SA’s planned $12m Budget surplus not on the books for this year: Treasurer Rob Lucas

SA Treasurer Rob Lucas says a planned $12 million surplus is no longer on the books for this year due to blowouts in health and child protection spending.

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SOUTH Australia’s Budget will not deliver a surplus this year, Treasurer Rob Lucas has announced.

As the Federal Coalition Government prepares to unveil the Federal Budget on Tuesday night, Mr Lucas has conceded South Australia’s budget will slide back into deficit this financial year.

In December, former Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis forecast a $12 million surplus for 2017-18 in the Mid-Year Budget Review.

Mr Lucas said the State Budget, which has been pushed back from June to September, will not include a surplus due to unanticipated costs in health and child protection and a reduction in revenue from student fees following the TAFE scandal.

“You don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that the claimed surplus that Tom Koutsantonis and Jay Weatherill made, $12 million out of an $18 or $19 billion State Budget, was not sustainable,” Mr Lucas said.

Rob Lucas leaves Government House in Adelaide after he was officially sworn in as Treasurer Rob Lucas. Picture: Sam Wundke

Mr Lucas said he did not know what the deficit would be but pledged all election promises would be kept.

“We are working our way through that at the moment,” he said.

“Unlike other jurisdictions, we will be delivering the facts but we will not be using that as an excuse not to deliver election promises.”

Mr Lucas indicated some projects or programs would need to be cut to ensure his Government could deliver a surplus for the 2018-19 financial year.

Mr Lucas accused the former government of “financial mismanagement at its most grotesque”.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said Mr Lucas had tried to sneak out the news of a deficit under the radar of a Federal Budget.

“Somehow over seven weeks he has turned a surplus into a deficit,” Mr Mullighan said.

“There are no excuses for Mr Lucas.

“He was briefed on the state of the budget upon being sworn in as Treasurer.

“Yet More than seven weeks later he is now revealed that under the Liberals the budget will be in deficit.

Mr Mullighan accused Mr Lucas of using the “Conservative playbook” by “saying the sky is falling in” before delivering a “brutal budget.”