Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this time to pay tribute to the emergency services volunteers and paid staff who are a crucial part of the fabric of regional communities and who play a critical role in keeping those communities safe in the face of significant risk to their own safety. They certainly do not deserve to be used for the South Australian state government as a fig leaf to justify tax increases to cover Labor's extraordinary budget mismanagement. But unfortunately, that is what is happening with the decision to remove the Emergency Services Levy Remission. In yet another chapter in a long, sordid history of betraying regional communities, the state Labor government is ripping out over $384 million by taking this action and reinvesting a paltry $8 million back into emergency services. This is shameful and it is an indictment on SA Labor and the Minister for Regional Development, Geoff Brock in particular.

Farmers around the state face increases between 450 per cent and 1,312 per cent compared to the comparatively less horrific 160 per cent in metropolitan areas. Ultimately, for a country fire service struggling to recruit new members, this cash grab will result in even fewer farmers volunteering to be part of their local CFS brigades and, indeed, this decision will limit their capacity and inclination to purchase and maintain on-farm firefighting equipment. I say to the SA state Labor government and to Geoff Brock in particular: stop punishing the regional South Australians you were elected to represent and start respecting our emergency services personnel.