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Weatherill blames Feds for abandoned policy pledges

The Weatherill Government has blamed a lack of Federal funding for a raft of abandoned pledges, as it today released an update on the status of its 2014 election commitments.

Mar 08, 2016, updated Mar 08, 2016
Jay Weatherill with his policy manifesto during the 2014 election campaign.

Jay Weatherill with his policy manifesto during the 2014 election campaign.

The mid-term snapshot claims the Government has “delivered, or is making progress in delivering, 97 per cent of the commitments” it made during the election campaign, as well as subsequent pledges agreed to as part of the deal that saw Frome independent Geoff Brock join the Labor cabinet, and policies outlined in last year’s Governor’s speech to parliament – a speech billed as outlining a “bold vision” that would leave South Australians “gasping”.

Jay Weatherill said in a statement: “We are making significant progress in our plans to transform the South Australian economy, reform Government, support our most vulnerable citizens and stand up for SA… today’s update continues the State Government’s push to make more government information available to everyone.”

But the update also details those pledges that are “not progressing in [their] current form” – many of them centred around the decline of the state’s automotive manufacturing capability.

The expansion of an Automotive Diversification Program to assist companies into alternative markets has been stalled because “no Australian Government funding [was] provided”, as has a scheme to support displaced Holden workers “by introducing new programs that will re-skill and re-employ” them.

The State Government has also argued the Commonwealth failed to provide a requested $2 million to “review the future use of the GM Holden plant and site at Elizabeth”.

A proposed scheme to continue making Holdens at the site under the auspices of Belgian tycoon Guido Dumarey’s Punch Corp was dumped last month.

The report card’s publication comes just hours before a key meeting between Weatherill and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in which its contents will no doubt be discussed. Turnbull is in town for three days as he tries to drum up support in a state whose electoral prospects have been thrown into chaos by the prospective rise of the Nick Xenophon Team.

Other pledges not honoured – and laid at the Commonwealth’s feet – include providing new business transformation vouchers to support SMEs, establishing a jobs acceleration fund, supporting local entrepreneurs through “a number of start-up initiatives” and developing “industry roadmaps for SA’s new industries to support economic diversification”.

Also abandoned is a “Community Building Fund to invest in urban regeneration and local projects”, for which $20 million was sought from Canberra.

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“No Commonwealth funding forthcoming. Commonwealth funding has been withdrawn. Alternative options are being explored,” the report card concludes.

Many of the abandoned policies have been usurped by alternative strategies, the update argues.

Unsurprisingly, the snapshot also highlights cuts to the outer years of the Gonski schools funding model.

It even manages to find a federal culprit for a delay in delivering concept designs for a new metropolitan fire station at Largs North Marina, arguing a review of MFS Marine Operations requirements is “awaiting a Federal Government decision on defence shipbuilding”.

In fact, the only unfulfilled pledge not attributed to a federal funding shortfall is last year’s decision to abandon plans to build a new courts precinct, which is optimistically billed as “not proceeding in current proposed form”.

The Government counts among its successes last year’s state tax review, the ongoing nuclear fuel cycle royal commission, a cost of living concession for pensioners and low-income earners and the establishment of a Domestic Violence Serial Offender Database.

The Government also gives itself a tick for its new Investment Attraction Agency, despite the fact it is yet to appoint a board.

Attracting more tourists, opening a new city high school and building works on the north-south corridor (with substantial federal funding) are billed as works “in progress”.

InDaily revealed last week the SA Council for Social Service was collating its own midterm report card on the Government’s performance.

That appraisal is set to declare a proposal to “restore State Government revenue to pre-GFC levels (as a percentage of Gross State Product) in the next term of government” as only “Partially Implemented”, while the Government gets a cross against its name on calls to provide free off-peak public transport between 9am and 3pm and to increase and index the Access Cabs Subsidy.

Also “not implemented”, according to SACOSS, was “mandating universal aged-appropriate design standards for new developments to increase stock of appropriate housing for those with special needs”, “restoring funding to all primary health programs cut since the [2012] McCann Report unless there is clear evidence of Commonwealth funding” and setting “a target to reduce the prison population by 10 per cent of sentenced prisoners and 20 per cent of remandees”.

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