Labor’s reckless spending spree – promising everything to everybody – already totals billions of dollars which would inevitably have to be paid for by struggling SA families and businesses.
Mr Malinauskas has refused to say how he will pay for all these promises which now total more than $3 billion, with Treasurer Rob Lucas warning Labor’s ‘unprecedented level of spending is now the single biggest risk to our state’s finances and our economic recovery as we emerge from the global pandemic’.
“SA families and businesses are not stupid – they know if you promise billions in extra spending and at the same time promise to keep budget surpluses, then the only possible result is they pay much more through either increased taxes, charges, levies or other decisions which increase costs to them,” said Mr Lucas.
“In fact, Labor’s reckless pre-election spending spree is of a scale and magnitude I’ve never seen before from an Opposition in my forty years in Parliament.”
Listed below are just some of the more costly Labor promises whilst attached is a longer (but not comprehensive, because it was almost impossible to keep track of them all) list of smaller priorities Labor MPs and candidates have been promising in their electorates.
| 1. | Health/Ramping promises | $945m |
| 2. | Hydrogen plant (1) | $593m |
| 3. | 5 technical colleges | $205m |
| 4. | Investment Attraction Agency (4yrs) | $132m |
| 5. | Main South Road | $125m |
| 6. | Aquatic Centre (2) | $80m |
| 7. | Adelaide 500 (4yrs) | $60m-$80m |
| 8. | Vaccine plant | $60m |
| 9. | Train outsourcing – break contract | $40m-$70m |
| 10. | Schools – mental health (4yrs) | $50m |
| 11. | Universal preschool for 3-year-olds (4yrs) | $400m |
| 12. | Remove land tax aggregation (4yrs) (3) | $300m |
| 13. | Tea Tree Gully sewage system (4) | $27m |
| 14. | I Choose SA (4yrs) | $16m |
| 15. | Community/Other Grants (attached) | $170m |
| 16. | Free RATs | uncosted but hundreds of millions |
| 17. | Stand-alone quarantine centre | uncosted but hundreds of millions |
| Notes: | (1) advice provided to Government is that the actual cost is another $500m | |
| (2) operating costs over 40 years is another $80m | ||
| (3) Labor promised to remove Government’s aggregation changes and keep the benefits of lower land tax rates and that can be done legislatively | ||
| (4) extra cost over Government’s solution for this scheme | ||
Labor claims their health promises so far total $945 million and yet the Government has only budgeted a total of $79 million until 2025 to be spent on the Riverbank Arena.
Clearly only Labor and Mr Malinauskas could believe $79 million can pay for $945 million of health promises.
On Monday, February 21 on radio FIVEaa, Mr Malinauskas made a clear promise that he would match government budget surpluses from next year.
“Given this promise of budget surpluses, it is obvious Labor will have to increase costs to households and businesses by increasing taxes, charges, levies or government revenue in some way,” said Mr Lucas.
“Labor governments can increase revenue in many ways without necessarily introducing new taxes and they have done it before.”
For example, various Labor options they haven’t ruled out include:
- Massively increasing ESL bills by removing exemption
- Increasing water bills by again inflating the regulated asset base of SA Water
- Removing payroll tax concessions completely for small businesses
- Increase land tax by adjusting thresholds and exemptions
“Cost-of-living issues are critically important for many struggling SA families as we emerge from the impacts of the pandemic,” said Mr Lucas.
“Average SA household costs are now about $1092 per year lower than under the former Labor government due to lower ESL bills, water and electricity bills, CTP costs and higher sports voucher payment.
“They simply cannot afford the costs of paying for Labor’s reckless and risky billions of dollars in election promises.”