HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-07-25 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

APPROPRIATION BILL 2013

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 23 July 2013.)

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (10:33): I rise to make a second reading contribution to the Appropriation Bill for the 2013-14 fiscal year, and in so doing I wish to concentrate my remarks on the Labor government's commitment to the future of our state, with particular reference to its record ongoing investment in infrastructure. The 2013-14 budget contains a range of measures which aim to support the South Australian economy, including the continuation of stimulus measures, which have already provided a significant boost to the housing and construction sectors.

A major feature of the state budget has been the government's ongoing budget commitment to the state's infrastructure program, with $10.1 billion being provided over four years. I will expand on the Labor government's commitment to the expenditure on infrastructure. The government has embarked on a sustained infrastructure spend, which will provide world-class infrastructure here in South Australia, but also, more importantly, will support jobs.

This commitment is shown by its investment in the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project, which commenced in 2011 as a public-private partnership and is due for completion in 2016. This project includes an investment of $1.8 billion to construct the new hospital. Most critically, this project will provide this state with a world-class, state-of-the-art health facility, providing for the health needs of South Australians for decades to come. Prior to this, however, the construction of this project will provide 3,000 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs. The development of the Adelaide Oval—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: How much does it cost?

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: I told you that: $1.8 billion—a very good investment in the future of the state's future health. The development of the Adelaide Oval will provide South Australians with a world-class sporting facility of their own when completed next March. The work commenced in December 2011, and this project has and will continue to support over 1,200 jobs. In fact, 58 of the 61 subcontractors engaged on the project are South Australians, and the state government's contribution is $535 million.

The state Convention Centre upgrade, stage 1, commenced in July 2011, with completion expected in late 2014. This is a $210 million investment which will see jobs on the site peak at 300. Stage 2 of the project is expected to commence in early 2015, with the completion date set for mid-2017. At this stage, it is too early to assess the jobs impact of stage 2.

The Riverbank bridge, which is a $40 million project, commenced in March this year, with the completion expected in December. The project is expected to employ 170 South Australians. The Adelaide Railway Station yard upgrade is a $50 million project, which commenced early this year, and its completion is planned for March 2014, is expected to employ 170 people. The South Road superway is an $842 million project, which commenced in early 2010, with completion expected later this year. This project employed over 2,010 people, with a further 380 indirect jobs; 6 per cent of those have been Aboriginal workers, 18 per cent of workers have overcome barriers to employment and 2 per cent have been trainees.

The Southern Expressway duplication is a $407.5 million project, which commenced in early 2012, with an expected completion date of mid-2014. This project has employed 1,040 directly and 190 indirectly. The project is consistently exceeding targets which require that 50 per cent of the workforce come from the southern regions of Adelaide.

Overall, averages for 2012 saw each of the other targeted areas being exceeded as well, with 4.3 per cent of workers upskilled, 4.9 per cent from trainee, cadet and apprenticeship categories, 9.9 per cent being from local people who have overcome a barrier to employment, and 5.1 per cent of workers from the Aboriginal community. To date, 86 per cent of contracts that have been awarded on the project have gone to South Australian businesses, and 27 per cent of those have come from the southern suburbs.

The Goodwood Junction is a $110 million project which has employed 250 people, with a completion date expected later this year. The Adelaide-Melbourne road corridor, the Dukes Highway, is a $100 million project which has employed 50 directly and 100 indirectly, with 20 per cent of this project being funded through the state government. I should also mention some federally-funded infrastructure projects and their significant impact on jobs here in South Australia.

The new South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute's building is a $200 million project, and it has employed 320 directly and 200 indirectly. The Seaford rail extension is a $291 million project, which has employed 200 directly and 350 indirectly. Of those, 2.9 per cent have been Aboriginal; 8.5 have been 'barrier to employment'; trainees, cadets and apprenticeship categories make up 5.1 per cent; and it has employed 95 per cent from South Australia.

This is a record infrastructure spend that the state government is proud of, and I am proud to stand here as a member of government and say that we have invested, and will continue to invest, in the future of South Australia and South Australians. The choice that this government has made in this budget stems from our belief that government has a critical role to play in helping industries to change and grow in protecting and creating jobs and in building a better quality of life.

In this budget, we have continued to invest carefully in infrastructure and economic measures to ensure that the economy grows and people have access to good jobs. Those opposite have called this a false economy. That could not be further from the truth. It could not be more wrong. This budget and the government's investment in infrastructure have had real tangible effects on South Australian families. We are talking about real jobs—more than 8,700 jobs. That is what has flowed from these investments in this year alone.

That is 8,700 jobs—8,700 individuals who have the security of knowing that their state government is investing in projects that will enable them to provide for their families. It is 8,700 people who, with the security of employment, go out and spend in their local community, adding to the flow-on effect through our economy. This is anything but false economy. I defy the members opposite to tell those 8,700 that these employment projects are a false economy. It could not be more real.

The Premier—our Treasurer—has framed a budget that looks to South Australia's future with significant and ongoing infrastructure investment, as well as looking to assist those in the community who need it most. This budget also shows a significant strengthening of the budget position by the end of the forward estimates, as compared with the position set out in the Mid-Year Budget Review.

We return to a substantial surplus in 2015-16, and by the end of the forward estimates debt will reduce by over $450 million, compared with the level forecast in the Mid-Year Budget Review. We will also do this in a responsible way without the mean-spirited cuts that have been seen from conservative governments in other states. The budget provides for strong government, strong business and strong community. It ensures that South Australia has a strong, positive future, and I commend the Appropriation Bill to this council.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (10:43): That was a heartwarming speech from the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars because, as we all know, socialist governments are terrific until they run out of other people's money to spend. The Hon. Gerry Kandelaars has just highlighted how wonderful they are while the borrowing is happening, but at some stage the tap is going to be turned off and do you know what is going to happen then? The Liberal government is going to have to clean up the filthy mess again.

The message that I take from this Labor government's budget is plain and simple: you just cannot trust Labor. We are witnessing this at both a state and federal level—Labor cannot be trusted with our money and we cannot trust this Labor government with anything that they tell us. Time and time again we are told that a surplus will be delivered—it is almost comedy hour—but time and time again we, as a state, are left with a deficit and a debt to pay. Six deficits in seven years, a figure that is completely unacceptable.

Why is this happening? It is because this government, over the course of 11 long and damaging years, has lost touch with reality and lost touch with the community. Because of its ill-considered decisions families, small businesses and those already struggling in this time of economic hardship are forced to pay for this government's failures.

It has been said before, and it will continue to be heard for as long as Labor is in government, that Labor has a spending problem. If anyone else in the community were to spend beyond their means, like this government does, they simply would not get away with it. The banks would foreclose on them—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I am not listening, Mr President; he can rabbit on as much as he wants, like a stupid child.

The PRESIDENT: Government members will come to order. The Hon. Mr Kandelaars was heard in silence, so let us afford—

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Thank you, Mr President. That would be a courtesy it would be nice for these guys to return, actually.

The PRESIDENT: Let us afford the same courtesy to the Hon. Mr Stephens. The Hon. Mr Stephens has the call.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Respect is earned.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: That's why you will never have any, you clown. After what can only be described as a heap of disconnected, poorly considered and generally disastrous decisions, this Labor government has to be turfed out. It needs to be evicted from the Treasury benches, having had 11 years—and it has been 11 years too long. Imagine the position our state could have been in with a competent government during that period, one that took the time to analyse the needs of the community and the financial situation of the state, and that did not just spend, spend, spend to have their names on building plaques.

The government claims that this deficit is beyond its control, that it is a result of a revenue downturn. This is an absolute falsehood, and we all know it. The figures show that over the last four years revenue has actually grown by 3 per cent per year. The real issue is that this Labor government continues to partake in unbudgeted spending—this year's splurge of $626 million takes its total figure up to $3.8 billion worth of expenditure that was not planned for—only later to shrug its shoulders and say, 'It's not our fault.'

What is the government going to do about this enormous debt? It has made promises that it is good for it and that the state will return to surplus by the 2015-16 budget but, if history is anything to base predictions on, the safe money is that it will not; it simply cannot deliver. To give Labor the benefit of the doubt would surely only lead to more poor decisions and our state going further and further into the red.

Why should we be concerned by this? The government is not running up its debt, this is not a debt that the Labor Party will pay; it is running up the state's debt, the community's debt. After all, it is not this government that will be paying back the current debt of $13.75 billion at an interest cost of $952 million per year; it is the community that will bear the brunt, the mums and dads, small businesses, ordinary members of the community. Not only are they already struggling under the pressure of their own financial affairs and poor economic conditions that this government seems to only exacerbate, they are also being burdened by the weight of the debt of an incompetent government, one that uses the public as security rather than taking responsibility for its own actions.

We are already seeing this take place with the ridiculous cash grabs. It started with the car park tax, and where will it end? Throughout the course of this government South Australia has gone from being one of the lowest taxed states to the highest taxed state in mainland Australia. We have the highest electricity prices in the nation, the highest water prices of any capital city, and the highest WorkCover rate, as we operate under the worst performing scheme. Our bus fares, licence fees and car registrations are all nearly double CPI.

South Australia continues to hold the title of worst state when it comes to land tax, which is levied at 36 per cent above the average; stamp duty, which is levied at 27 per cent above the average; and insurance tax, levied at 42 per cent above the average. By the Premier's own admission, we are a high cost jurisdiction. How is anything meant to thrive in this environment?

Tax revenue has increased by 92 per cent under this Labor government, yet the government is still set to deliver the state's largest debt at a disgraceful $13.75 billion. Why should the public have to bear the repercussions of Labor's bad decisions? If Labor were allowed another term in government, this burden would only continue to grow. Labor wants us to believe that the state will return to surplus in a few years time, to give it a chance, but this sounds all too similar to the promises we have heard before.

They told us in the 2011-12 year that we would see a $420 million surplus, and they gave us a $258 million deficit. This year, 2012-13, we were promised a $304 million surplus. What did Labor deliver? A $1.3 billion deficit. For this coming year, 2013-14, we were promised a $480 million surplus: the prediction that we are looking at is a $911 million deficit. I do not think I need to point out how disgraceful this is, but I will ask: why is this happening? Is it because Labor cannot manage its money, or is it because they are not telling us the truth?

If this government decides that, one day, they wish to open up to the community and tell us what went wrong with their budgeting, they should have no trouble delivering their message. Statistics show that Labor is so engrossed in spin, it is spending a mind-blowing $70 million on advertising each year. Just disgraceful! Budgets for health, education and policing are being slashed left, right and centre, yet this government wastes millions upon millions trying to convince us that everything is fine. The Premier alone employs three separate speechwriters, at a cost of $194,000 per year. Why the need for so much spin? Clearly, something is going terribly wrong.

While on the subject of waste and expenditure, let us not forget the yearly figures of $25 million the government spends on travel and the $200 million that goes to the coffers of consultants and contractors. Then there are blowouts and broken promises to consider. We have the new RAH, promised at $1.7 billion, now likely to come in at over $2.8 billion. We were promised to have a redeveloped Adelaide Oval for 'not a penny over $450 million'. How does $600 million look to you? The Southern Expressway duplication was set for $370 million: we are now told that it will be $407 million. The $304 million water interconnector is set to come in at $403 million. It is no wonder we are in the red when government projects continue to go far beyond what was budgeted for.

I want to touch on not only the overspending of this government but also their lack of understanding of business and their constant interference by way of legislation and regulation. It is hurting business—and let me use an example. Let me use the example of family hotels. This government has consistently, over 11 years, broken promises, tried to change regulations, tried to change legislation, which has led to so much uncertainty in the hotel industry that the value of hotels has plummeted.

Banks do not value the asset in the way they used to do. Why? Because of the uncertainty in the industry. When government interferes with the basic running of a business, it leads only to disaster. When we look back at the result of Labor's 11-year reign, it is clear that they have left a solid path of destruction in their wake. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT