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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-05 Daily Xml
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Federal Budget

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer regarding funding for South Australia in the federal budget.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Yesterday, the chief executive of the Department of Treasury and Finance advised that the federal budget allocated nothing in new infrastructure monies to South Australia in 2018-19, $30 million in 2019-20, $40 million in 2020-21 and $92 million in 2021-22 for new infrastructure in South Australia. Will the Treasurer confirm these figures and that the $1.8 billion figure that the Treasurer has previously spruiked was not in fact allocated in the recent federal budget?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:04): No, I won't, but thank you for the kind invitation. The federal budget did outline funding over the period of our forward estimates, which is, I think, the point that the honourable member has missed, and also a period beyond the forward estimates. So the $1.8 billion figure is in the federal budget, but I think the point the honourable member didn't understand or missed is that there are two periods: one is in the forward estimates period or our current forward estimates period and a period beyond it, but it was actually included in the federal budget documents in terms of an allocation of funding for various projects.

I have already said in this house and also publicly, we are having grown-up, adult conversations, which perhaps might surprise the former members of the Labor government, in terms of negotiating with our federal colleagues what is called 'reprofiling', to use a former Labor government phrase, of those capital works projects. Our wish or our submission is to bring forward into our forward estimates period some of that money which has been allocated beyond our current forward estimates period. We are able, as I've said before, to argue that case with our colleagues for some projects—Pym Street, for example, Gawler electrification, and we also believe the Joy Baluch Bridge, because at least some or all of the business case work has been done by the former government.

Sadly, the two biggest projects, the two remaining bundles of the South Road project, the former Labor government of which you were a prominent member, Mr Acting President, just didn't do the work. The business cases for those two particular bundles were not done by the former Labor government and, therefore, we're not in a position to be able to present those business cases through the necessary processes such as Infrastructure Australia and other processes that are required by the federal government in relation to the funding.

So in those particular projects we are going to have to do the hard work the former government hasn't done, do the business cases and then follow those particular projects through. But in relation to the ones where the business cases have either been done or substantially done then, as I said, we are engaging in adult, grown-up conversations with the commonwealth government to try to bring forward some of that funding into our forward estimates period so that we can continue with some of those projects in the interests of South Australia.

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