Local Governemnt minister Stephan Knoll has announced the State Government's reintroduction of the rate capping legislation.
A $10 million upgrade to Gawler & District College and $615 million for the continuation of the Gawler Rail Line electrification project have all been included in this year’s State Budget.
The Liberal Government’s second State Budget was released last Tuesday, with an upgrade to Horrocks Highway between Gawler and Clare and the Kroemers Crossing roundabout in Tanunda also set to benefit from upgrades as confirmed in the budget.
Transport and Planning minister Stephan Knoll said works are set to begin on the Gawler rail line later this year.
“They’re in a design phase at the moment, which we still have to sign off on, but we’re building in to a program for works to start this year.
“It’s going to take a long time, 2021 we reckon, but the money is in our bank account and the quicker (project developer) Lendlease can get on and build it, the quicker it can be delivered.
“A lot of the work won’t necessarily be that visible, as far as seeing work happen, a lot of it will happen underground.”
A $10 million upgrade to Gawler & District College was first included in the budget in 2017 by the former Labor Government, and was recommitted to as part of a wider education spend in this year’s budget.
Mr Knoll said there was not yet a set start time for the upgrade.
“It is part of $1.4 billion worth of work, we’re talking to education (department) about how we’re actually going to roll it out, because it’s massive,” he said.
“But it’s there in the forward estimates and we need to get on with it.”
The State Government was forced to compile the budget off the back of a $2.1 billion loss of government standard tax revenue, as well as a $184 million loss of conveyance duty revenue.
Mr Knoll said the State Government had achieved its goal of delivering a “fair and balanced” budget despite the revenue losses.
“Our 2036 document talks about us wanting balanced budgets and taking a mature approach to debt in the long term.
“That’s what we’ve done, we’ve balanced the budget and we’ve managed to deal with a $2.3 billion write down in revenue.
“Yes that means we’ve had to make some tough decisions, but we also think it’s fair because maintaining discipline with our operating surplus means we can afford to invest in infrastructure.”
