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

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 31 May 2018.)

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (17:22): I rise to speak on the Supply Bill 2018. Having passed the other place, the Supply Bill has now come before this chamber. I know members will perform their due diligence in carefully considering this bill. As we know, a supply bill is required until a budget can pass through the necessary parliamentary stages and until an appropriation bill can receive assent. This is then an important bill, and I am pleased to contribute my remarks. Indeed, this bill presents all members with an opportunity for speaking about all manner of topics related to government expenditure.

While by nature these bills are quite often brief, it is known that contributions to supply bills can be lengthy indeed. This is, of course, justified when you consider the sheer magnitude of expenditure that is appropriated for within the Supply Bill. Therefore, seeing as this bill and brevity do not go hand in hand, I will take my time to deliver my carefully considered remarks. I have a number of topics of my own related to government expenditure and I intend to cover these in my remarks and will do so thoroughly. I also take this opportunity to look at some of the government's priorities and explore further the question of how they might set their budget and meet all of their election commitments.

This bill seeks to appropriate $6.6 billion and, given the broad nature of this appropriation, I would like to reflect upon the budget surplus that greeted the new Treasurer when he was appointed to his position back in March, although, as we know, he is busy trying to construct an entirely different narrative. The Treasurer inherited a healthy budget from the former Labor government, a budget that was in surplus, yet in light of the federal budget the Treasurer has already moved to describe the 2017-18 budget as being in deficit.

Of course, many of us know that he would like to construct a budget deficit, more so for his own political purposes than for any other sound reason. The Treasurer's statements on this matter are spurious indeed, driven by a desire, I am certain, to present a budget in deficit, quickly followed by a budget surplus for 2018-19. The truth of the matter is that the Treasurer's motives and statements are all rather transparent; he has inherited a budget in surplus and, in particular, when you consider the boosts from the GST, which will allocate approximately $272 million extra in the 2018-19 budget, I find the Treasurer's words to be hollow cries indeed.

It is not just pot luck that leads to a fiscal surplus. Previous treasurers have worked successfully over the past 16 years to ensure the provision of essential services while maintaining responsible financial management of the public sector. Tens of thousands of jobs were created under the previous government, mostly by investing $33 billion since 2002-03 into improving hospitals, roads, schools and public transport. The previous government fought for and then won the $50 billion Future Submarines contract, the largest tender in the nation's history, and set in train a continuous shipbuilding program.

The former government also protected jobs at the Whyalla Steelworks, with the sale of Arrium and metal processing jobs at Port Pirie through the Nyrstar redevelopment. The former government looked to ensure our financial viability and future by partnering with businesses to boost job creation through our job accelerator grants, and led the way through tax reform, which will return $2.5 billion to businesses and the community over the next decade.

South Australia has faced its fair share of challenges in recent history. The federal Liberal government drove Holden out of the state and then went on to cut funding for schools and hospitals. The same federal Liberals advocated for our submarines to be built overseas. This is all bad enough, but what is truly unforgivable is that they failed to fix our broken national energy market. As I reflect upon these challenges, it is truly remarkable that, despite these challenges and these setbacks, despite the fact that time and time again the federal Liberal government has let this state down, South Australia has emerged as a world leader.

The Treasurer himself might remember the state of the CBD when they left office all those years ago in 2002 and, although he would never admit it, he must have cause to reflect upon the state of the CBD now, as he assumes his old job from 16 years ago. Indeed, one only needs to cast an eye over the CBD to take in all of the truly transformative changes: a revitalised CBD, a transformed Adelaide Oval, a footbridge, the Riverbank Precinct, the Adelaide Convention Centre, the tram extension, and fostered laneways, small bars and a vibrant city culture and nightlife. The former government had the foresight to understand that, by revitalising the CBD, there would be flow-on effects to our regions as well.

All of those regions, along with their amazing offerings of food and wine, also receive substantial investments, and the benefit has been significant. Last year alone, we welcomed a record 442,000 visitors who spent $1.1 billion here in South Australia. When Adelaide was once again ranked the fifth most liveable city in the world last year by The Economist—for the sixth consecutive year, I might add—it reinforced that the former government had indeed invested in the right priorities. The Economist's independent international study of cities recognises what South Australians know to be true: that this is a wonderful place to live, to work and to socialise.

I turn my attention now to Health, a challenging and critical portfolio. Under the former government, we vigorously pursued the creation of an excellent health system with every major hospital upgraded. Most notably, of course, a little way further down North Terrace is our state-of-the-art health and biomedical precinct with the world-leading new Royal Adelaide Hospital as its centre.

Under the former government, South Australians had more nurses per person than any other mainland state. It is a remarkable achievement when you pause to consider nursing staff levels when Labor came into office in 2002. Our legacy is also that of the equal highest number of hospital beds per person in our public hospitals. These achievements were not accidental. The former government invested heavily into our public hospitals. There was $4 billion committed to upgrade every metropolitan public hospital and every major country hospital in South Australia. It is important to note as well that the former government did these things. We brought the Modbury Hospital back into public hands after the previous Liberal government privatised it.

In September last year I had the honour and privilege of attending the opening of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in Australia. This day was one of great pride for myself and many of my Labor colleagues. The former government persevered through an ill-advised and negative opposition, namely by those opposite, to this project. Through all the carping and the whingeing and the repeated conjecture of the naysayers, again mostly from the mouths of those sitting opposite, including the Hon. Mr Stephens, the former government persevered, and here we are today. The new Royal Adelaide Hospital has set a benchmark. It is one of the largest social infrastructure projects undertaken in Australia.

The 800-bed hospital provides comprehensive clinical care to approximately 85,000 inpatients per year and 400,000 outpatients per year. Built into the design of the new hospital are simple yet transformative concepts, including catering to physical and emotional needs of the patients and their loved ones. There is a strong focus on natural light. With 100 per cent single overnight patient rooms, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital allows patients to be treated in privacy and in comfort. State-of-the-art facilities also cater to the needs of health professionals, and we are attracting some of the best and brightest expertise from around the world.

Telehealth facilities allow for clinicians and staff to consult with their colleagues and patients in regional and remote areas of South Australia. Advanced digital imaging technology means that images are streamed live from operating theatres and procedure rooms for both diagnostic and training purposes. Interestingly, the hospital has the largest microbiology system in the Southern Hemisphere. What this means in practical terms is that the clinicians at the Royal Adelaide Hospital have state-of-the-art technology to support timely diagnoses and provide expert treatment of infectious disease.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is considered the super site for major emergencies, namely strokes and heart attacks, but also provides complex multitrauma care facilities. Amongst many features is a 24-hour on-site stroke team and a 24-hour diagnostic and imaging services team. The new hospital provides care for patients suffering from complex cancers and for patients requiring a bone marrow transplant. The RAH is home to specialist acute spinal and brain injury rehabilitation services and a specialist neurosurgery, cranio-maxillofacial surgery and other complex surgical care services.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital was purpose-built to be equipped to play the lead role in South Australian disaster management strategies. The hospital has purpose-built decontamination showers, five negative pressure rooms and a quarantine room. The hospital is designed to be flexible and convert specific areas into clinical areas in the event of a mass casualty disaster. The building itself is designed to withstand a major earthquake or natural disaster.

I reflect upon other hospitals across metropolitan Adelaide and South Australia. I take a moment to look at the upgrades they received in addition to the opening of the brand-new Royal Adelaide Hospital. In recent times, in our western suburbs, the former government invested $409 million to redevelop The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including a larger and state-of-the-art emergency department, operating theatre and day surgery suite. New outpatient medical imaging services were built and there was provision for advanced brain and spinal injury rehabilitation services.

In Adelaide's south, the former government invested $385 million to improve and upgrade facilities at the Flinders Medical Centre, including a new neonatal unit and a rehabilitation centre. Further down south, at the Noarlunga hospital, $36 million was invested to improve services and infrastructure, including a new day surgery unit, new operating theatres and a new renal dialysis unit.

In the north-east, $153 million was invested to upgrade the Modbury Hospital. The Modbury Hospital has come a long way since the dark days of privatisation. Not only did we bring this much-loved facility back into public hands but we invested money to improve emergency medical and surgical services.

It disturbs me that prior to the last election the honourable opposition spokesperson for health developed a policy based on very ill-informed advice from certain people who we do not know because he refuses to divulge the names of the people who had given him advice, except for Warren Jones. All this advice went against the advice of the Australian Medical Association and the surgeons at the College of Intensive Care Medicine.

I imagine that the new Minister for Health and Wellbeing will find out pretty soon that actually making decisions in government as a minister and totally disregarding the advice of the specialists and the people who work in the industry is going to be far different to implementing the irresponsible policies he had during opposition and leading up to the election.

In Adelaide's north, $385 million was invested at the Lyell McEwin Hospital, including a redeveloped and expanded emergency department. You would not recognise the Lyell McEwin Hospital now from when we first came into government in 2002 because our government injected a lot of money over those 16 years because we had a strong belief that working people in the northern suburbs had just as much right to world-class care as people in the eastern suburbs and cities and people who use private health. It is a real credit to the Labor government for the fantastic facilities that are at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

Across South Australia the former government delivered more than $300 million in capital investment, namely upgrades to country general hospitals at Berri, Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln and Whyalla. Cancer services were also expanded, including a new Regional Cancer Centre in Whyalla and 14 designated chemotherapy units throughout regional South Australia.

We invested $50 million in a veterans' mental health precinct, the Jamie Larcombe Centre, which provides high quality mental health and post-traumatic stress services to veterans and first responders in modern facilities. In the past four years, 50 more acute mental health beds were opened and community health services received further investment, with 36 per cent more staff on hand than the national average. Eighty new drug rehabilitation beds, clinical services and family supports were provided as part of the $8 million investment in the South Australian Ice Taskforce.

A world-class health system requires state-of-the-art facilities to support our paramedics. The previous Labor government built new ambulance stations at Oakden, Noarlunga, Mount Gambier and Seaford and, more recently, at Morphettville and Parafield. The former government invested $12 million for a South Australian Ambulance Service rescue retrieval and aviation base at Adelaide Airport to ensure quick response times for people who have become ill or are critically injured. The ambulance fleet was refurbished, 72 extra paramedics and support staff have been employed in the last three years and $22 million was invested to replace manual stretchers with high-tech powered stretchers.

Labor fought and will continue to fight against the federal Liberal government's massive cuts to health in both the 2014 and the 2015-16 federal budgets. When the federal government drops the ball, the result is that our public hospitals are flooded with avoidable presentations. Preventable conditions are certainly of rising concern, and it is the responsibility of successive governments to invest in preventative health measures to keep both adults and children healthy and out of hospital.

The federal government has slashed millions of dollars from South Australia for preventative health initiatives. Labor will continue to hold the federal government to account over their actions. Preventative and primary health remain the federal government's responsibility. Nevertheless, the former state government was prepared to invest in preventative health measures, and it gives me cause to reflect and question the actions so far of the current health minister in this place and what his government is doing to ensure that preventative health measures receive funding.

I hope the health minister in this place is maintaining the pressure on his federal counterparts to ensure South Australia receives its rightful share of funding. Labor will continue to advocate for fair and sufficient federal funding for primary, preventative and mental health initiatives. Be it in government or in opposition, we will not stop. We will be advocates for South Australians, and we will continue to fight for fair and sufficient funding.

I turn my attention now to education. The earliest years of life set our children and young people up for a lifetime of wellbeing, happiness and success. We all want the best for our children and the best for our young people in South Australia. At the centre of these values is the belief that education must be accessible to all. More than that, education must be well resourced and world class.

At the core of our values also is that every single South Australian child should have the opportunity to excel—not good luck or good fortune but the inherent right to have the opportunity to excel. This is pivotal and central to the idea of a fair go for all. It has to be straight off the bat and it starts with our children, their wellbeing, their happiness and their ability to access quality education.

When all is said and done, schools need to be well resourced. The former government doubled investment in public schools since 2002—doubled the investment. The former government also stood up to the Liberal government and their cuts to our schools. Only recently, the former government invested more than $1 billion in school infrastructure, including an unprecedented $692.2 million to upgrade 91 public primary and high schools and $100 million dollars to build the new Botanic High School.

It is incredibly important that we prepare our children and young people to work in the jobs of tomorrow by encouraging skills in science, technology, engineering and maths. That is why the former government invested $250 million to build state-of-the-art science and maths facilities in public schools, and $250 million in low interest loans for Catholic and independent school infrastructure. The former government created 44 children's centres across the state and has invested more than $3.3 billion in school infrastructure since 2002. In practical terms, this means that funding per student in public schools increased from $7,600 in 2002 to $16,427 in 2017. In 2007, the year 12 attainment rate was 57 per cent, and by 2017 the rate had been lifted to 92 per cent, the highest in the nation.

The former government not only invested in our schools but improved accessibility by looking at the issues that might be affecting a child and their family. One way of doing this was to lift the income eligibility for the School Card for a family with one child from $37,274 to $57,870, allowing an extra $16,000 a year to save on education costs. The former government also centrally funded public schools' utility bills and provided extra funds for cleaning and maintenance for public schools and preschools, while a further $66 million over four years could be made available for teaching resources, support programs and technology.

We must always strive to make things better and to try to improve the lives of everyone, particularly those most in need of our help. Certainly at times the former government, as sadly do many jurisdictions around the world, faced challenges in ensuring that all of our young children and young people were at all times safe and protected. I think we can all agree that where tragedies have occurred, successive governments need to develop an evidence-based approach to ensuring that these things do not happen again.

To that end, I was certainly proud when the former government invested more than $500 million to reforming the state's child protection and child development systems. In addition, came the appointment of the Commissioner for Children and Young People, a person who would ensure that children's voices are heard at all levels of government, including the highest levels of government.

In response to the recommendations from the Child Protection Systems Royal Commission led by the Hon. Margaret Nyland AM, the Department for Child Protection was formed in November 2016. The department has the responsibility of ensuring that any contact with the child protection system adds value to the lives of children and in particular managing circumstances where children are at risk of harm, are unsafe or are neglected, and supporting families to keep their children safe. The department also supports children and young people under the guardianship of the minister and facilitates out of home care for children and young people at risk.

In some circumstances the department will support reuniting children with their families, if it is safe to do so. In other circumstances the department will manage an adoption process. Ultimately, children or young people who are in the long-term care of the department must be supported, cared for and have every opportunity to reach their full potential.

I would like now to turn my attention to the national electricity market. I noted earlier that, despite the challenges South Australia has faced in recent times, we have emerged as a world leader. The former government was recognised as a world leader in renewable energy. I note with regret that the website One Step Off The Grid recently reported that the South Australian solar market had suffered a dramatic downturn since the state election result in March, and solar retailers suggest that policy uncertainty since the election of the Marshall Liberal government is to blame for this downturn.

Confusion is said to have hit the market after the Premier, in another place, said he had no interest in pursuing the 260 megawatt virtual power plant proposed by Tesla, which would have provided solar and storage to 50,000 households, many of them low-income households. Data from the solar industry statisticians SunWiz show that South Australia's rooftop solar market fell by more than one-third in April, from 16 megawatts to 10.8 megawatts, with solar retail suffering from a large decrease in orders and installations.

The former government knew that the national electricity market was broken, and when the federal Liberal government failed to fix it the former government stepped in. Our energy plan was launched a bit over 12 months ago. It was ambitious and established South Australia as a global leader in climate change and renewable energy policy. In taking charge of our energy future, the former government looked to implement strategies that would focus downward pressure on prices and provide incentives for private investment. This means, quite simply, cheaper and reliable power for all South Australians.

Shortly thereafter our state captured the attention of the world when we partnered with Tesla, its CEO Elon Musk and Neoen to build the world's largest lithium ion battery at Jamestown to store renewable energy. The battery holds backup power for when we need it and cuts costs by improving overall stability of the grid. So it happened that the former government then went on to secure the world's biggest solar thermal plant, at Port Augusta, to boost competition and further secure our energy grid.

The independent Australian Energy Market Commission is predicting a $300 price drop over the next two years. The former South Australian energy minister, from another place, introduced reforms to ensure that the energy minister held emergency powers to direct generators to turn on when required and to direct the Australian Energy Market Operator to control flow on the interconnector to Victoria. Importantly, this reform meant that the state government of the day would have the power to maintain the state's electricity supply in an emergency.

Under the former government, South Australia was at the forefront of global transformation towards a renewable future. A shift from 99 per cent fossil fuel to almost 50 per cent renewable energy was achieved. The former government commissioned South Australia's first wind farm at Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula and from this a major growth industry formed supporting more than 2,000 jobs in 2016-17.

It is with interest that I note that the Premier in another place has said that he and his government remain committed to delivering their 300 commitments, so we in the opposition will monitor these commitments, particularly with regard to expenditure. Some of the Premier's election commitments will require significant expenditure to implement. The Treasurer, no doubt, will be looking for ways to deliver these very expensive election promises without, one would hope, compromising on essential service delivery.

I remarked earlier that the former Labor government left a budget surplus, matched with steady employment figures and decent forecasts for growth. Yet, with all of this, taking into account the challenge for the current government will be how they manage the relationship with their own federal counterparts. Indeed, if the Premier wishes to deliver on all 300 of his election commitments and ensure appropriation for service delivery, then I hope he is developing a strong case for a change in attitude from his federal counterparts.

I have mentioned several times throughout my remarks that the former Labor government stood up for South Australia time and time again, particularly when it came to the federal government's cut to health, to education and their failure to act when it became increasingly clear that the national energy market was broken. The federal Liberal government failed to advocate for South Australia when we sought to secure the submarines project and when they let Holden walk away. The challenge for the new state government then is a great challenge indeed. The Premier and the Treasurer will inevitably, I believe, need to put their close relationship with their federal counterparts to one side and fight for the interests of South Australians.

They will need to fight to ensure that the federal government is passing on revenue to the states, our state, and at times they will need to be willing to put aside their personal friendships with their federal colleagues to do what is right for South Australia. I will finish by saying that in time we will see more on the purposes of the expenditure of $6.6 billion appropriated for this bill. The Treasurer, in presenting his first budget in many years, will have many challenges to face, in particular the challenges presented by his own federal colleagues. With that, I support the passing of the Supply Bill.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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