South Australia's Liberal government has released its policy costings and says it will not be making any further funding commitments — five days out from the election.
Treasurer Rob Lucas today said the move was an attempt to "force" Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas to explain how Labor's pre-election promises will be funded.
"Mr Malinauskas cannot hide any longer — he must immediately reveal how much extra families and businesses will have to pay in higher taxes, fees and charges to pay for his billions in reckless unfunded promises," he said.
Costings are traditionally released a couple of days before election day.
The expenditure list released today shows $288 million in new funding is required to pay for the Liberal Party's election commitments.
The list also shows nearly $700 million has already been spent on commitments the government made before entering caretaker mode or through previously allocated funding.
Among the new expenditure is $123 million towards improving the health system, $26 million on upgrading the Port Pirie Hospital and $25 million towards the new aquatic centre proposed for North Adelaide.
Mr Lucas said while the government had drawn the line on making any new major announcement, "modest" pledges could still be made.
A list of the major parties' funding commitments can be found through the ABC's state election promise tracker.
Mr Malinauskas said all of Labor's policies had been fully costed and that he would be announcing all of the budget numbers later this week.
"We will be doing it this Thursday, which is exactly what Rob Lucas did four years ago, what every treasurer before him has largely done, that is the prudent process," he said.
He said today's announcement by the Treasurer indicated the Liberal Party's campaign had ended.
Labor's latest pledge is to spend $17 million to support students on the autism spectrum in South Australia's public schools.
If elected, the program would appoint an autism-lead teacher in every primary and reception to year 12 school to help students and their parents.
Education Minister John Gardner said the government had increased annual support for public school students with extra needs from $200 million in 2017 to $ 300 million last year.
Concerns over debt and spending
SA Best's lead Upper House candidate, Ian Markos, accused the major parties of being dishonest in their insistence that taxes would not increase to pay for their promises.
"BS has its own sound and that's what you're hearing now," he said.
If elected to the Legislative Council, Mr Markos said SA Best would advocate for wide-ranging tax reforms, including to stamp duty, payroll tax and slashing the "outrageous cost" of registering land titles.
"We won't be voting in favour of any tax increases [if elected]," he said.
Family First upper house candidate Tom Kenyon said his party was also concerned about rising state debt – which currently sits at 105 per cent of state revenue.
"Both parties are addicted to debt and spending and that's got to stop," he said.
"That's why we're proposing a legislated debt cap that restricts debt to 50 per cent of revenue."
Mr Kenyon conceded that "not all debt is wrong" but said the current rate of spending was "out of control."
