SA Labor reveals election costings

Tim Dornin | March 17, 2022

Labor has revealed its long-awaited costings for its $3 billion in election commitments, vowing to pay for its promises with savings and by spending uncommitted capital in the existing South Australian budget.

Releasing the figures ahead of Saturday’s state election, opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said the party’s pledges had been verified by independent audit and accounting firm Charterpoint.

But retiring Treasurer Rob Lucas said Labor had made “rookie” errors and the uncommitted funds the party had targeted were simply not available.

Mr Mullighan said the figures showed a Labor government could deliver on its commitments without increasing taxes and charges if elected.

“The Liberal scare campaign has been comprehensively debunked,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“There will be no new taxes, there will be no tax increases.”

Labor said it could save about $670 million over the next four years by imposing a 1.7 per cent efficiency dividend on government departments not delivering frontline services.

Agencies such as health, police, emergency services and education would be exempt from the savings measure.

It said it could also save $41 million by axing 50 executive positions, with the Department of Premier and Cabinet a key target for the job cuts.

It will also use about $1.5 billion in uncommitted capital reserves already in the state budget as well as bringing forward the $662 million the Liberal government planned to spend on a new Riverbank Arena in Adelaide.

Those funds would largely go to pay for Labor’s $1 billion in health initiatives, including plans for hospital upgrades, more hospital beds and the recruitment of extra doctors, nurses and paramedics.

Mr Mullighan said Labor’s measures would add $243 million to state debt.

They would also cut the projected budget surplus for 2022/23 by $14 million to $88 million.

But Mr Lucas said the state would be burdened with significantly higher debt and taxpayers would be forced to pay for Labor’s mistakes.

“They’ve made assumptions that there’s a lazy couple of billion dollars sitting behind the treasury sofa that they can spend without any impact on the budget,” he said.

“The reality is that’s not the case.

“The main issue for punters out there is they’re the ones who are going to have to pay for the rookie mistakes.”

The government said its own election commitments were prudent and would cost just $288 million.

The biggest single item was $123 million for a string of hospital upgrades.