Reply to 2008 State Budget
June 18th, 2008 by KrisIn Parliament today I had the opportunity to respond to the 2008 State Budget.
There is a lot of good in the Budget, and it is particularly pleasing to see the commitment to the development of public transport in South Australia. There are certainly some visionary elements to it. I always said about the tramline along King William Street that it was a waste of money unless there could be some more appropriate and valuable destination than simply going to the casino on North Terrace. It‘s good to see that the government has a plan in place for the development of the tramline to make it more useful and thus of better value for the taxpayers of South Australia. It is good news to see the plans for electrification of the rail lines in Adelaide. Of course, this is where some questions need to be asked about where we are heading. In particular, we do not yet have a commitment to extend the rail line to Seaford and, ultimately, beyond Seaford. That is what we need. I have taken up that issue, although it does not directly have an impact on voters in the Marion and Reynella areas that I look after. However, it is a worthy thing for a very substantial part of South Australia’s population. I suppose there is an indirect benefit to the people in my electorate, because if we have more commuters from south of Noarlunga travelling by train it will take pressure off the roads, and we certainly need that. Every day it seems that congestion around Adelaide is increasing, particularly in relation to trips into the city. In that respect, I note that already there has been a shift to public transport as a result of petrol price rises. There are a couple of interesting aspects to that. It is interesting that, at the same time as more people are turning to public transport, there are price rises for those who wish to use public transport. I think that is a retrograde step. I realise that the bus services, in particular, have to pay for their fuel but, at the same time, if we are genuine about encouraging public transport as a solution to the rise in petrol prices and the ultimate crisis that may develop in relation to oil supply, we need to be serious about encouraging commuters.
When I see price rises with respect to public transport at a time like this I sometimes wonder whether the government is sincere in wishing for more commuters, because more commuters using public transport will put a strain on the system and it will require even greater public investment. I will give a couple of examples. I have seen many more people waiting at the local train stations on the Noarlunga line over the last year or so, and that demonstrates to me in very practical terms that more people are switching from car to rail where they can conveniently do so. In that respect, the redevelopment of the Oaklands station was something of a fizzer. It was deemed an interchange whereby masses of people would alight from buses and cars and then catch the train into the city. It is nice to have a new railway station but, apart from that, all it has really been is two extra bus stops on Morphett Road, and those bus stops are adjacent to one of the busiest intersections in the south-western suburbs. So, it was not all that it could be. The other vignette that I would like to offer relates to people I know who intended to catch the O-Bahn into the city earlier this week. They drove first to the Tea Tree Gully interchange, but every car park for the interchange was filled. Because they did not want to walk 1,000 metres or so to catch the O-Bahn, they thought it was just as quick and easy to drive to Klemzig or Paradise. So, they went to the Paradise interchange. After a quick drive through there they saw that every car park was taken. One of the issues with the Paradise interchange is that, if the car park proper is full, people have to go quite some distance to find another suitable place to park a car. They then drove to Klemzig, and all the car parks there were full as well. So, they ended up driving into the city, anyway, and parking there. To me, that was a true story that demonstrated that there already needs to be greater investment in the existing rail infrastructure if we are going to have it work to the extent that people wish to use it.
Moving on from the rail issue, there are many positive aspects to the budget and we are seeing the results of the stream of GST money starting to assist the current Labor government. Because of the political cycle, the past two budgets have been more austere and we are starting now to see the use of that money with an eye to the 2010 election. It would not have been credible nor realistic to leave all of the big-ticket items to the budget just before the election, particularly those where there are long-range plans which have to be implemented if there is to be any sign of reality before the election hits. No doubt, next year, particularly in the current programs involving teachers, police, social workers, nurses and the like, there will be huge increases in next year’s budget. I refer to this background to the current budget because it helps to explain why there is such a commitment to infrastructure. As I have said, that is positive.
However, I want to highlight one area which appears to have been neglected. With all the fuss about improvements to public transport and building super schools in the northern suburbs and so on, one area which seems to be neglected is the mental health sector. Last year, there was a significant allocation in the state budget and the government claimed that it was fully implementing the Cappo report which was sorely needed in the mental health sector. It does not seem to be the same sort of commitment in this year’s budget to what is still just as much of a problem.
The detail may be there but it certainly needs examination in the committees that examine the budget because the budget papers, on the face of it, do not seem to provide the mental health sector what it needs. We have seen improvements over recent years—for example, the establishment of the Margaret Tobin Centre at Flinders Hospital—and it is great to see new premises like that operating, but to balance that we also have the impending closure of Glenside.
Leaving aside those big-ticket items, we also need to see development of more halfway houses, or what I call safe and secure accommodation, for that relatively small group of young men who are prone to violent or at least antisocial behaviour. I think we need to continue to have some sorts of institutions for people with mental illness for their own protection and that of others. They do not need to be big institutions like we used to have 50 to 100 years ago. They do not need to be institutions which lock people away out of sight, out of mind, but they do need to be small and transparent with around-the-clock staffing, so that people who rely on medication to maintain an equilibrium are able to enjoy a relatively open lifestyle, perhaps even with paid employment while being able to return to a safe haven of an evening. That is something that I will keep pushing for.
In summary, there is a lot of good in the budget. I have only highlighted a couple of areas. Some areas like mental health need close examination to see whether the government is really keeping up to its previous promises. On the whole, we welcome the GST stream of money which is finally seeing quite definite benefits for South Australians.
Posted in The Big Picture, State Issues |
