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Speaker 1: But yesterday morning we spent a bit of time talking

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Speaker 1: about the budget. We won't spend that long today, but

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Speaker 1: I did want to touch on this particular story because

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Speaker 1: a few of you called in and texted in yesterday

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Speaker 1: on the fact that the electricity rebate that the federal

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Speaker 1: budget contains three hundred dollars for everyone this time. It's

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Speaker 1: not just for pension as or concession cardholders, it's for

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Speaker 1: every household. We'll get three hundred dollars seventy five bucks

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Speaker 1: a quarter off the power bill. People were calling in saying, well,

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Speaker 1: that's two hundred dollars worse off than we were this

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Speaker 1: time a year ago because the government put up five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars then. So unless the state government comes to

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Speaker 1: the party with the balance, and whether they will or not,

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Speaker 1: we'll have to wait and see the state budget in

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Speaker 1: early June. But the state Treasurer, Stephen Mulligan has been

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Speaker 1: talking positively of cost of living relief, so you can

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Speaker 1: expect there will be something, just what form, we'll have

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Speaker 1: to wait and see on the day. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: CEO Council of the Aging Miranda Stakey, is on the

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Speaker 1: line here in say the state's see Miranda.

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Speaker 2: Good morning morning, Matthew.

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Speaker 1: So people will be worse off at least as it stands.

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Speaker 2: Today, well looks on the face of it right now,

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Speaker 2: compared to last year. You know, last year's federal budget

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Speaker 2: they announced, as you said, a five hundred dollars co

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Speaker 2: funded rebates that was the States and the federal government together.

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Speaker 2: You know, that did make a difference. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we just have to wait and see what the state

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Speaker 2: government announces on the sixth of June. You know, I

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Speaker 2: would be surprised if at this point in time they

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Speaker 2: you know, decide not to listen to what everyone is

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Speaker 2: telling them. They they are well aware that you know,

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Speaker 2: older Sub Australians, along with a lot of Sub Australians,

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Speaker 2: are really feeling the pinch. They're struggling to makeense meat.

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Speaker 2: They're making some hard voices, and energy prices going up

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Speaker 2: and up and up absolutely some of the major reasons

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Speaker 2: they're feeling that stress in household. So, you know, I

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Speaker 2: feel confident that they will be ready to announce some

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Speaker 2: cost of living relief and we certainly would be encouraging

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Speaker 2: them to make sure that it's going to make a difference.

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Speaker 1: Interesting the stats that the Advertiser has come up with

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Speaker 1: today saying that power prices when the government was elected,

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Speaker 1: well back in twenty twenty one anyway, just before the

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Speaker 1: last federal election, power prices were at about two thousand

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Speaker 1: odd dollars a year, which meant if the rebate had

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Speaker 1: come in then the two hundred and seventy five dollars

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Speaker 1: at the Prime Minister promised during that campaign. The upshot

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Speaker 1: of all that is we're six hundred odd dollars worse

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Speaker 1: off than we would have been. And I think everyone

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Speaker 1: has felt that all the way through. And okay, three

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Speaker 1: hundred bucks. No one's going to say no, don't want it,

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Speaker 1: but gosh, it's hard for people to manage.

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Speaker 2: Clearly, well, it absolutely is. And you know, any discount

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Speaker 2: and any contribution towards household expenses is very much valued.

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Speaker 2: And we know that older South Australians, particularly those on

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Speaker 2: load and fixed incomes pensions, do appreciate that contribution. But

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Speaker 2: they're also realistic. We've just done start of the survey

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Speaker 2: and we've had a couple of hundred responses in the

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Speaker 2: first you know day, and people are clearly aware that

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Speaker 2: seventy five dollars a quarter is not going to go

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Speaker 2: very far. And particularly if you're renting and you're not

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Speaker 2: able to reduce your energy consumption by putting solar panels

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Speaker 2: or any batteries or any other energy saving measures, is

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Speaker 2: you're sort of you're stuck, you know, because you've got

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Speaker 2: a fixed income and you've got these rides offs week

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Speaker 2: that there are people who absolutely will be thinking about

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Speaker 2: where they teaching and in their home, or whether they

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Speaker 2: put fuel in their car, or whether they you know,

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Speaker 2: use that money at suopermarket. And that's a terrible situation

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Speaker 2: to be And pensioners have always had to be very

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Speaker 2: brugal and thrifty when it comes to how they spend

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Speaker 2: their money, but that's even more so right now. And

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Speaker 2: it does make life very difficult and very stressful, and

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Speaker 2: that's not what we want for older people absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you talk about renchers perhaps not being

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Speaker 1: able to afford to put a solar system in, well,

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Speaker 1: somebody here at work got to quote recently with a

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Speaker 1: battery included thirty grand and I don't know he's got

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Speaker 1: thirty grand in their back pockets.

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Speaker 2: Mentors don't even have the right to install things like that.

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Speaker 2: This is one of the challenges that we also have.

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Speaker 2: But absolutely cost of living. I'm sure I'm sure that

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Speaker 2: the Treasurer will be very well aware that he needs

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Speaker 2: to be addressing that in the budget coming up and

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Speaker 2: and would certainly be very disappointed if there wasn't anything

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Speaker 2: to help old of South Australians on pensions and other

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Speaker 2: concession cardholders you know, doing it tough.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, so your message to the treasure I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you've put in submissions. What have you told him?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, you know, cost of living, we've talked to

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Speaker 2: about that. Everyone knows we're in a housing crisis. That's

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Speaker 2: another area that we feel very strongly about. We continue

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Speaker 2: to you know, to advocate for more public housing, for

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Speaker 2: more community housing, and also we want to see more

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Speaker 2: build to rent going on in South Australia. There's just

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Speaker 2: not enough of it at this time that can give

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Speaker 2: security to older people when it comes to rental. People

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Speaker 2: want to know that they are going to be able

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Speaker 2: to live in that rental house for the rest of

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Speaker 2: their life or as long as they need to. And

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Speaker 2: big institutions, you know, building lots of rental properties at

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Speaker 2: once is a great way to do that. A big

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Speaker 2: thing that we want to see and We've been calling

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Speaker 2: for this for a long time. That counts on the

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Speaker 2: Aging is free ambulance for age pensioners. Now, we talked

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Speaker 2: about this last few massive. It's pretty obvious to us

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Speaker 2: and we're still waiting for it in South Australia, whereas

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Speaker 2: most other states in Australia make it free to pensioners

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Speaker 2: and in some cases it's free to all to anyone

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Speaker 2: in that state. So we're really lagging behind. Not only

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Speaker 2: is it not free to pensioners, but it's the most

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Speaker 2: expensive call out feet in Australia as well. So that's

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Speaker 2: what we'd really like to see and that is also

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Speaker 2: going to make a difference to well being and cost

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Speaker 2: of living prescious for older people.

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Speaker 1: Think you're absolutely right, Miranda. We'll see what's in the

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Speaker 1: budget on the sixth of June. Thank you, Thanks a lot,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Miranda Starkey. There the CEO Council of the

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Speaker 1: Aging here in the SA