16 June, 2026
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:46): I also rise to speak on the Supply Bill and to indicate that the Greens will, of course, honour the convention in this place, and that is to support the Supply Bill's passage so that the government can continue with its work in terms of paying public servants, offering public services and the like.
The recent Malinauskas government budget, indeed the first of this term, once again provides a missed opportunity in terms of providing meaningful cost-of-living relief to South Australians who are struggling. We know that South Australia is dealing with the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations, yet Labor's response really does not touch the sides.
One of the issues that we have been carefully examining is the government's response to public transport. It is really telling that whilst over in Victoria the state government provided free public transport for several months in the lead-up to the end of financial year, and over in Tasmania public transport has been made free, what has happened here in South Australia? Well, the Labor Party have increased public transport fares for the second year in a row.
This is a government that says it is going to save people money. We know, some months ago now, that Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis announced with great fanfare in the Adelaide Advertiser plans to freeze public transport increases for three months, saving South Australian commuters a measly 15¢ a trip. 'The Milky Bars are on me today'—what a joke! What can you do with 15¢ a trip? It is really mean-spirited. It does not touch the sides.
What really adds insult to injury is the fact that, after freezing these increases for just three months, Labor is now going to hike up public transport fares from 1 October. Indeed, a regular 28-day pass will increase from $119.10 to around $123. That is an additional $35 a year. A $10 student pass, despite Labor saying that student public transport fares are only going to be $10, will increase by 3 per cent. So it is a slap in the face to South Australians who are doing it tough at the moment.
In housing, the government is also falling well short of what is required. It announced a plan to upgrade nearly 300 vacant public houses, but this just does not go far enough. Upgrading 300 vacant public homes is really not building public housing at the scale that we need to deal with this housing crisis. Why is South Australia still the only state in the nation that does not have a dedicated homelessness advocacy organisation? Again, that has been overlooked within this budget, and that is really disappointing. Given the depth of the crisis we face in homelessness in our state, we need to have a dedicated advocacy organisation to support those people.
The state is also far too reliant on gambling and pokies revenue. We know that last financial year for the first time South Australians lost $1 billion on the pokies—$1 billion. I have dealt with many constituents over the years who have had their lives destroyed by pokies. This is revenue that is really coming in off the backs of South Australians who are doing it tough. This financial year, the government will rake in nearly $500 million from pokies alone, an increase of $39 million. Is this really where the government wants to be getting its revenue from?
Meanwhile, the Labor Party is still refusing to roll out a big bank levy, despite the fact that last time the Hon. Tom Koutsantonis was Treasurer, under the Weatherill government, there was a proposal for a bank levy. He abandoned it in the face of pressure from vested interests, including within this parliament. The Greens have now offered to work with the government to make that a priority, and I would encourage them to put that back on the agenda so that we can bring in more revenue from big corporations.
It is also disappointing to see that the government is going to be giving $17.5 million to grants to the gas industry. Again, this is money being thrown at the fossil fuel industry, money that could be spent on housing, on public transport relief and the like. And of course there is $15 million for a business case to examine the failing AUKUS plan, not to mention $26.8 million for the AUKUS skills workforce.
We know that AUKUS is a policy that ties our state and, indeed, our security interests to a deranged madman in the White House. I think most people in the South Australian community would be very concerned about seeing our foreign policy and our security interests being outsourced to the Trump administration and all of the craziness and erratic positions that we see from that administration. Again, there are lots of missed opportunities.
The other issue the Hon. Ben Hood touched on as part of this budget is the Labor government's freeze on public sector appointments. We know that this is a false economy, because when you cut jobs behind the scenes, or you put a freeze on recruitment for public servants behind the scenes, you do put more pressure on frontline workers. This means more pressure is going to be applied to our nurses, to our doctors, to our ambos, to our teachers and to those who work in the homelessness sector, because if you cut public servants behind the scenes others on the frontline will have to step up and pick up the slack.
Why is Labor cutting public services and our public sector at a time when so many South Australians are struggling? We should be putting more money into frontline service delivery. The Greens, during the recent election campaign, identified billions and billions of dollars of savings. We do not need to go down the cut and reduce spending approach of the Liberal opposition. We can actually draw in revenue from other sources.
The Greens have offered, and we are willing to work with the government to identify alternative revenue to ensure that big corporations finally pay their fair share, so that we can invest money in the services that all South Australians need in order to lead good lives and reach their full potential.
With that, I conclude my remarks but indicate that the Greens will continue to scrutinise the rollout of the government's budget commitments to ensure that they meet the expectations of the people of our state.