Today's State Budget clearly will provide some welcome relief for hundreds of thousands of South Australians grappling with rising costs of living and housing - but the state government may have squandered an opportunity to make significant and meaningful change for the state's long-term benefit.
"This Budget represents an admirable effort to lessen the impact of spiralling costs for many South Australian households," SACOSS CEO Ross Womersley says. "But it could have been so much more, particularly for those South Australians doing it the toughest."
SACOSS's full State Budget Analysis is now available at our State Budget 2023-24 page.
COST OF LIVING
SACOSS welcomes the previously announced Energy Bill Relief Plan, which will see about two-thirds of SA households receive $500 of energy bill relief.
"The $500 energy bill relief will be welcomed by many South Australians, especially for those households on low incomes as we head into what could be a cold winter," CEO Ross Womersley says.
"However, this relief is a 'sugar hit' - a short-term, one-off measure that doesn't address long term efficiency measures which would help low income household reduce their energy demands, and therefore costs, over the long term.
"We also note that approximately $30 million of this energy bill relief will go to households with solar power who probably don't have significant energy bill problems - while many low-wage single-person households and sharehouses will miss out on the payment altogether."
Keeping increases in government fees and charges below inflation, while indexing other concessions at the full CPI rate, is genuinely welcome.
HOUSING
SACOSS acknowledges the Budget fulfils the Government's Better Housing Futures commitments, particularly around investing in public housing.
However, the public housing build in the budget is well below what is needed with 300 new dwellings per year required just to meet population growth, and 1000 per year to begin to rebuild the public housing estate and impact on the wider rental market.
And the stamp duty concession for first-home buyers really misses the opportunity to begin to transition to a broader replacement of conveyance duties with an annual land tax – as recommended by almost every housing economist.
"Moreover this Budget hasn't taken the opportunity to explore a range of newer options which will also be needed to truly address the housing crisis, such as shared equity schemes, modular housing and vacancy taxes.”
HEALTH
This Budget misses an opportunity to address the ongoing challenge of building a health system that minimises the number of people going to our hospitals.
"Investments in improving hospitals and measures that ensure more patients are able to leave the health system more quickly are welcome - but the priority should be creating and sustaining a system that has fewer patients entering it in the first place," Mr Womersley says.
"In this context we note that public health expenditure has gone down, and money for community health services has gone down in real terms."
SACOSS is genuinely concerned by the absence of any clear investment in community-based supports for people with mental health issues.
BUDGET SNAPSHOT
SACOSS has released a more detailed Budget Snapshot highlighting the measures it supports, opposes and considers needs more work. We will be publishing a full budget analysis next week in the lead-up with our Post-Budget Lunch with the Treasurer, the Hon. Stephen Mulligan MP on Wednesday.