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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-08 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Cost of Living

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:45): My question is to the Premier. Is life now less or more affordable for South Australians than when the Premier took office? What is the government's plan to deal with the effects of inflation? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: People right across South Australia are struggling with the highest inflation rate in the nation. Just yesterday we found out that people's mortgages are spiralling even higher and there is no cost-of-living relief in sight from this government.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:45): I thank the leader for his question, because yesterday we saw yet another increase in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has now meant that the cash rate has gone from 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.35. That is a very significant impact, particularly on households that have a mortgage.

In fact, the figure is now that for a $500,000 mortgage, in an environment of escalating property prices, monthly repayments have gone up as a result, if those cash rate increases are reflected accurately across the actual mortgage rate paid, more than $900 a month. At the same time, inflation has increased the price of just about every good and service that people avail themselves of as part of their household budgets.

The cost of living for Australians has increased significantly due to those two factors. Of course, there are flow-on factors from an increasing cash rate as well. There are other types of financial arrangements, other types of loans, which have also increased if they weren't on fixed rate arrangements.

We went to the recent state election realising even in advance of the first of those cash rate increases that South Australians needed some cost-of-living relief. We were the only major party that went to the last state election with costed plans for cost-of-living relief. Most notably, we committed what is now worth just a fraction under $40 million to double the Cost of Living Concession.

But we also went further than that. We also committed and delivered free public transport at all times for the hundreds of thousands of South Australians who hold a South Australian Seniors Card. That means that in an environment speaking of inflation, when fuel prices have absolutely gone through the roof and in many cases stayed at very high levels, people at all times of the public transport timetable, usually from 5am or 6am until the last service around or just after midnight, now have a free opportunity to travel to where they need to. That had previously been restricted only to interpeak times, which meant that particularly many Seniors Card holders couldn't get to medical appointments.

Of course, we have also seen further commitments from the federal government and also from every first minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers, around the country to do even more on cost-of-living relief.

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Hartley says, 'No, no, think about the debt. Don't think about cost-of-living relief, think about the debt.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: That's why he is no. 4 down there on the front bench and not further up, I think, because he didn't think cost-of-living relief was important enough at the last state election and he committed to doing nothing about it. We committed to doing something about it. We are delivering on that, and we have further plans in concert with the federal government to do even more.

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