South Australian Premier’s veiled swipe at Canberra over broken Budget promises

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas appeared to criticise the Albanese Government’s unexpected tax increases in his government’s first Budget since winning an expanded majority three months ago.

“We are not increasing taxes in a way that’s unexpected by anybody,” the Labor leader said in Adelaide on Thursday. “It’s an important principle. Not politically but as a matter of policy.”

The comments are another blow to the Albanese Government, which continued to be attacked in Parliament for raising taxes on investments, including property, without warning voters before last year’s election. Mr Albanese’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The state’s budget forecast surpluses of $1.4 billion over the next four years, including $223 million next financial year, due to a surge in tax revenue from high employment, rising property values an increased GST payments.

Mr Malinauskas promised during a March election his government would invest in services without increasing taxes, a commitment he said had been honoured in a Budget that would deliver stability for business.

The South Australian government also criticised their Labor counterparts in Victoria, which is running large deficits and has the biggest debt in the nation in proportion to the size of its economy.

“We are not going to become Victoria,” Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said. “There is going to be budget discipline.”

Debt going up

Despite the surpluses, debt will go up under plans to spend $15 billion on a new motorway in Adelaide and build a women’s and children’s hospital on the outskirts of the Adelaide CBD for $3.2 billion. The hospital budget, which was set years ago, is widely assumed to be an underestimate given rises in construction costs.

The infrastructure spending isn’t included in the regular budget under standard accounting rules. The state is forecast to hit $53.7 billion in debt by 2030, costing $3.5 billion a year in interest.

Opposition leader Ashton Hurn said government spending had exceeded its budgets by $6 billion over the past four years. One example she cited was the Tourism Department, which she said spent $187 million on a $102 million budget. It promotes the state under the slogan “Celebrate the Simple Pleasures”.

“Labor is showing no ambition to pay down debt and is instead handballing it to the next generation,” she said. “At this rate, the debt will take centuries to pay down, not years.”

The government said the state’s debt would start falling in 2031 when the South Road motorway is finished.

Budget winners

Among the groups that will receive extra funding are grain and livestock farmers recovering from a drought in the south-east of the state who will get access to a $200 million loan scheme.

Workers at the Whyalla steelworks, which went broke under British owner Sangeev Gupta last year, will benefit from $159 million from the state to keep operating while the business is sold. The federal government will provide a similar amount.

The third-biggest party in the South Australian parliament, One Nation, said it would propose a debt ceiling to limit government spending.

“Debt has ballooned out of control under the State Labor Government in SA (as it always does under Labor governments!), and ultimately it will be future generations who will have to pick up the tab,” the part said on social media this week.