The cost of the River Murray flooding, plus extra money needed to boost South Australia's health and child protection systems, means it will be "extremely difficult" to get the state's budget back into surplus, the SA Treasurer has said.
Stephen Mullighan said Tuesday night's federal budget revealed a forecast $95 million reduction in South Australia's GST revenue this financial year, which was about half of the surplus he was aiming for when he delivered the state's mid-year budget review in December.
"Last night's news makes it extremely difficult for the state to be getting the budget back into surplus this financial year," he said.
He said since December, more money had also been required to assist with the devastating summer floods in the state's Riverland and Murraylands.
Extra money was also needed to deal with the pressures on SA's health and child protection systems, which have both recently come under fire.
"South Australia has unfortunately found itself victim to one of these revenue fluctuations, [in] this case the GST, at the same time that we've had further cost increases in those areas of community need," Mr Mullighan said.
He said getting the state budget into surplus would be a "challenge" the government would grapple with over the next five weeks, before the budget was delivered on June 15.
"But we won't do it at the expense of providing support to those most in need in the community and providing improvements to those services, particularly in health and child protection," he said.
Power bill relief for South Australians
As part of the federal budget, South Australians are among those who could be eligible to receive a $500 rebate on their annual power bill.
Mr Mullighan expected 420,000 households would be eligible for the rebate, plus 86,000 small businesses would be eligible for a $650 rebate.
He said the rebate would be made available to people on the state government's cost of living concession and those on the federal government Family Tax Benefits A and B.
He said energy bills in SA were predicted to rise by 21 per cent and this measure would provide significant relief.
"People will see their energy bills actually decrease next year as a result of this," he said.
The $250 million scheme, which begins on July 1, will be jointly funded by the state and federal governments.
But shadow treasurer Matt Cowdrey questioned why the SA government was now predicting it would be challenging to get the budget back into surplus, saying Mr Mullighan's December predictions should have been able to cope with the revised shortfall.
"The question for the treasurer is: Is it just he's not able to do his job effectively? Or were there forecasts that were missed? Or was there overspend that wasn't forecast?" Mr Cowdrey said.
He said the power bill relief announced did not go far enough and called for $250 power bill rebates to be provided to all South Australian families in need.
"The everyday South Australian family has been left to do the heavy lifting from this budget," he said.
Business SA chief executive Andrew Kay said it was a "benign" budget for business.
"It's a bit like Prince Harry at the coronation; business has taken a back seat with this particular budget because of the focus being around cost of living," Mr Kay said.
He had been told some businesses were experiencing a 20-30 per cent increase on their gas and electricity bills, so the rebate offered did not go far enough.
"While $650 is welcome, it's still nowhere near enough," he said.
Could GP incentives ease hospital pressure?
Mr Mullighan also hoped changes to GP bulk billing would ease pressure on the state's hospitals, which in recent months have experienced the worst ambulance ramping on record.
He said the change would make it easier for tens of thousands of South Australians to see a GP for free, which in turn would stop people from going to an emergency department.
"The difficulty in accessing GPs has made our ramping problem worse here in South Australia," he said.
"Not only will it help people get an appointment with their GP, it'll stop people [being] diverted away from GPs and into hospital emergency departments, relieving a lot of pressure off our health system."
Deputy Premier Susan Close welcomed measures allocated in the federal budget that would ease cost of living as well as spending in resource and defence industries.
"It was very pleasing to see $2 billion being allocated to hydrogen," she said.
"While it's unclear how and where that would be spent, the Treasurer chose to single out Whyalla in his speech when talking about that, which indicates the significance the federal government sees in South Australia's priority for hydrogen."
Also in the federal budget was an additional 800 places allocated to South Australia universities over the next four years to support the AUKUS submarine program.
