David Penberthy: It is almost as if the budget is a coded message to shelve any crazy ideas

By being true to its origins as a conservative Labor government, it is not going to give its shattered Liberal opponents any early free kicks, writes David Penberthy.

The ultimate compliment you can pay to a budget is that it is boring. To that end, Stephen Mullighan is off to a flying start as Treasurer of South Australia.

Budgets that are action-packed are those that involve shock tax hikes and ugly new taxes, unprecedented black holes, or are framed around an unforeseen crisis involving natural disasters, national security threats or to give a very recent example, a global pandemic.

I know it’s not a Labor term at all, given the man who coined it, but the newly elected Peter Malinauskas government has just brought down a “comfortable and relaxed” budget.

When you compare and contrast it with that by other Labor governments in Australia, this budget is a picture of modesty and restraint.

In Queensland we have seen big and unaffordable public service wage hikes, outrageous tax grabs from Dan Andrews in Victoria, and in Western Australia, they’re so flooded with cash that every household was just handed $400 bucks for no good reason by Premier Mark McGowan.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan on their way to the Adelaide Convention Centre to deliver the state budget. NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

New Premier Peter Malinauskas and his Treasurer Stephen Mullighan used Thursday’s budget to say this: We might be Labor but we aren’t like the other guys.

This was very much a Labor Right Faction budget from a Labor Right government, led by a man in Malinauskas who cites Bob Hawke as his political idol.

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It has stressed the need for budget surpluses at a time when other Labor governments (except resources-rich WA) are acting like surpluses are a quaint and old-fashioned notion that was killed off by the coronavirus.

It has achieved a surplus without increasing taxes or bringing in new ones.

It has had a fair bit off luck to that end, with an increase in GST revenue and an absolute bonanza from our surging property market in SA, a twofold kick in the form of higher stamp duty as properties increase in value, and more transactions in this frenzied sellers’ market.

It has also benefited from increased payroll tax as work returns to normal in many sectors that were all but closed during the lockdowns and thanks to social distancing laws.

This is a budget that honours Labor’s promise to govern from the centre, so much so that Stephen Mullighan faced questioning on Thursday as to why the new government hadn’t followed the lead of WA and Victoria in giving across-the-board handouts for every household to save money on their power bills.

It will be interesting to see how successful Mullighan and Malinauskas are in holding the line, especially with public servant unions all due for wage rises in the next round of enterprise talks.

Quite deliberately, though, the tone Mullighan is striking on the first really significant day of his short tenure as treasurer was of Labor’s Dr No.

The entire tone of the budget was around honouring promises – none bigger than health with the $2.3bn increase over four years for hospitals, doctors, nurses and ambulances – but stressing that after that is all funded, people can put the begging bowl away.

It is almost as if the budget is a coded message to every government department to shelve any crazy ideas and new proposals. To make do with the same money, or less, and to get back to a brand of muted and unspectacular managerialism which set the tone for Thursday’s dull document.

The best question of the day at the press conference went to veteran journalistic sage Matthew Abraham who asked the Treasurer if the budget were a person, what kind of person would it be.

Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Abraham helpfully reminded Mullighan that, in a less politically correct era, former Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis likened one of his budgets to a woman in a red dress.

Mullighan baulked at the comparison and said, if pressed, he would describe the budget as an ambo in a green uniform or a nurse in a blue uniform, as all the budget really did was honour the commitments made in Labor’s health-dominated campaign.

If you take the budget in its totality, I’d say it is a worried-looking accountant in a brown cardigan with a collection of coloured biros in his white shirt pocket.

The scariest figure in this budget is state debt, rocketing towards $34bn at a time of uncertainty around inflation, interest rates and a war-ravaged global economy.

Mullighan pretty much admitted that the volatility of the times means any financial forecasts are less cast in stone than they have ever been, throughout the entire history of the dismal science of economics.

So much of what the Treasurer said is predicated on hopefully constructed estimates at a time when nothing seems certain.

The one good thing the government has going for it is that, by being true to its origins as a conservative Labor government, it is not going to give its shattered Liberal opponents any early free kicks in the form of tax increases, wacky new and unforecast spending programs, and surpluses being shredded for short-term political gain.

It is a soberminded start by this new government, albeit one that is framed around some real luck thanks to the red-hot property market, an unforeseen GST bonanza that will very soon expire, and the better-than-expected recovery of local employers after the artificial closures of the past two years.