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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-23 Daily Xml
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Appropriation Bill 2021

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 22 June 2021.)

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (16:35): I am very pleased to speak on this bill in regard to the 2021-22 state budget. It is a strong budget, it will certainly create jobs, it will result in better services and we as a government will continue to build what matters. It is also a budget that builds on the investments we have been making now for several years. I would like to highlight some of the initiatives in the budget in my respective portfolio areas.

First, I would like to begin with SAPOL. Today, I was at the Police Academy, and I want to congratulate the most recent graduates and wish them well in their future roles as police officers in an array of fields. We know how hard South Australia Police have been working right throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but we know how crucial it is that we continue to provide them with the tools they need to keep South Australians safe, to continue to respond to the pandemic and also to carry out their regular policing duties.

This state budget allocates an additional $23.6 million not only to extend the employment of 54 protective security officers engaged in 2021 but also to recruit and train an additional 114 PSOs. So, sir, if you know any good people who are looking for a challenging and vital role, SAPOL are currently recruiting. The additional PSOs will be deployed to things like medi-hotels and also undertake a range of other COVID duties as they are required.

With more than $71 million announced in last year's budget and a further $77.5 million included in this year's budget, the government allocation will have provided an extra $98.9 million to support SAPOL's COVID-19 response. The government is investing over $21.1 million over three years to also complete the implementation of stages 3 and 4 of the Shield project to deliver greater collaboration and also data sharing capabilities, which are essential in this day and age. This will result in a more efficient use of policing resources and also ultimately improved community safety.

In the emergency services space, we are building on our $97.5 million investment in last year's budget to respond to the Independent Review into South Australia's 2019-20 Bushfire Season. We are continuing to ensure that our emergency services have what they need to keep us safe and strong. We are investing $1½ million in 2021-22 and $1.8 million per annum thereafter for the ongoing support and maintenance of automatic vehicle location (AVL) for our emergency services, which is obviously a vital tool for our emergency services going forward. We know that our emergency services personnel have been calling out for AVL technology for years and years, and I am very proud that our government will be delivering that for our emergency services.

Our volunteers are the backbone of our emergency services, and the Marshall Liberal government is committed to doing all we can to recruit and retain emergency services volunteers. That is why we are investing $4.4 million in our SES to implement a new program, called New Pathways: Volunteering Recruitment and Retention. This will go a long way to assisting our 67 SES units to respond to thousands of callouts right across the state each and every year. This will go a long way to increasing volunteer numbers. There are approximately 1,700 SES volunteers, but hopefully it will increase our volunteer numbers and also improve their experience in the SES, so this is very important.

We are also investing $100,000 to undertake planning and design work for a future joint CFS and SES incident management facility, CFS regional headquarters and also an SES unit at Willaston. Obviously, as the growth of the state leads to certain areas requiring more attention, we will continue to look at that with our emergency services. This has been a part of the state that has been identified for such works to be done. Such a facility would potentially service the Mid North, Yorke Peninsula, northern Mount Lofty Ranges, Barossa and Adelaide Plains, as well as the outer northern suburbs. It is much needed and we look forward to seeing that work.

To meet the increased demand for development assessments in bushfire risk areas, we are also providing an extra $146,000 per annum for the CFS to assess and process development applications as quickly as possible. Of course, we continue to provide the MFS with over $155,000 per annum until 2023-24 to support continuing the audit of buildings that may contain things like combustible cladding as well.

From a Department for Correctional Services point of view—and obviously we have an exceptional Correctional Services area—we are investing $4 million over the forward estimates to expand what is a very sophisticated offender tracking program. This will be done with an extra 100 electronic monitoring devices. These will monitor low-risk offenders re-entering the community. I had the great privilege recently of attending one of our local offices at Edwardstown, where I was able to see what our Correctional Services staff do to monitor some of these offenders. I was absolutely blown away, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all our staff in our Correctional Services area for the great work that they do in monitoring these offenders and keeping our community safe.

A further $1½ million will be allocated to develop a full business case for a new rehabilitation prison. Rehabilitation is very important. If you can rehabilitate a prisoner—if you can help turn their life around, if you can get them back on track, back on the straight and narrow, if you can get them where they are able to be reformed, to be better people with better skills, they can go out and get a job, provide for their family, have dignity and have purpose—ultimately there is a massive benefit to society not only for themselves and for their families but also for the economy. We should be doing everything we can wherever reasonably possible to rehabilitate people.

A further $1½ million will be allocated to develop a full business case for a new rehabilitation prison, and that has been identified as a priority by Infrastructure SA in its 20-year strategic infrastructure plan. The government will also be providing $2.4 million per annum from 2021-22 to bolster strategies to reduce the rate of Aboriginal reoffending and over-representation in our criminal justice system. We have a number of exceptional programs in our prison system that go towards reducing the rate of Aboriginal incarceration and Aboriginal offending, but we always have to be doing more. This is an exceptional measure that I know will help to reduce the rate of Aboriginal reoffending and over-representation in the criminal justice system.

We are also investing a further $14.4 million towards the huge upgrade of Yatala Labour Prison. This takes our investment in the upgrade to more than $160 million. I know my predecessor worked very hard on this upgrade at Yatala Labour Prison, and we are continuing to invest in that site. I am also pleased to provide some key updates that show the significant impact our investment is having on the ground. The upgrade is actually delivering 270 new beds, new visitor and admission centres and also new kitchen facilities.

We have had over 3,000 cubic metres of concrete installed across a 9,000 square metre area, 60,000 tonnes of rubble have been applied, and over 448 precast panels installed. Importantly, so far around 150 tradespeople and also site supervisors have been on site most days, and that has contributed to over 100,000 work hours. Our continuing investment in South Australia's prisons does not stop there. We are investing a further $8 million for the new reception and visitor centre project at the Adelaide Women's Prison, as well as $1.9 million in targeted security upgrades at the Adelaide Remand Centre to strengthen and bolster that centre as well.

On a local note, I am very excited to see $84.4 million included in the budget for the construction of a new 1,200-place high school at the Norwood Morialta High School campus site in Rostrevor—just down the road from Rostrevor College, in fact. It is no secret that people in my electorate and surrounding suburbs have been calling for a new school there for years and years.

What did the former government do? They had a secret plan to sell the site, but that will not happen under our government. The former government time and time again ignored the need to make hard decisions on this site, but I am proud to be part of a government that has listened to the community, that has looked at where the demand is needed and that will be meeting that demand with a brand-new school. This new site will deliver positive results, and continue to build what matters for the people of our state and for our local community.

Of course, the new high school is in addition to our massive upgrades of existing local schools. For example, down the road, if we go to Charles Campbell College we see an over $10 million upgrade of that particular school, delivering an upgraded senior school building with flexible science, technology, engineering, arts and maths learning centres, a refurbished performing arts centre, six upgraded general learning areas in the junior school, and the demolition of ageing infrastructure.

I was delighted to go out there on a number of occasions recently with the Minister for Education to inspect the site. There is a whole lot of excitement from the students, the parents, the teachers and future families who will be involved in that school. It is absolutely outstanding.

Then, of course, there is our over $50 million upgrade of the Norwood Morialta High School Magill campus, which will increase the capacity of The Parade, Magill, campus to 1,700 students. This will effectively allow all year levels to be on the same site. That upgrade is taking shape, sir; you should see the way it is coming along. It is moving at a rate of knots.

The upgrade there will also deliver a three-storey middle school building with a rooftop play space—how good is that? It will also have a two-storey building for the school's technical and specialist precinct, there will be refurbishment and extension of the gym (which is long needed), and a new façade entry statement. You can see that taking place as we speak as you drive down The Parade, so if you are in that neck of the woods have a look at that. It is coming together very, very well.

Of course, there is also improved landscaping, car parks and also sports courts. That is a school that from time to time allows other groups to use its facilities. I can remember a time when I was actually called down there to a local judo club, but a number of other schools use the oval there for cricket and football as well, amongst other things. Through our huge investment, our government is delivering local jobs, better services, and building what matters for South Australians, and I am delighted to give those particular updates.

When I look at the budget on the whole, it is great to see an improved economic outlook that has resulted in upwards revisions to GST and state taxation revenues over the forward estimates. It is notable that the GST revenue grants over the four years from 2021 to 2023-24 are expected to be $2.5 billion higher than estimated in the 2020-21 state budget. I think that shows how well the state has done and how well the country has done. I feel very privileged to do what I can in our government to support South Australia Police and the role they have played in ensuring that we have kept our state safe and, in turn, kept our economy strong as well.

Our net debt is, of course, at a sustainable level, but now is the time to borrow—at record low interest rates—for good productive infrastructure.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: I certainly was not. Our net debt to revenue ratio rises to 129.6 per cent in 2024-25 but again, when you look at that and how it compares with other jurisdictions around Australia and around the world, I think we are travelling pretty well. If you look at where New South Wales is heading and where Victoria is heading, our net debt to revenue ratios are at a good level in this climate. Of course, now is the time to borrow at record low interest rate levels and do it for the right reasons.

The economy has recovered much more strongly than expected. Of course, there were some economic commentators who, 12 months or 18 months ago, had forecast diabolical consequences because of COVID and the way it would wreak havoc through our state and the country. But the economy has recovered very well, much more strongly than expected, and I think that reflects a number of things.

Firstly, people in this state have done exceptionally well and our government has done a good job as well in making sure that we keep South Australians safe and our economy strong. It also reflects I think very positive and productive stimulus spending as well as increased confidence. If you look at GSP growth for the next year, it accelerates to 3½  per cent. If you look at some of the economies around Australia and around the world, they certainly will not be doing that. I am very pleased to see how resilient our economy has been and I am sure there is only going to be more growth in the future as we rebound and come out of this period and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Employment in South Australia recovered swiftly after May 2020. In fact, over 60,000 jobs have been created since May 2020, and there has been significant employment growth in April and May 2021, bringing employment to our highest level on record. It is also good to see that employment is forecast to grow by 1 per cent in 2021 and then 2 per cent in 2021-22. Of course, we would like to see that grow better but, again, when you put it into context as to how it could have been, we have done very well here.

A big priority in this budget is on jobs, on health—especially mental health—and of course on education, especially in the early learning environment. Our Economic and Business Growth Fund has been called the Jobs and Economic Growth Fund. There is $200 million of funding available, and the funding continues to support jobs and economic development in the state. The growth fund is available to support initiatives that create long-term sustainable jobs and economic growth in new and existing industries in the state. It is available to provide support for modern manufacturing proposals and other industry development assistance in key sectors—for example, plant protein, space, defence and hydrogen, which has emerged as an area of future growth.

The $4 billion stimulus package has been received very well, and we are also making sure that we provide lower costs for South Australian businesses. If we can do that then businesses have a better chance of continuing their good work during what has been quite a challenging time and, of course, we want them to grow, we want them to put on more people and we want them to put on apprentices and trainees if they are able to as well. We are still continuing our good work in the jobs and skills area and, amongst other things, we see $69 million over two years for the extension of the existing JobTrainer fund, which is a national partnership agreement with the commonwealth, until June 2022.

A key pillar of the budget is the $163.5 million mental health package. I think that has been exceptionally well received already, as I talk to people. I particularly want to pay tribute to the good work that the Minister for Health is doing in regard to the Modbury Hospital. I know that it is especially well received by the member for Newland and the member for King and also by all of us who share a constituency in the inner north-east and outer north-east of our state because it is a vital hospital. Recently, I was able to tour that and see the great work the government is doing.

In the remaining time I have, I also want to pay tribute to our government plan to fix ramping and ease pressure in our hospitals. I know our four-point plan will go a long way to fixing ramping and also easing pressure in our hospitals. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (16:55): I rise to speak to the Appropriation Bill in regard to the 2021-22 budget. This is a budget that is focused on creating jobs, providing better services and building what matters. This budget includes a range of measures that support local jobs and longer term economic growth. They include additional funding for the Jobs and Economic Growth Fund, formerly the Economic and Business Growth Fund, bringing the capacity of the fund to $200 million over the next four years, and extending the payroll tax exemption for apprentices and trainees for a further 12 months.

Both these economic positions are fantastic for generating business in our economy, especially with the extra 12 months for apprentices and trainees. But there is $200 million in the Jobs and Economic Growth Fund that will range across areas like defence and agriculture and other areas to really boost business in this state, investing further funding in skills and training and providing funding for a range of new transport, health, school and other community infrastructure projects.

The budget certainly includes a $163.5 million package of mental health initiatives. These initiatives put extra beds in place. They will help clear up the ramping and will be a great service for those in our community who do need these mental health services. There is also a $50.1 million Early Learning Strategy supporting developmentally vulnerable children by increasing the reach and frequency of early childhood development health checks.

I certainly remember the Blue Book that you get when your kids are born that progresses the health checks, vaccinations, etc., and it is a great way for everyone to keep track of how their children are going. These measures build on the government's $4 billion state stimulus package that was announced in the 2020-21 budget.

In regard to building what matters, the funding has increased by $1.2 billion from $16.7 billion to $17.9 billion, and this is over the next four years on critical infrastructure across government, continuing the government's record program of infrastructure renewal. I would like to acknowledge some of the projects that we have done recently, including the Browns Well Highway and the Ngarkat Highway.

They are both great routes throughout the edge of the Mallee near the Victorian border, ranging from Loxton through to Bordertown. The work is just about completed on the Ngarkat Highway. I know that the Browns Well Highway has been put up to 110 km/h, which was a promise at the last election, and I am really proud as one of the local members alongside the member for Chaffey and the member for MacKillop that these projects were delivered as part of our eight roads promise to get these roads back to 110 km/h. I know that the locals are very pleased that this was put in place.

There is also $8 billion for roads and public transport as part of this $17.9 billion and $2 billion for health—massive projects going into health. Education and schools have $665 million. One of my schools, the Murray Bridge High School and the transition to year 7, has $20 million being spent there at the minute, and it is absolutely fantastic. The Sarah contemporary architecturally designed 16 classrooms on the second level have a huge amphitheatre underneath. It is a phenomenal thing to behold and will really take education into the future in the Murray Bridge region.

The north-south corridor has increased funding by $1 billion, to $9.9 billion. The extra $1 billion dollars is to increase the lane width from two lanes to three lanes because it is a little bit difficult to come back with a tunnelling machine. I certainly support this initiative to really increase that throughput. We are doing the hard bit of that north-south connector, and we will get on with that job and it will have the appropriate tunnels and surface works in place.

The new Women's and Children's Hospital has $1.95 billion to provide services for women and children well into the future. That is programmed to be finished and 2027, notwithstanding the fact that we are investing $50 million to keep the current Women's and Children's Hospital going until we get to that date. The Riverbank arena, with $662 million, will host and hold15,000, and that will complement our convention and conference facilities across North Terrace and be available for so many events and increase our convention holding capacity. It will be another great economic stimulus going into the future.

We also have the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre, with $200 million. Another project is the $10 million for a business case for the Greater Adelaide freight bypass to divert trucks from the South Eastern Freeway to the north-south freight route via Sturt Highway. I think that is a great thing to be doing. That sits alongside $202 million for the Truro bypass. I think that is much-needed infrastructure, and I know that member for Chaffey would drive through Truro—well, how many times a year?

An honourable member: A lot.

Mr PEDERICK: A lot Because of the nature of the beast, thankfully we are lucky to get B-triples, B-quads, road trains and AB-doubles all out of Port Adelaide, essentially, run them around the connectors and the expressways and take them out the Sturt Highway. They can either head to the Riverland or get to the Halfway House corner near Sedan and come down my way, towards Mannum and Murray Bridge. As I have mentioned in this place before, it is a great thing that, almost by default, we are getting massive tonnages, thousands of tonnes of freight, not having to go down the freeway because nothing bigger than a B-double can come down the freeway. That is happening by default. I am going to talk about this project a bit more later on.

The old Murray Bridge, at Murray Bridge of course, has $36 million over two years. This is the signature infrastructure spend in my electorate. Obviously, it links both the east and west side of Murray Bridge within the township. It is fully state-funded works, which will include rectification of piers, drainage and lighting improvements. It sits just under the recently completely rebuilt Bridgeport Hotel.

I have already talked about some of these initiatives: the Economic and Business Growth Fund, the capacity of the fund to $200 million over the next four years, and the extension of the payroll tax exemption for apprentices and trainees for a further 12 months, which invests further funding in skills and training. As I have already indicated, this budget also provides funding for a range of new transport, health, school and other community infrastructure projects.

We have talked about some of the health funding initiatives, and I note that there is $28 million more going into the Ambulance Service. There has been a lot of debate about the Ambulance Service. We are putting on 74 more jobs there. We are putting on more doctors, more nurses and midwives and ambulance officers in South Australia than ever before in this state's history. This investment by our government, the Marshall Liberal government, acknowledges the important work of our Ambulance Service and the need to invest in its capacity while also pursuing sensible reforms to rostering and meal break practices that will further support the effectiveness of the service.

That is just part of our program, alongside our money for mental health beds and mental health funding and other programs that we are doing in our four-point plan to address issues in health. Part of that includes upgrades to emergency services right across the city and peri-urban areas, with 140 more treatment bays for emergencies. This will provide a much greater output for our emergency departments into the future, just like the newly developed $7 million emergency department at the Soldiers' Memorial Hospital in Murray Bridge.

In regard to specific money being spent in my electorate of Hammond, it includes $36 million to refurbish the Old Murray Bridge and a $20 million upgrade to Murray Bridge High School, which will be opening up for year 7 in 2022. Another education funding program I am really proud of is a $3 million replacement of existing learning areas at the Eastern Fleurieu R-12 Langhorne Creek campus.

There is $5 million towards the Murray Bridge to South East Links business case. This is about looking at the duplication of the Swanport Bridge. As I have said here before, I was stunned when it opened in 1979 and I drove up to it and there was a single lane each way, so let's see if we can rectify that. We will first do the study and then look at the program beyond Tailem Bend, through to the exit to the Mallee Highway, directly adjacent to the motorsport park at Tailem Bend at The Bend, for the dual-lane program there as well. A lot of money will be needed for that in the end because a bridge has to be lifted and made dual lane over the railway, but that is something we will look at.

There is some money going to my local councils, with $1½ million going towards the Mid Murray Murraylands Road upgrades. We have $900,000 going to the Coorong District Council for high-risk intersection upgrades and $850,000 towards the Lameroo pool rejuvenation project. We also have $540,000 going towards the Swanport Road recycled water pipeline project and $300,000 towards the Knights Well Road upgrade project.

This budget is a massive investment in infrastructure and services in the state, and I am so proud to see so much investment throughout the state, especially in the electorate of Hammond. As my signature item of infrastructure is the old bridge at Murray Bridge, I am going to go through a bit of history of when the bridge was built and how it came about.

The Old Murray Bridge was built of iron between 1873 and 1879 and is 603.5 metres, or 1,980 feet, in length. It was used by trains for 40 years, and during that time tollgates were installed to control other traffic across the bridge. The bridge became a shared road and rail bridge in 1886 and remained so until 1925, when a separate railway bridge was built adjacent. An article in the Adelaide Observer on Saturday 22 March 1879 stated:

The Murray Bridge deserves more than a passing notice, as it is the largest and at the same time the most costly undertaking of its kind that has been yet erected in the Australian Colonies, including New Zealand.

The political history of the bridge extends through several sessions of parliament, starting in 1861 when a committee of the House of Assembly recommended that a suitable bridge could be erected at a cost not exceeding £20,000—what if we could do that again?—the required amount should be included in the estimates for the following session.

The structure had to be specially adapted for the transit of cattle and sheep. The height of the bridge was initially set at 20 feet (or 6.1 metres) above the water, but in carrying out the work it was found necessary to increase it to 30 feet (9.1 metres) in order to be clear of funnels of the river steamers. Superintendent Mr H. Parker arrived from England in June 1874 with his apparatus and commenced the work of placing the remaining piers in position.

To measure the depth, divers were sent through 50 feet (15 metres) of water and 30 feet of river drift, making a total depth below water level of 80 feet (24 metres) under which the divers worked. No. 1 pier was taken down 70 feet (21 metres); No. 2 pier, 92 feet (29 metres); No. 3 pier, 118 feet (36 metres); No. 4 pier, 110 feet (34 metres); and No. 5 pier, 109 feet (33 metres) below the underside of the main girders.

It was a work of some considerable difficulty and danger, and to estimate the cost with the insufficient data at hand was very hazardous. The bridge piers, now increased to five in number, were sunk 30 feet deeper, and raised 10 feet higher to suit the steamers, than the section of the river sent to England in 1965 indicated. The river spans were five in number, each being 114 feet five inches (34.87 metres) in the clear and constructed on the Warren principle.

They were built by Messrs Kennard Brothers of the Crumlin Works, South Wales, and were a fine example of first-class bridge work. The main girders are connected together laterally by cross girders, which were originally made on the lattice principle, but not being strong enough to sustain the weight of a railway train they were taken to pieces and reconstructed of plate and angle irons. The bridge is floored with Malletts buckle plates, upon which the asphalt and road metal is carried.

The length of the structure over the river is 695 feet (212 metres), the width of roadway being 11 feet (3.4 metres), and of the footways, which are also asphalted, three feet six inches (1.07 metres). The main girders rested on masonry bedstones, which were supported by the cement concrete with which the cast-iron piers are filled, the piers in each instance having been sunk down to the bedrock granite.

They were composed of cast-iron cylinders seven feet in internal diameter, fitted together in segments and bolted in lengths as they were lowered into the river bed and, after being tested with double the weight that they would be ever required to sustain, they were filled up with cement concrete. The great depth below the waterline to which these piers were sunk necessitated a much heavier description of bracing than that sent from England.

The castings for these heavier braces, which were 89 tons in weight, were made by Messrs James Martin and Co. of Gawler and fitted together at the bridge works on a staging lowered into the water and afterwards adjusted and fixed by the divers. As soon as the piers were filled up and the bedstones set, the girders, which had previously been put together on floating stages between the piers, were lowered onto the bedplates by admitting water into the pontoons, which were then removed and moored in the next span, where the operation of building and fixing the girders was carried on until all the spans were completed.

The eastern approach consisted of 23 spans of 60 feet each, making a total length of 1,380 feet (420 metres). The piers consist of cast-iron cylinders on six-feet lengths, socketed together and sunk into the swamp to an average depth of about 60 feet. After being duly tested, they were filled up with concrete and prepared to receive the main girders, which were constructed on the lattice principle and made continuous—that is to say, every three spans represented a length of 179 feet 10 inches (54.81 metres).

The cross girders are constructed of plates and angle irons, and the floor, which was composed of buckle plates, were secured to the cross girders by suitable bearers. The work of erecting the approach occupied about 12 months, the chief difficulty being the transit of the materials, about 2,560 tons, by sea and overland and the sinking of the cylinders. The girders were lifted into position by a Goliath, which was carried on rails throughout the whole length of the swamp.

Certainly, I have travelled over this bridge all my life. The cross bands that are on the western end of the bridge as you come across it were replaced and lifted maybe half a metre higher—I am just going off memory now—because semitrailers would go across the bridge and hook the last one or two. Obviously, they would cause a major problem on the bridge and either destroy the girder, destroy the truck or both. I believe that was done sometime in the seventies.

I just want to take my hat off to the engineering that was done at the time to get this structure, which was opened in 1879, in place. It really goes to show what can be done. I am absolutely thrilled to see this money about to be invested, this $36 million in keeping the bridge up to speed for at least the next 30 years. I acknowledge the whole budget. I think the borrowing will be fantastic for the state and lead us well into the future in light of COVID-19.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (17:15): I rise to make my contribution to the 2021-22 budget. I would like to commend the Hon. Rob Lucas, the Treasurer of South Australia, for his great work in steering the Treasury coffers through what has been a very trying period of time over 18 months and for where it brings us to with this latest budget.

I think what we have seen is physical restraint while we have seen extensive stimulus measures put in place and what it has meant to South Australia as a leader through this pandemic. This budget has been what I would consider a very sound, solid budget in the trying economic circumstances that we find ourselves in.

I would like to reflect and focus on the regions and what this budget means to the regions. We know that the regions contribute about $29 billion to the state's economy and more than one-quarter of the total GSP. The communities—29 per cent of the state's population—punch above their weight every year through trying times. Whether it is seasonal challenges, commodity prices or global challenges, the regions continue to rise above.

This budget has included an additional $875 million in new measures over the forward estimates. Together with the $1.6 billion in new measures in last year's budget, this brings the total new measures funded to $2½ billion over the last two years. I think that is outstanding. The headline investment in our roads over the next four years is almost $800 million—in fact, it is $786 million. The investment of $120 million in regional education facilities I think speaks volumes to the fact that this government, the Marshall Liberal government, has been prepared to govern for all of South Australia.

When I came into this place like you, Deputy Speaker, in 2010, long forgotten were the regions of South Australia. We are now seeing some of that balance come back into the budgets and come back into the bottom line of the state's recognition that the regions have long been forgotten. The backlog of road maintenance and the lack of input into our educational institutions are now being recognised. It is great to see that we are seeing significant investment, whether it is maintenance programs, whether it is infrastructure investment or whether it is major projects going into the regions of South Australia. It is much needed to bring them up to standard, to bring them up to scratch and to give them some recognition for the economic contribution they continue to make on an annual basis.

I do want to put a lot of emphasis on what I think has been forgotten over a long period of time, and that is roads and infrastructure. In this latest budget we see a Greater Adelaide freight bypass. We have seen $10 million go towards completing a business case for it, including the key planning, and the freight bypass will be funded from the business case fund. It will look to give efficiencies coming off the South Eastern Freeway across, in essence, the halfway house road onto the Sturt Highway.

That will then be a part of the puzzle. The other part of the puzzle is the Truro bypass, with $202 million over three years. It is a long-awaited piece of infrastructure that has been talked about for many years, and finally we have a government that has been prepared to stump up, put the spin to one side, stop talking about this critically important piece of infrastructure and get on with it.

The Truro bypass will be a piece of infrastructure that will give road safety a significant shot in the arm and bring about heavy vehicle efficiency gains. We know that it is a federal highway and it sees significant truck movements coming from the eastern seaboard through the Riverland down to Adelaide, whether it is into the Port or into Adelaide's distribution network.

It is critically important that we embrace this. If we are going to divert extra vehicles off the South Eastern Freeway, we have to make sure that the Sturt Highway is facilitated with an upgrade. I would like to think that the business case warrants dual lanes both ways so that we can have safe passage as well as that efficiency. It is something that will be applauded from the rafters, and no less than by me.

As the member for Hammond said, I traverse the Sturt Highway regularly and do a considerable number of kilometres around the great electorate of Chaffey, and to hear the Truro bypass is being put on the drawing board—it is funded—is absolute music to my ears, as it would be to every heavy vehicle operator in the state who uses the Sturt Highway.

Of course, there are other initiatives being put in place. We have talked about reinstating the speed limit back on some of our highways, and that is no more important than on the Browns Well Highway. That road was left to rack and ruin. The shoulders disappeared and there were drop-offs of up to 150 to 200 millimetres in some instances on some of those corners. It has become a major freight route coming out of the eastern seaboard, coming away from Pinnaroo.

We have seen the cessation of two rail lines from both Pinnaroo to Tailem Bend, and from Tookayerta or Loxton to Tailem Bend, and that means all that freight is now on the roads. We see that freight travelling down a road that was built for Bedford eight-tonne trucks and we have had 63-tonne trucks and more—we have B-triples, A-trains and road trains—coming down those roads. We have now seen that road upgraded with safety barriers, shoulders and line marking. It is an outstanding upgrade to a road that has been long neglected.

The speed limit has been put back up to 110 km/h. I was there to help remove that last 100 km/h sign and make sure it was put where it belongs, and that is not on the post but in the bin because we now have the 110 km/h limit reinstated, which is great news.

I want to talk about some of the other initiatives in the budget that particularly affect the electorate of Chaffey. Being one of the premium food bowls of the state, fruit fly has really put the pressure on biosecurity measures, particularly in those horticulture industries. We now have the $34.5 million from 2020-21 to 2022-23 and it is not just happening in the Riverland; it is happening right across metropolitan Adelaide. We have now seen Medfly detections in Port Augusta and that has really raised alarm bells.

I am very happy that we have been able to see increased funding for fruit fly strategies for eradication responses. This is not about just managing fruit fly; it is about eradicating fruit fly. It is about giving us our competitive advantage into protocol markets, and it is making sure that the Riverland remains one of the very few areas of horticulture production that is fruit fly free. Tasmania is another place that is fruit fly free.

We have looked across the border. The pressure that our Eastern States counterparts/cousins have put on our horticultural sector remains. The Qfly that comes from the east is there every single day. We have seen the pressure that is coming out of the west with Mediterranean fruit fly, and we have our horticultural sectors under siege at the moment, so it is critically important that the funding remains.

For those who are listening, when you see those biosecurity officers in the orange overalls knock on your door, please accommodate them. Remove host material, making sure that the hygiene in your backyard is there. Make sure that you play your part. Whether you are in metropolitan Adelaide or in the Riverland, remove the host material, pick up fallen fruit and play your part. It is the world's most invasive pest and it is costing our primary producers many millions of dollars. I want to talk now about our seasonal and regional workforce because to employ those workers comes at great cost.

If we cannot get a premium price for our produce, it is going to impact on the bottom line and it is going to impact on the viability of those horticultural businesses, particularly in the Riverland, to be able to employ those Pacific Islanders. They come at great cost too, in the vicinity of about $8,000 a worker. The state government is subsidising that. Whether they be contractors or employers, they are stumping up about $2,500 per worker as their contribution to bring those Pacific Islanders into South Australia and get them into the Paringa quarantine facility. Once they have done their two weeks of quarantine, they then move out into the orchards, onto the farms and start harvesting. They get into the packing sheds, and it is just a great sight.

I was very honoured to be able to attend the Pacific Islander sporting games, or the Pasifika games, in Renmark at the Renmark Olympic soccer stadium, as well as the Renmark footy oval, where they played rugby, volleyball and basketball, as I understand it. It was a great day to witness the song and ceremony from those cohorts. We know that we have had people from Tonga, Kiribati and Vanuatu, and the last cohort came out of Samoa. I think the camaraderie they bring with them is second to none. So I thank them, and I think we have to remember, too, that a lot of those islanders who have come to South Australia to bolster our workforce were as worried about catching COVID as we were about them bringing COVID. We need to understand that the Riverland should stand proud that the Paringa quarantine facility is a national leader in quarantining.

Minister Littleproud gave the local area the gold star not only for quarantining but for showing control, restraint and not panicking. I want to thank the agencies: SA Health and SAPOL, ably led by PIRSA as the lead agency. That team have done an outstanding job. The contractors, Humanihut, who came in and set up the facility made it compliant, and all the businesses that supported the seasonal worker program and the quarantine facility should be commended. It now gives us the opportunity to continue to harvest, to pack and to make sure that we can still continue to plant and prune and have that workforce in our very own backyard that is safe, COVID free and continuing to underpin our economy.

The Riverland is a regional economy. It contributes about $1.2 billion with the horticultural sector, and they will continue to roll on. We know that the Pacific Islanders and the seasonal workforce program will continue to contribute. Once the citrus season is over, we will see some pruning and some planting, and then of course we go into the summer fruit season and vintage, and I am sure they will have a role to play. Again, we thank them and we thank this government for its support not only in eradication responses for fruit fly but also in mobilising that seasonal and regional workforce.

Sir, you as a primary producer usually enjoy good, solid rainfall over on Eyre Peninsula but, sadly, some of our farmers are still not so lucky, and it saddens me that in some of the Mallee areas we still have not received rainfall. There is still funding there, $2.2 million over three years, to continue to support our farmers, for the continuation of rural financial counselling, and we have measures in place for drought response to water infrastructure, and those continue to roll out.

We have had rains on the eastern seaboard, and we have had some good rains here in Adelaide, but we have to be mindful that there are plenty of areas, particularly in Chaffey, that still have not had significant rain to ease the drought pressure and burden on those businesses that have endured it for three or four years. Good luck to them, and may the rain gods come down upon them.

It is great to see an agtech adoption program of $1.3 million per annum. We know that agtech is playing a much more significant and larger role in today's farming, and it is great to see the agtech program continuing to grow and continuing to roll out. It is also great to see Adelaide University, with ThincLab, have a presence not only at Waite but also at the Loxton Research Centre, and I visited them with the Minister for Innovation and Skills only last week. Those programs continue to roll out.

I am very proud that some of our research centres and research farms right across South Australia are now looking at programs that will continue to roll out, the commercial and public system coming together, collaborating with an open door policy so that we can utilise those farms for the greater good of agriculture and the greater good of horticulture here in South Australia. We can be a leader within agtech, leading the nation in trying to grow the target of $100 billion by 2030. South Australia is well poised to play its role—and even punch above its weight—in making sure those adoption programs come in, particularly with agtech.

I would also like to touch on the wine export recovery program, a $5.4 million initiative over four years. The Riverland is the engine room of the wine industry not only here in South Australia. The Riverland produced 70.1 per cent of the state's vintage and about 30 per cent of the nation's annual crush. For far too long the monkey on the back of the Riverland grower has been bulk low-grade wine product, but those days have changed.

We are now producing very good quality wine going into all sorts of variants of containers, whether casks or bulk exports or bottled product. The Riverland continues to punch above its weight, leading the R&D programs and continuing to bolster our exports into many of our protocol markets. I congratulate every one of those primary producers producing good fruit, which in turn produces good wine and satisfies a lot of our international markets. That is great news.

There is a program to make sure we do not get the land snail into our grain crops, into our broadacre crop fields. It jeopardises one of the mainstays of our export and market returns into South Australia's economy.

I would also like to touch on the Local Government Infrastructure Partnership Program. Chaffey was the recipient of five projects, and it was great to see the Mid Murray getting road upgrades between Blanchetown and Morgan. The sealing of that road will be the final piece there, and that is great to see.

A million dollars also went towards the Renmark town wharf upgrade. Renmark is easily the most outstanding riverfront in the Murray-Darling Basin and, to enable Renmark to continue to upgrade and beautify the town riverbank, it has again had another $1 million put towards it. The Barmera multisport precinct will receive over $360,000 to upgrade change rooms and for oval lighting, and that is a great initiative. At Karoonda, there is $300,000 for the Knights Well road upgrade, which is another shot in the arm for that community to continue to upgrade our roads.

The $1½ million dollar contribution to the Waikerie Riverfront Community Hub project is an outstanding project. To have a sporting facility, clubhouse and change rooms right on the banks of the River Murray is nothing short of outstanding. The community is very strong and very passionate about their sport, particularly for the Magpies at Waikerie. They will now have the opportunity to fulfil a dream that has been long thought about. We have a $1.5 million contribution to a $3 million precinct there.

By and large, this 2021-22 state budget has been great for South Australia but, for me, regional South Australia, which once upon a time was long forgotten, has been the beneficiary of the budget—and today we are seeing big coffers of money being put into our regions.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (17:36): I thank you for this invitation to speak on the 2021-22 budget. Firstly, I would like to commend the Treasurer for handing down this generous budget aimed at making South Australia stronger. Last year's budget was geared towards two clear objectives: to save as many lives as we could and then to save as many jobs and businesses as we could. In the six months since the last budget, it is pleasing to report that there have been no further deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have also seen significant economic recovery as thousands of businesses open their doors and workers return to work or increase their hours.

Since the depths of the pandemic in May last year, more than 60,000 jobs have been created in South Australia, and there are now more people employed than at any time in the state's history. The centrepiece of last year's budget was the largest ever economic stimulus package in our state's history, designed to jump-start our economic recovery. This year, this two-year $4 billion economic stimulus package is leveraging another $1 billion in commonwealth, local government and business stimulus, bringing the total stimulus to $5 billion.

While significant progress has been made, there is no doubt there is still a lot more work to do and this budget launches the next stage in our strong economic recovery plan. This budget is our blueprint for a stronger South Australia, a positive plan that charts our course out of the pandemic by creating jobs, building what matters and delivering better services to secure our growing global reputation as one of the safest and most attractive places in the world to live, work and raise a family.

This blueprint for the future builds on the foundations of a completely new approach to economic growth and jobs, growth that we outlined in our first budget three years ago. Our Marshall Liberal government is aiming for long-term sustainable jobs growth. This policy for long-term sustainable jobs growth is based on improving business competitiveness by reducing the cost of doing business in South Australia for all businesses. If we want South Australian businesses to export more goods and services to national and international markets, then the costs of doing business in our state have to be nationally and internationally competitive. For three years now, we have implemented policies to achieve that objective.

Payroll tax has been abolished for all small businesses with payrolls less than $1.5 million per year, ESL costs for businesses and households have been reduced by $90 million per year and the top tax rate has been slashed, from 3.7 per cent to 2.4 per cent, in the most comprehensive land tax reform package in our state's history. Electricity costs for the average business have dropped by 20 per cent, and the recent approval of a second interconnector will drive electricity costs down even further. Water bills for an average business have dropped by $1,350 per year and a small number of high-volume businesses have saved up to $1 million this year on their water bills. The overall water bill cuts have come at a cost to the state budget of almost $200 million per year due to lower SA Water profits. Treasury has estimated that a small nursery business with a payroll of $750,000 saves $7,730 this year, compared to what they would have paid if the policy settings of 2017-18 under Labor had been continued.

This budget continues our economic growth strategy and rejects the alternative approach to post-COVID recovery adopted by the Victorian Labor government, which has just announced a massive increases in land tax and stamp duty, gambling tax and the imposition of a new business payroll tax to fund health expenditure. This is very much the Labor way, as the former Labor government in this state introduced new betting and foreign investor taxes and tried to introduce new banking and car park taxes.

Consistent with our jobs growth strategy, this year's budget provides further relief in the following areas:

a 12-month extension of payroll tax exemption for wages paid for eligible new trainees and apprentices, and a combination of state and federal government subsidies means that businesses can receive up to $32,000 in support for new apprentices and trainees;

a 50 per cent land tax discount will be introduced for eligible new build-to-rent housing projects, which will reduce the land values for land tax purposes up to 2039-40; and

a further $10.7 million in land tax relief in 2021-22 through the land tax transition fund for those taxpayers negatively impacted by changes to land tax aggregation rules in 2021-22.

A critical feature for ongoing economic recovery is increasing confidence in businesses and households, confidence in businesses to invest and help create jobs, and confidence in households where workers have jobs to resume spending at pre-COVID levels rather than increasing levels of savings.

Recent confidence surveys of businesses and households have shown significant increases in confidence, and the ABS this month reported that capital spending by businesses in South Australia in the last 12 months has increased by a massive 21 per cent—the highest increase of all states in the nation. When combined with the fact that last year we finally attracted more people from interstate into our state than actually left the state, we can be optimistic about what the future holds for our state.

The government in this budget has established a new $200 million Jobs and Economic Growth Fund to promote economic development and to help create jobs. This new jobs fund will also be a potential funding source for the federal government's Modern Manufacturing Initiative, which provides significant federal funding for initiatives as long as is it is matched by state government funding and private sector investments. The state government is considering a range of initiatives including those in the hydrogen, space, defence and plant protein sectors. This budget is also funding a range of job-creating initiatives, including:

$1.8 million to establish a trade office in Paris, which is in addition to offices in Tokyo, Houston, New York, Dubai, Singapore and Shanghai; in contrast, the former government closed down six trade offices;

$20.8 million to upgrade existing buildings at Lot Fourteen to enable the expansion of space, digital, high-tech and cyber companies in a collaborative setting; a particular focus will be on companies involved in small satellite development;

$22.8 million to meet increased demand under the Post-Production, Digital and Visual Effects Rebate scheme and also to continue the scheme beyond 2022-23;

$6.6 million to increase funding for the Screen Production Fund, managed by the South Australian Film Corporation;

$2.6 million to support small businesses developing digital and cybersecurity capabilities as well as other capabilities to enter the national trade market;

$4 million for the Great State Voucher scheme, including funding for another round of vouchers later this year; this scheme will include further support for accommodation providers in the CBD; and

$500,000 in addition to the $300,000 already announced to support activation of the Adelaide precinct by supporting events and activities that encourage people to return to work in the city or to visit and spend time in the city.

Together with a focus on creating jobs and growing the economy, the government's other major priority in this budget is another significant increase in spending in hospitals and health services, in particular, mental health services. COVID-19 has placed enormous pressure on hospitals and health services throughout the nation, and this has also been apparent in South Australia. Next year, the government will commit a record $7.4 billion in health spending, which is actually an increase of almost $900 million over the health spending by the former Labor government in 2017-18.

Budget papers estimate that total Health staff next year will be about 1,000 higher than the number employed by the former Labor government in its last year. In fact, figures produced by the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment indicate that in the first two years of this government, from 2018 to 2020, the number of nurses and doctors actually increased by 855. These facts clearly debunk claims being made that pressure in the health system has been caused by funding cuts or cuts to the number of nurses and doctors being employed.

The government has a clear plan to tackle our health challenges, including fixing ramping and easing pressure in our hospitals. This plan includes four points: (1) increasing emergency department capacity, which is increasing by over 65 per cent; (2) reducing demand on our emergency departments; (3) tackling bed block in our hospitals; and (4) providing additional resources to our ambulance services.

In this budget, the government will spend an additional $163.5 million over four years to strengthen the state's mental health system by supporting the implementation of the state's Mental Health Services Plan. The plan is designed to respond to the immediate need for support services and also, by investing for the future, to create a more resilient and flexible system.

Some of the new initiatives include $20.4 million over three years to build a new 16-bed crisis stabilisation facility in the northern suburbs to support the mental health needs of the community. The centre will operate 24 hours a day, providing acute crisis care based on a recovery model, with highly skilled professional staff and peer workers in a high-quality therapeutic but safely designed setting. The centre will provide a further 16-bed capacity in our acute mental health system and another alternative treatment pathway to reduce admissions to our public hospitals and ease pressure on our emergency departments.

There is $8.4 million per annum to increase the capacity of our community mental health services to provide help for people in the community with acute mental health challenges and reduce the number of people in crisis presenting to our public hospitals. This includes investing in additional drug and alcohol services, child and adolescent mental health services, forensic mental health services and support for adults with severe mental health conditions, including post traumatic stress disorder. Mental health clinicians will also be permanently assigned to work with our Ambulance Service to assist as first responders and to facilitate referral to an appropriate treatment pathway, avoiding the need to transfer a person to a public hospital emergency department if it is not necessary.

There is $12 million in 2021-22 to support the fit-out required to create additional psychiatric intensive care bed capacity in our public hospital system. This will create the capacity for up to eight additional beds available to be commissioned by SA Health as necessary, based on future demand. The Adelaide Adult Mental Health Centre opened in March this year and is providing adults with access to a range of mental health support services in an alternative setting to a hospital emergency department.

The centre opened in partnership with the commonwealth government and currently operates as a 12-hour-per-day service, from 12pm to 12am, and $4.5 million per annum is provided to expand the delivery of urgent medical health care to the community, including through expanding the centre's service to 24 hours a day. This will expand the number and types of patients who can be assisted by the centre, further easing the pressure on our hospital emergency departments.

There is $48 million over four years to construct a new 20-bed older person acute mental health unit at Modbury Hospital. This will allow for the decommissioning of the current Woodleigh House site at Modbury Hospital. This investment will allow for the transfer of the current older person's mental health unit from the Lyell McEwin Hospital to the new Modbury facility and for the current adult mental health patients at Woodleigh House to transfer to a fit-for-purpose facility at Lyell McEwin Hospital.

There is $5 million in 2021-22 to support the building of additional accommodation to provide options for people living with mental health disability to live independently while accessing appropriate supports. There is $5 million over two years to support the immediate needs of the mental health workforce in our public mental health services by increasing training and oversight capacity to assist in filling immediate positions and to provide greater opportunity to the existing workforce to build skills in mental health treatment.

There is $7.3 million in 2021-22 to continue a series of additional time-limited programs designed to support the mental health, wellbeing and resilience of the community in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes increased in-reach support to vulnerable communities and increased access to phone and other counselling services over the next 12 months as the community continues to navigate the implications of the pandemic. This massive investment in extended and new mental health services is consistent with advice from mental health experts over recent months. The state government continues to negotiate with the federal government about the possible further extension of mental health services.

The government has also maintained its clear plan to ease pressure on our emergency departments, and fixing ramping required a comprehensive range of initiatives in a number of areas. A number of these new mental health initiatives and services will assist significantly in easing the pressure on our emergency departments.

The government will continue to invest in other initiatives that are designed to also ease pressure on our emergency departments. They include: four priority care centres, providing community-based health care and treatment, including diagnostic and pharmacy services; My Home Hospital, delivering hospital care to people with certain conditions in the comfort of their own home, and I certainly come across this while I am out doorknocking; placing medic nurses in custodial facilities; and assigning mental health specialists with paramedic crews across the metropolitan area.

Another feature of the government's plan has been the continued investment in initiatives to tackle bed block in hospitals, such as the Transition to Home: Step Down program, with additional beds available for NDIS-eligible patients waiting for longer term supports, and statewide hospital criteria-led discharge to help patients return home as soon as possible.

When this government was elected just three years ago, we inherited a hospital system that, after 16 years of shambolic neglect by the former government, did not have anywhere near enough treatment spaces in our emergency departments. The government has allocated more than $110 million to provide 140 new treatment spaces in emergency departments and emergency extended care units in nine hospitals and health services. This will increase treatment space capacity in these sites by 65 per cent.

The remaining critical factor in the government's plan to ease pressure on our emergency departments and fix ramping is to significantly increase funding to our South Australian Ambulance Service. The government has commenced the process of appointing an additional 74 ambulance staff, as a result of a recent negotiated settlement with the unions, which involves agreement for significant roster reform, which will significantly assist in improving ambulance services in our state. These extra employees will mean that, since 2018, there would have been an increase of 258 ambulance staff. There is $2 million for new ambulances as well, a question that I have been asked in my community.

Claims that the government has cut funding for ambulance services are clearly wrong. In fact, funding for the South Australian Ambulance Service next year is budgeted to be $28 million per year more than the funding provided by the former Labor government in 2017-18. In fact, South Australia has the second highest spending per capita on ambulance services of all states and territories. It is clear that simply increasing the number of staff will not by itself solve the problem of easing pressure on our emergency departments and fixing ramping. That is why the government's comprehensive plan is the only real solution to the challenges of fixing ramping and easing pressure in our emergency departments.

I will finish by just touching on one of the most exciting initiatives in this budget, which is the $50.1 million Early Learning Strategy, which will improve the identification of developmentally vulnerable children and enable early intervention and support. There is a lot more information about that to come.

The one thing close to home that my King community should be incredibly proud of is the $1.6 million to extend the Sports Vouchers program to children in grades 8 and 9. My community was surveyed and they told me very clearly that 93 per cent of them supported an extension of this sporting program. It is a pleasure to have been able to work with the Marshall Liberal government to include it in this budget. I commend this budget to the house.

Mr DULUK (Waite) (17:55): I also rise today to support the passage of this budget through the house. I actually think overall it is a pretty good budget and there are some fantastic announcements in this package. Before I go on, though, I would like to thank the Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas in the other place, for his service to the parliament and indeed to the people of South Australia over many years. I put on the record that he has been a member of parliament longer than I have been alive. For many years, he has been a good servant, and I think this budget is a fine document for his last public document.

After reviewing the budget papers, it is good to see, as other members have mentioned, improvements to our health system, a plan to fix our roads and moves to address freight issues. Very important to my community is the restoration of our natural environment, funding for schools and community groups and reducing the cost of living for families and business.

Indeed, we are a small business state. In all our budgets and everything we do, we should look after those who are here, day in day out, providing jobs for so many South Australians, and that is the small business community of South Australia. Everything that we can do in all our endeavours in this place and as a government to support small business, to allow them to be open, to be free, to flourish, is so important.

In no particular order of importance, some issues I would like to touch on include, first of all, health care. There has been so much public discourse over the past 12 months that has centred around our health care, from ramping at our hospitals to the building of the new Women's and Children's and ongoing issues with the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health. Some good news in the budget, of course, is ongoing investments at the Flinders Medical Centre and the expansion of their emergency department.

Really important, as well, is the ongoing work at the reactivation of the Repat site. We are, of course, seeing more and more investment into that precinct. Some recent movements there have been the relocation of the brain injury and spinal cord services and statewide services from Hampstead to the Repat and, of course, the completion of service relocation of the transition care inpatient services to wards 1 and 2 at the Repat, which are being known as the Bangka Strait wards. I think that is a fantastic monument to those Australian nurses who made the ultimate sacrifice at Bangka Island during the Second World War.

It is really important to see those investments and also those investments into mental health. It is such a big issue, and it has been well documented that COVID has had an impact on our nation's mental health. Of course, these are investments that do take time to work through the system, but it is good to see that those initial investments are being made. Full credit goes to John Mendoza, who is no longer with SA Health but who came out and highlighted some of the need for investment in mental health. That is a really important aspect of this budget and I am glad to see it is there.

Sitting suspended from 18:00 to 19:30.

Mr DULUK: I was talking about infrastructure in the budget, as you might be interested to note. There is the ongoing funding for the Mitcham Hills road corridor upgrades, which is such an important investment in my community, and it is good to see that happening. One part of that upgrade that still needs some more work from the department is around the intersection of Shepherds Hill Road, Waite Street and Brighton Parade, and that was one of the three key tenets of the initial funding scope. There is a body of work that still needs to be undertaken by the department in that regard, and that is certainly an issue for the community that needs to be addressed and something I will be monitoring closely over the coming months.

Something that did excite me in the budget, and I know it probably excited your community as well, sir, is the $10 million of funding for exploration and planning into a freight bypass, which has long been discussed for our communities. This is an important investment to redirect road freight off the South Eastern Freeway and Cross Road, out of suburban communities and directly to major port and road routes. Road safety and the movement of freight through the Adelaide and Mitcham Hills is a matter of great importance to my community.

With rail freight and passenger trains regularly transiting through the suburbs of my electorate, I am supportive of all measures to improve freight safety and reduce disturbances for my community. I am looking forward to working with the government to see more railway stations being included in the government's $100 million Station Refresh program, that is, railway stations along the Belair line. Just this month, on a Wednesday afternoon when we were sitting here, multiple passenger train, cars and pedestrians were halted after a freight train stopped at the Belair line during peak hours, and this is an ongoing matter.

I also thank residents in my community, especially Geoff Bartlett from Blackwood Action Group and Jenny Hembrow from Belair who did some press just today for the Messenger in regard to the Station Refresh program and the need for investment on Belair line stations especially at Blackwood, Lynton, Mitcham and Belair.

When the freight train does stop, it takes at least 20 minutes for a freight train to pass any one intersection. That results in traffic being backed up, not only in Blackwood and Glenalta but down through Hawthorn, Lower Mitcham and Clapham as well, which are important parts of the greater Waite community. I continue to raise these matters with the government, but the need to divert freight trains out of our suburban communities and boom gates is a priority. The daily disturbance that both freight and passenger trains cause our commuters can easily be avoided through focused investments.

Two major projects that may be of some use and that we would like to see include an alternative rail freight corridor and further grade separations at road rail level crossings throughout metropolitan Adelaide. As I said, there is a commitment for a study on the northern bypass and, of course, more broadly we need a commitment of actual dollars in this. Given the low interest rate environments we see at the moment, this is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of that. The Mayor of Adelaide Hills Council has also made some recent comments about this.

The current freight route through my electorate, and not through the Hills, creates road traffic congestion, poses a dangerous fire risk for communities, creates noise and air pollution, is costly, slow and ineffective for industry, and impairs providing better public transport services. An alternative corridor would see a combination of existing roads and open space to move freight from Murray Bridge to Two Wells via Truro and would provide an enormous economic injection and job creation.

The government must ensure that Cross Road does not become a heavy road freight route, as supported by Infrastructure Australia in their February 2021 report. A northern bypass would deliver end-to-end supply chain efficiencies for local industries, increase the capacity for rail network and result in a shift from bulk road freight to rail freight, ensure that South Australia plays a key role in future freight movements across our continent and deliver significant environmental, economic and social benefits for South Australians.

One key benefit that I am constantly made aware of by constituents when I speak with them in the community is that if we were to move rail freight we would free up the other track on the Belair line, which could be used to increase the frequency of passenger trains and encourage greater public transport uptake. More importantly, it would allow the ability for a passenger service to run to Mount Barker. Many people and forward thinkers in urban planning and transport have supported the ability for there to be a passenger service to Murray Bridge and to really look at planning and residential investment and development to occur on the other side of the Adelaide Hills. That is so important to so many in our greater community.

Level crossings are a very big issue across South Australia. It was good to see a press release yesterday from the minister talking about a 10-year investment plan in rail crossings across South Australia, which I think is so important. Not that I often put any praise on Dan Andrews and his government in Victoria, but this is something that the Andrews government in previous years has really made a huge effort in. They have seen the removal of rail crossings across a lot of metropolitan Melbourne, to great effect. That is something we can certainly do here in Adelaide and beyond as well.

Dealing with level crossings is a hugely important piece of rail safety. It is an investment in the community, would stimulate the economy and is so important. I think 31 level crossings have been identified as posing high risk to users and creating the most disruptions on the road network. Within those 31, I think Glenalta in my community comes in at No. 2 or 3 and Blackwood in the other order, and of course there is the Unley Park level crossing as well at Hawthorn. That is the Glenalta level crossing on Main Road, Belair, the Blackwood level crossing on Main Road, Blackwood, and the Unley Park level crossing at Hawthorn.

These must be included in the 10-year level crossing removal program announced by the government. Infrastructure Australia has identified all three of these at-grade level crossings in their 2021 priority list, stating:

Some of these level crossings are closed to road traffic for up to 25% of peak traffic periods. Level crossings can lead to delays and safety problems as trains, cars, buses, trucks, cyclists and pedestrians cross paths…

Longer boom-gate closures can also create barriers between different parts of the community and reduce amenity in urban areas.

These problems are expected to worsen as road traffic and the frequency of rail services increase with population growth in South Australia.

In my community, when there is a 1.8-kilometre freight train going through the Mitcham Hills, it will block the Coromandel station, with the boom gates down on Brighton Parade, it will block the boom gates at Main Road in Blackwood and the traffic there, and it will also block the boom gates at Glenalta. That is three boom gates down for about 20 minutes with a 1.8-kilometre freight train. In the 21st century, these are infrastructure problems that the government should be looking at to invest in, to remove these rail blocks.

So important to so many in the community is investment in our environment and in the green economy. I think that is actually a perfect juxtaposition with investment in infrastructure and roads. I am really pleased to see $22.4 million being allocated for open spaces grants, with bids to open in July. I know without a doubt that there will be community groups in my electorate that will take advantage of those grants.

The Greener Neighbourhoods Grants Program has a $5.5 million commitment over four years. The program provides grant funding through local councils to enhance the urban tree canopy and accelerate the implementation of street tree management plans. I hope to see these programs and other funding mechanisms support projects such as the restoration of the Playford Lake in Belair National Park and improving feed-in creeks, extended funding for Brownhill Creek Recreation Park for stage 2 of the Kaurna Tree Shelter Project, and continued investment in the Sturt River Linear Park Trail to connect the hills to the coast.

Looking at education, which is so important for all of us, it is important to see that continued investment in our communities through the Local Government Infrastructure Partnership Program. Across the state, $106.9 million in grants has been approved for local councils towards the delivery of community infrastructure. Earlier this year we saw the Blackwood Community Hub and library being announced as part of that funding. This comes as the government announced on Sunday that they will spend a record $20.7 million each year in our state libraries, which is fantastic.

Of course, there is community funding of $27.3 million this financial year for sport and recreation grants, and I think the Blackwood Bowling Club have already received funding as part of that. There are ongoing investments in the Women's Memorial Playing Fields. I am really looking forward to that coming to fruition early next year, when we will hopefully see the playing fields upgraded and new user-management coordination being put in place there.

Another important announcement in the budget for families is the expansion of the Sports Vouchers scheme. Earlier this year, I wrote to the minister suggesting that the program be extended to allow year 8s and 9s to participate in that scheme, and it is fantastic to see that come to fruition today. This will certainly help the confusion over primary school-age students and the transition from year 7 to high school, to ensure that they are included in the scheme.

One thing I have spoken about in this house on many occasions now, and again today in question time, is the need to include Scouts and Girl Guides in this Sports Vouchers scheme. Scouts and Girl Guides provide so many outdoor activities for so many young South Australians. It only makes sense that they can participate in a scheme like this. As I said earlier, investing in our education, in our children, is critical and the ongoing capital works are so important. It is also good to see in the budget support for non-government schools as well. We have many independent schools across South Australia—low-fee independent schools that actually provide a really important education to our kids, and there is no reason why they should be excluded from any state government funding.

There is $35.1 million over four years to increase the number of children from birth to age 5 accessing developmental health checks at more regular intervals in partnership with CaFHS and non-government partners. The old Blue Book, as the Treasurer alluded to, is great record keeping for families and early learning, and just ensures that we as a community are doing all that we can to look after toddlers and bubs so that when they get to school age they are in the best possible state of health and wellbeing that they can be.

Looking after cost-of-living pressures for so many South Australians is critical. It is good to see a reduction in utility bills and other fees, such as CTP, across the forward estimates in comparison to previous years. So it is really giving families a choice, which is so important, and looking after the cost of living we know is incredibly important, especially in these difficult COVID times that we have at the moment where there is so much uncertainty.

Just today, we saw the snap decision to shut borders with Queensland. I know there were families in transit from Sydney coming back. They left Sydney when the situation was normal and landed in Adelaide to find the rules had been changed immediately. For small business, for people who may have health issues and are travelling between states for appointments and visiting family members, to have some certainty in what we can do, especially around cost of living, is so important.

As I said at the start of my contribution, looking after small business and the business community is paramount. I am happy to see small business, the backbone of our South Australian economy, being supported in this budget through tax measures, around land tax and payroll tax, savings around utility bills, and small business grants, which I hope will help many small businesses.

Of course, we have seen investment in fruit fly eradication, which is really important given the current outbreak in South Australia. I know that will help growers in my community, such as Magarey Orchard in Coromandel Valley and the McGough family in Hawthorndene, who are right on the cusp of the fruit fly zone at the moment.

There is also $36.9 million from the Jobs and Economic Growth Fund. Some of that will certainly help with the Wine Export Recovery and Expansion Program. We have seen so many people in the wine industry affected by change of trade terms with China. For one of our biggest export industries and a huge employer of South Australians, not just in the regions but in all parts of the wine sector, from manufacturing to horticulture, it is important to support them.

Liquor licensing relief is for our hospitality sector. I have said before that we have a huge chance at the moment to support our hospitality sector by allowing them to operate at full capacity. We have seen pubs and clubs being restricted in what they can do for capacity and patronage, and by lifting this to 100 per cent we will have no cost to the taxpayer but have a positive impact on our local economy, and I know that is something that that industry, that huge employer in South Australia, is screaming for. It is a huge trainer of South Australians in the hospitality industry as well. Some steps around that are some further measures that could be tackled by the government in this budget.

There has been a lot of talk about debt and the cost of money. We are looking over the forward estimates at non-financial public sector net debt to revenue, set to peak at 129.6 per cent for the full forward estimates. As a case in point, back in 2015 the Auditor-General reflected that net financial public sector debt to revenue sitting at a threshold of about 35 per cent was within the Auditor-General's comfortable limit at the top end of that threshold.

It is a reminder that, whilst the cost of money is cheap by global standards at the moment, and the 10-year commonwealth bond rate is sitting at levels never seen before, when any of us borrow—and government is no different—we must borrow prudently, we must borrow for the right reasons, we must do that to invest in productive infrastructure. We should not be borrowing, and I am not saying that we are, to fund recurring expenditure, but to make those long-term investments that will see an economic return to those who are borrowing that money, which is our community.

In summary, there is a lot to unpack in this year's budget. I have not had time to touch on the community wins over the years that are still in the budget, such as continued funding for the Mitcham Service SA centre, or other projects, such as restoring the Waite Gatehouse, but the state budget importantly has focused on funding essential services and health and education. Just a big shout-out while we have some time tonight—as we are sitting late I am missing out on the Mitcham Rotary Club handover dinner, and I thank Barry Hurst for his contribution over the last 12 months to the community in Mitcham and to Rotary in general.

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Minister for Trade and Investment) (19:46): I take the opportunity today in parliament to speak about the 2021-22 state budget. It is the second budget the Marshall government has handed down framed by COVID-19. The global pandemic has wrought havoc throughout the world, with approximately 179 million cases recorded, resulting in 3.8 million deaths. As a parliament we certainly send our sympathies to all those peoples and countries gripped by COVID and still with COVID raging.

There is no question that South Australians have been challenged in the past 18 months in a way that we never have been before. In South Australia, we have been guided by the advice of the health experts, as our first focus has always been to save as many lives as possible. This health response has relied heavily on our health professionals and police as our first line of defence, for which this parliament and all South Australians are very thankful. This has led to South Australia being one of the safest places in the world, but the health challenge has created massive economic challenges, not only here in South Australia but throughout Australia and the world.

Both this budget and last year's budget recognised not only the health challenge we are dealing with but also the economic challenge presented, and has put in place a $4 billion stimulus package which, if you compare it, is the second biggest stimulus package in the nation as a percentage of gross state product, being at 3.6 per cent. This $4 billion stimulus package has provided a vital lifeline to so many small businesses that put their fellow South Australians ahead of their own business interests.

This is a time of great change, but of course out of change and risk comes opportunity, and this budget certainly provides a positive plan for the future to keep South Australia safe and strong, by creating jobs, building what matters and delivering better services. As a government we have built on the Marshall government's jobs and economic growth plan that has been set in place right from the get-go in 2018 when we came to government. It is based on long-term sustainable growth, looking at improving business competitiveness by reducing the cost of doing business right here in South Australia for all businesses.

We have slashed payroll tax for all small businesses with payrolls under $1.5 million. We have taken the top land tax rate from being the highest in the nation to now being competitive with other jurisdictions, with a top rate of 2.4 per cent. We have reduced the emergency services levy in this budget by nearly $95 million, a benefit not only to businesses but households as well. Additionally, we are reducing water bills by an average of over $1,300 for businesses.

Of course, getting the fundamentals right is important to all businesses. In terms of the Marshall government, we have also had to deal with the handling of the dual economic and health crises we have seen in South Australia, but by having these fundamentals in place and, further, the budget stimulus package of $4 billion we have seen business conditions and confidence levels at record levels.

Business SA's survey of business expectations has shown confidence levels rising throughout the COVID crisis as we have dealt with it. There was recently a 28 per cent increase in business confidence for the December quarter, the largest in the survey's 40-year history. More recently, in the March quarter, Business SA's survey indicated that business conditions in South Australia experienced a significant rise, with Business SA commenting, 'The last time the index reached such a height was over 13 years ago, at the back end of the pre-GFC boom.' We have also had surveys from NAB and Bank SA that also point to business confidence and conditions in positive territory.

We know that for businesses to grow and create jobs, and in turn to grow the state's economy, we need and want them to be export focused as a state but also as a business. We want South Australian businesses to export more goods and services not only to national markets but also to the very large international market. If you think about it, South Australia has 1.7 million people and Australia 25 million, but Asian countries who are our very near neighbours have billions of people living there.

With their growing middle class, there is massive opportunity for South Australian businesses to sell our premium produce into those markets. To make them nationally competitive the Marshall government has reduced the cost of doing business in our state. We are also leaning into sectors where South Australia has competitive global advantages and that are, importantly, future focused. To support businesses we like to provide on-the-ground intelligence as well as saving them money and getting access to key markets.

The Marshall government has set up a critical network of trade offices in our key markets such as Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi, Houston and New York. Bearing in mind that the US is our number one source of direct foreign investment and our second biggest trading partner, we had no presence on the ground in the US until the Marshall Liberal government set about changing that. We also have trade offices in Dubai in the growing Middle East and North Africa region, and just recently set up an office in Singapore in the south of Asia, another key market. Of course there is also China, where we set up a trade office in Shanghai.

These trade offices have provided for critical relationships to be established between South Australian businesses and key importers and distributors in those key markets. To talk about the benefit of that, just today the preliminary trade figures for the last 12 months to May showed that South Australia's merchandise exports were $12.6 billion. That is the highest export figure in South Australia's history and comes on the back of April's figures, which showed exports for that 12-month period as being $12.5 billion, which was the previous record.

We are breaking records in exports, and that is where we want our economy to grow and become focused as well. Talking about the April figures, there were over $1.3 billion of exports in April 2021. We have had a billion dollars of exports in a month in South Australia only three times, so we are really focusing and leaning in on exports in South Australia.

We are looking at some of those big markets. I talked about the US, but we also have the UK, which is really an established market, and it was fantastic news last week when the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced an in-principle Australia-UK free trade agreement. This is great news for South Australian businesses, particularly our premium food, wine and agricultural products. Our London trade office will be looking to turbocharge exports into the UK, turbocharge investment here for South Australian businesses, creating more jobs.

Of course, with Brexit, we have also the European Union as a key market for South Australia. We are anticipating that further opportunities will be opened up through an expected free trade agreement with the European Union also. As I said, Europe is a key export market for South Australia, representing $700 million per year of exports for South Australian businesses.

In the post-Brexit landscape, this budget is moving early by investing $1.8 million over four years to establish a trade office in Paris. The Paris trade office will give on-the-ground access to established markets in Europe. In France, we have great opportunities and synergies. We have the Attack class submarines with Naval Group, a $50 billion program with a major French company. There are also lots of export opportunities in Germany, which is a massive market, as are those established European countries like Italy and Spain, and there are also emerging markets in eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

We do know there are many challenges ahead on the international trade front. With no international travel, there are market access issues with our state's biggest trading country, China. Our trade offices are going to be there to back South Australian exporters to help them grow into existing markets or into new ones.

If I just compare the Marshall government's support for South Australian exporters with Labor's, when Labor were in office in 2012 and 2013 they closed down six trade offices. Can you imagine how difficult it would have been for our exporters now with no international travel? How would they have been able to get in touch with their markets? It would have been a massive handbrake on South Australia's economy during COVID. But, no, not on this side of the house. South Australian exporters are thankful that the Marshall Liberal government have added eight trade offices to drive our economic recovery out of COVID.

If I can talk a little about the imposition of wine tariffs by China over the next five years on our $2 billion wine industry, it has effectively closed the door on wine exports to China, representing approximately $800 million of export to this state. As I have been around the state listening to our key markets, whether that is near Adelaide in the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, or further afield in the Clare Valley, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra and in the Riverland as well, the clear message from the wine industry is that they need to expand into other markets. This budget backs our wine industry by funding a $5.4 million wine export recovery and expansion program over the next four years.

This wine program is going to be critical in working alongside our trade offices to provide wine exporters the ability to expand into established markets, such as the UK, Canada and the US, where we know there is substantial consumption of South Australian wine. It also looks to help our exporters go into emerging markets, such as Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, which have shown an appreciation and appetite for South Australia's premium wine. Finally, we are also looking to go into developing markets such as India, which has a massive population base of 1.3 billion people and a growing middle class. This will be about education and giving them familiarity with South Australian wine so that they can be one of our next key wine export markets.

Not only are we supporting our traditional industries, such as food and wine, mining and defence, but we are also looking to stand up thousands of new jobs building submarines and Future Frigates in the defence industry. They are a foundation stone of where we have come from but also a really big future growth opportunity here in our state.

Talking of future growth opportunities, we are also looking at industries of the future, whether that be in high-tech, creative or space industries. Some of this new industry will be based in Lot Fourteen. This is home to some key national centres of excellence, such as the Australian Space Agency. It was fantastic news when the Prime Minister and the Premier announced the Australian Space Agency was going to be based right here in South Australia. That was back in 2018. Fast-forward to now and it is in operation, working and providing commercial opportunity here in South Australia.

The space industry in South Australia is based on new space. It is based on commercial space opportunities. It is not the old space, which relied heavily on government money. This is about commercial space entities, and we are very lucky to have a fantastic and thriving space ecosystem in South Australia. It is, in fact, the nation's space capital. It is leading to the launch of the first space capable rocket, Mr Deputy Speaker, in Koonibba in your electorate of Flinders, but we also have more launches on the horizon. It is an exciting time in South Australia.

The space industry has the opportunity to grow to become a $12 billion industry in Australia by 2030 and certainly it is the Marshall government's aim and my aim to help secure a large percentage of that. Obviously, the space and high-tech ecosystem present in Lot Fourteen also has other centres of excellence such as the MIT Living Lab. MIT is one of the top-ranked institutions in the world and is based here in South Australia.

We also have the Australian Institute for Machine Learning. This is ranked No. 2 in the world for vision-related artificial intelligence. This is driving and attracting a magnet for companies here. Artificial intelligence will be a crucial technology that businesses will harness to remain or become globally competitive, and no more so than in the health and medical industry sector where South Australia, again, has a competitive advantage.

This Marshall budget recognises this by investing $1.6 million over four years in an artificial intelligence and health hub. It is going to grow South Australia's digital health ecosystem here by providing one-to-one co-funding to co-develop digital health applications alongside the Australian Institute for Machine Learning and the MIT Living Lab. These are great opportunities to help the South Australian health system but also to look at exporting that, not only nationally but, importantly, internationally, providing more export income for this state.

We recognise that it is all about trying to support and leverage these great centres of excellence and the new industries that are coming here, and so the government in this budget has established a new $200 million Jobs and Economic Growth Fund to promote economic development and help to create jobs that are sustainable and for the long term. They are not there just for the money and when the money is not there they disappear; these are long-term stepped change as well.

As I said, the $5.4 million Wine Export Recovery and Expansion Program, the $1.8 million European Trade Office based in Paris, and the $1.6 million AI and Health Hub are all funded from this jobs fund. At the same time, the federal government's $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative, aimed at promoting sovereign manufacturing capability, includes a collaboration stream which will provide significant federal funding for initiatives as long as they are matched by state government funding and private sector investment.

The state government is considering a range of initiatives, including those in the hydrogen, space, defence and plant protein sectors, and this new jobs fund will be a potential funding source for these job creating industries of the future. By getting these fundamentals for business right, setting up these centres of excellence and investing in future industries, South Australia is attracting attention from global organisations: organisations such as Accenture, who bring with them 2,000 jobs in cyber and defence; Amazon Web Services, the second biggest business in the world; Google Cloud, the fourth biggest business; PwC; and the MTX Group is bringing in 500 jobs. This demonstrates the appetite from leading organisations to innovate in Adelaide in partnership with the capabilities we have brought.

The opportunity to have a career based in South Australia with these global organisations is also making us a magnet for talent. When we came to government in 2018 there was a massive brain drain of our young talent with net interstate migration going from 6,000, 7,000 towards 8,000 people net leaving the state. We have reversed that. By March last year, before the pandemic, this had reduced to just under negative 270 people. Since then, the net interstate migration has moved into positive territory, such that the most recent results show that for the 12 months to March this year the state has recorded positive net interstate migration—the first time this has been done since 1991.

This is also helping to drive jobs. The most recent labour force statistics in May showed that there were 871,000 people employed in South Australia. That is the highest in the state's history, but there is more work to be done and this budget supports further job creation. If you add the state's health response to COVID to those career prospects for South Australians, it makes South Australia one of the safest places in the world.

Only this month, Adelaide was ranked as the number one most livable city in Australia and the third most livable city in the world. Of course, I would like to think that my beautiful electorate of Morphett is the number one electorate in this state, which would mean that Morphett becomes the number one most livable electorate in the nation, and with good reason. There are terrific people and facilities in Morphett.

Since coming to government, it has been all about listening to the community and seeing what needs to be done and what can be helped. Since coming to government, we have expanded the Glenelg Police Station hours so that, in the peak summer months, the police will be available for much longer and into the weekend as well, which is fantastic for safety in that busy tourism precinct.

We have also done surface drainage and surface improvements to the Plympton Bulldogs footy oval, which is fantastic. Just recently, funding was announced to totally resurface the PHOS netball courts, which is great. That will unite the PHOS Netball Club and the PHOS Football Club, which has been a real drive within the community. It is fantastic for them. We have also invested money into the Novar Gardens Bowling and Petanque Club with some new petanque pitches.

Of course, schooling is very important, and the Glenelg Primary School is one of our key schools. Part of this budget sees $7 million being put towards a facility upgrade for that school. That is part of $665 million worth of funding being put into upgrading our schools across the state of South Australia. That is fantastic news for students not only in Morphett but across South Australia as well.

There have also been further improvements to Plympton International College, with $3 million of funding going into their performing arts building. There is $100,000 going towards the fantastic Our Lady of Grace Catholic school. St John the Baptist, another Catholic school, has had $2.4 million put towards upgrading their facilities. Finally, St Mary's Memorial School has had $1 million. So this budget is really investing in education, and that is really important.

In summary, this budget will further secure our state's growing global reputation as one of the safest and most attractive places in the world to live, work and raise a family. Certainly our work, in terms of trade and investment, for which I am responsible as the minister, will help our businesses create jobs for all South Australians.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (20:07): I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2021. Our budget for a stronger South Australia is delivering better services, creating jobs and building what matters. Right across South Australia and in my electorate of Adelaide it is delivering savings directly to families, reducing costs and creating jobs for businesses that need it. There is so much to talk about in this year's budget because we are delivering so much for South Australians, such as an enormous infrastructure pipeline, worth a record $17.9 billion over the next four years.

In the Adelaide electorate, we have the Adelaide Festival Centre, with $3.1 million for internal refurbishment works, including the provision of new seating and the refurbishment of dressing rooms. We also have $300,000 for a business case for a new acoustic hall, and we have CBD activation grants, building on the very successful $300,000 in 2021.

A further $500,000 in 2021-22 will be provided to support the activation of the City of Adelaide precinct to deliver programs that will encourage people to return to the city to shop and work. This funding has been provided to the City of Adelaide to support the extension of the council's Event Infrastructure Incentives Scheme, which supports local industry to stage events, and to expand existing grant programs for small business owners in the city to encourage them to enhance and activate their outdoor areas. This will have a critical flow-on effect in supporting local businesses and jobs, including retail, food and beverage.

The $200 million Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre will have a further $200,000 per annum for an assistant director to provide content development and creative planning, programming and design input for the centre, which is expected to open in 2025.

The $662 million Riverbank arena that was announced will have $78.9 million invested over the forward estimates to finalise the plans for the construction of a new multipurpose arena within Adelaide's Riverbank Precinct. The new arena will provide the capacity and flexibility to attract larger conferences and exhibitions of strategic importance to South Australia. The business case identifies 2,059 jobs that will be created during construction and 345 jobs per annum once operational.

As to the Lot Fourteen capability centres, the government is investing in existing buildings on Lot Fourteen and this will be further boosted to enable the expansion of space, digital, high-tech and cyber companies in a collaborative setting; $20.8 million will be provided to Renewal SA focusing on the next stage of development which is providing suitable accommodation in the Eleanor Harrald and Hanson buildings as part of a satellite development.

Our Leisure Events Bid Fund of $90 million over four years will see the government continue looking at opportunities to secure new events. Recently secured events include the Adelaide International tennis, Illuminate Adelaide, the 2023 Australian Masters Games and the 2023 NRL Ampol State of Origin.

A landmark $163.5 million mental health package over the next four years has been announced. This will provide a suite of critical new services outside the emergency department settings to further support South Australians seeking mental health care. This includes additional ongoing community support services, construction of a new 16-bed crisis stabilisation centre in the northern suburbs and the expansion of the Adelaide Adult Mental Health Centre to operate 24 hours a day with an extra $4.5 million per annum.

We will deliver a new $1.95 billion landmark Women's and Children's Hospital that will provide world-class health care for children and women in South Australia for decades to come. The new state-of-the-art hospital will provide more bed capacity, more operating theatres and a bigger emergency department. It will be built next to the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Port Road and will include 500 treatment spaces, 170 outpatient consultation rooms, multilevel parking and two bridges linking the hospital facilities. The hospital will also improve the transition of care to adult services for adolescents, enhance mental healthcare facilities and will further education, training and research capabilities being located within the Adelaide Biomed City.

Railway stations across the city will receive much-needed makeovers as part of the $99 million Station Refresh package in the 2021-22 state budget. Amongst the first lot to be upgraded are 15 stations along the Gawler line including the Adelaide station receiving $6.4 million, Ovingham receiving $10 million, as well as Dudley Park and North Adelaide stations in my electorate. The upgrades will include new shelters, seating and bins, lighting, painting and landscaping, with works to begin this year.

Gawler rail electrification and the Ovingham level crossing projects are creating more than 350 jobs. The electrification of the Gawler line will deliver faster, cleaner and more reliable services and support increased passenger transport capacity. This budget provides an additional $100 million to complete the works on the Gawler line electrification project, bringing the total project to $715 million.

We have committed $25 million to bust congestion at the notorious intersections along Nottage Terrace, with $19 million major works already underway to upgrade the intersection at Scotty's Corner and now the next intersection will be fixed to increase capacity, ease congestion and keep traffic flowing smoothly, saving valuable time for commuters. We have announced $6 million in this budget that will increase the capacity at the Nottage Terrace and North East Road intersection to keep traffic flowing.

Heritage is so important to South Australia, and in particular in the Adelaide electorate, and that is why we are investing in preserving and activating our much-loved historical sites, boosting the economy and creating jobs. Ayers House will receive a $6.6 million upgrade to restore and revitalise one of South Australia's best-known heritage buildings. This includes kitchen upgrades, removal of asbestos, installation of a new lift and new air-conditioning infrastructure. In addition, there will be a $1.5 million extension of the successful Heritage Grants Program.

Our children and young people deserve world-class facilities for their schooling. That is why the Marshall Liberal government is investing heavily in education. Nailsworth Primary School is a big winner and will see $5 million injected into the school to provide additional capacity for growing enrolments. I also note the $23 million state government contribution towards a redevelopment of Adelaide High School to accommodate more students and year 7 going into high school in 2022.

The Marshall Liberal government has an ambitious transition to net 100 per cent renewables in the 2030s. The SA-New South Wales interconnector will start construction this year and when delivered will provide savings of a further $100 per annum on power bills. The $13.4 million investment in a statewide electric vehicle fast charging network will jump-start electric vehicle uptake and support the policy to transition the state fleet to electric vehicles.

Funding of $150,000 has also been provided in this budget to provide telephony equipment and resourcing to implement telephone voting for the blind or vision impaired voters and for those located overseas. Good health care is crucial for South Australians and is a top priority for the Marshall Liberal government. Fixing hospital ramping is a major concern and priority for this government.

We are investing $7.4 billion to fix ramping by easing pressure on emergency departments and boosting resources across the health system, by increasing emergency department capacity with $110 million to add over 140 new treatment spaces at nine emergency departments across the state, increasing capacity at those hospitals by 65 per cent. We are also easing demand for emergency services by creating appropriate alternative service delivery options and by tackling bed block and improving capacity in hospitals by creating more appropriate accommodation options.

Our multimillion dollar investment in education will provide a huge jobs boost and builds on our ongoing commitment to improve education infrastructure across the state. As part of our investment in education, we are providing $50.1 million for an early learning strategy. This funding will include an initiative of $35.1 million to expand the reach, frequency and number of child development checks, with $150.5 million in extra funding and hundreds of extra teachers coming into our public schools next year.

Our state's recycling industry will receive its biggest ever investment, with more than $16 million of state government funding that will unlock eight new projects worth $111 million that will help our environment. These projects include a $12 million wastepaper and recycling plant in the north, a $24 million material recovery plant in the south and a $19 million glass processing plant just outside of Gawler. Hundreds of jobs are expected to be created through this investment, which will further strengthen South Australia's recycling sector and build our nation-leading circular economy.

Between 2021 and 2025, around $660 million will be invested in residential housing, including the government's affordable housing initiative, which will see over 1,000 affordable homes built over the life of the project, as well as public housing capital maintenance and renewal. In child protection, I am very excited with this year's budget. My department will be providing better services. The Marshall Liberal government remains committed to getting better outcomes for our most vulnerable children and young people in care.

In this year's state budget, we have provided additional funding of $42.1 million over four years to meet the costs of children and young people requiring a child protection statutory response, to keep them safe from abuse and neglect. We are committed to our ongoing strategy of growing the number of placements in family-based care and investing in additional early intervention programs to help vulnerable families before there is a need to enter the child protection system.

The Marshall Liberal government is providing better services through the implementation of a number of new initiatives to support our most vulnerable children and young people and their families. These include expanding family group conferencing and funding a new trial program to support young people post care. Due to the success of our program, the government has committed $3.7 million over four years to establish family group conferencing as an ongoing program.

The pilot, which was delivered by Relationships Australia SA, has been very successful and ensured that 90 per cent of the families they have worked with have been able to remain together safely. We have expanded the program to include two further trials, one for unborn child concerns with Relationships Australia from 1 April and an Aboriginal-specific program with AFSS, with referrals to begin very soon.

Given the success of our carer payments for young people in care to the age of 21, we are expanding this program to young people in non-family based care placements. The stability post-care program is being funded for $2.7 million as a 3½ year pilot to commence in early 2022. The pilot program will support young people with complex needs up to the age of 21 who are leaving care and who are at risk of homelessness and housing instability.

The Marshall Liberal government will provide $18.2 million over seven years to establish the new Newpin South Australian family reunification program through a social impact bond. Newpin is an intensive therapeutic centre-based family reunification program and will be delivered through Uniting Communities. It is expected to support more than 200 families, with children aged six years and under in temporary care on a temporary order where reunification has been identified as an appropriate goal.

The government accepted all the recommendations handed down in the Rice review and is implementing additional safeguarding measures, including the establishment of a significant incident reporting unit. There is also $1.2 billion over two years to establish the unit within the Department for Child Protection, including four FTEs. I am always striving with my department to improve practices to safeguard children from further harm and to help vulnerable children in their healing. That is why last year we announced $600,000 to roll out the Sanctuary model of residential therapeutic care.

The Marshall Liberal government continues to work hard to deliver better services. I am delighted to announce that we will now be providing $3.8 million over 2½ years to fund the Treatment Foster Care Oregon pilot program. This is an exciting program that will provide specialist foster care that has an international track record of success. It is a proven program that supports children and young people with complex behaviours aged between 12 and 17.

Through the Department of Human Services, many other programs have been announced in the budget to support and enhance outcomes for children in care. The Marshall Liberal government is providing investment in other areas that have direct impact on child protection systems and is focused on continuing support for our most vulnerable families. This includes $111.3 million over six years to establish the Resilient Families program, an intensive home-based family support intervention program that will be delivered by the Benevolent Society through a social impact bond. This program is aimed at intervening early and keeping families together if it is safe to do so. Initially in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, this will further expand to Murray Bridge and then on to Mount Barker. This is expected to support up to 300 children over the next five years.

For children with a disability who are unable to live with their family in their family home and require out-of-home care arrangements and mainstream support, $4.6 million has been allocated over the next four years to ensure these children continue to receive out-of-home support for those funded through the NDIS. Through Youth Justice, there is a child diversion program, where $1.3 million over two years has been allocated to help divert children who are at risk of being remanded in custody due to a lack of accommodation and support services by connecting them with appropriate supports.

Recognising that some young people are at greater risk of re-entering the youth justice system if they are incarcerated, we will be trialling a new child diversion program for 10 to 13 year olds. In this budget, we are funding the Youth Court a further $0.339 million to provide for an additional magistrate at a 0.5 FTE to support staff of the Youth Court to ensure the court's capacity to meet the demands for child protection matters, to comply with the Children and Young People (Safety) Act and to help protect our most vulnerable children in South Australia.

I am proud to be part of a government that has a blueprint for a stronger South Australia and a positive plan to create even more jobs, build what matters and deliver better services to make South Australia and my electorate of Adelaide the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (20:25): I rise today to support the passage of this year's budget and to make some comments in regard to the overall themes and also the issues that affect my electorate directly. The budget has been presented this year by the Hon. Rob Lucas from the other place, and it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge his well-credentialled service in this parliament over a long period of time. To deliver his final budget to the state is something he should be very proud of.

This budget is a budget for the time. It is a budget focused on the needs of our state now and also on all South Australians. As we continue to recover from the economic and jobs issues that have faced our state over the past number of months and years through the coronavirus, handling of the situation from a health perspective certainly has underpinned both our revenue recovery and also the state's economic growth over that period of time as well. It would be hard to fathom the level of stimulus that has been put into the South Australian economy over the last couple of years if we had not lived through this period.

For that reason, there is no other way to describe this budget but one for the time and a product of the time and place. It is a budget focused on three things: on jobs; on health, particularly mental health; and on education and early learning. In particular, when we look at the overall scheme of the budget and how it has been received, there are a couple of indicators that are really key to understanding the confidence that we have in the budget and also that has been shown from outside.

It is helpful, as the Treasurer did on budget day, to put forward a comparison of approach with that of the Victorian Labor government, who handed down their budget just a short couple of weeks ago. Obviously net debt to revenue ratio is one of the key things and although, at 120 plus, it is a number that we would not have imagined just a short number of years ago, in comparison with Victoria's net debt to revenue ratio, sitting at 199, it is something where we probably will look back and see that the approach the government has taken through this budget has been justified.

It has been sensible, and that is quite literally the approach, and the way that that has been received by in particular the independent ratings agencies, Moody's and S&P, clearly does show that the approach this government has taken has been economically prudent. I will quote from S&P:

South Australia benefits from a strong economy and financial management, which allow it to absorb some stresses on creditworthiness.

They went on to say:

The state so far has suppressed the spread of the virus, allowing its economy to open and budget to recover quickly. Its early success in containing outbreaks has supported a stronger economic recovery than otherwise would have been the case.

ANZ just today had another strong response to and positive assessment of the South Australian state budget. ANZ is predicting the state's economic growth to surge even further, beyond the level forecast by the Marshall Liberal government. In their response document, 'SA budget: frontrunner for a return to surplus', ANZ says despite the budget's predictions of 3.5 per cent growth next year, 'we are more optimistic' and predict a 4.5 per cent growth over that period.

During his speech yesterday, the Treasurer said that at times he can be a pessimistic person and perhaps that approach, while prudent at times, underpins the recovery that we will see in the economy over the years to come. I think everybody in this place certainly hopes that that is the case.

The fundamentals this government has focused on while on the government benches are incredibly important and for us that is around the cost of living and the cost of doing business in our state. That is something that we are very proud of on this side of the house—the achievements that have happened in just three and a bit short years.

Treasury have done modelling and presented in this budget the hip-pocket savings to average families around South Australia with two children. They reflected massive reductions in average household water and sewerage bills, a saving of over $191 a year, and cheaper emergency services levy bills, a saving of $184 a year. The settings that have been put in place and market settings in government policy around electricity have delivered an annual saving of $269 a year. Reduced car rego costs through CTP insurance premiums for a two-car family are $196 a year and there is the doubling of the Sports Vouchers program from $50 to $100.

So the benefits from our focus on the fundamentals, ensuring that the citizens of South Australia are paying less and that the cost of living has been reduced, are very clear and will continue to be presented as we make our way towards the election. Likewise, the cost of doing business in South Australia has equally come down over that period.

Referencing those same cost savings across different categories, ESL and payroll tax in particular, added to those that I have just mentioned, the average small business in South Australia that Treasury modelled—with obviously a range of factors put in there describing that business, their usage, etc., but an average business—saved around $5,000 a year based on those structural changes to the settings of government to deliver money back into the pockets of South Australian businesses and families over that period of time.

One of the issues that has been at the forefront over the past 12 months is health and in particular the ramping issues that have been experienced in our state since the completion of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital under the former government. It is something that we obviously take incredibly seriously, and within this budget there has been a clear articulation of the plan from this government to address those issues.

Four main pillars have been identified and set out within the budget papers: increasing emergency department capacity, reducing demand at emergency departments, tackling bed block within hospitals and also providing additional resources to ambulance services. Particularly around reducing demand, there has been a significant spend that has been called for for a period of time as well and the government has responded to those calls with a near $164 million package for mental health that includes a range of initiatives focused on ensuring that people with mental health challenges in our community are directed to the most appropriate place. Most of the time that is not an emergency department.

A new 16-bed 24/7 crisis stabilisation centre will be opened in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. There will be a new $48 million 20-bed centre for older persons suffering from acute mental health issues. There is also the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre that opened recently in the Adelaide CBD, which started at six beds and has gradually expanded over the last six months or so. A pilot program that has been replicated in other states around Australia, and will be over the coming years, has now been expanded through state government funding to operate 24/7, something that is obviously incredibly helpful for ensuring that those people have appropriate care and are shifted away from emergency departments when that is in the best interests of those patients.

When we look at the total spend on our health services set out in this budget, it is the most money that our state has ever committed to health spending—$7.4 billion over the coming financial year, an increase of nearly $900 million on the last year of the former Labor government in 2017-18.

In terms of staffing, something that our political opponents have talked about regularly, often cherrypicking certain statistics that may or may not be accurate—most of the time I would say not—it is clear that there are more doctors and nurses working in our system now than there were at the election. Nearly 1,000 extra employees were employed in the last year than there were under the previous government.

We also have a clear plan, as I articulated slightly earlier, with the four pillars to address that. One of the underpinning issues had been the amount of space and capacity within our emergency departments across the state. This budget sets out an increase of 140 emergency department beds across the system, which is an increase of 65 per cent. That will mean, in terms of Flinders Medical Centre, an increase of 30 treatment spaces to 86 treatment spaces. At the Lyell McEwin Hospital, it is an increase of 39 emergency department beds to 72, at The Queen Liz an increase of 15 emergency department beds, and further increases in capacity across the hospitals at Modbury, Mount Barker, Murray Bridge, Gawler, Southern Fleurieu Health Service and, of course, Victor Harbor as well.

In line with that four-point plan, as well as that increase in emergency department capacity and as well as the initiatives outlined around mental health to move people away from the emergency departments where appropriate, there are of course the additional ambulance staff that were announced and agreed to previous to the budget. This has been implemented in terms of the allocation of funding through this document as well.

One of the other issues with the health system that has become apparent—we obviously inherited a significant backlog in this area as well—is elective surgery. I think in terms of impact on people's health, a delay in elective surgery can also at times have an impact on mental health. It was fantastic to see that this budget sets out a $20 million investment to help reduce elective surgery waiting times. This will also further ease pressure on our public hospitals through that process.

Can I also say that we are providing additional infrastructure money towards projects that have previously been announced. One of those is The Queen Elizabeth Hospital refurbishment that was cancelled by the former Labor government in 2015, by the member for West Torrens when he was Treasurer.

The cardiac services at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital will return to 24/7 at the change of government. Over that time, we have also secured an MRI rebate licence for the MRI machine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. At any point on any day I am happy to stand here and compare our record on The Queen Elizabeth Hospital with those opposite—at any point. We have a clear and differentiated vision of what that hospital means to our community and we have continued to invest in it.

In terms of other areas of the budget that will affect my local area, certainly the Greener Neighbourhoods initiative has been something that has been readily welcomed both across the state and particularly in my electorate, with $5½ million going into that project to provide more tree canopy across our city and our neighbourhoods.

I was only the other day, on Arbor Day, down at Lockleys representing the Minister for Environment, though it is also something I do as a local member every year. We put another few thousand plants into the Linear Park at Lockleys, a project that is very well connected to another the government is undertaking down at Breakout Creek, which is soon to be underway. We are nearing the point where the Linear Park and River Torrens system from Adelaide down to the coast will have just about been fully transformed, which is an exciting point of time to be at.

The Sports Vouchers program is something I regularly get feedback on within my electorate. It is well utilised by many of the sports clubs within the electorate as well. We came into government and discovered that the program had not been funded into the forward years. That was obviously rectified and we then went about doubling the $50 voucher to $100. It has also been expanded to dance and to something I am very passionate about, swimming lessons, which I think was a great initiative, but now to further expand that program to year 8 and 9 students across our state is only a good thing.

The more young people we have involved in sport, the more we can support them to do that, the better. It does not just keep our young people healthy, strong and motivated, it also teaches them some incredibly important life skills. Across many of our sports—it does not matter whether it is rowing, swimming, netball or soccer, they each have individualised talents and skills that they manage to impart on our young people, so it is a fantastic thing that that is happening.

In terms of the local area, there are a number of projects that have been provided with stimulus funding in the previous budget, or that are still commitments ongoing from previous budgets. There is so much happening in the local area at the moment it is fantastic. I have just mentioned Breakout Creek, and the sand recycling pipeline to run from Semaphore to West Beach has also been confirmed in the budget papers.

We have the Henley Square expansion project, which was announced just a couple of months ago, a partnership between the state government and the City of Charles Sturt to extend Henley Square across into Main Street. There are also the Henley High School and Grange Primary School redevelopments. One is well underway, and Grange Primary School is very soon to get started—two incredibly important projects for my local community as well.

One thing I want to briefly touch on before I finish is that, with two young children, I am now closer to the early childhood education system probably than I ever would have imagined not too many years ago, but it is incredibly exciting and I warmly welcome the Marshall Liberal government's $50.1 million Early Learning Strategy that was announced through the budget this week.

There are a range of initiatives contained within the strategy but some of the major work and things that I think will create a significant impact for our young people across the state over the coming years are around development checks for our young people. There were some sobering stats recited by the Treasurer during his speech just a couple of days ago. The Blue Book, which all new parents are handed when their young son or daughter arrives, sets out the trajectory or growth rates of their child and what they should expect, but also sets out development milestones and a range of helpful things like immunisation guidelines and frameworks.

One thing that is offered to our parents is a health check—a development check—free of charge so that we can try to identify when there are issues. Ninety per cent of parents and obviously subsequently their children are taking up those checks at age one to four weeks, mainly because we are able to very quickly follow up through that process and the Blue Book and encourage parents to do that. Only 28 per cent of children aged six months undertake the six-month check. Only 18 per cent of children aged 18 months old take up that check, and only 50 per cent of preschool children take the check that is scheduled to be taken at that age.

Quite simply, that is not good enough. This strategy is aimed at addressing that issue to ensure that we are able, through this process, to increase the availability and the uptake of those checks to identify development milestones that are not being met so that we can provide appropriate care to those children and help them along their journey prior to them getting to school. It is going to be a huge change. It is going to potentially have huge implications for the lives of many of our young people to change the course, perhaps, of many of our young people's trajectories in life. Quite simply, the earlier we identify these issues the better for that child, the better for our state and the better for their parents.

One other issue that got a degree of attention in the past couple of weeks was funding from the state government that had been attributed to our library system across our local government partners. I just wanted to confirm for those who have contacted my office that $20.7 million has been secured to continue to fund our state's 137 libraries, including the one at Henley Beach. I, like all, support our libraries and look forward to their continued strength and for them to continue to be a place where our community meets, learns and enjoys a book.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (20:45): It gives me great pleasure to be able to make a contribution and reflect on the 2021-22 state budget this evening. It is a budget that has a lot of work to do. It is a budget that needs to not only set our state up for success into the future but actually pull us out of some very difficult challenges that we have faced following the arrival of COVID-19 in Australia in early 2020.

We know the unexpected nature of that pandemic. We had not planned for it. We had to devise the coping mechanisms at every level, from economic to health to the wellbeing of our communities, and we had to devise them as we went along. Of course, there had been some planning as to how our state would deal with the arrival of a global pandemic, but it had not been tested and there were many aspects of dealing with that pandemic that had to evolve quickly, change on an hourly or daily basis and continue to be evolved as the weeks and months went on.

None more so than the economic response. The health response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been, I believe, exemplary in South Australia. It has in many ways led the nation, and Australia as a nation has led the globe with our response to the pandemic, but our economic response had to follow immediately behind the health response.

I believe it is our twin successes, our success with regard to the primary healthcare side of dealing with the pandemic and our success with dealing with the economic challenges presented by the pandemic, that have set up our state, and hopefully our nation, for success heading into the future. It is a success that will position our state as a place to live and a place to work, a place to do business and a place to do life well into the future, and really position South Australia and in particular our capital city, Adelaide, as a place to which people from all across the world will be drawn to invest in and to make their home.

The budget is really a budget of two parts. It is a budget that was initially handed down in November 2020 and then continues with what I see as part 2 of this budget, a $4 billion economic stimulus to get us through COVID-19, to restart our economy and to modernise our economy in such a way that our state is positioned for success into the future. We should see this as a budget that stretches over two budgetary periods: the delayed budget handed down at the end of last year and the budget handed down this week that takes us into the forthcoming financial year.

Unless you see them as essentially a single budget, a stimulus budget, you could overlook some of the greatest benefits of this budget. In my own portfolio, the environment and water portfolio, much of the stimulus sat in the November 2020 budget. It is set up through the forthcoming financial years in a way that the environment and water portfolio has never felt before—a reinvestment of historic proportions, not just a recovery budget changing the nature of investment in the portfolio after many years of Labor cuts. Sixty per cent of my portfolio's budget was cut under the period of Labor in office. We have now not only stabilised the budget but sought to rebuild it and to take it into a position of economic recovery and policy recovery that will position us well into the future.

The environment portfolio is now, I believe, exceptionally well positioned. It is a portfolio that is so important to the livability of our state. Our climate responsiveness, our resilience in the landscape so that we can continue to develop high-quality and internationally sought after fibre and food, the livability of our capital city, regional cities and towns, the survival and the resilience of the mighty and precious River Murray are all inextricably linked to environmental sustainability. If we get these things right, we will secure the livability of our state into the future.

I am delighted that this budget builds on our historic investment in national parks. Twenty-one per cent of this state is held within the national parks estate. That is an area the size of the United Kingdom if you add it all together. How lucky are we to have such an immense protected area system? This budget ensures that our $130 million investment continues with better conservation programs and greater amenity in our national parks so that people can safely and sensibly visit and access our national parks, and so that our national parks are a drawcard for tourism and for the lifestyle that we want to create across our state.

One of the great benefits of our parks is that many of them are found in regional South Australia, so they draw people into the regions where they spend money on accommodation, food, experiences and various other things along the way. We cannot underestimate our national parks. They have twin value. They have immense conservation value. They are part of our program and our strategy for climate resilience, but they also have that economic benefit in that they are a great drawcard.

We have these iconic places, and we do need to invest in their amenity so that people have a sense of pride when they go there and that they are a place that people want to connect with and fall in love with. My view, and my philosophy as the state's environment minister, is the more you can give people access to our national parks and immerse them in nature, the more easily they will fall in love with them and consequently strive to fight for them when they come under threat.

I believe that the livability created by our national parks by programs such as Greener Neighbourhoods, and we have just expanded our partnership with local councils and quadrupled the funding available there, and the opening of our reservoirs add to the livability of Adelaide and of South Australia. We know that Adelaide—and South Australia more broadly, but particularly Adelaide—has just been rated the third most livable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit. What a great badge of honour for this city. I do not think that can be underestimated. It gives us a brand. It gives us a positioning that we can leverage for immense economic value.

As we move out of the COVID-19 era—and let's hope we do move out of that era sooner rather than later—we do need to be thinking about what does our city and what does our state stand for as we move into 2022, into the 2020s and beyond into the 2030s and 2040s. I believe that global livability is something that our city and state can really see as its brand. We can be an international destination, not just for tourists but for people to set up home here, to do life here, to do business here.

We should be a place which has a thriving modern 21st century economy, well positioned to attract the brightest of minds from all across the world. We should not shy away from that challenge. There is absolutely no doubt that off the back of COVID there are many people all across the world who are perhaps looking to return to South Australia, having made their home in some of the other global cities around the world, or there may be many people looking to start a new life in a place that has had those twin successes I mentioned earlier—the twin successes of health success in the face of COVID-19 and economic recovery and success following the pandemic's impacts.

Adelaide and South Australia have the livability, have the smarts, have the geographic positioning, the stability, the educational institutions and the DNA to be a magnet to people from all across the world. It is my view that we should go out and find those people, that we should be making a big pitch to the rest of the world that Adelaide is a place to call home, that South Australia is a place to do life and that you should bring your brains, your money, your capacity, your enthusiasm, your entrepreneurial nature, your innovation, to South Australia, bring it to Adelaide and start life here.

The term 'big Australia' has been a little bit maligned over the years—it was used a lot by Kevin Rudd back in 2007-08, so I will not use that term, but I think we should be ambitious about population growth in South Australia. That big pitch to the world should be something we do proudly, and we should not be putting up signs saying, 'No, we're full. We can't take any further immigration.' I think we can, because I have a very strong belief that the investment, entrepreneurialism, capital and skills that come with migrants drive economic activity, and on the back of COVID-19 will also drive economic recovery.

I also strongly believe that our state has the space and the resources to have a much more substantial population. I believe many more people could live in metropolitan Adelaide, particularly within the CBD itself, which has a relatively low population compared with many capital cities and cities of this nature around the world. Even more importantly, if we are looking at population growth, we should be looking at regional population growth.

We have some incredible regional cities and towns in this state, whether it is down on Fleurieu Peninsula with Victor Harbor and the conglomeration of towns along the coast, or further afield in Whyalla, Port Lincoln, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Murray Bridge, Mount Gambier or the Riverland towns. We have regional cities and towns across this state that really do lend themselves to population growth, and I think they also offer a similar high-quality lifestyle and state of wellbeing that Adelaide offers, and we should be pitching them to the world as well.

If there is one thing that COVID-19 has shown us it is that it is much easier to do work and do business remotely—really, anywhere in the world—as long as you have half decent internet connections, and we are getting better at that. So I do think there is this great opportunity for South Australia to drive population growth, to drive economic recovery and to drive economic growth off the back of COVID-19, sending a message to the world that we are the place to do business, we are the place to call home.

I have been delighted that during our four budgets, under the leadership of Premier Marshall and Treasurer Lucas we have worked exceptionally hard to make South Australia a place that is much more business friendly. We have focused consistently and significantly on lowering the cost of living for South Australian residential households as well as the cost of doing business, with lower payroll tax, lower land tax and, importantly for many businesses, lower water bills.

I have been delighted to be the environment and water minister at a time when we have driven down water bills for the average business by $1,350 per annum and the average household by about $200 per annum. This is not insignificant; it does build up year on year and makes a significant impact on the bottom line for many businesses, particularly small businesses. Some of those big water users in this state have seen water bill savings in excess of $1 million per annum. That money is reinvested, there is no doubt about that. It creates more jobs and sets South Australia up as a really successful place to do business.

At the same time, we have also been working exceptionally hard to drive down power prices, and that is working exceptionally well. The announcement of the interconnector, so that we can export our green, clean, renewable energy interstate, adding grid stability, creates certainty around business investment as well as driving down power prices. All this contributes towards the sense that Adelaide is experiencing a renaissance as a place to do business.

When we came to office it was quite the opposite. This was a state that business was fleeing from, turning away from. In boardrooms across this nation, when suggestions were made that you might think of relocating to Adelaide they were met with a chuckle or a wry smile. People were not keen to invest in this state because of a range of uncertainties, a very high cost of doing business and, in particular, that grid instability. Things have turned around now.

We have an economy that is rapidly modernising, and it is exciting. I look up the road to Lot Fourteen, a project that has been driven by Premier Marshall in the most personal of ways, and it is working. It is drawing those high-tech, smart businesses and startups, but it is not only startups; really significant global businesses like Amazon, Accenture and Google are being drawn into the ecosystem that is being developed at Lot Fourteen.

That is a game changer for South Australia, and we need more of it. We need to continue to stay committed to the vision of Lot Fourteen, we need to leverage the growing defence industry here, we need to leverage the smarts and the investment that is coming with the space and satellite industry. Again, Premier Marshall has really driven our focus and investment and drive into that area.

South Australia really does have a very bright future. We must continue to keep the cost of doing business low, and we need to keep the cost of living for households low as well. We need to be able to encourage people to come here. We have successfully reversed the brain drain since coming to office, we are doing well there, but we need to encourage more minds, more skills, more capital, more energy to South Australia—and we can do that. We can do it because this budget with its $4 billion of stimulus, which is spread across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 budgets, is building state-building infrastructure. It is setting this state up for success into the future.

We can also do it because we are the third most livable city in the world—the most livable city in Australia. We are a place with an enviable lifestyle, a place with the skills, the know-how and the magnetism, I think, as a migrant myself, to call this place home, to call this place one of the global leaders, the global attractions, to do business and to set our population up for prosperity, success and a little bit of adventure as well into the future.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Of course, minister, there is always Elliston as a developing regional centre.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: One of my favourite towns.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is one of your favourite places. I do know that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (21:05): I am very pleased to commend to the house the Appropriation Bill and to commend Rob Lucas on the delivery of his eighth state budget. The 2021-22 budget is a budget that sets South Australia up for success. It is a budget about keeping South Australia strong and seeing us come out of the coronavirus pandemic, and all of the disruption that has been experienced over the last 15 months and is still being experienced, stronger than before.

It is a budget that creates jobs, that builds what matters, as the Minister for Infrastructure often tells us in relation to our record $17.9 billion investment in infrastructure over the next four years, and it delivers better services. I am very privileged in the education portfolio as minister to be able to see the impact on all three of those strengths, because the work that we are doing is creating jobs. Our school building programs are creating jobs right now at a time when they have never been more important.

There is our investment in TAFE—more than $200 million of new investment, of new money, in this budget to support TAFE to help it rebuild from some of those extraordinary cuts imposed on it between 2015 and 2017 by then Treasurer Koutsantonis and the unrealistic revenue expectations. That support for TAFE creates jobs; it is saving some jobs at TAFE. It is also helping South Australia's business and industries have their workforce needs met. Further to that, it is helping young South Australians and older South Australians seeking to reskill to get the skills they need for the jobs of the future and the jobs of today. That support for TAFE, that building program in our schools, is creating jobs.

Of course, it is also building what matters. We are building a legacy of educational infrastructure in South Australia that not only is going to be serving our community now at a time when we need to increase our capacity in our schools to deal with the significant enrolment demands but is leaving a legacy of substantial improvement to our educational facilities that will be welcomed by future generations of South Australians. It will enable teaching and learning to be truly delivered at a world-class level in facilities that are designed for the pedagogy and the manner of teaching and learning that is supposed to be taking place in our classrooms in the 21st century.

This legacy has been talked about for some time. At the end of 16 years of the Labor government, they very proudly talked about their $690 million investment that they called Building Better Schools. That has been grown in recent years to the point where I think every member of parliament is aware that we have a $1.3 billion program of works. This year's budget papers identify that that body of work that has been in the works and recommitted to since we came into government has gone well past $1.3 billion. Indeed, it is more than $1.4 billion worth of infrastructure in our schools. It is the biggest public school build in our state's history.

We put our priorities where the education department identified they are necessary. A significant amount of that has been to deal with capacity. Some of that is to do with the move of year 7 to high school, which has obviously seen more students in our high schools. Some of that is to do with significant population shifts and enrolment trends.

There has been urban infill, especially after 16 years of Labor planning policy that has seen dramatic urban infill, which has overwhelmed some schools in terms of the number of young people now living in those areas. It is to the point where, for example, in Rostrevor, at the specific advice and request and business case prepared by the Department for Education, an entire new school for 1,200 students from years 7 to 12 has been built into this budget. Enrolment trends, urban infill and the choices people make, the confidence they are showing in public schooling, have seen enrolments grow especially in certain areas. Certainly meeting those enrolment capacities is a significant part of it.

It is also about fixing infrastructure that needs to be fixed. In this year's budget, we also see $42 million worth of investment at seven sites, schools and preschools: from Lucindale to Elliston, in the South-East to the West Coast, in Langhorne Creek and Salisbury East, at Pimpala Primary School in the member for Hurtle Vale's electorate, I think, at Seaview Downs Primary School and Nailsworth Primary School. Those seven sites are seeing an investment of a further $42 million. These are sites that drastically need this investment to ensure that their facilities are able to offer the quality of learning environment that those children and young people deserve.

Investments in TAFE have been significant. Investments in buildings have been significant. The third pillar of the budget's themes has been delivering better services, and everything that I have spoken about already in education, and everything else in education is about delivering better services. Our ambition is for nothing less than world-class education, an education system that sees every child in South Australia, whatever kindy or classroom they are in, whatever school or preschool, whatever town or suburb or city they are in, supported to fulfil their potential, to get a year's growth in every year of their education, to have their educational ability stretched, their wellbeing supported, their resilience supported and their development supported.

That is an important investment every single day. For everyone working in education, from the minister down to every single staff member across the department, I have every confidence that our ambition is shared and that every day we all seek to improve the work we do. The work we do is in supporting our young people to be their best, to live their best lives, to be able to fulfil their best futures.

One of the very exciting parts of the budget is the investment therefore in education. We are seeing well over a thousand extra educators employed by the end of the budget forward estimates compared to last year. You can add hundreds and hundreds more net increase since we came to government. We are seeing record expenditure in terms of the recurrent funding to go alongside the record expenditure in terms of the infrastructure funding.

The extra funding, the record funding, is an input. Inputs are useful and inputs are important, but they are not as important as outcomes. Our government is focused on delivering outstanding achievements in both the inputs into education, identifying its high priority, and on the outcomes. That is why we have invested in early learning, in phonics, in the improvement of early years literacy. It is why we have invested in reforms to vocational education and training and the transition of year 7 into high school—so that our schools and our preschools are delivering for our students the best possible outcomes.

That is why we are investing in an entrepreneurial learning strategy, our music education strategy, our set of projects to support languages in schools and our Aboriginal Education Strategy. That is a tremendously important lever in what we are trying to achieve in our world-class education system for that group of South Australians towards whom we have at least all the same obligations as we do every South Australia child, plus the added moral obligation to support the young people of our First Nations peoples, who are behind their counterparts in non-Aboriginal communities in terms of life expectancy, in terms of health outcomes and in terms of educational achievement.

We have that moral obligation and an absolute burning desire to do our best for them. That Aboriginal Education Strategy, with its 10-year ambitious goals, its consistency of action plans that are being developed by the education department and delivered by the education department, is all important.

One of the key things in this year's budget that adds even further to the work that has been done over the last three years is the announcement of a $50 million Early Learning Strategy. This is going to see ongoing funding of $16 million per year in new money invested in our littlest learners, identifying families as first teachers but supporting those families to assist their children to be their best, not just through life but through identifying that there are significant things we can do before they even reach school. It is aimed at supporting all young children to thrive and learn.

The focus of the strategy is working with families on preschool learning programs and relationships and increasing the proportion of children who are developmentally on track even before they get to preschool. It is a 10-year strategy with an expenditure of $50 million in the first four years and then $16 million per year in new money, ongoing. There will be more than that invested because of course we will be focusing some existing resources on delivering according to the principles of the strategy.

As the member for Colton outlined earlier—and I will talk a little bit about his engagement in this work further on in my comments—we will particularly be looking at the development checks. Every parent knows that the CaFHS nurses and the Blue Books are a really important part of the first few weeks of a child's life. Indeed, we know that 90 per cent of the children born in South Australia have their first developmental check in their first few weeks, so the Blue Book visit is very well understood.

Milestone checks are also offered at six to nine months, 18 to 24 months and at preschool. The sad fact is that only 28 per cent of our children get the six-month check, only 18 per cent get the 18-month check and only 50 per cent of our children get the preschool check. This is not a new phenomenon; it has been going on for some time. I think that is clear when we have seen South Australia declining, from 2009 to 2018, in the AEDC index and the Early Childhood Development Index of wellbeing and developmental vulnerabilities. We see our state declining in terms of outcomes and the increasing numbers of children vulnerable in one or more domains. When other states have had the reverse experience, then it is clear that work needs to be done here, aiming to reduce developmental delays in children entering school.

This strategy has been informed by analysis of the current status of preschool education and early childhood services in South Australia, expert advice, research and consultation with practitioners. It has been informed by our consultation with other states. Western Australia has seen a marked decline in the number of children presenting at school with developmental vulnerabilities in the same period of 2009 to 2018, while at the same time in South Australia our numbers have been going in the wrong direction.

The strategy has been informed by a YourSAy survey that many South Australians contributed to—hundreds of families, hundreds of practitioners, preschool and early childhood educators, experts, researchers and people who are interested in early childhood development. There were significant levels of targeted stakeholder engagement.

I also want to identify some specific work done by some outstanding public servants in this area, from Rick Persse, the Chief Executive of the Department for Education, and executive director Caroline Croser-Barlow and director Natalie Atkinson, through to some of the absolutely outstanding early childhood educators who have led the work on developing this body of strategies, particularly Asha Crozier and Nadia Carruozzo, who are two extremely well-regarded educators. Asha is from the country, from Keith, and Nadia is from the north-eastern suburbs around Ingle Farm, but both are broadly experienced beyond that and are directors of children's centres with high levels of regard in the profession. I also take the opportunity to thank my staff member, Sarah Hennessy, who worked very hard on this.

I also thank Matt Cowdrey, the member for Colton, and the Hon. Nicola Centofanti MLC, who, as Liberal members of parliament, took a particular interest in this area. While they were not involved in the particular development of the body of work that went to cabinet for the budget, they were a very strong lobby group within the Liberal party room to work very strongly with me to encourage this to be a priority for the government.

I thank them for that contribution and also for the work they did in engaging with a range of people in their communities, including early childhood leaders. They encouraged people to engage with the process that was worked on in developing this policy. They did an outstanding job as members of parliament. I thank them for that and I thank them for the contribution they have made towards this $50 million strategy through the many suggestions they gave me and the government along the way.

I also recognise Dr Anne Glover AO, who is the chair of South Australia's Child Development Council and an outstanding South Australian. The Child Development Council, with Anne as the chair and Graham Jaeschke as the deputy chair, currently the acting chair, and all the experts on that council have done a significant body of work in this space. They released in 2020 'How are they faring? South Australia's 2020 Report Card for children and young people'. It, too, was instructive in some of the development of this policy work.

The 'How are they faring?' report from the Child Development Council found that most children and young people in South Australia are doing well but also evidenced that an increasing number of children were entering the education system with unidentified disabilities and developmental delays. Indeed, around a quarter of South Australian children start school developmentally vulnerable in one or more of the following domains: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills, and general knowledge.

Unmet needs during the early years are leading to poor health and life opportunities for some South Australian children. While we have record levels of funding—more than $300 million last year, up from about $240 million just a couple of years ago in supporting children in schools with disabilities—those opportunities to fund those children are absolutely locked in as a result of national school funding reforms which South Australia was the first state to sign up to.

We will give whatever support is needed in our schooling system through the financial support to schools or the special options placements for children. But how much better is it if somebody is able to have a diagnosis of a developmental delay or a problem in some of these areas earlier in life.

That is why our strategy supports extra developmental checks. We will work with CaFHS and other non-government providers to dramatically lift the uptake of those developmental checks that are already available; 28 per cent at six months and 18 per cent of children at 18 months, taking the opportunity to have those checks is not enough. We need to lift that and we also have the introduction of the new checks taking place that will be available in addition to those at 12 months and three years going forward.

In conversations about learning and education, sometimes we can be left with the impression that education begins when the child walks through the classroom door, and we know that this is not the case. Children are developing and learning at a rapid pace from birth, long before they engage with any form of formal education.

Research over the past decade has provided us with an even greater understanding of the developing child and understanding that this early learning provides a basis for lifelong learning and progress. It informs us that early experiences can have a lasting and profound influence on a child's life trajectory, hence the importance of doing everything we can to get this right for children and families, particularly those in difficult circumstances who benefit the most from quality learning opportunities.

In the early years, we know there is a lot going on cognitively, socially and emotionally in the child's development, as children shape and respond to their world in subtle and sophisticated ways, which sometimes are not even readily identifiable or observable in their behaviour. Sometimes, of course, they are. The interrelation between genes and environment begins at conception and continues in the early years and lays a foundation for later learning and success.

Our Early Learning Strategy goals are about increasing the number of children developmentally on track, providing high-quality educational programs and supporting families with parenting during these times. Evidence shows children who receive quality early childhood experiences and opportunities have enhanced education, social, health and employment outcomes as adults. It is clear that social skills, knowledge and health developed early in life are predictors of success later in life.

This strategy recognises and supports the key role played by families, too, in the development of not only cognitive skills but social skills, emotional regulation, persistence and the ability to delay gratification, all of which are important in achievement at school in creating fulfilling personal relationships and for workplace productivity. This strategy is nuanced. It is developed with that broad range of stakeholders, literally thousands of South Australians and many experts, and it has been informed and shaped by current national and international research.

It will see changes to some early childhood services and programs, building on the initiatives and learning our department has made. Play-based activities are developmentally appropriate and they are a fundamental element. Also important is the child's relationship with adults in the home or in care and educational settings where the child's need for safety, security, and caring and loving relationships creates the environment in which a child can thrive cognitively, emotionally and socially. Helping our children to prosper is one of the great privileges of being a parent or an early years educator or anyone who works in this area.

The department will also lean in to our efforts to continue to build on the strong history of quality preschool programs in South Australia. Responding to the needs of children and families, we will be exploring opportunities for stronger connections prior to children starting at school, including the child and health development playgroups, playgroups in the community, with the intention of supporting families with their children's health, development and learning, and working with non-government organisations to ensure that we can give good tips to families along the way.

If anyone in this chamber was in any doubt of the strength of work that has gone into the development of this policy, the value of that investment, let me leave it to former South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill, who, as CEO of the Minderoo Foundation I understand said today:

We congratulate the South Australian Premier Steven Marshall and his team on this crucial investment in future generations that recognises the importance of the early years on children's future health, happiness, growth and development.

I thank Jay Weatherill for that endorsement of the South Australian government's Early Learning Strategy, and I hope we will have an opportunity to partner with the Minderoo Foundation in a number of the opportunities we will seek going forward. We will be looking to partner with local governments, with NGOs, with a range of people in delivering these outstanding outcomes for the very, very littlest learners, the youngest children in South Australia. I commend the budget to the house.

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (21:25): I rise to make a number of brief remarks on the Appropriation Bill and firstly acknowledge that this is a budget that has been delivered during extraordinary times, with a pandemic the likes of which the world has not seen for over 100 years. As I often say to people, whether on school tours or when visiting community groups and talking about the sorts of things I have done in the past, I have worked in infectious diseases, and whilst during undergrad we often learnt about pandemics, so I know how they work, why they happen and some of the underlying assumptions that cause them, you never actually think that they will happen.

I think that everyone right across the world has certainly been living through an experience that we would never really expect to live through. An important thing that the government needs to do is to obviously respond to those conditions so that we are providing the support and the recovery mechanisms so that we can get to the other side as well as possible. This is a very important budget in that context. It is about supporting jobs, it is about building the things that matter to our communities, the things that will support growth in our communities, and also investment in essential services, and particularly in health.

Health is obviously a critical issue to so many right across our state. It is certainly a very important thing in my community. Our hospitals have quite clearly been under a lot of pressure in recent times. We have seen an increase in the proportion of presentations to our hospitals that are of a more complex nature and have required more complex care and so have impacted the patient flow through our hospitals. This has led to crowding and bed block and those sorts of issues.

This is something that is being seen right across the country. Jurisdictions in other parts of Australia, whether it be Queensland or Western Australia, are also seeing the same thing. In some ways, we are at an advantage here in that we had already been embarking on a series of upgrades to our major metropolitan hospitals, which will ultimately help to reduce the demand or at least help support the demand on our hospitals.

In fact, I think every metropolitan hospital and even a number of our peri-urban hospitals are receiving upgrades, with the exception of the RAH. This is seeing an increase of 65 per cent in capacity in extended emergency care units and emergency departments. This will no doubt have a very significant impact once those projects are completed. Particularly notable projects include the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department upgrade, which will start to be opened during the next month, and then the Lyell McEwin Hospital towards the end of this year.

This investment in health has been a particularly important in my community, at the Modbury Hospital, a hospital that had had services stripped away as the hospital was downgraded under the former Labor government's disastrous Transforming Health experiment, where services were stripped away, patients were often forced to be transferred to other hospitals, which obviously came as a very rude shock to so many in the north-east who had often told me that they chose to live in our community because they believed they would be living near a hospital that would provide the services that they needed when they were in trouble.

We have been reversing those cuts. We have been returning key services over the last three years—a significant investment of $98 million. Some of those upgrades include a brand-new emergency extended care unit and a brand-new outpatients department. This is a fantastic facility with the women's and children's service that has been provided on the ground floor, so as you come in through the main entrance just to the left, and on the first floor we have the adult outpatients services.

Brand-new surgical suites have also been opened. This will increase the capacity for day surgery but will also allow for greater throughput and complexity of cases to be handled there, with the inclusion of the high dependency unit that will increase the complexity of cases that can be handled at the Modbury Hospital. This is important because it will mean that more cases can be handled at Modbury. This will take pressure off the Lyell McEwin Hospital. It will also reduce transfers from the north-east to the Lyell McEwin Hospital and the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

There are a number of projects still in train now, including the short stay general medical unit, the upgrade of which is happening as we speak, and the palliative care unit. In fact, we visited that site just this morning with the Premier, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing and the member for King. This brand-new palliative care unit has 20 individual rooms with ensuites and a private garden.

I have never heard a bad word spoken about the palliative care service that is provided at Modbury Hospital, but the facility is a bit outdated now, so it will be a purpose-built facility on the ground floor, which will be completed early next year. This budget adds to this important investment by investing in a brand-new older persons mental health unit. This is a $48 million investment and it will replace the ageing Woodleigh House facility.

Coming into government, a lot of the advice we had been receiving was that Woodleigh House was in desperate need of an upgrade. It was run down. It was very much a 1970s era building that did not really meet the needs of modern mental health care. We are investing significantly in replacing this unit with an older persons mental health unit, which I think is a fantastic thing. We are not only investing $98 million in upgrading the Modbury Hospital, but we are now adding to that, bringing the total investment in Modbury up to $142 million.

This is all part of the government's $163 million investment in mental health right across the board, which includes adding beds and building brand-new facilities. This is important ultimately in helping ease pressure on our emergency departments. I know many people in my community who have raised with me Woodleigh House as a particular concern will be very pleased to see us investing very significantly in this area.

In addition to the upgrades and investment at Modbury Hospital, the Marshall government's $163 million mental health package will also include $20.4 million to build, and $8.5 million per annum by 2024-25 to operate, a new 16-bed crisis stabilisation centre in the northern suburbs for mental health consumers; $12  million to create additional psychiatric intensive care bed capacity in the hospital system; $8.4 million per annum indexed to support mental health services in the community and reduce the number of people presenting to hospitals; $7.3 million to continue mental health related support specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic; a $5 million investment to provide additional houses for people with mental health disability; $5 million over two years to support the immediate needs of the mental health workforce; and $4.5 million per annum indexed to support the delivery of urgent mental health care to the community, including through extending the Adelaide urgent mental health care centre to a 24-hour model.

This is a very important program. We have already been investing significantly in our health system right across the state, reversing the damage done under the previous government's Transforming Health experiment. Now we are adding to that even further, providing a significant package of support for mental health services that will ultimately help to take pressure off our emergency departments and hospitals, which is exactly what our communities want to see us do.

Another very important project for my community in the north-east is the building of a second park-and-ride at Tea Tree Plaza. This is an additional 400 car parks. This is an issue that has been raised with me by a number of people within my electorate, particularly prior to the pandemic. Often you needed to get to the current park-and-ride, which many are telling me now should have been built big enough in the first place, but I suppose we are where we are.

Prior to the pandemic, if you did not get to the Tea Tree Plaza Interchange or to the park-and-ride there prior to 8am you would not get a car park. There has been a slight reprieve since then. A lot of people are working from home, so it has not been as busy, but now we are starting to see people going back. The routines are coming back into place, and we are starting to see more and more cars parked in the street and more and more people needing car parking.

We have listened to the community, and we are now investing significantly—$48.5 million to build a new car park at the Tea Tree Plaza Interchange. Not only is this a win for commuters, in that it can provide ready and convenient access to the O-Bahn, which is a very popular public transport route in the north-east, but it will also take many cars off the back streets.

I do note that there has been some commentary from perhaps other members of this place or other people around the place on this project as though somehow others had thought of it already. Perhaps that is, I suppose, where that ended: they had thought about it. There had been a thought bubble. There had been a bit of a notional item put in a budget, $15 million, apparently to construct two park-and-rides. So that was $15 million to construct two park-and-rides, keeping in mind Paradise was $23 million, Golden Grove is $33 million and this one is $48.5 million, but we all need to take the former Labor government seriously when they said they had put $15 million in to build two new park-and-rides.

Mr Brown: Signed contracts too. Signed contracts, mate.

Dr HARVEY: The previous government had apparently signed contracts. I understand that those contracts were for a planning study, a concept plan and a business development plan, but no contracts were actually signed for construction. This is from the same party that had promised to build the Paradise park-and-ride prior to the 2014 election. They ran into the election telling everyone, 'If you vote for us, we'll build the Paradise park-and-ride.' Then, after the 2014 election, what happened? They scrapped it—gone, did not happen. So I do not know why anyone would ever have taken the former Labor government seriously—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Dr HARVEY: —prior to the 2018 election: 'We're going to build two park-and-rides—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Dr HARVEY: 'We're going to build two park-and-rides for $15 million.' In the end, as I said, Paradise got $23 million, Golden Grove cost $33 million, Tea Tree Plaza is going to cost $48.5 million, but everyone is going to believe that for $15 million they could have built two. In any case—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

Dr HARVEY: —we are going along with exactly our trend right through the time we have been in government: we have said we are going to do something and now we are going to do it. In the early part of next year, we will begin to see works.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

Dr HARVEY: We will see works begin at Modbury in the early part of next year, and we will see the park-and-ride built. We will have built a park-and-ride at Paradise, like we said we would; we built a park-and-ride at Golden Grove, like we said we would; and now we will begin works on a new park-and-ride in Modbury, which is exactly what we said we would do. We will continue to deliver those projects exactly as we said we would, providing more capacity for parking along the O-Bahn, an incredibly popular route, so that not only will people have ready access to that public transport route but they will also take cars off the back streets.

I would also like to take this opportunity to talk about another very important project that is progressing really well within my community in the north-east—of course, the project to transfer households off the Tea Tree Gully council's hopeless community wastewater management system over to SA Water sewerage.

For those who do not know, you will be surprised to know that within the Tea Tree Gully council area there are over 4½ thousand households that are on an old system that is falling apart. It costs a fortune. I think this year we expect the annual service fee to go up to over $800, which is hundreds of dollars more than most of those households will be paying on SA Water sewerage.

We are going to fix this problem. We have invested significantly and provided significant funds to SA Water to be in the process of transferring these households across from the Tea Tree Gully system to SA Water sewerage. To be clear, we are not taking over that system. SA Water is not taking over their system. They are replacing that system with a modern and reliable sewerage system. In fact, households have already started to be connected. As part of pilot works, households within Modbury—Glenere Drive and soon Dawson Drive—will be connected and those households are incredibly excited about this important project.

Also, more recently, SA Water released a transition plan. They have staged the project across the next few years, so it is stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3. Prioritisation has occurred based on a number of criteria. Essentially, those areas where there are the most problems are being transferred first where there are likely to be environmental impacts and based also on community feedback. Stage 1 will commence towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Stage 2 will follow in 2023-24, and stage 3 will occur in the next SA Water regulatory period, which starts in 2024. This is a very exciting project.

I am looking for a little bit more enthusiasm from the Tea Tree Gully council on this project. I am hoping for their full-throated support shortly. Unfortunately, there has been some commentary from certain quarters within the council seeking to undermine and be negative about this project and I just say to them, 'What do you propose?' Do they suggest that we just stick with what we have? I can assure them that essentially not a single person I have spoken to in the community wants things to stay as they are. I know exactly what they want and they are very clear about what they want, but I just wonder sometimes whether the council are completely aware of where the views of many of the people in their area are at on this issue.

I would also like to raise another issue around some of the commentary that has happened recently with the price rises for the service fee for the Tea Tree Gully council. There has been a dramatic increase in the service fee in recent years and a lot of the commentary from the council has been that this is because of the Essential Services Commission of South Australia apparently requiring full cost recovery.

It seems that there has been a misunderstanding of what full cost recovery means. Full cost recovery means that a utility needs to invest in their asset so that their asset lasts into the future. ESCOSA has never said that full cost recovery means full cost recovery to the customer, so it does not mean that the full cost of running the council's CWMS needs to be borne by the people who are on the system. That is just not true, and in fact it is quite within the rights of the council to find other sources of revenue to support that. That is a policy decision for the council.

I think that residents on this system have paid enough. That is my view. I think they have been paying for decades through the nose for a system that does not provide the services they need. It is ultimately a choice for the members of the council to decide what they do with this fee, but I am pleased that we are getting on with the job of fixing this problem. That is what the community wants. All they care about is getting off this system and getting onto a modern and reliable sewerage system and that is exactly what we are doing.

Getting back to the budget, put simply, this is an important budget. It supports our state at a very important time and ensures that jobs are protected and supported and that we get economic growth. It ensures that the economy of our state is stronger at the other end of this pandemic than it was before, but also that we are investing in those services that matter so much to our communities, particularly health but many other areas, so I am very pleased to support this budget.

I would also really like to commend the Treasurer for his efforts and his tenure over a very long period of time. He is a steady hand on the tiller in this extraordinary experience. He will be a great loss to the parliament and a great loss to our team. I commend this budget to the house.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (21:44): Members of our community have approached me to express their concerns regarding recent membership recruitment activities in our party. I am taking the step of addressing parliament to ensure that the important privileges this house affords me as a representative are also extended to all people who have approached me in relation to this matter and related matters.

The people who have approached me are expressing a view and their concerns regarding the means by which they can more fully participate in the governance of our state and the operations of at least one of our major political parties. Regardless of your views with respect to this matter, it is vital that community members can continue to approach me without fear of retribution. Their identity and the nature and scope of their communications with me and others, including the documents they have provided to me, must remain protected by parliamentary privilege. The very fact that those members have competing views underscores the importance of me maintaining parliamentary privilege over materials relevant to this subject matter.

Recently, members of my community approached me concerning communications sent to and received from the email addresses NotHappyJan2021@gmail.com and brucjenny@coppercoast@gmail.com and in relation to the subject matter of those emails more generally. First, I will read an email sent from the address NotHappyJan2021@gmail.com, dated Tuesday 15 January 2021.

For the purposes of ensuring that I describe this document so that it is or can be identified, I will not read all the email but instead just make reference to certain parts of it. Mr Speaker, you will be familiar, of course, with the case of Niarchos v Snelling, where a similar approach was adopted in relation to these very important matters. As I have earlier emphasised, it is absolutely essential that the privileges of this house be extended to the people who have approached me and continue to approach me. The email is addressed to a party unit member and states:

I am angry about the way you are leading the—

and there is a reference to the party unit team—

…You are involved in introducing hard right Pentecostal Christians into the party and have signed up about 90 already. This is causing a lot of friction with existing members.

There goes on a series of questions. There is a discussion or a reference to newspaper articles and it seems to me that those newspaper articles have been attached to this email. I emphasise that I know this party unit president. He is a trusted member of our community and I respect and accept his judgement and work with him. Other members of this place have confidence in him and trust and respect his judgement.

The SPEAKER: Member for Kavel, I just note at this point—it is a wideranging debate—the importance that at some level there is an appreciation of the fact that we are debating the Appropriation Bill. I will keep listening carefully. It is important that the matter at hand be borne in mind at some level. The member for Kavel has the call.

Mr CREGAN: Thank you, sir, I certainly will keep your comments in mind. I also refer to another email from brucjenny@coppercoast@gmail.com, to which I have earlier referred, sent on Wednesday 16 June 2021. The email is expressed to the State Director of the Liberal Party and raises similar and related concerns to the email I earlier addressed. There are a series of newspaper articles attached and they appear to be similar to or the same as the earlier newspaper articles to which I referred, addressing matters in relation to people's involvement in democracy and the importance of ensuring open and transparent party membership.

Also provided to me, or important in relation to informing this matter, are a series of emails from an electorate office to brucjenny@coppercoast@gmail.com dated Wednesday 16 June 2021 in relation to a series of newspaper articles. Relevant, too, is an email dated Tuesday 15 June at 12.59pm in relation to a list of party members, appearing to be a list concerning party members in Mayo, also is an email provided to an electorate office in relation to a series of lists concerning members of a political party, and this appears to be members of a state council of a political party.

The SPEAKER: Member for Kavel, I just stop you there again. I again draw your attention to the debate that is before the house. I am listening carefully and there may be a time, and it may be imminent, at which the connection to the Appropriation Bill and therefore the subject of the debate will become apparent to me and to all present. I just indicate that the matter of relevance is something that I am increasingly focused on. The member for Kavel has the call.

Mr CREGAN: Thank you, sir. It is the nature of politics that there will be competing and different views in relation to these matters and that people will seek to share their views with other individuals sometimes confidentially. My community looks to me to address the issues the subject of the emails, and to work with party and other leaders, community members and electorate office staff to do so.

I report that I have been impressed with the leadership of Mr Rowan Mumford, president of the local branches. Mr Mumford is seeking to ensure a balanced, fair and equitable response to the matters raised so that there can be continuing confidence in all the work of this government. Given the importance of the subject matter, I have used all records and information available to me, including, but not limited to, party lists, emails, texts and other electronic messages, extensive telephone calls and meetings to fully inform myself about these matters so as to make this report to parliament.

I assert and maintain parliamentary privilege over all records generated, communicated, received or stored by electronic means for use in any information system or for transmission from one information system to another in connection with this subject matter. It would not be possible to form up a judgement and report to the house in relation to this subject matter without the powerful and ancient privileges available to me.

As a private member, I do not enjoy the right to table documents, however essential. That is why it has been necessary for me to describe in a way that is useful to members some of the material, but far from all the material, that I have relied on and continue to assert privilege over. Mr Speaker, I also commend the budget to the house.

The SPEAKER: I just note at this point, and I have made observations, that I hesitate to interrupt any member in the course of a contribution, and in the course of the second reading debate of this important piece of legislation. I just remind all members of standing order 128 and that, as wideranging as the debate on this particular bill is, it is important that members bear in mind the need to maintain relevance. I understand the member for Kavel has concluded his remarks. The member for Playford is seeking the call.

Mr BROWN: If it might assist the Chair, I would draw your attention to the fact that the Appropriation Bill contains funding for the Electoral Commission in the sense of public funding and that in order to receive public funding there are certain rules that parties need to adhere to, so I do find that the member for Kavel's speech is particularly pertinent to the Appropriation Bill.

The SPEAKER: Well, if that was a point of order I will, at this hour, take it as a point of order pursuant to the standing order I was just addressing. I do not interpret it as requiring a ruling from me at this stage. I understand that the member for Kavel has concluded his remarks, so I will leave it at that for the moment.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Brown.

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