Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The South Australian government are at it again. They are closing hospitals, they are closing emergency departments and they are closing courts, but they still always manage to find money for a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign against the federal government. They have just announced and started running their fourth campaign in the last year—again, it is a massive waste—this time telling pensioners that they will be seeing an increase in their council rates and blaming it on the federal government.

My message to local pensioners is very simple: please do not let the state Labor government make you stressed or worried about your council rate concessions. This scare campaign is simply untrue and it is going nowhere. What is more, the state government is fully aware there is no chance that their cut to pensioners' council rate concessions will ever happen. The state Liberals, Family First, the Greens, Dignity for Disabled and Independent John Darley are all uniting to block this cut in the upper House. The only people in South Australia who will be voting in favour of cutting concessions to pensioners for local government rates are the Labor Party and they do not have the numbers in the state upper House. The cut is finished; it is dead in the water. Why cause pensioners so much stress and worry for no reason? This is politics at its worst—scaring pensioners for no reason other than to score cheap political points. (Time expired)