The South Australian election is fast approaching and the Labor Party, Liberal Party and Nick Xenophon's SA Best have all been announcing policies for months. Here's a look at what's been promised so far.
Jobs and unemployment
Labor
- Will continue the rollout of its $200 million Future Jobs Fund
- $150 million regional development fund, to be spent over 10 years, indexed with inflation
- Double the investment attraction fund to $130 million
- $100 million for skills training, with at least 70 per cent to go to TAFE SA
Liberal
- $150 million regional growth fund, to be spent over 10 years on employment growth in the regions
- $700,000 on a program to help former Defence Force personnel to get jobs in defence industries
- $100 million over four years to create an additional 20,800 apprenticeship and traineeship places
- Will bid for the biennial Land Forces conference in 2020
- Will establish a $1 million defence industry scholarship fund
Electricity
Labor
- As part of its $550 million energy plan Labor will consolidate the gas/diesel generators into a gas fired power plant
- Establish an energy security target in 2020
- Spend $32 million on the first phase of a "virtual power plant" by installing solar and battery storage on 50,000 homes
- Will establish a $100 million scheme of low interest loans for homeowners to install solar PV systems or battery storage
- Will set a 75 per cent renewable energy target, to be met by 2025, and a 25 per cent renewable storage target
Liberal
- A $200 million interconnector fund, with a new connection to New South Wales a top priority
- A $100 million household battery fund to help 40,000 households buy batteries
- Will appoint a special investigator to examine Labor's $550 million energy plan
SA Best
Law and order, community safety
Labor
- $8 million to support homelessness services
- Will create a new Ministry for Family Violence Protection, with Jay Weatherill as minister
- Funding boost for domestic violence services
- $200,000 for more children's swimming lessons, $200,000 for more shark spotting and deterrent technology and $5,000 yearly grants to the state's surf lifesaving clubs
- $4.68 million for police equipment, including bulletproof vests, tasers and x-ray machines
- Will develop a "dob in a hoon" app
- $1.25 million for training and equipment for police to detect, prevent and respond to terrorism incidents
Liberal
- Extend police station opening times in Glenelg, Henley and Norwood
- Increase police shoot-to-kill powers
- Will provide drones to 21 surf lifesaving clubs for shark spotting
- $9 million to boost domestic violence crisis accommodation
- Will use phone jamming technology to stop mobile phone use in prisons
- Will change laws so a person caught for drug offences can only opt into a drug diversion program twice before they are charged
- Will raise the maximum penalty for cannabis possession from $500 to $2,000
- Will develop a domestic violence emergency protection app
SA Best
- A domestic violence plan, which includes GPS monitoring of perpetrators, more legal funding and emergency housing services
- Will reduce the number of poker machines by 50 per cent over five years
- Will implement $1 maximum bets on poker machines
- Convert poker machine licences from open-ended to seven years
- Will ban political donations from the gaming industry
Public transport, roads, infrastructure
Labor
- $25 million for a food innovation hub at the Food Park at Edinburgh Parks
- $150 million to renew 600 old housing trust homes
- $8 million to build an Aboriginal centre of excellence at Port Adelaide Football Club
- Committed $200 million to duplicate Joy Baluch Bridge in Port Augusta, calling on the Federal Government to match the funding
- $90 million towards sealing the Strzelecki Track
- $18.9 million for an upgrade to the Paradise Interchange and 'Park 'n' Ride' facility
- Will spend $2 billion on infrastructure projects, including $1.33 billion on removing level crossings
- Will waive stamp duty and registration fees for new electric vehicles
- Will increase the capacity of the Golden Grove Park 'n' Ride
- $4.1 million upgrading bus shelters across the state
- $35 million expanding Adelaide's optic fibre internet network
- $350 million over nine years, developing the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site
- $4 million to revitalise Chinatown
- $279 million to extend trams to the Parade Norwood, and $259 million for a tram extension to O'Connell Street
- $150 million equity towards ports authority to develop Eyre Peninsula harbour
- $28 million to expand and improve urban parks and trails
Liberal
- Will establish an authority to review the public transport system
- $37 million for a right-turn at the North Terrace/King William Street intersection for trams
- Will develop a plan to build a new freight airport and export park at Murray Bridge, connected to Adelaide with road and rail corridors
- $1 million toward Adelaide 500 grandstand construction
- Create a "royalties for regions" scheme, where 30 per cent of mining royalties will go towards a regional roads and infrastructure fund
- $20 million towards the rejuvenation of Glenelg, including a hotel on the jetty
- Will match Labor's $90 million Strzelecki Track funding
- $7.5 million Park 'n' Ride at the Paradise Interchange
- $10 million to fix mobile black spots
- $24.2 million towards building an overpass to remove the bottle-neck on the Augusta Highway near Port Wakefield
- Will spend $2.5 million developing a business case to secure federal funding to complete Adelaide's north-south corridor
- $5 million to upgrade Country Fire Service stations
- Plan for old Royal Adelaide Hospital site includes a national gallery for Aboriginal art and culture, relocating the food and hospitality school from Regency Park, and setting up an entrepreneurs hub, at a cost of "upwards of $500 million"
SA Best
- Will upgrade the Paradise 'Park 'n' Ride' (no costings)
- $3.9 million for a 12-month trial of improved public transport for Adelaide Hills, Mallee and Upper Southeast communities
- Keen to remediate Port Stanvac to allow a residential zone
- Will commit $4 million to complete the Penola bypass
- Will expand free public transport for seniors to include peak times
- Will spend $750,000 towards a scoping study to replace the "dangerous" three-lane section of Flagstaff Road
- $3 million towards the Hans Heysen Foundation's plans to build an art gallery at The Cedars property in Hahndorf
- $30 million to fix mobile black spots
- $7.5 million toward redevelopment at Port Adelaide Football Club's Alberton Oval, including an Aboriginal centre for excellence
Child protection and schools
Labor
- Will spend $692 million to upgrade 91 public schools across the state
- $37.5 million for 10 new children's centres
- $57 million to help students with social or emotional issues go to public schools
- $70 million to provide laptops to all years 10 to 12 students
- $6.7 million to train teachers to deliver education in coding to all primary school students
- Expand its sport voucher program to $14.8 million, to provide $50 towards primary school students' sports club membership or registration fees
- $6 million for 20 new nature play spaces at preschools and primary schools
- $9.6 million over four years for road safety programs in schools
- Will set up sperm donor conception register, meaning anonymous donors could be identified
- Will appoint an Aboriginal Children's Commissioner, in line with Commissioner Margaret Nyland's recommendations
- Will adopt "Carly's law" (in line with SA Best's policy)
- Will make working-with-children checks free for volunteers aged 60 and over
- $6 million to encourage Year 10 students to work in the disability sector
Liberal
- Will transition Year 7 from primary school into high school
- Increase fines for parents whose children are chronically truant, and increase the number of truancy officers
- Will allow the use of police sniffer dogs in schools, and run drug abuse prevention programs
- Expand anti-bullying programs in schools
- Will dissolve the current TAFE SA board and appoint a new one
- Will build a new technical college in the western suburbs
- Will introduce a registration scheme for social workers
- $12 million to double value of children's sports vouchers from $50 to $100
- Will make working-with-children checks free for all volunteers, regardless of age
SA Best
- Supports transitioning Year 7 into high school
- Calls for an urgent, independent inquiry into TAFE SA, to report to parliament on June 1
- Will legislate "Carly's law", making it illegal for people over 18 to misrepresent their age online when interacting with minors
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Demands the new government immediately opts in to the Commonwealth Redress Scheme for victims of institutional child abuse
Economy
Labor
- Will cut 750 public servants, to save $370 million over four years
- $20 million for marketing and development in the wine, beer and spirits sectors
- $1.34 million to set up and operate a Good Money Store in Adelaide's south, providing financial counselling and microfinance
Liberal
- Cut payroll tax for businesses with payrolls up to $1.5 million
- Increase the tax-free threshold for land tax to $450,000 from the current $353,000
- Will deregulate shop trading hours
- Will restore Emergency Service Levy concessions
- Will establish a council rate capping scheme
- $5 million to attract more conferences to Adelaide
- $1.25 million for Food SA, to increase food production in South Australia
- $2.5 million to attract more international students to South Australia
- Will establish a trade office in Shanghai
- Replace the Economic Development Board with an advisory council, saving $20 million over four years
SA Best
Health and aged care
Labor
- A new disability advocate and $1.5 million community access fund
- Will invest $90 million in an upgrade to Modbury Hospital, including an acute surgical unit and extended emergency care
- A $250 million upgrade to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including a new emergency department
- $140 million for country hospital upgrades
- Will guarantee funding for mental health patients as they transition to the NDIS
- Remove barriers to medicinal cannabis by working with the medical profession
- A mental health package of $70 million over five years, including support for people with drug and alcohol addiction, more services in private homes, and extra funding for suicide prevention networks
- Accept all 13 recommendations from ICAC report into Oakden scandal, and set-up an investigative unit in the Department of Premier and Cabinet to examine unresolved allegations against staff
- Free meningococcal B vaccination for children under 2, free flu jabs for children under 5
Liberal
- Restore cardiac services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
- Establish a high-dependency unit and expand surgery capabilities at the Modbury Hospital
- $40 million to ease elective surgery waiting times
- $16 million to expand outreach palliative care services
- $2.5 million to support suicide prevention networks
- $7 million to upgrade the Murray Bridge emergency department, $500,000 for upgrades at the McLaren Vale Hospital and $300,000 to improve services at the Yorketown Hospital
- Spend $20 million increasing the rural medical workforce
- $7 million to stop abuse of pharmaceuticals via real-time prescription monitoring
- Reduce the cost of parking at metropolitan hospitals for long-stay patients and their carers
- $13 million to establish an acute medical ward at the Noarlunga Hospital
- $14 million to shift former Oakden residents to a new facility at the Repat
- Audit safety and quality issues at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital
- Rezone the Daw Park Repatriation site to ensure it remains a health precinct, and reopen operating theatres for elective surgery
SA Best
- Raise smoking age to 21
- Will push for a royal commission into failures in the health system
- $5 million to give South Australians access to clinical trials and cutting-edge immunology cancer treatment
- Will clear the $150 million country health capital works back-log, including an "urgent" rebuild of the Port Pirie Hospital
- Increase the palliative care budget by $24.5 million
- Create a mobile dental service for aged care
- Will return a high-dependency unit to the Modbury Hospital
- $5 million for redevelopment of Glenelg Community Hospital
- Making rehabilitation and detox mandatory for problem ice users — and a demand for government to halve overall levels of ice use within two years
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Change ICAC laws and the definition of "maladministration" to make ministers and staff accountable if they plead ignorance
Environment and agriculture
Labor
- Will push ahead with its plan for a royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin
- $20 million to buy-back a third of marine scale fishery licenses, along with zone management and quota changes, announced following a similar promise from the Liberal Party
- A "royalties return" program for farmers who have mineral deposits discovered on their land
Liberal
- A 10-year moratorium on unconventional gas (fracking) in the state's south east
- $4 million to protect coastline and improve water quality at Gulf St Vincent
- Voluntary buy-back plan for a third of marine scale fishery licences, zoning and quota changes
- Revise the no-take boundaries in the state's marine parks
- Amend aquaculture laws to help operators expand
SA Best
- Will put the handbrake on the development of the Bird in Hand goldmine in the Adelaide Hills, until environmental concerns are addressed
- Wants silt from the Port River dredging to be dumped at Gillman, rather than in the Gulf St Vincent
- Will spend $4 million on multi-peril income protection insurance for farmers
- $20 million for better stormwater management and water innovation measures
- Will establish a "royalties for regions" scheme, to quarantine 25 per cent of royalty revenue for country communities
- Will hire a team of marine experts to assess and direct repairs of Adelaide's beaches
Tourism
Labor
- Will look for investors to turn the Cleland Wildlife Park into a tourism hub
- Increase the tourism budget by $90 million over coming years, growing the size of the Bid Fund to attract more events and conferences to South Australia, and increasing spending on marketing
- $6.4 million to make the Adelaide Film Festival an annual event
Liberal
- Double the Events Bid Fund to $40 million, and bid for events such as the world water ski championships and an international yacht race
- $15 million annual increase for the tourism marketing budget
- Bring in laws to crack down on ticket scalping, making it illegal to sell tickets for more than 10 per cent of the original price
- $1.2 million to create three new artificial reefs for recreational fishers
- Allow the construction of tourist accommodation in Innes National Park, along with other measures to attract more tourists to national parks
- Will establish a "great southern bike trail" to connect to Victoria
SA Best
- $5 million to foster live music and emerging local talent
Government transparency
Liberal
- Crack down on taxpayer funding of government advertising if it features the face, image or voice of the premier or a government minister
- Will introduce a whistleblower protection bill
- Will create "Infrastructure SA" to provide a strategic approach to infrastructure planning, along with a state-based productivity commission
- Will introduce legislation to allow the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption to hold public hearings
- Will ban prisoners from voting in state elections, if they're sentenced to a term of three years or more
- Will ensure each department reports to only one minister
- Will reduce ministerial staff to about 15 per office
SA Best
- Will also create an "Infrastructure SA" body, but with more powers and more independence than the Liberal's plan
- Will reduce the overall number of MPs from 69 to 50
- Reforms to parliamentary system, including increasing number of sitting days
- A more open ICAC, and strengthened powers for other institutions such as ombudsman
- Will bring in whistleblower protections, including a compensation scheme
