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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-10 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2019

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 1 August 2019.)

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:30): I stand today to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2019-20. In the 16 or so months since the election of the Marshall Liberal government, we have seen two budgets: one categorised by cuts, closures and privatisations and the most recent categorised by increased costs, reduction of services and, most stunningly, skyrocketing levels of debt. The Marshall Liberal government was elected on the platform of lower costs and better services. This is not an ambiguous platform by any stretch of the imagination, but that this Marshall Liberal government has then gone about doing exactly the opposite and yet still sought to equivocate otherwise is both disingenuous and, quite frankly, deceitful.

There are multiple examples whereby the Marshall Liberal government have broken their two straightforward promises of lower costs and better services and have consequently broken trust with the electorate. This latest budget does not set out a plan for South Australia nor does it help struggling families. Instead, this is a framework that pushes higher taxation regimes and an increased cost of living onto South Australian households. Instead of lower costs and better services, we are now at the point where the community is asking, 'What does this government actually stand for?'

Before the election, Liberal Premier Steven Marshall repeatedly told the electorate that lower costs and better services were key components of his vision for South Australia. How extraordinary, then, that this government has systematically gone about doing exactly the opposite and hence is now a government that can be categorised by broken election promises and no vision.

Surely the most galling example of the Liberals' retreat from the lower cost mantra is the 40 per cent increase to the solid waste levy. Let us not forget that, for years leading up to the last election, the Liberal Party campaigned on a platform of capping council rates. Indeed, they wanted to reduce council rates and, in one fell swoop of rank hypocrisy, have pushed a price gouge of $89 million onto hundreds of thousands of households across metropolitan councils.

A truly peculiar feature of this budget is the allocation to build half a hospital. The Liberal government's 'half hospital' announcement has throwbacks to other half-planned-for or half-baked projects that the Liberal Party have cooked up over the years, namely, the one-way expressway. While it is all very well to commit $550 million to start construction of the hospital, it is concerning that the Marshall Liberal government has refused to reveal the total cost of the entire build.

How much will the Women's and Children's Hospital cost taxpayers? If the Premier knows the answer, it is incumbent upon him to inform South Australian taxpayers. If Steven Marshall does not know the answer, then it is very worrying indeed that he has committed $550 million to build a hospital when he does not know the final cost.

In the Treasurer's speech in another place, he said that the 2019 budget is focused on the government's priorities of building a strong economy, growing jobs, lowering costs and providing better services for South Australians. Quite frankly, the vernacular of the Liberal Party is wearing thin with the community when, in the very same budget, it has increased motor vehicle transactions, tradie workplace expenses, motor registration, driver's licence renewals, public transport fares and hospital car parking. All the while, South Australian families and businesses are struggling to absorb the $130 million in extra fees, charges and taxes. Steven Marshall has managed to stump up $42 million from the budget for a loan to build a boutique hotel at Adelaide Oval, and also fork out $37 million to pay corporate liquidators to make cuts to our hospitals.

This debt-laden 2019-20 budget has set a new borrowing record, skyrocketing from $13.5 billion in 2018-19 to $21.2 billion in 2022-23. This is the highest debt increase we have ever had in this state's history and the risk is, of course, that future generations will be left to manage the burden, particularly if interest rates increase over the next five to 10 years.

This is truly a dreadful budget full of broken promises that reflects poorly on the Liberal Premier Steven Marshall and his government. This is a budget that only serves to highlight the lack of vision of the Liberal government for South Australia. This is a budget that highlights the disquieting lack of empathy that Steven Marshall and his Liberal Party colleagues have for South Australians who are already struggling with little or no wage growth and loss of penalty rates.

My colleague the Hon. Justin Hanson and I spent quite a bit of time in the north-eastern suburbs as a result of inquiries to our offices from people opposing the closure of the Service SA centres. They have also asked quite consistently who their local member is in the seat of Newland. We spent quite a bit of time in the north-eastern suburbs, at the interchange, the Service SA centres and Modbury Hospital, and doorknocking. I was actually taken aback at the extraordinary amount of opposition people expressed to us regarding the government's broken promises.

They cannot work out why, before the election, they were given an undertaking that there would be no cuts to services and no increases in taxes and yet, straight after the election, there were cuts to nearly everything the Liberal government could think of; most importantly, the cost of public transport and the closure of the Service SA centres has hit very deeply within the community, and other parts of privatisation like SA Pathology.

I was also amazed at the number of people who did not know who their local member was—Richard Harvey. They only knew once we told them. One of the questions and one of the comments that came from quite large numbers was, 'Why didn't the local member for Newland stand up for the people of the north-east suburbs when this government decided to cut Service SA centres and cut public transport?'

It is all very well now to sit and laugh and mock us on this side, but the people of South Australia will certainly punish you dearly at the next election. This is truly a dreadful budget delivered by what can now, after 16 months, be defined as a truly dreadful government.

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

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