $50 million has been committed for the Aboriginal Arts and Cultures Centre, bringing the total budget to $200 million, which includes $85 million in federal money under the Adelaide City Deal.

A new $86.5 million arts storage facility will be purpose built to preserve millions of dollars' worth of state collections from cultural institutions, including the Art Gallery, the SA Museum, the State Library and the History Trust of South Australia. This will create up to 170 jobs during construction and ensure the millions of dollars' worth of art, artefacts and collections are stored in a safe and secure facility.

In addition, $204 million of sport infrastructure funding will invest in upgrades to our key stadia and facilities, as well as expand support for local recreational infrastructure. Kickstarting the project is $44 million for stage 2 of the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre. This project will build on the momentum of stage 1 and continue the transformation of one of the nation's most iconic sporting precincts. This major project will drive international tennis to our state and includes:

increased seating capacity of 1,500, bringing it to 6,000;

space for concerts and festivals;

digital infrastructure to host future e-sports events;

elite training and recovery facilities; and

improved access to the Adelaide Oval precinct.

This will significantly build upon an already thriving area of the city and also has the potential to create a hub for the global e-sports phenomenon. We are investing $25 million in expanding the grassroots sporting facilities grants program. We are backing business through a second round of $10,000 cash grants, with lower payroll tax and land tax relief, and the additional support of tourism and events, building better parks and sporting facilities.

Other small businesses that do not employ staff, such as sole traders or partnerships, and that are suffering due to COVID-19 can also apply for the $3,000 cash grants. There will be $233 million in total payroll tax relief for thousands of eligible businesses. We are also investing $13.4 million to roll out a statewide electric vehicle charging network.

We are also investing in support for our rough sleepers, which affects my electorate of Adelaide. The Marshall Liberal government is investing an additional $13.6 million over three years to help reduce homelessness in South Australia. Each year, 60 rough sleepers with complex needs will be housed in new specialised and supported accommodation at a cost of $2.3 million. A portion of the Holbrook public housing site at Brooklyn Park will be redeveloped with case management support provided for tenants.

Forty Aboriginal elders at risk of homelessness will have access to new housing thanks to a $4 million grant provided to Aboriginal Community Housing Limited for the development of culturally appropriate accommodation in Bedford Park. These initiatives build on the unprecedented efforts to house 250 South Australian rough sleepers during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide them with ongoing support through the $7.3 million funding injection. This government is committed to building what matters, and these developments will provide much-needed support for some of South Australia's most vulnerable.

The Marshall Liberal government is building what matters, with a record maintenance blitz on thousands of run-down public homes well underway, and $10 million of planned public housing capital maintenance has been fast-tracked to boost the South Australian economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has supported more than 160 jobs.

Upgrades to 1,400 properties, including new kitchens and bathrooms, and improvements to common areas, lighting and security, paving, painting and horticulture works are almost complete. There will be a $1.1 million investment in the South Australian Housing Authority to help fund the Street to Home project in 2020-21. Street to Home supports people sleeping rough in the Adelaide CBD with a range of services, including rehousing and health care.

There will be huge hip pocket savings to everyday mums and dads, including massive reductions in average household water and sewerage bills, with an average of a $200 saving a year; cheaper ESL bills, at an average of $163.60; cheaper electricity, at an average of $158 in savings; and reduced car registration costs, through lower CTP insurance premiums. For a two-car family, this will mean a saving of $200. Swimming and sports lessons vouchers will be raised from $50 to $100. For a typical Adelaide household of two children and two cars, this equates to a saving of around $820 in their personal annual budget.

In child protection, there will be $124 million extra invested over the next four years to accommodate anticipated increases expected. We continue to progress the strategy of growing the number of placements in family-based care and improving outcomes for children and young people. The government is continuing to invest in additional early intervention programs and working across government to provide coordinated support to families at risk.

As part of the Marshall Liberal government's $120 million restart fund, $670,000 has been provided in the 2021 budget for the placement management system initiative. The placement management system will provide real-time visibility of placement capacity, current occupancy and availability of options. This will ensure an increased number of children and young people will be better matched to the most suitable placements. The Marshall Liberal government has delivered more frontline workers in child protection and reduced the number of vacancies through successful broadening of qualifications policy training and increased recruitment.

Even though debt will increase significantly, the estimated interest costs for general government sector debt over the next three years will be $440 million less than estimated in last year's budget due to the very low interest rates that are now available. This budget is about creating jobs, backing business and building what matters.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (20:46): I also rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2020 and commend the Treasurer for one of the most important state budgets of our time. It is a budget that is breaking records. It is a budget that is striving to break through our economic challenges and keep South Australia ahead of the curve. We stood here in our parliament earlier this year, only nine months ago, speaking about our responses to the devastating bushfires that changed the South Australian landscape in more ways than one. We saw communities devastated and land burnt and blackened, not only in our great state but all across our country.

At that time, South Australians came together. We supported one another, we pitched in, we donated to help communities that had lost everything. We began to rebuild. Then the world was rocked by COVID-19 and we were forced to stay apart. It has changed our lives in ways that I think none of us really ever imagined or ever thought was possible. We were isolated, we were shut down, friends and families had their work hours reduced and some even lost their jobs and livelihoods. Businesses have struggled to stay afloat through no fault of their own.

Combined with the impacts of the bushfires, we were faced with the greatest health and economic challenge of our time. The Marshall Liberal government had a strong plan to keep South Australians safe and, fortunately, acted swiftly and decisively to protect the community, to save jobs and to save businesses. South Australia is now one of the safest states in the safest nation in the world.

But we are not quite out of the woods yet. With this budget, the Treasurer has demonstrated the strength of this government's response, jump starting our economic recovery and creating thousands of jobs. It is delivering a record infrastructure investment, a record $4 billion state stimulus and driving down the cost of living for households and businesses, putting more of their hard-earned cash back in their pocket when they need it most.

This budget is delivering for all South Australians, and I am so pleased that it is delivering for my local area. The 2020 state budget delivers the $851 million tradies package to deliver a pipeline of construction works that will create jobs for a wide range of trades. This is just the tip of the iceberg in our plan to create jobs.

A $76 million housing construction stimulus package will support the housing industry and we are expanding the Starter Loan eligibility criteria to enable those on modest incomes to access an interest-free loan for up to five years through HomeStart. Opportunities to promote community and affordable housing are also being considered as part of this funding. It is funding that does not just create jobs; it is about helping more people to afford homes.

Exciting news for local communities is the $200 million of funding that has been unlocked for the Local Government Infrastructure Partnership Program. This will help build more of the things that I know matter to residents in my local electorate, such as parks, playgrounds, walking trails, and improving community centres and performance spaces—all those things that make our already great neighbourhoods even better to live in.

This government is also building what matters through our record $1.3 billion education build, delivering world-class facilities and supporting the learning of every student in our state. As the state member for Elder, I love getting out and visiting my local schools. I know what funding support will do for schools like Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, Clapham Primary School, Clovelly Park, Westbourne Park—all of them. A small amount of money can really go a long way and make it even better for students in my local area.

Outside of primary schools are our secondary schools that are attended by so many students in my electorate. Unley High, to which a good part of my area is about to be rezoned as of next year, Springbank Secondary College and Hamilton Secondary College are all receiving incredible upgrades that will give the schools a real boost.

An extra $12 million over three years is also being invested to help attract new events to South Australia to support events, arts and culture in our wonderful state. More support for the hard-hit arts sector is vital in this time. The Arts Recovery Fund will support theatres and festivals to reopen and support the employment of professional artists through collaborations and partnerships. This includes grants of $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for groups and organisations. We are indeed the festival state—a worthy title for our great state. Only a few hours ago, I was talking in depth about all the work we are doing to support the arts sector and commending our local artists.

So many of the wonderful businesses in my electorate of Elder without a doubt have been doing it tough. They have responded with innovation and with hard work and have done an incredible job, and this budget really recognises that. It not only recognises the local businesses in my electorate but also really backs businesses all across South Australia, working hard to support them to help them keep their lights on, to keep their doors open and to keep hardworking people in jobs.

Thousands of South Australian small businesses and not-for-profit organisations will be eligible for a second $10,000 cash grant. Just to name one local charity—there are obviously lots of incredible local charities in my electorate doing a great job—MarionLIFE have shared with me what the first round of cash grants did in supporting them to change the way they would reach out and work with people in suburbs like Mitchell Park, Clovelly Park and St Mary's—great suburbs in the electorate of Elder.

We are also lowering costs for businesses, with payroll and land tax relief to ease the burden and provide incentives to hire more staff. Of course, one of the headline announcements from this budget that will benefit residents who live in my area is the single biggest infrastructure investment of any government in our state's history. I am sure people have heard us say that we are building what matters—because what matters to you matters to us as a government.

This also includes the $8.9 billion investment for the completion of the north-south corridor. It is such an exciting announcement. I have had so many residents asking, 'What's happening with the north-south road corridor? When is it going to get done?' They know the hardest part of that 10.5-kilometre section of the corridor was left to the Marshall Liberal government to rise to the challenge and really do the work that the opposition failed to do. The final plans involve not one but two tunnels and a solution that will minimise the disruption to many families, individuals and businesses. Importantly, it will also preserve heritage in iconic places, which I know is important to many of my local residents.

This design will create up to 4,000 jobs at a time when we need it most and, for those who are travelling along the north-south corridor, they will save 24 minutes per trip—so less time stuck in traffic, more time doing the things they love. That is something that is so important, and it is a big driver behind our road upgrades right across the state. We have the same thing happening at the Springbank Road intersection, where people are going to be able to move through that intersection more quickly and more safely, with less time in the car and more time doing the things that they love. That is what we are all about.

There is $204 million to upgrade and expand sport and recreation facilities, from the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre to grassroots facilities across the state. So many incredible local grassroots sporting clubs have spoken to me about the lack of investment they have had over 16 long years of a Labor government. Their facilities, understandably, need to be upgraded and I am really pleased that we are putting those funds in the budget to support them to be able to do what they do. Incredible volunteers give so much to their sporting clubs, and they just need some support along the way.

This budget also includes $1.7 billion for new and upgraded health infrastructure, of which the Repat and Flinders are receiving significant funding to provide better health services closer to home for residents in my local community. We went to the election promising that we would reopen the Repat, we would reactivate site into a thriving healthcare precinct, and we got on with doing that job from the moment we were elected. With each budget since we have formed government, we have continued to invest in that site. We know how important it is to South Australians, not just in my local area—obviously, the Repat is in my electorate—but all across South Australia. We heard from South Australians about how important the Repat site is, and we are keeping the spirit of the Repat alive.

COVID-19 has challenged us but it has not beaten us. Together, we have thrown everything at this virus to save livelihoods and, importantly, to save lives. That is why this budget is not just about job creation: it is about caring and it is about people. In addition to a raft of other initiatives already announced by the Marshall Liberal government over recent weeks, we are committing an additional $4.1 million to further support vulnerable families impacted by COVID-19. This funding will provide tailored financial counselling and loans to help people avoid permanent financial crisis, boost existing financial resilience and wellbeing services and fund non-government organisations in the food relief sector.

As the Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Prevention, helping to ensure women, children and families are supported and safe has been an absolute priority of mine and I know that it is a priority of the government, of the Premier, of the Attorney-General and of the Minister for Human Services, with whom I have worked very closely in this space.

COVID-19 has posed unique challenges. Funding support from the federal government enabled a swift response to support frontline service providers, which we continue to support as a state government. The teams at Women's Safety Services, Embolden and OARS—so many great organisations—do incredible work at all times but particularly at this time, supporting those who have been impacted or are at risk of domestic and family violence. To all of them I say thank you.

In this budget, our focus remains on funding domestic violence prevention measures as well as reducing the impact and supporting those who have been impacted. We are committing $3.75 million over four years to continue the Domestic Violence Disclosure scheme which we introduced. It has had an incredible response and, importantly, is helping people to make informed choices and is ultimately preventing domestic and family violence from occurring.

Our funding also includes developing and implementing a new early support counselling service for perpetrators of domestic violence. It is currently funded through commonwealth funding, and it is really important that we keep that work going. We are continuing the lifesaving personal protection app, which links at-risk South Australians directly to South Australia Police. Again, that was one of our election commitments that we implemented, and we have seen that it has had a really important impact in helping women to feel safer. This is in addition to the $11.9 million suite of measures to respond to and tackle domestic and family violence that we already committed to in our first budget.

There is no doubt that we as South Australians have stared down the greatest health and economic challenge of our time. The 2020 state budget will not only accelerate our economy to create the jobs we need but also help us in our work to keep all South Australians safe and strong. The Premier sent a clear message echoing the Prime Minister's words to all South Australians: we have your back, we are working hard for you and we will continue to make sure that our state does all it can to keep South Australians safe and, of course, keep us strong, so that our everyday lives are all the better for it. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (21:00): I rise to speak to the Appropriation Bill that we have before us for the budget running in 2020-21. I must say that I am so pleased to see this massive infrastructure spend of $16.7 billion coming into the state so that we can build our way out of the issues raised by COVID-19. I really do commend the Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas in the other place, because it certainly is not in his nature to spend money like this. I know that from advocating for projects in my electorate, where we have worked hard to make sure we get funding, so I know how fiscally responsible the Treasurer is. He also knows that we need to do something to bring this state out of the issues raised by COVID-19.

It is a massive spend, and it will be absolutely fantastic as we move forward from what has happened to the state with the impacts of COVID-19 which, by the way, we have done such a great job of combating. Sadly, four people have lost their lives, but it could have been a lot worse. It has been tough, and I say that as a border MP having to manage border communities, which I know only too well through football, especially my border community of Pinnaroo and Murrayville. My boys have been playing up there, but they did not play this year in the Mallee league because of COVID. Those border communities have really done it tough. They are people in extended communities, people with children in schools and universities on the wrong side of the border, because that is their will. Let's hope that we get those kids home as soon as we can, especially well before Christmas.

I want to talk about the $4 billion of economic stimulus we are putting into the challenge arising from COVID-19 and the bushfires that have impacted our state and certainly impacted our state yesterday. I note there were many fires on Yorke Peninsula in the member for Narungga's electorate that were helped out with timely rain. The CFS and farm fire units did such a great job in containing those fires and fires in other places as quickly as possible.

These total stimulus measures are for $4 billion. This package will also leverage an additional $1 billion of commonwealth, local government and business spending. As part of that economic stimulus package, we see the Business and Jobs Support Fund and Community and Jobs Support Fund, $795 million; support for the community and community infrastructure, $747 million; support for our educational institutions, $657 million; tax and fee relief, $592 million; economic and business growth, $354 million; investment in road infrastructure, an extra $317 million; investment in our assets, $297 million; the Digital Restart Fund, $120 million; and investment in health infrastructure, an extra $118 million, which gives us $4 billion.

In responding to bushfires and COVID, there is $330 million. That is a combination of commonwealth and state funding to protect the health and wellbeing of South Australians in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and support frontline workers. When we look at creating jobs, backing business and building what matters, we see the investment in infrastructure, which has gone from $12.9 billion to $16.7 billion, up by almost $4 billion over four years.

The north-south corridor is to be completed in 10 years, by 2030, with a combination of tunnels and at-grade sections, and $8.9 billion is the estimated cost of that solution for that north-south connection. This is the toughest bit, over 10 kilometres, and it has been left to us to fix this problem as part of the north-south corridor. It could have been fixed with the MATS Plan decades ago, but we have bitten this one off and we will chew it. We will do the two tunnels that are involved and lower those road sections that are different sections. Some are a kilometre long and some are 1.1 kilometres as the ramps that lead into these tunnels.

This is such a fantastic solution that lessens compulsory acquisition and also saves some of those great institutions such as the Thebarton Theatre. It is a massive job, the biggest infrastructure job ever taken on in this state, a small state by population measures, and it just goes to show that we are serious about getting this north-south route fixed. It is exciting and I think will create 4,000 jobs over the life of the project. I know that contractors and other people to be involved in this project are rightly excited about it.

The investment in road infrastructure is $6.9 billion over four years. I reflect on projects in my electorate that have already been taken on as election promises since the last election in 2018, roads like the Browns Well Highway and the Ngarkat Highway, where hundreds of kilometres of shoulder sealing and barrier work are being put in so that we can get these road back to 110 km/h. They are already rated for road train status and it will make them so much safer. I am really proud that we are investing $72 million in eight roads. These two roads take over half that funding to get that vital freight route fixed along the edge of our state with Victoria.

The tradies package is a boost in infrastructure spend of $851 million over two years, with a focus on jobs. This is absolutely vital. In fact, with the things we have in place already at the moment with the commonwealth and state housing grants, where people can get up to $40,000 each, you can barely find a trade that is not busy, not flat out, and that is absolutely what we need to help build our way out of this COVID crisis. Here we see another massive amount of funding so that we can move forward into the future.

We have the allocation of $685 million towards the new Women's and Children's Hospital that will sit adjacent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It is absolutely vital to put these health units next to each other, get the build right, use the money appropriately, talk to the clinicians and get it absolutely right.

There is $305 million for bushfire response and recovery. I must say that it is great to see that a lot of the recommendations of the federal and state inquiries have been heeded. I wrote to both in regard to what we need to do about proactive management and cold burns. We do need to take proactive management so that we do not see these massive fires that happened not just in this state but along the east coast.

We had fires pretty well all round the state, obviously notably in Kangaroo Island and Cudlee Creek. Harrogate in my electorate was badly hurt, but there were also fires at Keilira in the South-East and fires at Carcuma out the back of Coonalpyn and in other areas around Kingston and far more areas. When fire rears its ugly head it is good to see that we also have investment going in there to take that on into the future.

We look at the land tax relief resulting from the 2019-20 budget land tax reforms, plus the additional COVID-19 support measures of $233 million. Sport and recreation infrastructure planned includes upgrading Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, $45 million, and the Memorial Drive tennis courts, $44 million, which is $204 million over four years. There is increased funding of $124 million over four years for children and young people in care.

The local government infrastructure partnership program will provide grants of up to 50 per cent of the cost of projects, resulting in at least $200 million of investment and $100 million over two years. At the new memorial wall at Milang I ran into Glenn Rappensberg this morning, when we were paying our respects to those who have served this great country and those who are serving. I truly do, as everyone here does, pay my respects to those who have served this country, people who are prepared to lay their life on the line. You cannot have more respect than for those who are prepared to do that as there duty to their country. Councils are certainly excited about the co-funding going in to support more infrastructure builds moving forward.

We have a skills and job trainer package for workers to reskill or upskill of $87.9 million over two years, and round 3 of small business grants, available from 9 November and extended to non-employing small businesses operating from commercial premises, is $82 million this financial year. I had a constituent who, because he did not employ people directly, was not eligible for the $10,000 grant. The $10,000 grants will be available for those who were eligible in the past, but for those who do not employ there are $3,000 grants to help them along as well in these COVID times, and I am really pleased with that outcome.

I talked about the housing construction stimulus package earlier, and support for the sector when it transitions from the stimulus impact of the HomeBuilder Grants and the expansion of the HomeStart Starter Loan is an extra $76 million.

Kangaroo Island bushfire recovery, to replace damaged government assets, is $45 million over three years, and grants for maintenance projects for government schools and preschools is $37 million over two years. I note that in my seat of Hammond there will be over $1 million going to schools in that program, and that they will be truly welcomed.

Then we look at what we are doing with parks, and I commend Minister Speirs' Parks 2025, conserving our natural landscapes and wildlife, taking total funding to $44 million over four years. That is $32 million allocated there over four years. This is fantastic work happening in our parks, making them more available for people and improving the visitor experience, especially because at the moment we have to travel locally more than ever. I certainly noticed that going up to a farm stay or a station stay just north of Hawker at Mern Merna Station on the October long weekend. The number of people travelling internally in the state is fantastic.

I have talked a lot about the infrastructure spend and what is going on, and these things will affect all our electorates right across the state and assist them in moving forward. However, in regard to particular things destined for my electorate, there is $52 million for upgrades to the Dukes, Spencer and Riddoch highways. Obviously, in my electorate, the Dukes Highway will be taking a fair lump of that money.

We have $37.6 million for the Sustaining Riverland Environments Program, delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan outcomes. This is absolutely vital for the health of the river. It is just so good to see the northern rains and the southern rains in the basin, but it has been so dry. It is so dry that for the catchment just to catch up it just gets wet because the water soaks in. It takes time to get that water flowing down all the creeks and tributaries of both the northern basin and the southern basin. We must keep fighting to make sure we keep all the ideals of a freshwater recovery for the River Murray front of mind.

As I indicated before, we are getting a major lump of the $37 million for priority maintenance at government schools. We are getting over $1 million of that in the seat of Hammond. Another place that is dear to my heart is the Strzelecki Track, which is a track I have been traversing since 1982 when I worked up in the Cooper Basin for a couple of years. There is $135 million going towards sealing the Strzelecki Track, which is a great project that I think should have been done before. We are taking it on.

We know this project is expected to cost $180 million. I am sure that other revenue sources, including a possible contribution from the private sector, will be investigated to fund the remaining portion. As part of that—and I saw this work when I was up at Innamincka in July with my youngest son, Angus—there was $6 million towards the sealing of Adventure Way from Innamincka to the Queensland border. That is a section of about 29 kilometres. I saw the roadworks that were happening up there in July and ran into the trucking operators who were carting heavy road base from Whyalla up to Adventure Way.

As luck would have it, if anyone has done any outback travelling on the Strzelecki, as has happened on my latest two trips in the last 10 or so years, we had a bit of rain. We packed up and went to leave Innamincka, and they said, 'You'll get held up down at Merty Station.' I was not even sure where Merty Station was, but we took off because the green sign was on saying the Strzelecki was open. Sure enough, we got down to one of the few kilometres of sections on the Strzelecki right down to Lyndhurst that are bituminised, and there were eight road trains pulled up. They said, 'You're not going any further; she's too wet.'

I think I had one of the funniest couple of days of my life. We were forced to stay there and, when the truckies saw that we had the barbecue on board, we were the caterers. I acknowledge Christine from Merty Merty Station, who brought in some light refreshments and beef so that we could eat. Some truckies from one of the oil camps came in and dropped some more off. Jono, Alan, Tony and the others who were camped there for that couple of days: I say g'day. It just goes to show what can happen when the Strzelecki gets wet.

It did not take a lot of rain to hold us up. It is absolutely vital we get more efficient so that we can get more freight carted from the Adelaide end instead of coming out of Brisbane. When Adventure Way is finished being sealed at least to Innamincka, it will be bitumen all the way to Brisbane. Eventually, we will have a sealed route from Adelaide through to Brisbane. I must say that the Strzelecki, even as a dirt road—and some of it is in the gibber country; you have to take it pretty easy—is in pretty fine nick, but when it gets wet you just have to stop, literally to keep that road in operation.

As we got closer to Lyndhurst, there was a place (I think it was called Art Baker; I will have to check that) where a lot of road trains had stopped, carting drill pipe, fracturing sand and other materials up to the basin. They just had to stop until it dried out a bit more before they could go through. It is one of those vital projects. We look at the Cooper Basin that has been providing gas to this state and this country for well over 50 years and note what Santos and other companies, such as Delhi Petroleum, Beach Petroleum and a whole range of others, have contributed in that field.

I want to commend what we have done as a government and commend the Treasurer for having the foresight to make sure that we can put this amount of money on the table so we can get this state working appropriately. There is $16.7 billion, which will be a once-in-a-generation budget—the biggest budget that this state has ever seen but the budget that we need. It is the budget we are putting in place to build our way into the future and out of the disaster affecting the world that has been COVID-19, even though we have managed COVID so well here. I commend the Appropriation Bill to the house.

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Member of the Executive Council, Minister for Trade and Investment) (21:20): I also take the opportunity this evening to speak in parliament about the Marshall government's 2020-21 state budget. It is a budget that is unashamedly about jobs. It comes at a time of significant health and economic challenges here in South Australia and in the world more broadly. The year 2020 started with bushfires here in South Australia and throughout other parts of Australia and then, at a global level, we were all faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as I said, has had a significant effect nationally and also an even greater effect internationally.

To that end, we saw the biggest fall in economic growth that this nation has experienced. Figures from the June 2020 quarter show that the national economy suffered its biggest fall since records began, a negative 7.4 per cent growth, with our two biggest states in Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, suffering growth setbacks of negative 8.6 per cent and negative 8.5 per cent respectively.

Here in South Australia, we had the lowest restrictions and, thankfully, the highest rate of compliance, but even then we suffered a negative 5.8 per cent growth. Compare this to what is happening throughout the world and internationally in developed nations and the falls have been even larger. Across the US, Europe and other countries, they have suffered falls of 12 per cent, 15 per cent and even 20 per cent.

So here we are today with the Marshall Liberal government delivering one of the most significant budgets that this state has ever had in its history. It really does need to be about jobs. If we have learnt anything from past recessions, it really shows that, if we need to regrow our economy, it needs to have an associated growth with jobs, otherwise unemployment takes many years to recover.

Our government was the first state government to launch a massive economic stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and it was all about helping to save jobs and businesses. Importantly, this budget will continue to fund wherever it is necessary to make sure that our health response is looked after, but it is also now shifting to provide an even greater focus on how we can assist in our state's economic recovery.

We have the Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Philip Lowe, urging state governments to borrow more to fund stimulus and infrastructure projects, largely due to the historically low interest rates. At the same time, the Reserve Bank has pledged to take action to maintain that position of low interest rates. In his speech in this house, the Treasurer indicated that even 20-year bonds, as recently as September, had significantly reduced interest rates at 2.29 per cent.

The government, when it went about framing this budget, really decided that this budget needs to jump start the economy and provide a massive financial adrenalin shot through the largest ever stimulus package in this state's history—a $4 billion state stimulus package, which will create thousands of local jobs over the next two years. Importantly, these stimulus measures are time limited, so they do not lock in ongoing government spending.

Alongside this $4 billion economic stimulus, the Marshall government is also investing in productive infrastructure through a record $16.7 billion infrastructure spend. In so doing, the Marshall Liberal government is creating jobs, backing business and building what matters.

When we were first elected in 2018, we were elected with a clear commitment to lower costs for households and businesses throughout South Australia, and this budget continues to deliver significant cost-of-living relief for households and businesses. That is fantastic news for the people of Morphett as they cope with the cost of living. One example is the emergency services levy. This will be the third budget where we provide an ELS remission of $90 million this year, in conjunction with the previous years of $90 million and $90 million. This saves the average household approximately $163 per year.

With regard to water, from 1 July this year average household savings were approximately $200 per year on SA Water bills and this budget continues that. In relation to car registration, each car can save an average of $100 on registration due to the CTP reforms that have been put in place. To help families with kids, we are continuing to double our sports vouchers from $50 to $100 to primary school-age children.

At the same time, we continue to implement policies which will drive down electricity prices. The Treasurer noted returns have already resulted in average savings of $158 to households each year. These reforms mean that a two-child, two-car family in Morphett will be saving more than $800 a year since the election a mere two years ago.

With regard to education, the families in Morphett are very interested in all our local schools; we have 15 in our community. Funding for education continues to grow under the Marshall Liberal government, with the 2020-21 state budget delivering another massive boost for our schools and preschools. The government is building what matters through our record $1.3 billion education build, which will provide more jobs for South Australians while at the same time delivering world-class facilities and also, importantly, supporting the learning of every student in our state.

Significantly, more than $1.1 billion of the program's total investment is set to be spent before the end of the 2021-22 financial year, which will provide an enormous boost to the state's economy at such a vital time. Key investments in education as part of this budget include $37 million over the next two years for school and preschool priority maintenance works, providing grants of between $20,000 and $100,000 for government schools and grants of $30,000 for every preschool to engage local businesses and tradies.

That is fantastic news for our schools—Glenelg Primary School, Ascot Park Primary School, Errington Special Education Centre, Kilparrin, the South Australian School for Vision Impaired and Plympton International College—as well as our preschools, Dunbar Terrace Kindergarten and Ascot Park Kindergarten.

As I spoke about earlier today, on World Teachers' Day I visited some of the schools in my electorate alongside the education minister (member for Morialta). One of the institutions we visited was the Dunbar Terrace Kindy, and we were given a fantastic tour by the kindy's director, Ms Alexandra Scott, and two of her staff, Chess and Vicki. They were able to show us some of the upgrades they undertook with the $20,000 the Marshall government provided to preschools as part of its first stimulus package. This went into providing a brand-new play platform and a fairy garden that the kids really do love. Prior to that, the government also provided funding to fix their leaking roof.

There is no doubt that this additional $30,000 of stimulus will be able to go towards improving the outdoor area where the kids can play and enjoy their time at kindy. Importantly, the preschools will employ local tradies to perform this work. In addition to the education stimulus, an additional $11.6 million has been allocated for non-government school sectors to help improve their facilities.

Again, I spoke in parliament today about the $1 million that was put towards the St Mary's Memorial School upgrade. Another fantastic local school in Morphett, Our Lady of Grace, has received over $800,000 to help them with significant infrastructure refurbishment for classrooms to assist them to transition from R-5 to R-6 to take in that year 6 cohort. I recently went on a tour with their principal, Josette Charles, and she showed me what these upgrades are going to look like.

Another great school in the electorate of Morphett, St John the Baptist, is receiving $2.4 million to refurbish and extend their existing two-storey classroom block. Again, this will help increase the capacity for their students and also provide flexible learning spaces. I have talked about how schooling is appreciated in Morphett, but of course many locals in Morphett certainly live and also work in the electorate.

The first stimulus package that we delivered very early provided small business support of up to $10,000 grants to many of these small businesses. Overall, $186 million was provided to 18,700 businesses. This kept them going and employing locals. Having walked down Jetty Road in Glenelg and spoken with these business owners, I know that this lifeline allowed them to keep paying their electricity bills, utilities and council rates when little or no income was coming in.

Things are improving for some of them, but there are still some businesses that are challenged and still on JobKeeper, and so this budget announces a further $82 million in small business grants of $10,000 to assist these businesses. Additionally, it also looks to provide $3,000 grants for sole businesses that work in commercial premises.

However, we also know that if we can reduce costs to businesses then they can reinvest that money into their businesses, which allows them to grow and then employ people. One way we have done this as a government is to eliminate payroll tax for small businesses with a payroll of less than $1.5 million. This budget continues that policy with further relief on payroll tax, land tax, water prices and also electricity costs. The government is providing $233 million in total payroll tax relief for thousands of eligible businesses. This includes the introduction of an extra six months' payroll tax waiver for businesses with grouped annual wages under $4 million, which is fantastic for them. That money can then be invested in employing new people and allowing them to grow.

In addition to this, the government has introduced historic land tax reforms, where we slashed the top land tax rate from 3.7 per cent to fall in line with the national average of 2.4 per cent. This delivers over $200 million of land tax savings to 92 per cent of mum-and-dad investors and also 75 per cent of company groups over the next three years, which is fantastic news. Instead of repelling investment out of this state, it now gives the opportunity for investors to come into this state. We know that we have below national average cost of land and cost of property here in South Australia, but now that we have removed that big handbrake on land tax it will cause a flow of investment into this state.

If I could talk about one such company, a company called Aspen announced to the ASX (they are ASX listed) they have just purchased land in Mount Barker to the value of $4.5 million, and the slashing of land tax from 3.7 per cent down to 2.4 per cent was a significant factor in their decision-making. As I said, our agenda as a government has always been focused on making the business environment here more competitive and attractive to investment, and so this budget continues on with that. It is all about creating jobs for South Australians and attracting investment here. We are now considered one of the most cost-competitive jurisdictions in Australia to do business, with lower business costs, taxes and, importantly, a great lifestyle.

Our great health response has been a magnet for young people to come back here, obviously where they are safe, to their parents because of situations in the other states. This has been helped by the fact that they can work from home, and they have now seen the opportunity to work remotely but with the ability to work effectively and online and connect with key markets. This allows some exciting opportunities for our state going forward, and it is really the government's focus to turn around that net interstate migration and turn around that young talent leaving the state.

This is the perfect opportunity to get those talented young South Australians—even talented young Australians who want to see a future for themselves in South Australia—and set up the business environment to do that. This budget certainly backs that in by concentrating on growing jobs and also, importantly, creating the right investment conditions. Just recently, a fantastic example of this is one of the world's largest technology firms, Accenture. It established their defence and cyber innovation centre here, to be known as the Accenture Adelaide Hub, which is expected to create up to 2,000 jobs and inject $1 billion into our economy at a time when we really need it the most.

This is going to help drive and transform our state's economy in the future growth sectors of defence, cyberspace and high-tech but, importantly, it will attract that key young talent here in South Australia and give them every reason to try and stay here in South Australia. But of course we still have to recognise the challenges around jobs because we know from the global pandemic that jobs growth and economic recovery have been impacted, and the budget papers forecast a zero per cent growth in employment in 2021 because of the devastating effect on jobs from the start of the pandemic.

In terms of these estimates, it is important to note that the SA Treasury estimates employment growth on an average of a 12-month cycle for the budget. If you compare this with how the federal government go about these things, they employ their growth figures by basing them on the employment in the quarter directly before their budget—so April May and June from one year—and then compare it with the next. If we look at 2020, these were really the worst months in terms of COVID and, as a result, when we look at how the federal government project their national growth rates, they look to have employment growth rate of 2.7 per cent.

Labor have tried to latch onto this. They have tried to be tricky and tried to compare apples to oranges to say that our 12-month average growth rate is below the federal rate of employment growth based on that really massive dip in three months. Had we as a state followed that same methodology, our employment growth rate for 2020-21 would have been 4.25 per cent, which is significantly greater than the national average and really goes to the fact that as a state, because of our great health response, our economy has been able to be opened up much earlier and that has allowed us to grow our jobs rate significantly more than other states on the eastern seaboard.

But there can be no denying that jobs still need to be the focus and there is no doubt that this state budget is a jobs budget. We are backing in business and also building what matters to create those jobs. Of course, we will not be distracted from this, and we will be focusing on our strengths and focusing on those key sectors where our state has a competitive advantage and where we can lean in to continue to grow our state.

One of the ways we do that is through our Economic and Business Growth Fund, and it is fantastic news that this budget looks to lock in and boost that fund. We are investing an extra $220 million over the next four years into this key Economic and Business Growth Fund. This will attract further job-creating investment into South Australia and also encourage the growth of new and existing industries here in South Australia, especially in our key growth sectors where South Australia has that competitive advantage I mentioned before.

There will be $60 million each year in the first two years, followed up by $50 million in the next two years. That is going to be vital to lift the overall ecosystem here in South Australia. We also know that we have to try to sell not only to ourselves, with a state population of 1.7 million people, but to Australia, with an audience and consumer base of 25 million. We also need to look into our near neighbours in the Pacific and India, where billions of people live. We need to grow our exporters and grow our markets, and that will have a significant impact on our state's economy.

To that end, we are really encouraging export sectors in this budget. One of those is looking at those bushfire-affected businesses that were exporting and how we can help them recover. We are providing a grant program of $200,000 in 2021 for those businesses which had been exporting but which were in those fire-affected regions of the Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island or Yorke Peninsula.

We are also looking to assist marketing South Australia's international education sector. International students really add to the vibrancy and multiculturalism of South Australia but, importantly, when they go home they understand South Australia and can provide a key link to conduct business into South Australia. That is why we are really backing in international education, which is worth about $2.15 billion to our state's economy. In fact, for every three international students, it creates one full-time job here in South Australia.

We are looking to put in $1 million over the next three years to develop and execute an international education global marketing campaign. Already, because of our health response, we have seen fantastic interest in South Australia. Enrolments in our South Australian institutions are up 5 per cent on this time last year, and that is with a global pandemic in between times, compared with the national average, which is 4 per cent down. Again, we are using our strengths from our health response to try to attract what helps to grow our economy and boost our vibrancy here in this state.

We are also looking at backing a virtual business matching program. I spoke about backing in exporters here to help them grow their business by providing $1 million over the next four years to fast-track the development and delivery of these virtual business matching programs across our state's key priority sectors.

If I had more time, I could talk about some of the great work we are doing from a foreign direct investment point of view, really backing in our renewables. If we look at foreign direct investment into South Australia for 2020 to the month of August, we are up 15 per cent of the national percentage, so we are well above our population share of that 6 per cent to 7 per cent, really showing how investment is coming in. They have seen what this government is doing and they are backing our state in.

I finish off by noting that this budget is one of the most significant budgets in our state's history. We understand that. We know that it is all about creating job. It is around backing business in to make sure they can create jobs. It is also about building what matters for South Australians for the long term, so that we have something to show for it, but create jobs at the outset.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (21:40): I am so proud to rise and speak on the 2020-21 state budget. I firmly believe that our Marshall Liberal government is the right government to make strong plans for this state's economic recovery, and I thank the Treasurer and his team for creating a robust plan for this recovery. On this side, we are passionate about and have the skills needed to deliver on a long-term plan and the discipline to ensure we retain our budget to surplus in four years' time.

No-one ever envisaged in 2020 that we would confront a challenge as momentous as a global pandemic. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic came immediately after the worst bushfires in the history of our state, and since March thriving businesses have closed, thousands of workers have lost their jobs and some South Australians fell ill and, tragically, four lost their lives despite the best efforts of our intensive care nursing staff and doctors who worked around the clock to save them.

In the eight months since COVID hit, the government has thrown everything at our response in order to save as many lives as we could and to save as many jobs and businesses as we could. This budget continues to fund what is necessary to keep our great state safe and strong. This budget not only plans to keep South Australians safe, to deliver jobs, to back businesses and deliver what matters to South Australians, but also invests in our parks and natural environment more than ever before. Our government will now maintain our health response and will now provide even greater focus on whatever is needed to assist our state's economic recovery.

The economic context for this budget has been outlined by the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Philip Lowe, who has strongly urged all governments to provide massive financial stimulus through investment in publicly funded infrastructure. The focus of this budget is on economic recovery and on creating jobs and inspiring confidence in businesses and households. We have a clear plan and vision for how to implement policies required for economic recovery.

Last week's survey by Business SA showed record jumps in business confidence to levels higher than existed just prior to the pandemic, which is such an encouraging sign. The government has decided that this budget needs to jumpstart our economy through the largest ever economic stimulus in our state's history: a $4 billion state stimulus package that will leverage another $1 billion in commonwealth and local government and business stimulus. This total stimulus package will therefore inject more than $5 billion into our state's economy.

The emphasis of this $4 billion state stimulus package will be on projects that can be completed or significantly completed within two years. This two-year state stimulus package will assist not only our state's economic recovery post COVID-19 but also a transition to the exciting jobs of the future in defence, space, cybersecurity and related advanced technology industries.

In terms of economic recovery and creating jobs, South Australia has a significant competitive advantage, in that we have a locked and loaded commonwealth government commitment of at least $90 billion in defence investment, offshore patrol vessels, Hunter class frigates and Attack class submarines. This is an unprecedented pipeline of jobs and business opportunities right here in our state for decades to come.

Jobs have already been created, but we will see a significant acceleration of thousands of jobs over the next two to five years. Furthermore, our Minister for Innovation and Skills has said our government is backing business to create jobs, and this is again the key focus of this budget: to support a skills-led economic recovery. For example, companies that employ new apprentices and trainees will have the associated payroll tax on those eligible positions waived for 12 months in a major Marshall Liberal government boost for local skills training and jobs in the wake of COVID-19.

The significant tax incentive contained in the state budget 2020-21 will apply for apprentices and trainees who commence a relevant contract of training from this week until 30 June next year. The state budget 2020-21 also includes an additional $88 million over two years to deliver more training through the JobTrainer Fund, a national partnership agreement with the commonwealth government. The state budget 2020-21 expands on the public sector traineeship program, providing an extra 750 trainees in aged care, disability care, cybersecurity, as well as apprentices in the housing construction sector.

It will be good news to our local business leaders I have been speaking to that a small to medium enterprise business advisory service will be established through a $5 million investment in 2020-21 to support small and medium enterprises to establish personalised business advice, assisting them in developing sustainable and robust expansion strategies and plans. Since the 2018 election, the government's clear policy plan has been that long-term and substantial economic growth and jobs will be achieved by ensuring the costs of doing business in South Australia are nationally and internationally competitive.

Further, payroll tax relief of $233 million is outlined in this budget. All small and medium enterprises and businesses with annual Australian group wages of up to $4 million will pay no payroll tax for the period from April 2020 to June 2021. The 2020-21 budget continues to deliver significant cost-of-living relief, driving down the cost of average household bills. Lower costs: that is what we promised South Australians and what we continue to deliver.

Water and sewerage bills: from 1 July this year, average households are saving approximately $200 a year on their SA Water bills. In June, the government took the first opportunity to revise down the value of SA Water's regulated asset base, delivering huge savings for South Australians. Emergency services levy reductions: the 2020-21 budget continues to fund emergency services levy remissions of $90 million a year, leading to cheaper ESL bills. The savings in 2020-21 for an average household is $163.60. Compulsory third-party reforms result in a $100 savings per car on average. When I am out doorknocking, most of the time I see at least three cars in each driveway, so that is a good saving for those households.

Sports vouchers: the budget continues funding for the doubling of sports vouchers for primary school-age children's swimming lessons and other sports participation up from $50 to $100. Transport relief for hospital staff provides hospital staff with free car parking and public transport during the coronavirus pandemic. Hospital staff are able to access free public transport, free parking across all SA metropolitan hospitals and receive reimbursements of up to $101 per month for non site-related car parking.

Cost of Living Concession: households that receive the Centrelink JobSeeker payment received a once-off boost of $500 as part of the 2020-21 Cost of Living Concession. For eligible home owners, their 2020-21 payment of $215.10 became $715.10, and eligible tenants received $607.60. Rent relief and support for landlords providing relief: the rent relief scheme provides for two rounds of grants up to $1,000 to residential landlords who reduced the rent of a tenant experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Landlords can also receive up to a 50 per cent reduction on their 2019-20 land tax liability on affected properties where they have provided relief to affected tenants or lost income due to a vacancy.

Lowering electricity bills: electricity reforms introduced by the government have resulted in an average saving to households of $158 per year over the last two years. The budget invests an additional $18 million into the government's Home Battery Scheme to support consumer choice for larger home batteries. More than 13,000 households have signed up for a subsidy to install a home battery system, which drives down the cost of their electricity, delivering further savings and alleviating pressure on the grid. This, along with measures like the SA-New South Wales interconnector, will continue to deliver savings to households. All these reforms mean that a two-child, two-car household will be saving more than $800 per year since the election just two years ago. The size of these household savings far outweighs the impact of some increases in fees and fund charges announced last year.

Businesses and tradies are also set to get a boost with a $37 million government school and preschool maintenance package. The initiative will provide grants of between $20,000 and $100,000 for public schools and grants of $30,000 for every government preschool to hire local tradespeople to provide maintenance work at their sites. The government's stimulus already provided $20,000 to government preschools as well as additional maintenance works in government schools, such as Salisbury East High School, and there is more to come. Other projects include:

$100 million in road maintenance to improve road safety, which will unlock an additional $168 million of commonwealth funding for small-scale road safety projects;

$40 million to upgrade boat ramps, jetties and road bridges;

$44 million in Parks 2025 projects, including tourism and visitor facilities in the Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula and Yorke Peninsula; and

$10 million for works at the Botanic Garden and the Torrens Parade Grounds.

The more significant funding commitments also include:

$82 million for a second round of $10,000 grants for small businesses and not-for-profit organisations adversely impacted by COVID-19 and a $3,000 grant for owner-operated small businesses conducted from a commercial premises but do not employ staff, funded from the Business and Community Jobs Support Fund;

a $220 million increase for the Economic and Business Growth Fund;

a $245 million increase for the Business and Jobs Support Fund and the Community and Jobs Support Fund;

$100 million from the Community and Jobs Support Fund for a local government infrastructure partnership program, which after matched funding will fund at least $200 million of projects;

$76 million for a housing construction stimulus package from the Community and Jobs Support Fund, designed to support the sector after the HomeBuilder stimulus wanes;

$60 million for capital upgrades to government buildings to improve energy efficiency and deliver long-term electricity savings;

$320 million expanded non-government schools loan scheme, which will be interest free for the first five years and low interest rates for the remaining term.

It is with much excitement that I acknowledge on behalf of the people living in King the additional $30 million for Golden Grove Road stage 2 and an extra $25 million for the $33 million Golden Grove park-and-ride. These are projects that people living in King have been asking for for a very long time. These are important upgrades and requests that came directly from my King community and I have lobbied hard to achieve a commitment from my colleagues to deliver what matters most to my King community.

In addition, one of the industry sectors that has been most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the tourism and hospitality sector. Whilst the easing of restrictions in South Australia has assisted the viability of many businesses, there is no doubt there are significant challenges for some businesses in the sector. The government has therefore decided in this budget to fund a tourism and hospitality sector support package.

This budget includes significant increases in funding to secure new major leisure events and conventions to further drive future visitation and to protect and create jobs in the sector. An extra $12 million over three years has been provided to help attract new events to South Australia. One such event will be Illuminate, which will run over two weeks and three weekends in July and is being led by homegrown creative leaders.

This budget also commits $10 million per year, or $40 million over four years, to continue existing levels of funding available for events and conventions. The government has also committed to reallocating millions of dollars per annum from Adelaide 500 funding to these funds to attract new events and conventions that can run all year long, creating jobs all year long.

The government is also committed to more than $120 million over four years for tourism marketing. It should also be noted that tourism and hospitality businesses significantly impacted by COVID-19 will be major beneficiaries of the payroll tax relief and Small Business Grant scheme outlined in this budget.

As we emerge from the pandemic and seek to grow jobs in this sector in the future, public and private investment in improved tourism visitor experiences is essential. The $40 million resort and visitor centre at Monarto that will provide the biggest safari experience outside of Africa is one example, and this budget's further funding boost for Parks 2025 is another. The budget also commits another $50 million to the $200 million Aboriginal Arts and Culture Centre at Lot Fourteen, which will be a major visitor experience boost for our state.

Last year's Mid-Year Budget Review committed $12.9 billion over four years for a record infrastructure program. Consistent with the recommendations of the Reserve Bank and many other stakeholders, this budget further increases funding by $4 billion. This budget now allocates a record $16.7 billion over four years for the biggest public sector infrastructure program in the state's history.

This record $16.7 billion of funding is designed to build what matters, and $7.6 billion is allocated to road and public transport infrastructure and $3 billion to health and educational facilities. This budget allocates $204 million over four years to progress the implementation of the state's Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Plan. This investment is a gamechanger for sport, and was developed after widespread consultation by the government with individuals and organisations across the state.

The clear message to the government was that people welcomed past investment in major sporting facilities such as Adelaide Oval, but they now wanted a focus on community and state level facilities. This is certainly so in King, and I encourage King's sporting clubs to collaborate with me, to collaborate with local councils, to put forward long-awaited projects in our local community that will increase participation in sports for our community.

This budget allocates an extra $35 million over the next two years for community sporting and recreational facilities in both the metropolitan area and the regions. Additionally, the state Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Plan identifies a number of existing state sporting facilities that need significant upgrades to ensure South Australia can be positioned as a premier sporting destination.

This budget commits $44 million for implementing stage 2 of the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre redevelopment. This investment will build on the momentum of stage 1 and continue the transformation of one of the nation's most iconic sporting precincts into a state-of-the-art arena for sporting, arts and entertainment events. The redevelopment, which will be completed by the end of 2021, includes four new grandstands to increase seating capacity to 6,000. This budget also commits $45 million to bring Hindmarsh Stadium up to a contemporary elite sports standard that is suitable for bidding for elite national and international level events.

The government's record $16.7 billion infrastructure program is a mix of stimulus-type projects, which will be completed or significantly completed within two years, and long-term projects that the government has promised to deliver. One of these long-term projects is the completion of the most complex part of the north-south corridor project from Darlington to the River Torrens.

When we were elected just over two years ago we discovered that, under the Labor government, no business case had been commenced or completed, not a single dollar had been allocated to this project in the budget forward estimates other than for a planning study. Over recent months, dozens of different options for this project have been considered and rejected, and the government has now decided on an option that combines two separate tunnels and lowered and surface motorway sections. This project will be creating up to 4,000 jobs. It will be the biggest ever job-creating infrastructure project in South Australia's history and will be completed by 2030.

Other projects benefiting the north include $15 million for the expansion of the Gawler Hospital Emergency Department, $11.5 million over four years for MFS fire appliances, $7.2 million over four years for CFS fire truck replacement, $18.7 million over three years to consolidate the provision of youth custodial services in a single site at Cavan, $9 million over the next three years for antiflood measures across the Gawler River and—it is worth repeating—$30 million for Golden Grove Road stage 2 and $25 million of extra funding for the Golden Grove park-and-ride.

The government continues to spend record amounts on education and skills development and will be employing an extra 1,768 full-time equivalent employees. This budget provides $3.8 million over four years for domestic violence measures and many other ways we are looking after the most vulnerable people in South Australia because every person matters in this budget. I commend the budget to the house.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (22:00): It gives me pleasure to rise in support of what has been quite a historic budget. It is great to see that the Marshall Liberal government has recognised the importance of stimulus in dealing with not only COVID-19 but the bushfires we had previously. Sadly, they have had a detrimental impact on many regions, particularly the Adelaide Hills. I know the member for Kavel has been quite impacted, as have the member for Heysen and the members for a number of electorates throughout the Adelaide Hills, at Cudlee Creek, etc.

Kangaroo Island was devastated. The opportunity, the visitor economy and the agriculture economy were absolutely smashed. This budget has significant stimulus. I will not dwell too much on the overarching aspects of the budget because I am more interested in what it means for the great electorate of Chaffey. I think the stimulus has seen great initiatives and sensible initiatives. I want to pay tribute to not only the Treasurer and the Premier but the entire cabinet team for what they have stumped up.

This is not just about this annual spend; this is ongoing in the forward estimates. What it will see is a legacy that will last perhaps a decade, and this will lead to bigger, better and greater economic outcomes. We have seen the great work of the health system in South Australia. It is almost a global advantage. I have many friends around the globe who have watched South Australia and who have greatly complimented the safety we enjoy.

What we are now looking at is a budget that is giving great prosperity and great hope to business, creating jobs not only through tax incentives but through the over $16 billion infrastructure spend. I must pay tribute to the frontline services in the health system, those nurses, doctors and every person who has been part of protecting every South Australian. Whether it is performing a COVID test, treating people who have been infected or the frontline services of day-to-day measures, they have been there day and night keeping South Australia attended to and making sure that we are safe.

In education, South Australia was one of the first states to implement open schooling, open education, so that children could go back to school early and not have to be homeschooled. It proved to be successful. Not only the transition team but, back in the early days before the transition team was commissioned, Professor Spurrier, Grant Stevens and the Premier's office did an outstanding job in providing leadership and guidance through the education system.

Of course, the police have done an outstanding job as a frontline service operation, and they have kept our borders secure and continue to stump up and keep South Australia safe. In some way, I feel that people have been a little complacent and a little spoilt by not having to endure lockdown and some of the hardships. We have seen the significant impact of COVID, particularly on the elderly, who have been most impacted by this pandemic. It has shown us that both the police and emergency services have come to the fore in keeping South Australia safe.

The bushfires impacted our primary sector, and I pay tribute to the primary sector that has stood up through COVID-19. It has continued to farm, to harvest, to process, to put food on the shelves and to make sure that there has been a 24/7 supply for the increased demand through our retail and wholesale outlets. I think it shows the importance of what agriculture has meant and, through the stimulus, I think agriculture will be the shining light.

The government continues to stump up significant amounts of investment into infrastructure and some of the incentives to keep job creation bubbling along. The greatest renewable industry in the world is agriculture, and what we are seeing is that it has continued to stand up, to provide food and to provide jobs. I think that it really is a great testament to that sector.

I will touch base a little bit on what the budget has meant to the electorate of Chaffey and the people of the Riverland, the Mallee and the surrounding districts. We have seen money put into making sure that our court system is upgraded and safe, and it is great to see that the Berri courthouse will have funding.

Regarding biosecurity, I know that, in my previous role as minister for primary industries, I was very, very proud of the implementation of the zero tolerance approach, and the government has continued to pursue that, making sure that we keep our horticulture and primary sector safe from biosecurity threats. We know that the pressure on our borders is ever increasing, and what we are seeing now is that this budget has continued to stump up the money needed to keep our great state of South Australia fruit fly free.

But it is not just fruit fly; it is about keeping all those pests behind our borders. The wine industry is one of our greatest economic drivers here in South Australia, and in my electorate of Chaffey we are the engine room of the wine industry. We produce in the order of 60 per cent of South Australia's wine crush. This year, we produced 70 per cent of South Australia's wine crush.

In my electorate, I have one family wine business, a vineyard and processing plant that produce more wine than Clare, the Barossa, the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra put together. That is one family business, and it just shows the importance of what that one family business means to the wine sector not only here in South Australia but nationally.

We know that South Australia produces about 70 per cent of the nation's premium wines, but the Riverland produces up to 70 per cent of our exports with entry-level wine, class D grade wine. You have to remember that more wine in Australia is put into a cask than is put into a bottle. Not many people realise that. When most people think about wine, they think about a bottle of wine but, as I said, the box was invented in the Riverland and it is still a great economic stay in today's climate.

I think the biosecurity initiative is a great thing. We have seen the continuation of our border protection at Yamba. We have money in the budget to mirror what we have at Yamba over at Ceduna. As the Deputy Speaker is very aware, the pressure from the west coming into South Australia has been profound this year. Mediterranean fruit fly has engulfed metropolitan Adelaide. Over 250 suburbs have been put under a quarantine restriction. That shows how vulnerable any state is, but particularly South Australia, in being fruit fly free.

It is great to see that there is money in the budget to upgrade that border crossing and continue what we pride ourselves on—that is, being fruit fly free. It is a market advantage and puts more money on the bottom line for our horticulturalists. Just as importantly, it is an initiative on which we should hold our head high. We are the only mainland state in the country that is fruit fly free. The world has been watching for more than a decade and can see that South Australia is marketing a reliably fruit fly free product they can purchase at a premium price. Again, I commend the budget.

It is great to see that there will be more money put into grassroots sports. That means there will be more money going into small regional communities. I have seen a number of sporting clubs in Chaffey that have been the beneficiaries of this government's sporting initiatives, whether that is the footy, cricket and netball program, the Active Club program or the voucher program. These initiatives are all really essential for those small community sports programs so that they can keep on keeping on. We know there is more pressure on the viability of some of these small country towns to keep their sports teams on the park, and this initiative will go a long way in keeping them moving along.

We continue to see health initiatives. I am very happy to see the new MRI machine going into Riverland General Hospital. That is a great initiative. It will keep people in the region so that they can have those scans undertaken in their own town or in their own region and not to have to travel to Adelaide. They do not have to get into a car and travel for three or maybe four hours; they can actually go to the general hospital, have their scans and head home. I commend that great initiative.

The South Australian Cancer Council is to construct a purpose-built 120-room accommodation. That is music to any regional MP's ears. People who are under stress and coming for cancer treatment are now going to have a new facility that will accommodate them. It will not only take off the pressure of looking for accommodation but also help comfort them when they are going through the stress and trauma of cancer treatment. That is a really great initiative.

In the water portfolio, it is great to see that $37.6 million has gone to restore some of the FLOWS Initiative between Lock 6 and Lock 5. There are areas where we have a large creek network. We have Chowilla, we have some of the Pipeclay regulators and we have a lot of the Amazon Creek networks. There is Bulyong and many, many creek networks between Lock 5 and Lock 6 that are critical to the health of the River Murray. It is great to see that some of that $37.6 million will go there.

We have some ageing infrastructure at Lock 3. Once upon a time, I had a vineyard I developed at Lock 3. Not being able to hold water back behind Lock 3 has proven to be a significant challenge for the department. If they do want to bank water up behind Lock 3 to spread water out over those flood plains, they cannot do that at the moment because the lock is unstable, so there will be money spent on Lock 3.

There are also initiatives with the native fish fund. It is of paramount importance that we make sure that we can actually breed our own fingerlings and have that hatchery facility here in South Australia so that we can stock our reservoirs and rivers, not only for the opportunities for recreational fishing as a pastime but also for creating a stimulus for anyone who wants to travel to the outer urban areas into those reservoirs to catch a fish, or whether we stock the river and people can come up for one of the great river holidays. I think it is a great opportunity.

I would also like to commend the significant amount of investment into tourism. Up in the Riverland, tourism is one of the great growing economies. Destination Riverland should be commended for the guidance and leadership they have given our region over time. What we are seeing now is that this government is investing more into regional tourism. Nature-based tourism is a great complement to what we have always enjoyed, but now we are investing, we are opening up more parks and we are putting in more walking trails and bike trails.

We are giving opportunities to those tourism operators to explore the boundaries of what they can do with their current business or whether they can build on what they are already doing to give people those experiences. I urge anyone: if you are looking for a really good nature-based tourism experience, come up to the Riverland, explore the River Murray, explore the river network and explore some of the beautiful flood plains that we have on offer.

Of course, the Regional Growth Fund has been very good to the regions of South Australia and the Riverland has also enjoyed the fruits of the RGF. The Berri Hotel development has received $1½ million towards a $7 million development at the Berri riverfront. Torrens Valley Orchards have received a significant amount of money to upgrade misting and irrigation on their cherry farms so that they can counteract some of the weather challenges. Some of those weather challenges might go from one extreme such as frost to the other extreme when we have extreme heat, which can wreck a crop. Twelve months of growing a crop can be wrecked in one of those weather events.

Of course, the Cadell prison has been well documented, with $3 million allocated to the dairy. The dairy is a vertically integrated business model in the Cadell prison. It gets those prisoners out into the dairy where they can upskill, not only milking cows and packaging that product but also providing milk to other prisons and other businesses. They are also now providing cream and some of those raw products into cheesemaking and other private enterprise that I think really have the opportunity to deal with what is some of the primary sector's shortages of that raw product.

We know that there are many areas within South Australia that are looking to supply more raw product into value-added dairy products and this is just another way. I was recently there with the Minister for Correctional Services. They are looking at also breeding a dairy herd, and I think that is a great initiative. This $3 million will go a long way towards helping with that.

I must say that this budget does help the electorate of Chaffey in many aspects. What we are seeing now is that we are putting more of a focus on regional support, making sure that the regions are continuing to be the engine room of a food economy and a beverage economy. What we are seeing now is more agtech and more opportunities for the regional centres to be a stimulus or, I guess, a hub-and-spoke approach. I know that the Loxton Research Centre is currently enjoying a huge amount of investment. In one of my most recent overseas trips to the US, we brought back business to South Australia. They have set up business at the Loxton Research Centre and they are now providing a service to agriculture and horticulture.

I think there are many positives to talk about with this budget. We have talked about courts, we have talked about biosecurity, and we have talked about all things sustaining Riverland environment programs. This is about jobs. This is about dealing with something that we have never had to encounter before. We are putting a stimulus in place so that we can give confidence to those job creators, to industry, to the primary sector and to South Australians that this is a government that is about caring for the future. We are not closing programs, we are not raising taxes: we are creating a stimulus to make sure that South Australia is a powerhouse in attracting foreign investment.

It is about attracting investment into South Australia so that we can create more jobs and deal with a stimulated economy, and deal with South Australia as a place to go to, a place to live safely. This is a government that has shown its colours and done an outstanding job, and I commend this budget, I commend the Treasurer and I commend the Premier for his leadership. With what we have seen over the last couple of days, South Australians are very confident that this is a government for the future, this is a government to create employment, create jobs and put a stimulus there for a decade or more to come.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (22:20): This is the most important budget since the Second World War and the largest stimulus package in South Australia's history. As we continue our recovery from the devastating bushfires in our community and from COVID-19, a record amount will be invested in the Adelaide Hills. As you are aware, the Cudlee Creek fire was the most significant natural disaster in the Hills since Ash Wednesday. It absolutely lives on in the memory of individual home owners, business owners, families and community leaders. Everybody across the Hills has been affected in different ways and COVID-19 has affected every person in the state in every stage of their life.

Mr Speaker, as you are well aware, the massive funding injection that this budget delivers for the Hills is very welcome. There is a $250 million package to provide a traffic solution for Hahndorf—$200 million from the commonwealth and $50 million from the state. Members who have earlier served in this place, including your own predecessor, the Hon. Isobel Redmond, were strong voices. Other members have been a strong voice, you have offered your strong voice for this project, the community's voice has been heard, and a solution will be delivered for a town that is an absolute gem in the Hills and an absolute gem in our tourism and visitor economy offering.

There is $35 million over three years for enhancements to the pavement surface on the South Eastern Freeway—that is much needed—and $15 million for safety improvements in the Heysen Tunnels. There is $28 million across four years for increased hazard reduction burns to be shared between Kangaroo Island and the Hills. There is an additional $7 million dollars for the Nairne intersection upgrade, bringing the total funding for the project to $12 million. There is, of course, $12 million being invested for a heavy vehicle access route on the north-south freight route.

There is additional funding for the Service SA presence in Mount Barker. I know, and everybody in our community knows, that that is a much-needed service and one we are looking forward to being able to access more easily locally. There is $4 million for the Strathalbyn aged-care lifestyle facilities and you, Mr Speaker, of course, have been closely involved in lobbying for that funding. There is $3 million for an upgrade of the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden precinct, including car parking and additional paths; $1 million to upgrade the visitor centre and other general improvements at the Cleland Wildlife Park; and some improvements to safety at the Mount Barker courthouse.

As earlier mentioned, the budget has also focused on much-needed bushfire response and recovery investment and a $305 million package has been provided to assist our community as well as Kangaroo Island and other communities throughout the state affected by bushfire over the recovery period. Across our state, there is record investment in infrastructure, jobs, education, the COVID-19 response, and sport has of course been a key focus for funding as well, including:

$330 million of commonwealth and state funding to protect the health and wellbeing of South Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic and to support frontline workers;

$21.2 million over four years to support the SA Police COVID-19 response;

an $851 million tradies package to deliver a pipeline of work for tradies over two years, including, as earlier mentioned and emphasised quite rightly by the member for King, $37 million for all government schools and preschools to undertake maintenance work utilising local businesses and trades; and

a $204 million sport and recreation infrastructure plan, including an expansion of the grassroots facilities program and regional facilities program to include many sports.

Local councils across the Hills and the state will be able to tap into a $100 million local government infrastructure partnership program, with grants of up to 50 per cent for local government infrastructure projects.

I earlier mentioned the Nairne intersection upgrade and the additional funding that has been provided. It is important for me to reflect this is a project that has been needed in my community for many years. I am very proud that we are delivering it. I think it is important to emphasise that a property acquisition process has been underway, and I am advised that four properties at the location will require full acquisition, five properties will require a partial acquisition and at the present moment an agreement has been reached with five of the nine properties to ensure that the project can proceed.

The decision by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport to realign Woodside Road means that a more complex solution is required. It cannot just be traffic lights, it cannot just be a roundabout. There needs to be service relocation and then a realignment at Woodside Road with Saleyard Road and of course, Mr Speaker, as you are aware, Saleyard Road continues to Nairne primary school. Safety is absolutely crucial at that intersection.

As the President of the Nairne and District Residents Association, Kimberley Franklin, has said, the Nairne community has welcomed the additional funding and she is very pleased that there has been steady progress made on those acquisitions. The department has published a construction time line for the project subject to reaching final compensation agreements with home owners.

I mentioned at the outset that this is an historic budget, an historic stimulus, a very important stimulus at a time when it is much needed. I commend the Treasurer and of course the Premier for their leadership.

The SPEAKER: Is there a member who might draw attention to the state of the house?

An honourable member: Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

A quorum having been formed:

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Brown.

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