Rann fires starting gun to March 20 election

At 18, Sam Fielding knows exactly what he wants to do. At 49, Kevin Foley does not, and 47-year-old Steven Griffiths has the least clue of all.

Sam graduated from suburban Adelaide’s Sacred Heart College last year, with good grades in physical education, home economics, maths and vocational studies. He’s now working part-time at Subway. If he has dreams of home ownership, he has many more sleeps before they come true.

SA Treasurer Kevin Foley quit Royal Park High School at 16, and he’s now ruling an economy that controls whether Sam gets a full-time job and is ever able to afford his own house.

And Steven Griffiths wants Kevin Foley’s job.

Griffiths’ task is all the more difficult because although he is Shadow Treasurer, his Liberal Party had little idea until late last week about how to frame its manifesto for the March election. This was not Griffiths’ fault. Foley had played dirty politics to foot-fault Griffiths and the Opposition. The Treasurer deliberately stalled until last Thursday to release financial data – data already available to the Treasurer — that the Liberal Party needs to write its election policies.

“We wanted to include the latest information,” Foley said, convincing only himself.

Premier Mike Rann fired the starter’s gun in the electoral race against Liberal leader Isobel Redmond that Thursday, promising to slash wildly unpopular land taxes and exclude 75,000 voters from having to pay land tax at all.

The SA mid-year Budget review shows the state’s economy is looking better now than it did 12 months ago. The Budget predicted a huge drop-off in GST revenues because of the GFC. Treasury figures now say GST will be more than expected because the melt-down didn’t go sub-zero.

The state government will earn or collect $606 million more than it expected due mainly to another Treasurer — Wayne Swan — whose federal Labor Government provided the economic stimulus that pulled SA and other states out of the fiscal swamp. So the Treasurer and Shadow Treasurer have more money to play with — and to spend on election promises. There is still a Budget deficit of $174 million, but that’s much better than the $304 million predicted in the Budget.

For Foley, though, the best news is probably the comparison between SA and the national economy. The state is growing a full per cent faster than the Australian average.

And primary production such as wheat and barley is growing, too. SA has reaped what it has sown with, the review says, higher than average rainfall and ideal weather although irrigated horticulture continues to suffer “challenging” conditions.

But South Australians looking for a job are better off leaving the state. There will be zero employment growth here compared with a small but significant growth nationally.

“This Treasurer cannot be trusted with the state’s finances,” Griffiths complained immediately. Polls, however, show people trust the Treasurer with the state’s finances.

Even so, the mid-year review doesn’t give either Foley or Griffiths much room to move economically, and a ballot box is already a very small room.

The land tax cuts could be Labor’s big ticket item for March 20. Two weeks ago, Foley cautioned against speculating that the Government would cut land taxes. A fortnight later Foley claimed that the decision had not, at that stage, been taken yet.

“That’s the truth,” said the Treasurer. “Cabinet approved this land tax only last Monday.”

Last Monday? This means Cabinet made a decision to cut government revenues by $157 million over three years in less time than most people take to decide to buy a kitchen appliance.

Foley warned the Liberals not to go making wild, expensive election promises, although he promised that the Opposition would out-promise Labor three-to-one between now and the election.

“There’s no room for a spending spree,” he cautioned.

On the contrary, he said, Labor’s land tax cut was a responsible financial decision.

“They’re not political decisions,” said the state’s second highest-ranking politician poe-faced, seven weeks before polling day. The media room snickered.

The mid-year review includes payments for the first part of the $450 million the Government will spend on demolishing the Adelaide Oval for a new AFL and cricket oval.

“Entertainment via sport is a significant service that the public want and expect. Now we are doing that at the Adelaide Oval,” Foley said.

By the Treasurer’s estimation, the public does not want or expect the same focus on justice. Despite overcrowding in state jails as part of his self-proclaimed “rack ’em, stack ’em and pack ’em” policy, and despite more South Australians now in jail than at any time in the state’s history, he has decided against building a new prison.

But the review does include a $10 million-plus ex-gratia payment to companies that had tendered to build the new jail before the Government decided there were more votes in runs per over than cost over-runs.

The review also shows the cost of the failing Murray-Darling is not just environmental. Taxpayers — voters — had to spend  $23 million not accounted for in the original Budget on providing artificial life-support to an almost dead lower Murray.

What does this mean for March 20? Labor has put its economic credentials in the cash register and found the thrill of the till. Liberal has very little wriggle room. It’s promising to cut non-essential government advertising, reduce the number of ministers and ministerial staff and save a further $336 million by cancelling a tram line extension that duplicates an existing train and bus service to safe ALP seats in the city’s north-west.

All that money can be spent on responsible financial decisions, and there won’t be a dollar leaving Griffiths electoral purse on vote-chasing.

After all, as Foley himself said on Thursday, these are not political decisions.

And the ballot box shook with amusement.

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