3 June, 2026
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:43): I also rise to speak on the upcoming budget and to highlight some of the areas that we would like to see given attention by the Malinauskas government. The Greens recently wrote to the Treasurer and urged him to take action on housing and homelessness.
In particular, we are seeking a rent freeze to provide relief to South Australian renters who are doing it tough in the middle of this economic crisis. We also want to see funding for our state's homelessness services increased. We know, for instance, that the Aspire Program that is run by the Hutt St Centre has had huge success in terms of connecting people who are experiencing homelessness with housing and, potentially, employment and other supports. Yet it is a program that is subject to short-term funding contracts, and there should be a long-term commitment from the Malinauskas government to fund that, going into the long term.
We also need to see more funding for Foodbank, given that so many South Australians are struggling to put food on the table, and we need to see funding for a dedicated homelessness advocacy service, because South Australia is the only state that does not have such a service funded by its state government.
We need to see leadership on public transport fares, and the Greens have been pushing for public transport to be made free for the duration of this fuel crisis. I attempted to move some amendments in this place yesterday to give effect to that, should rationing come into effect. We also want to see an investment in pop-up bikeways and cycling infrastructure to encourage active transport, to reduce congestion and to, of course, reduce reliance on petrol, given the skyrocketing prices.
We need to see leadership from this government as well on pokies. We know that in the last financial year, for the first time, South Australians lost a billion dollars on pokies—a billion dollars. We know that comes at a huge social cost and we need to see Labor develop a plan to get pokies out of our pubs and clubs, because they have been an absolute disaster for South Australia.
We should also see free school breakfasts and lunches. Other states and other jurisdictions around the world have rolled that out; we should see it happen here in South Australia. How could we fund it—this is always the question people ask. The Greens have identified a range of potential revenue measures: a big bank levy, similar to the one the Wetherill government proposed back in 2017. The Greens stand ready and willing to work with the Malinauskas government to legislate for a big bank levy so that we can ensure that the banks that are making record profits at the moment pay their fair share. We want to increase mining royalties, we want to increase the taxes paid by the pokie barons and, of course, we want to scrap the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. These are things that could raise billions of dollars of revenue, and that means more money for the public services that we all need.
What we do not want to see is the Labor government taking the axe to our Public Service. I was alarmed to hear that a freeze has been placed on public sector appointments because, while the government says this will not impact on frontline services, we know that every frontline worker is supported by public servants behind the scenes. Putting a freeze on Public Service appointments means nurses are going to be under more pressure, it means teachers are going to be under a lot more pressure, it means those who work with people who are experiencing homelessness and trying to support South Australians get a roof over their head are going to be under more pressure as well, so it really is a false economy.
We urge the Labor government to think again, to actually go after the big fish, to finally ensure that big corporations pay their fair share of tax, rather than engaging in this race to the bottom with the opposition in terms of trying to demonise and penalise public servants—it is not necessary. We have over 100,000 public servants in our state who make a really positive contribution and without whom our state would not run. Let us stop kicking our public servants and let us finally take on the big end of town and see a budget that delivers some fairness for a change.