THE Liberal government’s 2018-19 state budget handed down on Tuesday has received generally positive feedback from SA’s rural sector with infrastructure projects, roads and health the major winners.
Treasurer Rob Lucas likened his budget to a “business suit with sensible shoes” compared with his predecessor Tom Koutsantonis, who dubbed last year’s budget “sexy in a red dress”.
Mr Lucas said the government’s $11.3 billion infrastructure spend across the next four years would provide industry with a great level of certainty.
“There had been fears the Liberal government would cut infrastructure spending, but there’s actually going to be an increase of more than $500 million,” he said.
But to pay for the big-ticket items such as infrastructure and health, extra revenue had to found from areas such as increasing Housing Trust rents, while cutting had to be done in other parts, with some tafeSA campuses to be close, including Wudinna, Roxby Downs, Coober Pedy and Urrbrae.
One area receiving a funding injection was the government's proposed flagship infrastructure project GlobeLink, involving a non-stop freight corridor bypassing the city and a no-curfew airport near Murray Bridge.
There has been $20m put aside across four years to develop a masterplan for GlobeLink.
But Mr Lucas said there was definitely no guarantee the project would go ahead.
“Ultimately, it’s going to have to pass the business case test,” he said.
“Once that’s done, it will need to be assessed by Infrastructure SA, and if that’s successful, from there it would need to be assessed by Infrastructure Australia.
“It’s also going to take significant Commonwealth investment, so there are significant hurdles for it to cross, and it’s unlikely to occur anytime in the immediate future.”
Rural Doctors’ Association of SA president Peter Rischbieth said there were plenty of positives for rural health in the budget.
“The announcement of $140m across 10 years to address the backlog of capital work requirements in country hospitals is pleasing, especially because the work will be done across a range of hospitals and benefit many different regions of SA,” he said.
“The $7m upgrade of the emergency department at the Murray Bridge Soldiers’ Hospital will mean we can offer more services to people in the Murraylands and Mallee.
“It’s also good to see investment in new areas, such as $160,000 across two years for an outpatient rehabilitation program in the Riverland.”
The Riverland program will look to reduce the harm associated with crystal methamphetamine use. There has also been $100,000 put aside to development a business case for a new hospital in the Barossa and $605,000 has been committed to upgrade facilities at the Yorketown Hospital.
Premier Steven Marshall said the Liberal government had to make some tough calls when it came to the budget.
“We’ve been left in a very difficult situation by the previous government but that won’t be used as an excuse to not deliver on the promises we made before the election,” he said.
