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Speaker 1: Streaming five via the five double A Player app on

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Speaker 1: DAB Digital Radio add on thirteen This is five double

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Speaker 1: A always Adelaide. The five double A Player app lets

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Speaker 1: you listen to all your favorite five double A shows

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Speaker 1: wherever you go. Five Double A Mornings with Matthew pantellis

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Speaker 1: seven minutes past ten o'clock on five double A. Please

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Speaker 1: to have in the studio with me the Treasurer of

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Speaker 1: South Australia, Stephen Mulligan's Treasurer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Oh, good morning Matthew.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming in and you're happy to take

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Speaker 1: calls if anyone has any Absolutely, we've been talking a

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Speaker 1: range of things already on five double A. But just

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Speaker 1: to our last topic before the news, the housing essay

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Speaker 1: the maintenance jobs that a contractor is used to then

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Speaker 1: allocate that work. They select the best quote and then

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Speaker 1: are responsible for paying on completion. And Trade's telling me

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Speaker 1: today that there are thousands that some have gone out

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Speaker 1: of business because the contractor is delaying payment. There's a

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Speaker 1: blocout twenty grand for work that was finished in January

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Speaker 1: still not paid. Small businessmen does and now refuse it,

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Speaker 1: says blacklisted any work from housing esday. So they ring

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Speaker 1: up saying hey, we've got some urgent work. We want

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Speaker 1: you to go quote for it, go do it, and

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Speaker 1: needs nut you owe me and not until I get paid.

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Speaker 1: What's going on with that?

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Speaker 2: I've got to say I was absolutely horrified to see

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Speaker 2: this report today that the government and its lead contractor,

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Speaker 2: Spotless could be putting tradees in this position. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we went to the last election promising to ramp up

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Speaker 2: the amount of maintenance and improvements we're doing on public housing,

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Speaker 2: not only just to fix them up for tenants, but

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Speaker 2: also to try and get some of those empty properties

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Speaker 2: fit for tendancy, to get more people into secure housing.

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Speaker 2: And the other thing we said at the last election

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Speaker 2: is that we wanted to better look after small businesses

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Speaker 2: who were doing business with government, that we wanted to

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Speaker 2: make it easier for them, and that we wanted to

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Speaker 2: pay them as quickly as possible. And to see this

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Speaker 2: morning that that is the furthest thing from what's happening

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Speaker 2: at the moment in the Housing Authority and with its

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Speaker 2: lead contractor, you know, I'm mortified, and I'm very pleased

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Speaker 2: that the Minister has already said that he's going to

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Speaker 2: look into this and make sure that it does all

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Speaker 2: he can to get it fixed. But it's just, you know,

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Speaker 2: for a government to be sending this sort of message

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Speaker 2: to small businesses, particularly when the national economy is softening,

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Speaker 2: that we want to be supporting as many businesses as possible,

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Speaker 2: it's just it's the last message we want to be sending.

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Speaker 2: So I you know, obviously we're waiting to get a

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Speaker 2: full understanding of what's causing this and how we go

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Speaker 2: about fixing it. But you know, I just can't tell

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Speaker 2: you how disappointed I am and the government is that

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Speaker 2: this has been going on all.

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Speaker 1: Right, So the Minister's on that, and you're obviously pushing

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Speaker 1: that along as well, I imagine from those comments.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I'm pleased to hear that the Small

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Speaker 2: Business Commissioner is getting involved to try and help these

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Speaker 2: small businesses who are struggling to get paid. But cash

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Speaker 2: flow means everything to a small business. And to be

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Speaker 2: spending hours, if not days or weeks doing jobs worth

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Speaker 2: thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and they're not

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Speaker 2: getting paid for them, I mean, they'd want to be

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Speaker 2: a bloody good explanation for that. Otherwise, you know, we

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Speaker 2: have been terribly letting down these trades people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, absolutely all right, Today, big announcement on school infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: This is going to be an education budget and presumably

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Speaker 1: a cost of living budget on Thursday. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're excited about this budget in those areas, particularly education,

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Speaker 2: so we've announced that we'll be expanding the capacity of

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Speaker 2: our public school system. Both in Mount Barker there's been

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Speaker 2: strong demand, particularly for preschool and primary school places as

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Speaker 2: more and more families have moved to Mount Barker. And

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Speaker 2: we've got the same thing out in the northern suburbs

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Speaker 2: where there's been a lot of growth in new housing

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Speaker 2: and there's demand for a new high school, so that'll

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Speaker 2: really boost the capacity. We've gotten two different parts of

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Speaker 2: the Greater metropolitan or Pery urban area of Adelaide. And

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Speaker 2: then after this I'll be standing up with the Education

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Speaker 2: Minister and the Premiere talking about the I think the

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Speaker 2: biggest reform that we will have engaged in in our

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Speaker 2: education system in the state's history, and that is a

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Speaker 2: huge investment in preschool education to get our kids off

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Speaker 2: on the best start before they start reception.

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Speaker 1: Finding the money for that, I mean that's expensive, as

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Speaker 1: we know, where's it all coming from yea, there were

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Speaker 1: billions on health last year for instance.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess you'll see this on Thursday when we

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Speaker 2: hand down the full budget. But we have been lucky

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Speaker 2: in one respect from a very strong state economy and

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Speaker 2: stronger national collections of GST revenues that that's boosted the

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Speaker 2: amount of money that we've got available as a state,

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Speaker 2: and that's given us the capacity to invest in these services.

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Speaker 2: We are trying to make sure that as government we

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Speaker 2: are putting our efforts into setting our state up for

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Speaker 2: a much more prosperous future, and that means of course

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Speaker 2: that we've got to make sure we've got a skilled

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Speaker 2: workforce for where we think the job's going to be

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Speaker 2: available in the future. And part of that is about

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Speaker 2: getting kids off to the best start before they get

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Speaker 2: to school. As we were going through this reform, Matthew

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Speaker 2: I was horrified to learn that about a quarter of

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Speaker 2: children that start reception have got some sort of developmental delay.

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Speaker 2: So part of this funding aims to identify that early,

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Speaker 2: get these kids the appropriate supports and started on the

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Speaker 2: right track so that by the time they get through

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Speaker 2: school and finish they're much better than where they otherwise

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Speaker 2: would have been.

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Speaker 1: You might want to comment on this. The Fair Work

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Speaker 1: Commission has just announced that the minimum wage will go

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Speaker 1: up by three point seventy five percent. Thoughts on that.

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Speaker 1: Does that impact anything that you're doing as treasurer.

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Speaker 2: Well, obviously, we've got some people who are paid by

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Speaker 2: the government who are on close to or at the

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Speaker 2: minimum wage, and so that'll see. I'm sure a welcome

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Speaker 2: pay increase for them does come at a cost of

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Speaker 2: the budget. But you know, we've got a bear in

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Speaker 2: mind that the inflation rate is still hovering around that

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Speaker 2: four percent, give or take, and that means that particularly

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Speaker 2: for lower paid people in our community, when you know,

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Speaker 2: when housing costs are going up, rents are going up,

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Speaker 2: fuel groceries, insurance costs and everything. You know, every bit

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Speaker 2: helps and this will be welcomed by those way journeys

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Speaker 2: that will directly benefit from this.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned GEST revenues before and talking inflation, I mean,

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Speaker 1: isn't ironic during a const of living crisis, GST revenues

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Speaker 1: are up, which means we are spending and fueling inflation

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Speaker 1: as a result of that, and kind of going around

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Speaker 1: in a circle, I suppose.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, certainly that those GST revenues are driven

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Speaker 2: by two things. One is how much is been spent

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Speaker 2: nationally across the economy. And as you say, inflation's help

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Speaker 2: that because the price of everything's going up, but it's

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Speaker 2: also getting a bigger share of the national GST pie,

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Speaker 2: which is helping us as well. And part of the

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Speaker 2: reason for that is we've had really strong population growth,

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Speaker 2: particularly over the last three years coming out of COVID,

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Speaker 2: not just people coming back to South Australia, but also

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Speaker 2: more overseas skilled migrants coming into contribute to the workforce,

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Speaker 2: so that's also driven some collections as well. But I

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Speaker 2: think the sentiment below your comment there Matthew, we just

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Speaker 2: can't get inflation under control quicker enough. I would love

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Speaker 2: to see inflation drop and that the Reserve Bank could

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Speaker 2: give us a bit more breathing space on mortgages and

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Speaker 2: rents because it is making it so tough.

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Speaker 1: People, and on state government borrowings too. Across the board.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, when the cash rate goes up, it

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Speaker 2: also means that government bond rates go up as well,

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Speaker 2: so the cost of our borrowing has absolutely skyrocketed. And

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Speaker 2: you know, while my predecessor in the Liberal government, rob

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Speaker 2: Lucas made it clear that debt was going to increase

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Speaker 2: out into the medium term, you know, up to at

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Speaker 2: least two thousand and thirty, as we're building a new hospital,

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Speaker 2: as we're building the North South Corridor tunnels project. He

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Speaker 2: had a situation where government borings were you know, sort

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Speaker 2: of roughly in the order of one point seventy five

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Speaker 2: percent per annum. They're now over four percent. So when

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Speaker 2: we're borroing money or we're refinancing debt that comes due

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Speaker 2: from previous borrowings, that comes at a much higher cost.

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Speaker 2: But you know, for us, we've been how to accommodate

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Speaker 2: that again because our economy has been performing strongly in

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Speaker 2: our state, government revenues have been strong.

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Speaker 1: All right, other announcements that we can expect, and there

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Speaker 1: was there was a big announcement made on traffic blitz

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Speaker 1: sort of thing. Cameras, big boost for law and order.

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Speaker 1: So cameras are coming, and I don't have a lot

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Speaker 1: of sympathy for people caught by cameras. People will, perhaps

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Speaker 1: rightly to some degree, say it is revenue raising. Well

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Speaker 1: it's not if you don't speed. It's my view on that.

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess that's part of it. But I think

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Speaker 2: what's a bit different about this announcement is finally we're

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Speaker 2: changing a long standing policy of the Transport Department where

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Speaker 2: even though we might have schools on main roads or

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Speaker 2: arterial roads, unlike other schools where all of the roads

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Speaker 2: around them are twenty five kilometers in hour for motorists

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Speaker 2: if they're on a main road, it's still been sixty

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Speaker 2: on that main road and that is quite frankly dangerous

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Speaker 2: and we were very deliberate. The Minister for Road Safety,

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Speaker 2: Dan Creagan and I are standing up at Merrittville where

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Speaker 2: there had been a collision with school students with significant

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Speaker 2: injuries to make the point that we've got to slow

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Speaker 2: down around our schools. So that's what part of the

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Speaker 2: funding announced yesterday was for, was to implement these lower

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Speaker 2: speed limits around these schools on arterial roads and put

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Speaker 2: some better signage in, including in some locations there'll be

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Speaker 2: active signage, so I won't just be a painted sign,

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Speaker 2: It'll be LEDs that will flash and it will have

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Speaker 2: a sort of variable speed limit for you know, particularly

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Speaker 2: morning drop off, an afternoon pick up and so on.

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Speaker 2: Because we've got to keep sending that message to South

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Speaker 2: Australian motors. We need them to slow down or need

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Speaker 2: them to pay attention, put down the mobile phone, yep,

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Speaker 2: and just be careful when they're behind the wheel.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, that's the key, isn't it. The mobile phone

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Speaker 1: part of that announcement was digital police stations. Yeah, Now

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Speaker 1: tell us about that. Does that mean ultimately police stations

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Speaker 1: will close and we are short two hundred police You

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Speaker 1: don't have enough demand them as it is.

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Speaker 2: No, it's not so much closing police stations. So you know,

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Speaker 2: there's nothing in this which foreshadows any closures. It's more

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Speaker 2: that the highest volume interactions that members of the public

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Speaker 2: have with police stations tend to be going into report

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Speaker 2: a vehicle collision or asking for a national police check,

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Speaker 2: you know, maybe even lodging a freedom of information application.

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Speaker 2: You know, these are very routine, high volume, tight interactions

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Speaker 2: which require all of us to have to go in

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Speaker 2: and visit a police station. If we can develop an

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Speaker 2: online system where people can do that from home or

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Speaker 2: from their phone or from their device, then it's easier

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Speaker 2: for us, of course, But it also means police can

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Speaker 2: have less sworn offices on those front desks and to

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Speaker 2: a greater extent, get those sworn officers back onto front

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Speaker 2: line duties. And I think you know, we're like every

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Speaker 2: employer at the moment in the economy, in a tight

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Speaker 2: labor market, when the unemployment rates low, sapole's finding it

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Speaker 2: hard to meet their recruitment targets to hang on to

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Speaker 2: staff that might be tempted to look at other industries.

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Speaker 2: So that if we can say to police, you know,

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Speaker 2: you signed up for this because you wanted to be

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Speaker 2: out protecting the community rather than have you stuck doing

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Speaker 2: administrative tasks in a police station. We can get you

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Speaker 2: back out on the front line. Well, hopefully that's a

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Speaker 2: good messing in them.

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Speaker 1: You're guaranteeing all police stations currently will remain open.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't have any forecast or budget diclosures of

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Speaker 2: police stations, so yeah, none of this is about closing

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Speaker 2: police stations for your police in them. It's just for

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Speaker 2: the police in them. So if we can release some

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Speaker 2: of those sworn officers so they don't have to be

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Speaker 2: doing these more administrative tasks, then hopefully that's a good

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Speaker 2: thing for the community. They can be out there protecting

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Speaker 2: them all.

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Speaker 1: That won't lead to reduced hours at those police stations.

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Speaker 2: This is not factored in to this decision. I'm not

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Speaker 2: aware of any plans to reduce hours. There's nothing in

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Speaker 2: the budget which reaps savings from reduced hours. You know,

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Speaker 2: if the Police Commissioner has got a particular perspective about that,

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Speaker 2: he hasn't raised it with the government about doing it.

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Speaker 2: So I don't think there's any plan to cut police

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Speaker 2: stations or reduce hours. In fact, I think one of

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Speaker 2: the announcements that we've made is that we're building a

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Speaker 2: new police station out at our courts, So hopefully we

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Speaker 2: were sending the message that we're heading in the other direction.

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Speaker 1: But there's one already there isn't there.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but I guess reinforcing that even in a

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Speaker 2: smaller community like an OAR corps, we think that there's

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Speaker 2: a role for having a police station and a police

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Speaker 2: presence that people can access if they feel they need to.

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Speaker 2: So we don't have any budget to closures or ours

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Speaker 2: reductions in this budget.

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Speaker 1: All right, cost of living, which you've said will be

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Speaker 1: a key part of this previously and today as well.

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Speaker 1: Did you look at the Queensland decision to slash public

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Speaker 1: transport feares to fifty cents and think, yeah, not a

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Speaker 1: bad idea. We've spoken about this before. Is it something

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Speaker 1: on the plan? Are you going to look at that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's always an opportunity to look at

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Speaker 2: public transport fares to see if they can provide cost

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Speaker 2: of living relief. I think, you know, dropping them to

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Speaker 2: fifty cents is pretty drastic and obviously election it comes

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Speaker 2: at a massive cost. And yes, you're absolutely right, Matthew Arsenic. No, no,

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's cynical. I think it's pretty accurate.

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Speaker 2: You know, there are a government seeking another term and

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Speaker 2: trying to trying to come up with some attractive policies

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Speaker 2: for their constituency. You know, it is for people who

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Speaker 2: are regular commuters, they are significant costs public transport fears.

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Speaker 2: I mean they're massively cheaper than running your own car

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Speaker 2: of course and paying for parking and fuel. But you know,

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Speaker 2: it's something that we're going to keep an eye on.

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Speaker 2: But we would think hopefully that when we hand down

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Speaker 2: a budget on Thursday, we've got some pretty attractive cost

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Speaker 2: of living measures which will make a substantial difference to

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Speaker 2: those people who need our support the most in the community.

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Speaker 1: You're not the health minister. But health is a big

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Speaker 1: part of the budget, and last year it was a

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Speaker 1: big health budget. There were billions put aside for health

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Speaker 1: over five years. If I recall four years of I

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Speaker 1: recall rightly, and you know, I think back over thirty

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Speaker 1: years in this state where successive governments of both colors

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Speaker 1: have spent literally billions of dollars. You know, our new

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Speaker 1: hospital was nearly three and on it goes, and we

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Speaker 1: have spent all this money only to come to the

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Speaker 1: point yet again where we have to cut elective surgery.

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Speaker 1: I get that it's a big problem, but you know,

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Speaker 1: multi billions of dollars and we've gone no, we're in

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Speaker 1: those three decades.

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Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn't say we've gone nowhere, Matthew. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I know that pressures are acute on the health system

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Speaker 2: at the moment, but we do have to put it

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Speaker 2: in context. We've got a we've got a growing population,

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Speaker 2: but we've also got a rapidly aging population. And by

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Speaker 2: that I mean there is a greater proportion of our

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Speaker 2: overall population that is above the ages of sixty or

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Speaker 2: seventy or eighty, and it is people who, as they

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Speaker 2: get older, who place greater demands on our public health

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Speaker 2: system and that means we've got to expand the capacity,

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Speaker 2: but we've also got to expand the services in there.

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Speaker 2: And I think what we've also seen since COVID is

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Speaker 2: a step change in demand of people coming to our

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Speaker 2: public hospitals. It's been well documented we've got a national

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Speaker 2: GP crisis at the moment, and by that I mean

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Speaker 2: there's been a significant shortage of gps across the whole country,

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Speaker 2: including here in South Australia. I mean it only seems

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Speaker 2: like a few years ago that you could pick up

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Speaker 2: the phone, make an appointment to see a GP and

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Speaker 2: get in in the next couple of days. Well, I

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Speaker 2: think for most people it's the next couple.

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Speaker 1: Of weeks at best.

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Speaker 2: And if people feel that they're concerned about their health,

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Speaker 2: that they need medical attention, can't get to their GP,

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Speaker 2: you know, they'll go to hospital and so that's placing

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Speaker 2: an enormous burden on there. And the other thing which

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Speaker 2: has come about in recent years which we haven't experienced

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Speaker 2: in the past is we've got a growing number of

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Speaker 2: older South Australians who are languishing in a hospital bed

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Speaker 2: who should be in a federally government funded age care facility,

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Speaker 2: and we've got a shortage of age care beds, and

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Speaker 2: so if people can't be discharged out of hospital into

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Speaker 2: an age care place, then they're stuck in one of

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Speaker 2: the wards at the RAH or the q EH or

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Speaker 2: the Flinder's Medical Center and so on, between age care

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Speaker 2: and people who should be in again federally funded disability

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Speaker 2: care places at any point in time, we're talking over

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Speaker 2: one hundred people in those beds. Now, if you could

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Speaker 2: give us back one hundred beds, you know, like that,

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Speaker 2: at the snap of our fingers, we would get much

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Speaker 2: needed additional capacity in our hospitals. So we've got work

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Speaker 2: to do at the front end, and we've got work

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Speaker 2: to do at the back end. And of course our

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Speaker 2: efforts are also tailored towards better resourcing what we're doing

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Speaker 2: in the hospitals themselves, in the ed, in the wards

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Speaker 2: and so on. And that's why it's so expensive, because

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Speaker 2: we're trying to tackle so many problems in a really

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Speaker 2: expensive part of government service delivery.

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Speaker 1: It's the inevitable book question and you'll get it at

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Speaker 1: the media conference on Thursday. How would you describe your budget?

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Speaker 2: Ah, Well, we've.

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Speaker 1: Had sexy red dresses in the past and all sorts

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Speaker 1: of things, but.

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Speaker 2: Not from me. Look, I'll keep my powder dry for

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Speaker 2: buck a day because it might reveal a few more

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Speaker 2: announcements that we're going to hand out on Thursday. But

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Speaker 2: I guess, as I said in one of my comments

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Speaker 2: before you know, from the premiere Peter mallanowscus down, all

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Speaker 2: of us are committed to, you know, hopefully doing a

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Speaker 2: good job in all of our respective portfolios, but together

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Speaker 2: setting our state up for a much more prosperous future

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Speaker 2: and meeting the challenges that come along each and every day.

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Speaker 2: And I reckon this week's budget is a does a

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Speaker 2: pretty good job of doing both of those things.

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Speaker 1: Okay, before I let you go, you're the member for Lee,

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Speaker 1: which is down the port we started off today, and

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Speaker 1: not Port Adelaide itself doesn't take in the port but

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Speaker 1: around and you're a port boy, You're La Fever Peninsula boy,

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Speaker 1: so you know the area obviously very well. And we

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Speaker 1: were talking about the social issues that they've been experiencing

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Speaker 1: down there, involving Saphole and the council and business people

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Speaker 1: being affected, and it has apparently peaked I understand from

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Speaker 1: talking to the mayor and others this morning. But not

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Speaker 1: a good look. Not a you might be awhow I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you are. About homeless people sleeping in the streets,

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Speaker 1: people fighting, brawling, drinking, defecating. It's just awful. So what

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Speaker 1: needs addressing there? I mean, with your experience of the port,

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Speaker 1: what needs to be done?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess we've got to put it in context.

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Speaker 2: Port Adelaide has always been home to a large community

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Speaker 2: of people who need social supports. That's been the case

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Speaker 2: for many decades and that remains the case today. We've

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Speaker 2: obviously as the population of the port is increasing, not

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Speaker 2: just with the new development, but you know, there are

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Speaker 2: a lot of people moving down to Port Adelaide because,

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Speaker 2: as you and I know Matthew know, it's a great.

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Speaker 1: Place to live, fantastic.

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Speaker 2: You know that the port itself is very beautiful, it's

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Speaker 2: close to beaches, there's all the services and facilities down

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Speaker 2: there you could want, and of course that can serve

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Speaker 2: to highlight some of the social issues that persist down there.

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Speaker 2: You know, I think the I think the government but

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Speaker 2: also the non government service providers do a very good

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Speaker 2: job of tailoring their supports to those people most in

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Speaker 2: need down there. But like we have had for a

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Speaker 2: long time. There's a lot of people down there with very,

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Speaker 2: very challenging needs, and sometimes that spills out into the public.

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Speaker 2: So we've got to continue our investments as a government.

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Speaker 2: We've got to continue supporting those non government organizations. But

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Speaker 2: I'm the last person to suggest that these issues, you know,

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Speaker 2: should be swept under the rug, or these people aren't

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Speaker 2: welcomed down at the port. You know. I always think

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Speaker 2: one of the great things about Port Adelaide is its

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Speaker 2: social diversity, is that there's always been a place for

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Speaker 2: people who need support the most. We're a very proud

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Speaker 2: community of supporting people like that, and I think we'll

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Speaker 2: need to continue doing that into the future. So I

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Speaker 2: guess the message I'd have is people who need these

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Speaker 2: supports will continue to be living in and around the port,

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Speaker 2: and it's our job to support them as best we can.

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Speaker 1: All Right, Treasure of Steven Mulligan. We'll see what's in

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Speaker 1: it on Thursday. Thank you very much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Matthew