Mount Gambier Hospital’s renal dialysis unit will receive a $2.1m boost, the long-awaited $14.6m Penola Bypass will be funded and the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre will share in $1m for “sustainment works”.
The $315m Regional Roads and Infrastructure Fund, which annexes 30pc of mining royalties, forms the centrepiece of the regionally-focused budget.
Country health will receive a $140m injection over the next 10 years to address the backlog in capital works, while $20m over four years will address a shortage of doctors and healthcare professionals in rural areas.
But the budget will be funded partly through the axing of the former Labor Government’s funds and programs, including the Future Jobs Fund, Career Services Program and Fund My Neighbourhood.
Savings will also be found through the closure of seven TAFE SA campuses, three metropolitan Service SA centres and the slashing of more than 4000 government employees.
Treasurer Rob Lucas said the regions were a key focus of the Marshall Government after years of neglect by the former Labor administration.
“The State Budget fulfils all our commitments to help reinvigorate the regions, through better health and aged care, education and emergency services as well as significant capital works programs right across the state,” he said.
“Our investment over the next four years will not only clean up the enormous financial mess left to us by Labor, but ensure families and businesses living and working in the country are supported with better infrastructure from hospitals and schools to better roads and recreational facilities.”
The budget provides $12m over four years to enter into longer term agreements with Regional Development Australia boards and an additional $10m for mobile phone blackspots.
The government will also invest $12m in country cancer services to enable patients receiving chemotherapy to access treatment closer to home.
Kingston’s Lighthouse Lodge Aged Care home has been allocated $1m for safety upgrades, while Country Fire Service stations will share in $5m for building upgrades, including new stations.
Mount Burr is one of six fire stations earmarked for upgrades across the state.
Housing Trust tenants are among the losers of the budget, with Mr Lucas floating an increase of $10 per week for their rental properties, while salaried medical officers will be stung by an increase to payments for the rights to private practice in public hospitals.
