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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-06-18 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2024

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 6 June 2024.)

The SPEAKER: Can I ask the leader if he intends being the lead speaker on this?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (11:02): Yes, that is my intention, so I get slightly more than 20 minutes.

The SPEAKER: We can kick back and listen to you for hours.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: A lot of people say that, Mr Speaker. It is my privilege to be the opposition's lead speaker today in providing the opposition's budget reply contribution. I want to firstly begin by acknowledging the Treasurer for his contribution to our state. I think it is important to do so and to thank him and his officials and staff for their development of this budget. It is an important role, and while there are many aspects of our state's policy platform in this budget that we may not agree on, equally there are many things that we do agree on. I work collaboratively with the Treasurer on numerous things and thank him for that.

As I did in my contribution to last year's budget, I want to highlight some things that it is critically important that the opposition and the government support one another on. There are a range of things in this budget that we acknowledge, we are grateful to see in the budget, and that are important to build South Australia's future—no more so than support for the AUKUS agreement. This is a nation-building initiative; an initiative so important for our nation's security that it is too significant to fail.

We will work hand in hand where appropriate with the government in the fulfilment of South Australia's contribution to AUKUS, acknowledging the very significant challenges that face our state, that face this government, and that face future governments with regard to the heavy lifting required by South Australia.

But I do think it is important to put on the record that, while we will carefully scrutinise the journey towards South Australia's contribution to AUKUS, we do support with a high degree of bipartisanship that final outcome: that South Australia as a jurisdiction plays an incredibly significant role in our nation's security and, also, will gain very significant economic development opportunities if we can rise to this occasion.

The Premier has rightfully identified significant challenges particularly with regard to skills, and there will be others along the way, but this opposition will work appropriately and hand in hand with the government as we move towards that. The Premier and I have had the opportunity to visit AUKUS-related sites in the United Kingdom, myself over recent days. Each time I have visited, and I believe the Premier shares this view, we have seen the momentous challenge that will be required by this state. This budget begins to respond to those challenges, both with infrastructure contributions and skills development opportunities. More will be needed in the future. The opposition will highlight those things where appropriate, but it is good to see this budget make the start of that contribution.

Another area of significant bipartisan support that we will offer this government is around the Northern Water initiative, renamed by the government as the State Prosperity Project. This is a significant nation-building project for our state. It was initiated under the previous Liberal government, and we will work with the government as they seek to fulfil the potential that Northern Water has. There are aspects of that initiative that require more scrutiny over time, particularly with regard to hydrogen. But in terms of unleashing the potential of the resources sector in the heart of our state, this is an initiative worth pursuing, and it is good to see this initiative supported in the budget as well.

Other initiatives around business events, skills, housing and interchange upgrades at Mount Barker are just a few of the things that we think are worth highlighting as worthy aspects of the state's budget. It is important that the opposition provides support to these sorts of initiatives. We cannot be an opposition for the sake of opposition, whingeing and carping at every initiative of the government. While often what is projected through the media for justifiable reasons are points of disagreement, it is important to stand here today and highlight that there are many times when governments and oppositions agree. They have conversations about how that agreement can be forged and they deliver a degree of bipartisanship that is future-focused for our state.

It is, however, important for me as Leader of the Opposition to highlight the areas of difference between the opposition and the government when it comes to this budget, and we do believe there are a range of areas where this budget misses the mark. I want to talk about those areas while providing various areas of focus that we would do differently if we occupied the Treasury benches.

The 2024 state budget is Labor's third budget since being elected to office and, in many ways, I would characterise it as a budget from the Weatherill era: a budget which too often treads water, fails to respond to some of the significant challenges of our times and which is unfortunately backed up by media and social media spin. It shines a light, I believe, into a government that has missed some significant opportunities and feeds a fairly narrow base of vested interest while perhaps failing to respond significantly to the needs of some of South Australia's most at-need groups.

One thing that is for certain is that this is a government that believes all it needs to do is throw money at problems, and spend money telling people it is throwing money at problems, rather than taking on some significant reforms. As an opposition we believe that reform opportunities are particularly being missed when it comes to taxation reforms, reforms within our health sector and reforms within the area of energy security in South Australia.

The government, I believe, is reform shy, preferring to keep its head in the sand when it comes to some of those bigger issues that confront the state. The government is happy to take credit for good news but it ignores, distracts or disappears when bad news confronts our state. We know there are significant global headwinds confronting Australia and South Australia at the moment. The Treasurer alluded to those in his budget speech. The good times cannot continue and unfortunately it appears that this budget, through borrowing, attempts to sustain those good times closer towards the 2026 state election while failing to grasp some of those key areas for reform.

When a reporter or commentator makes negative comments about this state we do not tend to hear about it from the government, we do not get a response, but when there is a positive contribution from a commentator or analyst it gets trumpeted loudly from social media and media releases. You only need to take a look at the Premier's social media platforms to see that in full flight.

There are tough times increasingly approaching South Australia and in many ways they are already here. We know that the average South Australian household is some $20,000 worse off than they were just 18 months ago. That is a combination of higher interest rates, energy bills, groceries, fuels and other essentials that people have no way of avoiding spending their hard-earned money on. It is difficult for people to get a hold of an extra $20,000 a year. That can mean very significant sacrifices; in some cases it can mean losing businesses or losing their homes

Some of these issues have global contributions that have resulted in that additional expenditure needing to be achieved by the average household. However, some of those challenges are homegrown and we know that inflation in Australia is increasingly homegrown by significant expenditure at both federal and state levels.

There is a gulf between the Premier's social media mirage and life on the ground in the communities that I come across as I travel around our suburbs and regions. Just take a recent post on the Premier's Facebook page trumpeting, and presumably taking credit for, the comparative economic outlook which ranks South Australia favourably against other jurisdictions. The comments under the Premier's post were telling: 'I find that a little hard to believe, mate', 'Really? Talk to a small business owner. Cost of living is killing all of us', 'Pop-up Pete's fantasy land. I think he's breathing too much hydrogen', 'This bloke's lost touch with the public', 'They're on a completely different planet.'

These statements show the government's tenure when it comes to what everyday South Australians are enduring. Life is hard at the moment and the government would be well advised to dial back the arrogance on the social media platforms and show a little empathy.

It is incredibly important for a political party of any ideological persuasion to be very clear in 2024 about what and who they stand for. The Liberal Party of South Australia must be clear about those things and be up-front with South Australians that if elected we will govern for everyone, and there are particular groups who can expect us to have their backs; there are particular groups of people who can expect us to be their strong voice and advocate within the parliament when leading this state.

It is also important that those groups and the broader community know exactly what the Liberal Party of South Australia stands for and knows what our values are. We will be the party of opportunity, forging pathways where people can be proud of investing a little bit of their money, a bit of their energy and a bit of their skill to get ahead and to create opportunity for themselves and perhaps a little bit of wealth for themselves, for family members and for their community through the creation of economic activity and through the creation of jobs. We must be the party of opportunity.

We must be the party of freedom, the party that acknowledges that people have inherent potential to get ahead and that they do not necessarily need the government to give them a handout at every step of the way. We do not want people to be addicted to government handouts. We want people to stand on their own two feet, and I believe that it is inherent to the human psyche that they want to do that themselves as well.

We value people and their freedom beyond identity politics. We have to avoid the cancer of identity politics, which I believe is paralysing modern democracies across the Western world. It should not matter your gender, your sexuality or your socio-economic status. It should not matter your race, which is why we are so strongly opposed to race-based politics, as characterised by the proposed Voice to federal parliament and, of course, the State Voice, which was initiated here in South Australia, I believe against the wishes of many South Australians. We must avoid identity politics and the victimhood that is injected into identity politics, which potentially keeps people addicted to government support, and instead value the individual, lifting them up and giving them pathways to opportunity and success, pathways to freedom.

We must be the party of home ownership. The dream of home ownership is slipping away from too many Australians under the age of 40, and we must keep that dream alive because we know that when Australians invest in a home, when they buy their home, they invest in a community as well: they invest in a local school, they invest in the local parks, they invest in local sporting clubs, and they invest psychologically, they invest spiritually and they invest financially. Home ownership is an incredible part of the Australian dream, and having your little patch of Australia is an important part of that.

There is nothing wrong with renting. There is absolutely nothing wrong with renting and we need to look for ways to support renters as well, but pathways to home ownership for people from all walks of life is so critically important. That is why we put on the table, a couple of weeks ago, our policies around stamp duty reform. We were pleased to see the government make a decision in this budget to remove the upper threshold for access to stamp duty relief for first-home buyers of newly constructed homes, but we do believe there is need for some relief for first-home owners making that initial decision to buy an established home, because we know that is the vast majority of home owners. The vast majority of first-home owners start off with a small unit, and that is something we need to provide some support for as well.

That is why we have made the decision to take to the 2026 election—unless it is committed to before that by the government; it does not appear that it will be—provision of stamp duty relief of up to $10,000 to first-home owners who decide to purchase an existing home within our state. It is so important to acknowledge and to highlight that we are now in fact the only jurisdiction that does not have that relief in place for existing properties. We do need to align to other states. We do need to keep the dream of home ownership alive.

We want to be the party of the family, and that can take many different forms in 2024, many different forms. We believe that the family, in whatever form it takes, is the best place to raise children and is the best place to make decisions for children and for the communities in which those families are located.

In the coming months, we will have a lot more to say about the child protection system. I am working with the member for Heysen, the shadow minister for child protection, on ideas that will build more resilient families and will work to keep families together. Families are important and we must be the party of the family.

We must be the party of less government intervention, less government bureaucracy and, as an extension of that, the party of less taxation. That is why we have put on the table the payroll tax policy, which would see the payroll tax threshold in South Australia rise from $1.5 million to $2.1 million and exempt trainees and apprentices from the calculation towards payroll tax thresholds as well.

These are important policies to support small and medium-sized businesses in our state. They are powerful policies that will release many, many businesses in this state that have found themselves unexpectedly paying payroll tax due to wages growth across our nation. It will free them from this payroll tax, enable them to take some of that money home and, importantly, invest some of that into their business to grow in other ways. It is perverse that payroll tax is a handbrake on business growth in this state, on the employment of people in jobs that could transform their lives.

I hear time and time again people who decide to sell components of their business or not grow their business at all because it will push them into the payroll tax thresholds. That means it is a tax on jobs, it is a tax on opportunity and it is a tax that actually hurts vulnerable people who do not have job opportunities perhaps more than business owners themselves.

I said a moment ago that it is so important that any political party governs for all South Australians but is very clear about the people they specifically stand for, the people who we will advocate for, if fortunate enough to form government. In the case of the Liberal Party, we will be the greatest advocates you will find for small and family businesses in this state. We have a heritage of being the party of small business and we must ensure we are continually the party of small business.

That means the party of our tradies, the party of apprentices, people who aspire to create small businesses of the future, the party of start-ups, the party of entrepreneurs. We must be clear about that. We must signal to those people that we are the party for them, we are the party for their families, we are the party for their employees—those are the people who we stand for.

We respect them for their contribution to our state and we acknowledge that they take their work home with them every single night. Small businesses are not nine to five jobs; small businesses are at the dining room table. Small businesses are in the bedroom, they are in the backyard, they are on the school run. Small businesses dominate the lives of small business owners. That can be a good thing in the good times, when a passion is being turned into a source of income but, when things get tough, it can be incredibly difficult. That is why small business needs to be able to rely on a party within this building that will have their backs and be their voice.

We are the party of regional South Australia. We must be clear about this. We must continually advocate for our regions, and we must visit our regions. We must build up knowledge and understanding of our regions in order to represent those regions effectively. There is no such place, really, as regional South Australia. There are many different communities that are not homogenous, communities which have different challenges and shared challenges. Those shared challenges wrap around the tyranny of distance and access to resources and services, often government services.

However, there are many, many benefits of living in regional South Australia as well. They are beautiful places. They are places with high degrees of community, a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose. Regional South Australia lifts well above its weight, not just from an economic point of view but in terms of contributing to the very fabric and DNA of South Australia. We are the party of regional communities. We are the party of our farmers, the party of our food and fibre producers.

We know that in recent years many of our farmers have had good times and we celebrate that with them, but we know that that is a cyclical process and with challenges around our climate and the variability of our climate there are, no doubt, difficult times on the horizon. My signal to our food and fibre producers across our state is we are there for you.

We are the party of our veterans: people who have served our nation. We must be their voice. Too often, they return from service or from training with significant challenges, challenges obtained in their personal lives as a result of serving their nation. That extends to their families as well. We must be their voice.

We are the party, I believe, of our multicultural communities, the party that will stand up for their faith, their stories, their customs, their traditions and their languages. Multicultural communities, migrants, give so much to South Australia. Almost everyone in our parliament can trace their families back a couple of generations, maybe six or seven but not many more than that. We are a nation of migrants, we are a state of migrants, and it is what makes our state such a great place. We must ensure that they feel comfortable and that what they bring to Australia is supported, celebrated and protected.

Across all those different categories of certain groups that I have highlighted that the Liberal Party stands for, above all we stand for people who want to work hard, want to invest in our communities and want to give back to Australia and South Australia. We want to reward merit, we want to reward the ethic of work and we want to ensure that people who do that feel rewarded and can continue to do so.

That frames what the Liberal Party stands for and some of the groups we will particularly support through our policy agenda. I want to reflect particularly on some areas of focus that we think that the government is not necessarily responding to from a reformist point of view and that this budget did not necessarily support, as it should have.

Our health system is in crisis. There is no doubt about that. It was not the Liberal Party that set the metric in the lead-up to the 2022 state election, that 'we' would fix the ramping crisis. That was the Labor Party's metric and it was a decision that they took to create an impression in the state of South Australia that they had a silver bullet to fix the ramping crisis.

I could go through lots of statistics today, but I will only go through one at the moment; that is that, in February 2022, some 1,500 hours were lost by our paramedics and patients to the hospital ramp in South Australia. In the month of May 2024, the most recent recordable month of ramping statistics in this state, that figure has stood at close to 5,000 hours.

That figure, that statistic, is translated into real people, it is translated into vulnerable patients in ambulances waiting for care and it is translated into paramedics and other clinicians struggling to do their jobs in the face of ramping being out of control. Our emergency departments are too often in Code White. Our hospital system is too often in Code Yellow, in a permanent state of emergency, in a permanent state of crisis.

I do not believe that this is just about throwing money at the problem. We welcome additional funding for hospital infrastructure and hospital personnel. That is needed, but it is clear that something more is needed because money is not moving the dial when it comes to outcomes. Outcomes are going dramatically backwards across a range of metrics. We need more than that: we need system reform.

There are particular areas which the opposition would focus on. I have outlined them before and I will briefly touch on them today because they were not focused on in this state budget as much as I would not only have liked but as much as I thought they would have been.

I was surprised that our mental health system in South Australia did not get more attention from this state budget. I was genuinely surprised by the budget papers, which announced an additional $5 million or so over the next half decade in mental health support when we know that we need tens of millions of dollars of additional support in our mental health system in this state. That is known as our mental health's unmet need.

The shadow minister for mental health and myself have been focused relentlessly on this, working with the sector. We have made a very clear commitment that if elected we will work to meet the unmet need in our mental health system. What does that unmet need look like? It looks like almost 20,000 patients not getting access to the support and services that they need.

That is 20,000 people with family members and other people in their communities who are also vulnerable because of their mental health challenges, vulnerable in terms of their safety—and too often we see that bubble out in the public domain—but also vulnerable in terms of coming up with ways to support family members and friends and other contacts, even colleagues at times, in a way that they do not feel equipped to do and that they are, quite frankly, simply not able or qualified to do.

The unmet need in this state's mental health system is a disgrace and a crisis, and this opposition is determined to work towards fulfilling that unmet need. We are working with stakeholders, particularly the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia, to understand how that unmet need can be fulfilled and what that looks like in terms of the distribution of infrastructure and personnel on the ground so that we can provide to South Australians a robust mental health policy platform over the coming weeks, months and years.

The role of the general practitioner in South Australia is a critical role. It is a critical role across the whole of our country, and we know that too often our GPs are not feeling supported, not feeling protected in their jobs, not feeling celebrated—not that they do the job to be celebrated. Across a gamut of reasons, GPs are leaving the sector or choosing not to follow that profession in the first place.

We have to do immense work in building up the traditional role of the GP, ensuring that there are enough GPs in metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia, because the further you get from Adelaide, the problem which is present in Adelaide just gets worse and worse and worse. We know that in some regions—I highlight Eyre Peninsula in particular—it is almost impossible to find a GP within an acceptable time frame.

We need to work alongside GPs to provide them with support and to ensure that they have access to the resources that they need to do their job. We need to look for ways that we can get out of their way and give them the freedom to do their job appropriately and in a financially viable way as well.

We know that the state government's decision to charge payroll tax to general practitioners is a potentially threatening situation for the viability and sustainability of many general practitioners across our state. A decision by the government taken in the lead-up to this budget to exempt bulk-billing GPs from payroll tax was a welcome decision, but it is the opposition's very firm view, and the firm view of many general practitioners and their representatives across the state, that that simply did not go far enough.

I can signal today that if elected in 2026 the Liberal Party will broaden that exemption to include all GP consultations, not just bulk-billing consultations but all GP consultations, to ensure that there is no situation where GPs are having to charge between $10 and $20 more for a consultation, which could put a significant number of people off going to see their GP, could threaten the very viability of GP practices across our state and, as a consequence, could push people towards the hospital ramp, towards the emergency department and towards a situation of vulnerability that we believe is simply unacceptable. Our general practitioners in South Australia deserve our support. We will be the voice for general practitioners in this state, and we will exempt them from this payroll tax decision.

South Australia is not as safe as it should be. Across a whole range of categories of crime, South Australians are enduring more crime than they have in recent years. There may be many reasons for that. Some people ascribe it to the cost-of-living crisis, but that cannot be used as an excuse. No government or aspiring government—and the government has not done this, nor will I—should ascribe soaring crime rates to cost-of-living challenges.

It is not acceptable to put that excuse on the table, and the Liberal Party will not. Instead, we need to find ways to fight crime and to discourage crime, and the opposition is incredibly focused on working with stakeholders, including South Australia Police and their representative bodies and organisations like Neighbourhood Watch and Crime Stoppers, to ensure that we get in front of this crime wave that is grabbing hold of particular parts of our state.

South Australia's police force has endured considerable pain in recent years. Our police men and women were asked to do things during the COVID-19 pandemic that they never signed up to do, and the morale within the police force is shattered. Those things were unexpected and there were a range of reasons for those, but with morale so low, too many people are leaving our police force—too many senior officers, too many officers with very significant experience, too many officers who are mentors to younger officers.

With too many good police officers leaving the police force, the secondary problem that we are facing is that the pipeline of new recruits is far too insignificant. The number coming in the front door as others leave through the back door simply is not sustainable. Our police force is around 200 police officers short of where it needs to be to have a full complement of active police in this state. In fact, our police force could easily do with several hundred more police officers to reach a point where it can work towards a sustainable level of policing which ensures that morale is high and mentoring across the police force is sustainable as well.

Headline funds in the budget for a digital police station and telephone resolution capability are, quite frankly, embarrassing at best. This should be core business within our police force, not something to shout from the rooftops. We need more police on the beat, not a website. Across our state, our police force is exhausted and stretching to breaking point. We need incentives on the table to encourage people to stay in the force through pay and conditions and to attract police officers to South Australia from interstate and, in particular, overseas.

We know that there have been successful overseas recruitment processes in the past. We know that there is a seemingly quite successful recruitment process flagged at the moment. We need to make sure that the proof is in the pudding with regard to that recruitment process, that officers stay in the force once they become part of it and that they commit to a fulfilling career as police officers in this state. We also need to appropriately resource our policing, no more so than in regional South Australia, and I will talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

South Australia is currently navigating the energy trilemma: energy security, emissions reduction and energy affordability. Things are not going well in this state as we attempt to navigate that trilemma. Households are nearly $700 worse off per annum and small businesses more than $1,250 worse off since Labor was elected to office in this state. The former Liberal government reduced power prices by over $400, with the situation quickly, perhaps unsurprisingly, unravelling since the change in government.

The Liberal Party supports a sensible pathway towards emissions reduction, but we believe that achieving net zero by 2050 is currently impossible in Australia without dramatic advancements in technological solutions or the deployment of a nuclear energy strategy for our nation. The Labor governments at both state and federal level have taken a very different approach to the challenge of energy security, emissions reduction and affordability, with the holy grail of hydrogen being touted as a saviour. While the Liberal Party acknowledges that hydrogen is a fuel of the future, we simply do not know what this looks like nor when in the future it will eventuate.

While I said earlier that we support the Labor government's Northern Water initiative and many of the other outcomes that could very well be spurred by that investment, the Labor Party's pursuit of their hydrogen power plant in the Upper Spencer Gulf region has too many question marks above its financial viability, its delivery dates and its ability to deliver the outcomes that we expect for it for us to actively support. One thing we do know by the government and the Premier's own admission, is that it will not reduce energy prices in South Australia and I fear, having talked to industry stakeholders across our state, nation and the globe, that this could end up being a white elephant in our state.

In my 2023 budget reply speech, I canvassed that, in light of the groundbreaking AUKUS agreement and with nuclear-powered submarines being built in South Australia in the coming decades, it would be prudent to undertake the serious consideration of the establishment of a civil nuclear energy program in our state through the possible reopening, or a second chapter, of the Scarce royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle. It has been eight years since the final report of the royal commission and technological advancements and the broader acceptance of nuclear energy as a low emissions and stable energy source have seen a change in the mood within the community over that time.

Today, I can announce that, if elected in 2026, a Liberal government will establish a royal commission into the creation of a civil nuclear energy sector in South Australia. This could include undertaking a review of the Milestones Approach, as set out by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and supporting guidance to ensure that the state is well informed about the process should the federal prohibition on nuclear energy be removed. This is about nuclear readiness, and we would refer to this royal commission as South Australia's royal commission on nuclear readiness.

The review could investigate the economics and system costs for the South Australian energy grid, as well as any other economic opportunities a civilian industry would provide for the overall South Australian economy. Countries looking to introduce civil nuclear power are guided by the IAEA Milestones publication, which requires approximately 10 years of preparatory work to the first reactor coming online.

This is what needs to be done now because things could change in the future. Those could be technological advancements with regard to small modular reactors, they could be significant changes in public mood—and we believe that public mood is already swinging significantly in that direction—or it could be a realisation by the Labor Party that they have this all wrong. Whatever the reason, we should be prepared for this and now is the time to begin that work.

Critics in Labor argue cost barriers and lack of Australian-based skills in nuclear energy are the reasons we cannot advance this work. I would counter that there are likely more barriers to the success of Labor's experimental hydrogen frolic than there are to proven nuclear technologies currently in place right across the globe. It is time for Australia to mature in our relationship with the nuclear fuel cycle and, with the AUKUS deal advancing in a way that I think most South Australians—and certainly most parliamentarians—are exceptionally proud of, there is surely no better time to move towards a nuclear-readiness future.

I have already mentioned in my contribution today that South Australia's regions give so much to our state. They produce world-class food and fibre, provide us with amazing destinations which attract visitors from all over the world, and are an amazing place to call home. Since becoming leader of the Liberal Party of South Australia I have travelled the length and breadth of our state many times over, visiting Mount Gambier 10 times, the Limestone Coast region 12 times, Eyre Peninsula and the Riverland five times and the Upper Spencer Gulf region some eight times.

However, these numbers alone are meaningless, because it is the depth and quality of the visits that matter. Almost all my trips to regional South Australia have been overnight visits, some up to three nights. They have involved meeting with local business owners, with community champions, with progress associations, with agricultural bureaus, with RDAs, with local councils, with mayors and council CEOs, with tourism operators and with farmers in their paddocks.

Respecting regional South Australia means turning up; it means turning up for longer than it takes to have a selfie taken in a paddock and heading back to Adelaide in your shiny R.M. Williams boots. It means building real relationships, relationships very different to what our Premier is willing to build in regional South Australia. It means being their voice and their advocate, and turning up again and again and again.

I signal very clear policy directions today that the Liberal Party is setting out for regional growth, regional roads and regional policing. We should be ambitious for growth in regional South Australia. Our regional cities should and can be bigger than they currently are, but they can only grow with a corresponding health, transport, housing and education infrastructure developed and rolled out alongside any population growth plan. They should also be shaped by economic imperatives tailored to specific regions along the way.

I have asked the shadow minister for regional population growth, Sam Telfer, to develop a plan for regional population growth across our state, and we will work with local councils and other stakeholders to ensure that our growth targets and strategies are both realistic and meet the needs, expectations and ambitions of our regional communities.

We have seen a debacle unfold far too close to Adelaide when regional population planning is not achieved well. That has happened just up the South Eastern Freeway in the town of Mount Barker. This is a case study in regional planning done poorly, and we cannot have that occur in this state again. It cannot happen in our peri-urban communities and it cannot happen in our truly regional communities.

It must not happen on the Fleurieu Peninsula around the communities of Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, Middleton and Goolwa. The announcement that Goolwa is to absorb several thousand additional homes over the coming years could, in some ways, be welcomed by that community, but not if it is not backed up by appropriate community infrastructure, and I am working with the member for Finniss to explore policy solutions for his region in particular, because that is the next Mount Barker, brought to us by the Labor government, if we do not get that right.

Hand in hand with regional population growth, but also not even attached to regional population growth because the importance is so current, is the need to invest in our regional roads. If elected in 2026, the Liberal Party of South Australia will spend more on regional roads than the Labor government. We will spend more on regional road construction and we will spend more on regional road maintenance.

When I travel around regional South Australia, the top two issues raised with me are regional health—I have talked today about some of the things we would do in health service provision across the state, and we have a shadow minister for regional health in this shadow cabinet providing a clear signal that regional health will be at the heart of our health solutions for this state—and the second most common thing I hear raised in regional South Australia is the condition and viability of our regional roads.

We need to invest more in our regional roads. We need people travelling to and from our regions, travelling across our regions and moving freight in and out of our regions. We need them to be able to do so confident that they can return home to their families, and we also need them to do so in a way that enhances the productivity of our regions as well. Our regional roads are not up to scratch.

We have commenced a community engagement campaign called Report Your Road. I have been working on that with the Hon. Nicola Centofanti and the Hon. Ben Hood, and Adrian Pederick in this place, to ensure that we have a good understanding of where the investment is needed, where the community expects the investment to be made and where our roads need to be improved urgently from a safety point of view. The Liberal Party of South Australia is the party of regional roads. We will invest more in regional roads.

There are too many regional police stations which are closed today. Their doors are shut, the shutters are down, there is a sign out the front but there are no police officers operating in them. The member for Chaffey continually raises concerns in his Riverland community about police stations which are not operating at capacity. We know that there are many examples of police stations without officers in charge on Eyre Peninsula and in the South-East of our state.

Regional policing needs to be respected, it needs to be supported and it needs to be promoted, once again, as a career of choice—which it is not at the moment, because police recruits and police graduates know that if you end up in regional South Australia, it is a lonely, unforgiving job too often. We need to get back to the role of the regional police officer in the same way, as I have alluded to, that we need to get back to the role of the traditional regional general practitioner. Too often, these roles have been forgotten. They have been allowed to wither on the vine.

The Liberal Party of South Australia will work alongside the Police Association of this state to define what a regional police officer looks like, the resources they need and the investment that is needed in our regional policing infrastructure to ensure that our regions are safe places to call home. Regional South Australia matters to this party, and we will be the party that invests in our regions, not ignores our regions.

South Australia's levels of debt are of exceptional concern and of growing concern to too many South Australians. South Australian businesses understand what it means to carry too much debt. Increasingly, South Australian households are feeling the pain of carrying too much debt, and that pain will soon be exacerbated as opportunities are limited for people in this state, particularly future generations, if we do not get a debt reduction strategy in place for South Australia.

The Liberal Party has always been the party that has an eye to debt reduction. There have been times when debt is good, when debt is useful and when cheap debt has enabled this state to grow; it occurred under the leadership of Thomas Playford and it occurred under the leadership of Steven Marshall. There is opportunity to build this state and to create nation-building and state-building infrastructure when debt levels and borrowing rates are low, but we are getting to the point where South Australia's debt levels are painfully high and the handbrake on future generations is becoming scary.

It is imperative that in the coming budget in 2025, our state Treasurer outlines a debt reduction strategy for this state. The Liberal opposition will certainly be putting on the table strategies for debt reduction into the medium term because there are many reasons to borrow today. There will always be many reasons to borrow. There will always be more reasons to borrow more but, unless we have an eye to debt reduction in the future, we will be punishing future generations by saddling them with generational debt, which may end up unaffordable and unsustainable.

The Liberal Party has a reputation for responsible economic management. That is what South Australians expect of us, but it should not just be for us to do that. There is a key role going forward for the government to outline how it is going to get the expenditure of government departments under control. In the last two budgets we have seen outrageous overspending by government departments. Their budgets are not even guidelines for their expenditure programs anymore. They spend, the debt is forgiven, and they spend again. We saw it in the 2023 budgetary period. We have seen it in the 2024 budgetary period, and it seems to be projected as a method of doing business by our government agencies and our chief executives well into the future.

There is a fiscal ill-discipline built into this budget, and we must stop forgiving poor fiscal behaviour, poor fiscal discipline, and start seeing strategies in place for pushing down our debt levels in this state. We cannot continue in this trajectory with $44 billion worth of debt on the books headed into 2028. But will it be $44 billion? With the budget overruns that we have seen in the last couple of years it will end up much, much higher than that. It will push $50 billion, based on this trajectory, by next year's budget I am sure. This is scary for our state. It is time that this government started to employ the principles of sound money, acting like a household or a small business, getting their house in order, so that future generations are not saddled with levels of debt that are simply unsustainable.

I highlighted a range of issues in this budget that we agree with, because we are not going to provide opposition for the sake of opposition. I have highlighted what this party stands for, and who we seek to provide high levels of advocacy for, and I have outlined some of the areas of deep concern that we have for this budget, and policy proposals that we will take to the 2026 state election and beyond.

We are a serious opposition. We are doing significant policy development in an active and energetic shadow cabinet. We are engaging with peak bodies and stakeholders from every corner of this state and, over the coming months as we get closer to the 2026 election, we will build on the themes that I have outlined today, the specific policies that I have outlined today, and take a policy platform that reforms this state around the principles and values that you should expect of a Liberal Party in this state and this nation. I commend the opposition's approach to the house, and look forward to hearing from my colleagues as they make their contributions over the coming hours.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:58): It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Appropriation Bill 2024. The occasion presents an excellent opportunity to highlight some of the initiatives in the government's third state budget that will benefit the people of my electorate, those across Adelaide's north more broadly, and the entire South Australian community.

In January this year we marked a noteworthy event. I refer to South Australia's economy being rated for the first time ever as the best performing in the nation, according to the CommSec State of the States State and Territory Economic Performance Report. South Australia topped the nation in four of the eight key indicators used to measure and rank economic performance among states and territories. We ranked number one in the nation for economic growth, employment, construction work, and the number of dwellings starting to be built.

And then the following quarter, that is April 2024, we did it again. That is two consecutive State of the States reports in which South Australia topped the nation for the first and second times respectively. It should not be lost on members that this distinction was achieved not once, but twice consecutively, during the term of a Labor government.

It is also worth mentioning, though, before I proceed with extolling some of the virtues of the program of public spending that we are undertaking, that these results were just a couple of selections among our broad range of nation-leading economic results that South Australia has recently achieved. For example, our exports have reached record levels, and we achieved an export growth of 2.6 per cent in the year to April, against the backdrop of a nationwide decline of more than 10 per cent. South Australia's unemployment rate has also hit a record low of 3.3 per cent.

Driving strong economic results is, of course, crucially important, and recognising the broader and more nuanced economic context in terms of what individuals, households and businesses are experiencing day to day is also critically important. That is why the budget meaningfully recognises the extent to which many South Australians are struggling amid cost-of-living pressures that are challenging people across our state and across our nation.

As we have done before, this budget sees the government again acting to support those most in need in our community. The budget provides $266.2 million in cost-of-living relief to South Australian families, as well as to persons who are on low and fixed incomes, along with support for South Australian small businesses. The budget provides $51.5 million in 2023-24 for an additional once-off Cost of Living Concession payment of $243.90 to those who received the concession payment during this financial year. This extra support will go to more than 210,000 households. We are also doubling the Cost of Living Concession payment for all eligible tenants and commonwealth seniors Health Care Card holders. I know that each of these measures will benefit many people within the community of my electorate and across Adelaide's northern suburbs.

Another measure that will be warmly welcomed by families across my electorate, indeed the entire state, is the $54.6 million over four years that is provided for the doubling of the school Sports Vouchers to two $100 vouchers per school-aged child. Expanding the program to include music lessons means greater flexibility for families in choosing how they might utilise these vouchers. Accompanying this relief measure is our doubling of the materials and services subsidy for public school students to $200 per child for this school year, for which the budget provides $24 million in 2024-25.

Other measures focus on those across our community in the greatest need. For example, $10.6 million over four years is provided to extend public transport concessions to all Health Care Card holders. Our social housing and energy upgrade initiative, delivered in partnership with the commonwealth, aims to bring significant energy bill savings for tenants in public and community sector homes, by providing insulation improvements and replacing inefficient appliances. Our government's contribution is $35.8 million over three years, and this will see approximately 3,500 homes upgraded.

We are also supporting small business through providing $20 million for round 2 of the Economic Recovery Fund, which will help up to 8,000 eligible small businesses and not-for-profit organisations invest in energy efficient equipment or other improvements that will assist to reduce and manage their energy usage and costs. Applications for these grants, ranging from a minimum of $2,500 to a maximum of $50,000, and to be accompanied by a matching contribution from the applicant business, will open in August this year. This is just a selection among a range of our initiatives to support South Australians amid challenging circumstances as our community contends with the impacts of inflation and interest rates.

Very importantly, our investments in health continue. For my community and the broader north of Adelaide, people will be gratified to see $16.5 million in 2024-25 to provide 20 additional general inpatient beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. These extra 20 beds are on top of the 48 new beds currently under construction that are due to open later this year, and 23 extra emergency department treatment spaces. The beds will be built in what has been an administration area of the hospital. Construction is due to start later this year, and the beds are expected to come online next year. This will deliver additional bed capacity for the northern suburbs and for our hospital system generally and will be welcomed by my community and those across the north.

Overall, an additional $2.5 billion is provided for health over five years to assist in meeting demand and towards ensuring that our health system is appropriately resourced. This includes, among a number of other things, $17.1 million over four years for an extra 21 renal haemodialysis chairs in northern Adelaide, supporting an additional 84 patients. New investments are happening right across our health system and our community, but I am gratified to see investments continue in Adelaide's north, which the local community will greatly welcome.

Another important area of focus for the investments that are outlined in the budget is education. The government recognises that education is among the most potent of social and economic equalisers, and that ensuring the opportunity to access quality education from early childhood through to tertiary and vocational education is extended to all South Australians is crucial, both to social justice and to our state's productivity and future prosperity.

Members will be very well aware that the final report of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care was released last year. That report outlined what it puts forward as the optimal way for the state government to deliver on Labor's important election commitment to extend access to preschool to three year olds across South Australia, with $715 million provided over the forward estimates to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care.

Part of that investment will include $339.7 million over five years to deliver three-year-old preschool across government and non-government settings. This will deliver the funding to support us to build both the workforce and the infrastructure that will be required to successfully and suitably accommodate a new cohort of students across each setting. There will also be $127.3 million provided to ensure that children most at risk of being developmentally vulnerable have 30 hours of a three and four-year-old preschool in local settings, as well as integrated hubs. Twenty new such hubs will be co-designed with local communities, including two to be built in 2025, one in the Elizabeth area and in Port Pirie.

Others have pointed out that this represents the biggest reform to education in this state in decades, and I echo that sentiment. This initiative aims to reduce the rate of South Australian children who enter their primary school years developmentally vulnerable, from where the figure now sits at 23.8 per cent, to 15 per cent over 20 years. The funding we are delivering will support our preschools to have quality teaching and learning programs, to identify children's needs early and to identify pathways for family supports where it may be beneficial to outcomes and to their future development. The staged rollout will continue until all three year olds across the state can access the minimum entitlement of 15 hours of preschool by 2032.

Of course, it is not only very young children and their families who will benefit from our latest initiatives in education. I am pleased that $155.3 million has been allocated for a new high school in the northern suburbs, which has been identified as a key urban growth area. The new school will provide capacity for 1,300 additional student places and is expected to commence operations in 2028. I anticipate that this will relieve pressure in our school system in the north, adding student places in an area where they are much needed.

The government's keen ambition is for every young South Australian, regardless of where they live, to have a local public school and preschool that offers a quality education with the facilities and the necessary resourcing to support students in both academic learning and the important childhood business of play. South Australia sits poised to take advantage of an enormous opportunity that lies ahead, and indeed this government is doing much to realise the opportunity for our state and our people that we can see. We are working to seize it, but to be in a position to make the most of it, to be in a position to capitalise on the opportunities and realise the fullness of their benefits for our economy and our community, we must invest in our young people and in the infrastructure of early childhood and primary education.

Along with our recognition of what is needed to realise opportunity for our state and our economy, our strong commitment to social and economic justice drives policy decision-making in education. We know that investment in education is a crucial driver of individual opportunity and of fairness for our community. We have prioritised education from our commitments leading into the last state election to the present moment, with the substance of the budget. From the early years through to primary and secondary school, training and university, we know that quality institutions and quality facilities will support young South Australians to reach their potential and therefore will support our whole community to thrive.

On the subject of training, the budget provides a 43 per cent increase in skills funding of $692.6 million over five years. This includes $275.6 million to increase the number of training places in our state to over 160,000 training places. Our economy needs skills, and South Australians deserve support to get themselves on the path to skilled jobs and secure careers. We know this funding will help more people in our community to get the skills they need for the jobs that are being created across our economy, both now and into the future, in key areas such as defence, health, building and construction, early childhood education, clean energy transition and ICT.

Housing is an area in which we know South Australians are feeling acute pressure. We are seeing house prices and rents continue to increase, and we know that supply is not keeping pace with demand. That is why the budget allocates a further $843.6 million to boost housing supply and to address housing affordability. Last year, we abolished stamp duty for first-home buyers, buying land to build a new home, or buying a newly built home, up to a value cap $400,000 for land and $650,000 for a newly built home.

But house prices have continued to rise and this is why we have now removed the value caps on new home and vacant land contracts for stamp duty relief to see stamp duty abolished for all new homes. We have also removed the value cap for the First Home Owner Grant as it applies to new homes—that is $15,000 for all first-home buyers building or buying a newly constructed home, regardless of the property's value.

These measures apply to new homes for the very good reason that it will help to drive up supply. Targeting our relief to new homes will serve to incentivise the building of more new homes, which is a very important element towards ensuring that more South Australians can be suitably accommodated in both owned and rented homes.

We also continue to progress investment in public, social and affordable housing. Over the next 12 years, $576 million will help to redevelop land at Seaton—which will deliver 1,315 homes, including rebuilding 388 public housing homes and delivering an additional 197 affordable homes—and also to redevelop land at Noarlunga Downs, which will deliver around another 626 homes including 80 social and 90 affordable homes.

The budget provides a further $135.8 million over five years to build around 442 additional social housing homes by the end of the 2027-28 financial year, funded through the commonwealth Social Housing Accelerator Payment. Another $30 million provided over three years will support the Office for Regional Housing in Renewal SA to develop more regional housing in partnership with regional communities and local governments.

All these measures will help more South Australians buy their first home and see more homes built for South Australians who need them. There is a great deal more to be said in relation to the worthy spending that the government is undertaking, about investments in key infrastructure in our justice system and in our police, investment in roads, in tourism, in our primary industries and so much more.

In the interest of giving other members an opportunity to contribute, I wish to conclude now by saying that responsible and competent economic management has led to this government's ability to deliver a surplus of $306 million, with further surpluses forecast across the forward estimates. Anyone who would seek to criticise the Treasurer's economic management should be mindful of the fact that there are only two states that are currently expecting to deliver a surplus this year and one of those has had its budget position underwritten by the favourable GST arrangements it was provided in 2018. The other one is right here in South Australia. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (12:11): To take up where the member left off, we have been told about a surplus, and the word 'surplus' in a state budget is going to go rapidly out of fashion, the extent to which the surplus is just so diminutive by comparison to what we have seen rightly published in The Advertiser newspaper the day after the budget as a $44 billion debt bomb that this government has landed on the people of South Australia—and it is shameful.

We heard from the leader early today. We are told it is $44 billion this year, and we are told that we have to somehow praise the Treasurer for that performance, and that is with major capital commitments to north-south and to Women's and Children's not even included in those extraordinary capital debt predictions that are set out on the face of the budget.

So what have we got from the budget this year? We have got a debt bomb. We have got that exacerbated by the fact that we have this extraordinary revenue windfall in the order of $3 billion that is rising to over several more billion dollars, and that alongside what we have now seen is the pattern of this government year after year of basic day-to-day mismanagement that has led to routine blowouts in costs from agency to agency.

So never mind what you see in the budget papers from one year to the next. Do you remember a couple of years ago when we saw operating efficiencies from wall to wall that were set out in the budget? The only exception to that was the Department for Child Protection, and I will come to that in a moment. The first question to that department was: 'Is evermore money in child protection a sign of success or failure?' That question remains the pertinent question for the department.

Meanwhile, though, we do not see operating efficiencies achieved with a view to day-to-day management, we do not see operating efficiencies achieved with a view to achieving meaningful budget management that leads to a meaningful surplus, and we certainly do not see anything approaching debt reduction. We have a debt bomb against a revenue windfall and day-to-day management incompetence—so talk about a surplus. Let's look at the real circumstances that are facing South Australians.

Let's be really clear, this is a budget that has failed South Australians and has done so yet again, and that in the context of a time of crisis: crisis in crime, crisis in health—the circumstances that are facing health for South Australians in this state are going from crisis to disaster via dysfunction, and it is shameful—and crisis in housing. This is in circumstances also where South Australians are suffering the nation's highest unemployment and inflation rates, exacerbated and exemplified no better than by the highest power prices in the world.

The question for all South Australians today, and in the face of what we have seen from this government and this Treasurer, is: are you better off now than you were in 2022? I ask all South Australians: are you better off now than you were in 2022? Is the dream that you have had as a South Australian—looking to prosper in this place, looking to raise a family, looking to live a life, living to thrive and be active and productive—closer to your grasp or is it fading from your eyes? I know that there are many in my community and right across this state who will say that the Australian dream is dying right in front of their eyes and state and federal Labor governments are to blame. Responsibility for these circumstances lies squarely at the feet of state and federal Labor governments.

In contrast, the Liberal Party is committed to values that have at their core the provision of a place to call home. South Australians know that what is so much at the core of what it is to be South Australian is that place to call home in South Australia. Our values are there loud and clear. We believe in all of those elements of the provision of a place to call home.

I mentioned the circumstances of the Department for Child Protection earlier. I will come back to some of the ways in which that place to call home can be made so much more meaningful by family supports that ensure that our vulnerable children have a family and a place to call home and they are not evermore to be found among the numbers in the worst of data associated with children requiring out-of-home and state care anywhere in the nation.

We know how important the home is. We will support South Australians in every respect in ensuring that South Australia is indeed a place that they can call home and that they wish to call home. That is why we are doing everything that we can to make housing more accessible to people. The South Australian Liberal Party has already announced that it will reform stamp duty to extend those stamp duty concessions when it is elected in 2026. We will make sure that those measures are actually meaningful and accessible to young Australians who are wanting to find their home and make their home in South Australia.

This comes in circumstances where, despite having said they will not collect any more taxes, the government is finding itself in the embarrassing circumstance of collecting more revenue than has ever been collected before—an extraordinary circumstance of collecting billions of extra revenue—and yet, as I said at the outset, we are to somehow praise the government for this tiny surplus that has been described, in the small hundreds of millions, against enormous billions of revenue that has been collected in taxes by the South Australian government.

It is continuing. We see total revenue for 2024-25 forecast to be $28.5 billion, which is $3 billion more than forecast in the 2022-23 budget, and revenue is forecast to reach nearly $32 billion by 2027-28, which is $9 billion more than when Labor was first elected. So if the Malinauskas Labor government wants to come and talk about achieving a surplus, then it better start talking in terms of billions and it better start talking in terms of debt reduction before South Australians are really going to pay attention. A notional cash surplus in the small hundreds of millions against those data is truly extraordinary, and it is galling for the government in the extreme to claim some sort of credit for a so-called surplus in those circumstances.

The revenue, of course, has been propped up by much higher than expected GST takes. But, not only that, we see stamp duty and payroll tax, land tax and fees and charges all playing their part. Against that background, more particularly, we have the government resisting the opportunity to extend payroll tax relief to small businesses in South Australia and saying nothing about it. Among the more startling, generally surprising absences from the budget we see zero in terms of the extension of payroll tax. I think it speaks to the values of this government in clear contrast to those of us in the Liberal opposition. We have already made clear we will extend payroll tax relief as it should be and is, of course, to be expected in response to these extraordinary revenue increases.

Despite the increases in taxation in South Australia, and on South Australian businesses, this budget is startling for the absence of any relief for small business. As much as we might hear and see members of the government—the Premier, chief among them—portraying this idea that they are a government for business and that they are business friendly, the walking of the walk speaks a lot louder than the talking of the talk. When we see the payroll tax relief in a Labor budget, we will start to see a bit of walking of the walk. There is none of that. When we start to see support for businesses to thrive, we will pay attention, but the absence of support for business is being felt across the state and businesses throughout Heysen are no exception to that.

We have committed, effective business associations throughout the Hills. They extend through Hahndorf. Echunga has a marvellous community association associated with promoting Main Street. I single out in particular the Stirling Business Association for the work that it does to highlight opportunities for working together to achieve good outcomes and to support businesses that are struggling in the circumstances that have been placed upon them by state and federal Labor governments. The Stirling Business Association is telling me that businesses through the town are struggling. They will innovate and they will continue to push against, they will find opportunities and they will do all they can, but they are getting no assistance from the government in this budget. It is extraordinarily disappointing.

Looking somewhat further afield, Neutrog is a business that is known to many. It is just outside the Heysen electorate and employs around 70 South Australians, many of whom live in Heysen. It is doing extraordinary innovative research, development and growth work, finding markets both here in South Australia and Australia and also overseas, but where is the support from government for that business? It is absent. You have a situation like so many of a small business that is looking over its shoulder, strangled by red tape, looking to justify its existence rather than feeling that the government is behind it with a wet sail. The contrast is extraordinary.

We on this side of the house believe in opportunity. The government is responsible for creating the circumstances of opportunity and supporting small and family business to create the jobs that they do when they innovate, and we need to do all we can. The payroll tax reforms that we announced in the first moments of the Marshall Liberal government and put into place are appropriately continued by the commitment that we have made to ensuring that small business does not pay payroll tax and that apprentices and trainees are given the green light as the result.

Those changes would make South Australia the most competitive business environment with payroll tax in the country and it is the sort of thing that we can and should be doing. We have made it clear that that is a priority and the government—and it is not too late—can put some of that extraordinary revenue windfall into practice in the interests of business by reducing the tax burden. Meanwhile, we know that South Australians are telling us that they are worse off than ever before. That $20,000 per year worse off is an extraordinary circumstance for individuals and families to face.

I said at the outset that this government has now a track record when it comes to budgets and the day-to-day management of telling us one thing and then doing something completely different. When we focus on the budget, the dollars, the figures, speak for themselves, because the government says, 'We're going to manage the day to day'; so much about what needs to be done by a state government is about competent day-to-day management.

But nearly every government agency has again overspent its budget, getting on now towards nearly $1 billion of overspend. Let's be clear: whatever are the figures you were told last year, forget it. You have nearly $1 billion of overspend and without the revenue windfall you have then a budget in massive deficit, so keep a close eye on that capacity to meet government agency indications from one budget to the next. They just have not done it and it has happened again: $824 million of blowout that has been recorded across the whole of government.

Major blowouts have been seen unsurprisingly in Health at $627 million, Education is out by $139 million, Human Services by $135 million, Transport and Infrastructure by $91 million, Premier and Cabinet by $57 million and Tourism by $54 million. We see the Department for Child Protection not only having budgeted increases in expenditure that continue to grow but having an off-the-books top-up heading to $70 million because you just could not manage what was provided for on the face of the budget papers.

We on this side—and I will be the loudest advocate for it—will praise measures that are done, particularly in child protection, to achieve better outcomes. As recently as today the Chief Executive of Uniting Communities, Simon Schrapel AM, has highlighted the challenge that is faced by the Department for Child Protection and by all of us in the community working for improved outcomes for families. We must do it differently. We must have a focus on strengthening families, on supporting families and on ensuring that the long-term improvements that can occur so that when children are living within a family and a family substitute environment, they are then in a position to thrive.

We highlight that measures, small as they are in the previous budget—the provision of $7.7 million for intensive family support, the provision of $1.6 million for family group conferencing—are the sorts of measures that ought to be productive of such improvement. I will get around to the praise for measures that are auguring towards improvement in that way. There are a couple.

But we must ensure that when we are employing the resources we are doing so not with a view to flagging what further dollar inputs we have provided for things but what outcomes they are driving—what improved outcomes are we seeing? In the Department for Child Protection, unfortunately, we are still seeing circumstances in which there is ongoing growth in the number of children in state care and an eroding of the strength of family engagement and family support.

The Department for Child Protection is no exception. The courts precinct, for example, yet again has zero support in terms of capital funding. Coupled with that, we see the police horses now jammed in next to the court building as part of this Gepps Cross combo debacle that the government has foisted on police and the community as a result of the mismanagement of last year's destruction of the Thebarton barracks. So we keep a close eye on provision for the courts and the courts precinct.

Of course, the government's dismantling of effective structures for Aboriginal engagement over the last year has been truly extraordinary. We have seen the ending of the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Committee, we have seen the scrapping of the dedicated committee of this parliament with a focus on Aboriginal affairs and, sadly, this government has gone about then destroying confidence in the Aboriginal community in terms of engagement. That is a state of affairs that must be repaired, it must be rectified, and that must be the first order of business for government.

I welcome the commitments to the South Eastern Freeway. What a debacle that has been. More capital funding must be applied in order to make a difference. I will be ensuring—and I know the community will be, too—that the government will not be let off the hook for that necessary further capital commitment. There is much more analysis to be done over the course of the estimates ahead.

Mrs PEARCE (King) (12:31): It is an absolute pleasure to provide my support for this year's Appropriation Bill in light of the recently handed down state budget. This year's budget once again demonstrates our government's commitment to delivering immediate support to those who need it while also investing in key priorities, including health, housing and jobs. We are allocating even more resources to help build a bigger, better health system. We are setting up our state to deliver truly transformative projects, all while setting up our state for long-term prosperity. Importantly, this budget is providing a strong foundation for our state for generations to come to help us go from strength to strength with no-one left behind.

First and foremost, I do acknowledge that times are tough. There are so many who are feeling the pinch at the moment. We have a clear agenda to help tackle this to help more people and businesses stay afloat. It is why our cost-of-living relief is helping those on low and fixed incomes, renters, families with schoolchildren and those trying to buy their first home. This is exactly what government should be doing when times get tough.

We announced the state budget just a little over a week ago and already we are seeing relief reach households in our state, with the additional Cost of Living Concession payment of $243.90 hitting the bank accounts of more than 210,000 South Australian households. This is relief targeted at those South Australians who need it most at a time when they need it most.

Importantly, we are also providing significant additional ongoing support for those recipients who happen to be renters and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders. From July, they will receive double what they previously received; that is, $127.80 to $255.60 for tenants and holders of Commonwealth Seniors Health Cards, aligning it with that of home owners, which supports around 73,000 people. Eligible low-income families are also to receive a total of $371.70 in additional cost-of-living concession payments over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.

We are also improving and expanding access to a range of concessions, assisting up to around 21,000 vulnerable South Australians and extending public transport concessions to around 15,000 Health Care Card holders. We know that so many have been calling for the concession system in South Australia to be fairer and more accessible. It is something we committed to doing at the 2022 election, and I am so pleased that we are seeing this through as part of this year's state budget.

We are supporting small businesses with more financial relief provided through the Economic Recovery Fund. I am really pleased to see that this round is helping businesses to be able to invest in more energy-efficient equipment because not only is it helping them with the current cost-of-living pressures but it is going to give them that continued support for years to come, while also supporting our state to reach the net zero global market.

We are also supporting those who wish to export their quality goods, like local businesses in my community Soul Diva and Litharian Wines, by committing to support Food SA. I know when the minister and I met with Melanie last week to discuss what we are doing to support her family—someone who provides so much support in our local community through the schools and community groups and causes in the area—it was certainly something that was welcomed, and I know that she will do wonderful things with this support.

We are also determined to do what we can to ensure the next generation receives the absolute best opportunity to thrive and live their best lives. It is why we have a firm focus on doing what we can to support families in this budget. It starts with education, where we are providing further investment to assist with the school materials and services charges. We will be helping to reduce those fees by $200 per eligible child, a saving that I know is warmly welcomed across my local community.

In addition to this, the budget also includes a measure to support South Australian families and young people in an area that I am particularly passionate about—this, of course, being participation in sports and the doubling of the Sports Vouchers program for eligible school-aged children across South Australia. Not only will this initiative help encourage more of our kids to get off their screens and be active in our local communities, it is going to help their development, physical health, mental health and wellbeing and also develop those really important life skills that will continue to serve our kids well into their adult years, regardless of whether or not they continue to play sport in those years.

I have received a phenomenal amount of support from so many across the state regarding this initiative. I have met with stakeholders, families, clubs, associations and even kids themselves to learn more about what this initiative means to them and the future of sport in our state. For many, it offers an opportunity that may not have otherwise been possible, and it is also helping lessen the pressure that is being felt by families at the moment.

For some perspective on the program's success this year alone, in my electorate of King, the Sports Vouchers program has delivered a total value of vouchers in the order of over $150,000. That is $150,000 towards helping kids become active and engaged in our local community, helping to keep them healthy and forming those all-important friendships, many of which I am confident will last them a lifetime.

Across South Australia as a whole, this program has delivered a value of over $5.5 million, and with such a huge uptake of the program across the state, I am very excited to see what the doubling of this incredibly popular voucher will bring. It helps to reduce the cost of sports and it opens the possibility of kids exploring activities to find the one that does work best for them because we do know that all kids are different, which has been a really key focus of what we have been looking at over the past couple of years when it comes to this initiative.

We recognise that every kid is different and has different interests, and if we are really serious about helping to support more of our kids to get off their screens and get active in their communities, we need to have initiatives that reflect that we are investing in them in this way. It is why I am so pleased that we have once again expanded the program to now include music lessons, because music also presents benefits to the development of our kids in terms of their health and their wellbeing, and we are absolutely here for that.

We are also implementing this initiative in a way that provides families with greater flexibility. You can choose to spend your $200 all in one go on one activity. You can choose to allocate the two $100 vouchers across seasons. Something families have been reflecting to me is that whilst it has been very beneficial to have it in one go, kids often play sport across the years and, likewise, across different sports and interests as well, which is why you can also now allocate to use the two $100 vouchers to different activities, depending on the interests of your child. The crux of this initiative is to be able to support our kids to live their absolute best lives and by rejigging this initiative we are providing the best possible way of supporting as many kids as we can but also helping to encourage more kids to get out there and engage in their local communities.

While these measures are helping to provide targeted relief, the budget is also focused on setting South Australia up for future success. We are helping to get homes built. We are equipping the workforce with skills that will support secure and well-paid work now but also long into the future. We are backing in and supporting education and, importantly, we are ensuring that the health system is going to be resourced to adequately support the growing needs of our state.

In health, we have committed an additional $2.5 billion over five years, which includes $17.1 million to expand the availability of renal haemodialysis chairs across northern metropolitan Adelaide, allowing the support of an additional 84 patients with an extra 21 chairs. We will deliver an additional 20 beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital, on top of the 48 that we are currently building and are due to come online a little later this year.

Recently, I visited the Lyell McEwin Hospital with the member for Newland to see the progress of this build underway and I am really pleased to see that it has been designed and constructed in such a way that reflects the needs of our local community and takes into consideration the growing needs in particular areas as well to make sure that we are providing the absolute best service to my local community.

We are also focused on other initiatives that will help improve the state of our health system, initiatives that will improve the transition of patient data in real time to hospitals, helping to speed up admissions, which I know is something that communities feel very strongly about. We are also improving and expanding in telehealth services and importantly, something that is close to my heart, youth mental health, which does include greater support for families and carers of those with eating disorders.

Accessibility to housing is also vital, which is why I am pleased we are implementing initiatives that will help increase supply, as it is key to getting more South Australians into safe, secure and affordable homes. That is why we are completely abolishing stamp duty for first-home buyers who are building a new home, which has been welcome news for all in my community who have been trying to get their foot in the door into home ownership. There is much more to come in this space, so stay tuned.

As we deliver our third budget since coming to government, it is clear that we are set on delivering cost-of-living support to South Australians now, while building for the future. We are building the housing, the skills, the education and health system needed to support a growing economy as we launch into transformative projects that will set up our state for generations to come. Importantly, we are doing all of this while delivering a surplus and the way that we are managing our budget means that we are supporting households to manage theirs.

It has been a pleasure getting out there and sharing this budget with my community because it shows that we are listening to the current needs while also remaining focused on the future of our state. I can assure you that these have all been welcome conversations and it is clear that South Australians are tired of hearing about one-term tactics. They want the vision, the investment and security that comes with long-term vision and planning. We are a government that is getting this done and with that, I commend this bill to the house.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (12:43): I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill. The 2024 state budget really can be characterised, I think, as a typical Labor budget. We see record spending, we see record debt and we see record taxes. The question that South Australians really need to ask themselves is: are they better off today than they were two years ago?

If we put all the distraction aside, all the golf, the football, the car racing and the sport, if we put all that to one side, are South Australians better off today under Malinauskas Labor than they were two years ago? I think the answer is a resounding no. In fact, we know that South Australian families on average are about $20,000 worse off today than they were two years ago. What they do not need at this time of incredible cost-of-living pressure is a budget that delivers record spending, record debt and record taxation, and that is exactly what this latest budget from Malinauskas Labor delivers.

Looking at each of those in turn, we see record spending, and we see it across nearly every government agency. There is nothing to show for it, just run-of-the-mill cost overblows. We see nearly every government agency overspending, with an $824 million blowout recorded across whole of government; major blowouts in the health department of over $600 million; education, over $100 million; human services, over $100 million; transport and infrastructure, $90 million; and tourism about $50 million. It is mismanagement, overspending, record spending and cost blowouts. It is irresponsible financial management.

We also see record debt in this budget. Over the forward estimates, we see state debt ballooning to over $44 billion. That, by the way, is despite nearly half the costs of the north-south corridor project and the Women's and Children's Hospital not yet even being included in the forward estimates. They are off the books at the moment, so presumably debt is going to increase even more during the life of this government.

It is a very concerning amount of debt. A total of $44 billion over the forward estimates is more debt than this state has ever been in in its history. Indeed, debt per person is going to rise by nearly 60 per cent by the end of the forward estimates, compared to Labor's first budget. We know that having huge debt—$44 billion over the forward estimates—is enormously bad for two reasons. One, we have to pay interest on this debt. Anyone who has a mortgage or a credit card knows that it costs to service debt. In fact, the interest repayments alone on the debt being projected in this budget are over $2 billion annually. It is about $6 million a day.

To put that into perspective, it is nearly the entire budget of the Department for Infrastructure and Transport. It is, I think, about four or five times the budget of the Department for Environment and Water. We could be building three Adelaide Ovals every year just with the amount it is costing us to service the debt, the interest. It is money for nothing, because we have run up this giant credit card bill and it is going to have to be repaid.

That is what I fear as well. Everyone knows we are going to have to pay back debt. Anyone who has ever borrowed knows that. We see this budget with glossy pamphlets and posters at train stations saying, 'This is a budget for all South Australians.' What that really means is it is debt for all South Australians. It is debt for all South Australians, because it is we who are being burdened with this $44 billion of debt. It is all South Australians, whether they are families or small businesses, who are going to have to pay it back.

I am enormously concerned about the level of debt forecast in this budget. The opposition is enormously concerned, and the Leader of the Opposition has challenged the Treasurer today to prepare a debt reduction plan in future budgets. Commentators are concerned as well. We see Paul Starick in The Advertiser describing the level of debt as 'eye-watering' and comparing it to the State Bank crisis that this state saw in recent history. I think at that time we were dealing with debts at around the $3 billion mark. We are now dealing with $44 billion.

Matthew Abraham in InDaily described it as a government 'drowning in cash yet whacking massive amounts on the credit card'. That is exactly what it is. I think it is going to have a disproportionate impact on young people today, because it is those of my generation and those who will follow who are going to be left with the bill, left with the bill from this Treasurer's irresponsible budget racking up $44 billion worth of debt over the forward estimates, left with the bill to have to pay it back and perhaps, unfortunately, standing a little too close if and when this debt bomb explodes. I am very concerned about the level of debt in this budget.

Thirdly, we see record taxes in this budget. Despite promising no new taxes in this government, despite promising no tax increases in this government, what we have seen just last week when the budget was handed down is the highest taxing government in the history of South Australia. If it feels like you have never been paying more tax, it is because that is the case. You have never been paying more tax than under Malinauskas Labor. There have been tax increases right across the board in how much the Malinauskas Labor government is taking in.

We see it on GST intake, a 31 per cent increase over the last couple of years of the Malinauskas Labor government. We have seen it on car registration, a 16 per cent increase. We have seen it on payroll tax, a 33 per cent increase. Businesses are paying 33 per cent more payroll tax than they were two years ago under this Labor government. The emergency services levy (ESL) is up 17 per cent. Fines have increased dramatically, up 59 per cent. We are taking in 48 per cent more land tax than two years ago, and stamp duty is up 7 per cent. What we see, despite a government that promised us there would be no new taxes and there would be no increase in taxes, is the highest taxing government in history.

These sorts of moments are opportunities to compare and contrast. What you have seen from the Liberal opposition over the last few weeks is a very clear indication that we want to lower your taxes. The Liberals will lower your taxes. We have outlined already a series of policies that will do just that. We want to lower stamp duty for all first-home buyers to allow young people to be able to keep the dream of home ownership alive. We want to lower payroll tax for all small businesses by lifting the threshold and also applying an exemption for apprentices and trainees. We want to scrap this GP tax that we have seen about to be introduced that is going to increase the cost of going to a GP anywhere between $10 to $20, and it will drive people into our hospitals as well.

You have seen all of this announced by the Liberal opposition in the past few days and weeks. On the one hand you have the highest taxing Labor government ever, and on the other hand you have a Liberal opposition that wants to lower the taxes for South Australians right across the state, with a plan to lower your stamp duty, lower your payroll tax and scrap this GP tax.

While we are on this exercise of compare and contrast, there is a third force emerging in economic thought and leadership in this state, and it is the South Australian Greens who have released some tax policy as well. We know that the Greens spend a lot of time running around South Australia with all sorts of policy proposals. We know they want to scrap South Australian submarine and frigate building. We know they want to cut funding for school choice. We know they want to cut private health insurance. We know they want to decriminalise hard drugs. But what we have seen recently from the Greens is a bit of tax policy as well from the economic hardheads at the South Australian Greens.

To their credit, they have told us how they are going to pay for some of these wild policy proposals. In an Instagram post on 3 June 2024 we see the co-leader of the South Australian Greens, the Hon. Robert Simms, outlining it. The title is, 'How we will pay for our plans.' He sets out some tax policy for the Greens, which involves—you guessed it—a whole heap of brand-new taxes or tax increases for South Australians. I think South Australians ought consider the Greens' tax policy at the next election. The Greens are not some sort of safe place to park a protest vote, they are not an easy way to virtue signal on certain issues; what they are is a dangerous, extremist left-wing party who want to tax you, tax you and tax you. We know that because they have told us.

If we look at their tax policy released only a couple of weeks ago, they want to impose a 75 per cent developer tax on land value gains from rezoning. Presumably, that is going to force up the cost of all new development in this state. The price of new housing might increase by 75 per cent, which is the last thing we need when we want to boost housing supply. They want to tax residential properties that are vacant for more than 12 months. Any of my constituents who might have a holiday home, for example, might be very interested in the Greens' holiday home tax that they have announced. The kick is that they want to 'increase land tax' and they also want to 'increase payroll tax for big businesses making super profits'.

So, what do we see in this exercise of compare and contrast? Under Labor, you have never been paying more tax ever. Under the Greens, you will be paying a lot more tax by their own admission. A Liberal Party, a Liberal government, wants to reduce your taxes and that is exactly what we will do if we are elected in 2026. Then there are my comments on the budget, a typical Labor budget, from a macro perspective, where we see record spending, record debt and record taxes.

In what time I have remaining, I want to make some remarks from a more local perspective on this state budget. There are two wins for our local community in the state budget, two things that I have been advocating for for most of the time I have been in the parliament. One is around road safety, particularly at school crossings in the eastern suburbs. We do see a new $80 million allocation for road safety, including something that I have been calling for in this place on previous occasions, which is a 40 km/h speed zone near schools on main roads.

This is obviously an area of great interest to my local constituents. It was really brought to the forefront by the horrible accident that occurred at Marryatville High School last year. Following that accident, we have worked together as a community to achieve a lot of improvements at that intersection, but there is more that can be done and there is more that can be done right across the state and indeed the eastern suburbs. I am pleased that part of this funding is going to reducing speed limits on main roads and also installing new variable speed signage at school crossings.

I note that the government and the minister have not yet outlined what priority locations there will be. I would urge the minister to read my numerous correspondence to various ministers on this topic where I have some ready-made plans that the government can implement at schools in the eastern suburbs, particularly those schools that are on or near main roads, whether it is Marryatville High School on Kensington Road or Seymour College or Loreto College on Portrush Road or Linden Park Primary School quite close to Portrush Road. I urge the minister to consider my local schools as part of this $80 million funding for school crossing improvements.

Another thing I have been advocating for for some time now is more enforcement and crackdown on illegal vaping and tobacco shops and I see in the state budget a $16 million allocation to counter the growing illegal trade of tobacco and vaping, with additional staff in CBS to investigate this. Again, this is something I have raised with the government a number of times. It is of great concern to my constituents, particularly regarding some new tobacco and vaping shops that have opened in Stonyfell near St Peter's Girls' School, as well as in Marryatville near Marryatville High School and also Marryatville Primary School. There is concern about their proximity to those schools. There is also concern about whether they are appropriately licensed to be selling vapes and tobacco. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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