Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. The budget will cut $655 million from hospitals over four years, the equivalent of removing 600 hospital beds or the entire Flinders Medical Centre. The budget cuts $335 million from South Australian school funding over six years, and what does that mean? It means Mr Pyne is presiding over cuts in his home state equivalent to removing 3,000 teachers.

The budget singled out South Australia in other ways too. We have one of the most extensive networks of regional roads of any state or territory, and when I was finance minister in the former government—