Festival state eyes climate summit amid debt concerns
South Australia's budget, to be handed down on Thursday by Treasurer Stephen Mullighan, will commit $8.3 million for Adelaide to get ready for the UN's COP31 summit.
The federal government has selected Adelaide as its preferred city to host the event, if Australia's bid for the conference is successful.
Analysis shows hosting the event would deliver a potential benefit to SA of $512 million.
The budget will fund significant planning for security, transport and infrastructure at COP31, which Premier Peter Malinauskas said would be bigger than the AFL's Gather Round, LIV Golf, the Adelaide Festival and Fringe combined.
"To deliver it will take a monumental logistical and planning effort … it is vital that we accelerate that effort and that is exactly what the state budget will do," he said.
The budget is the last before the state election in March 2026.
Sweeteners are unlikely with the government already locked into two big-ticket, long-term infrastructure projects: the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington tunnels project and the $3.2 billion new Women's and Children's Hospital.
Those projects are the main reason SA's debt is heading towards $46 billion in four years.
Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia said the government must prioritise cost-of-living relief.
"The Labor government has so far failed to deliver where it's most needed, with South Australians paying record high power bills and struggling with a housing affordability crisis," he said.
"There are practical solutions that the Liberal Party have put forward, including stamp duty relief, reintroducing the home battery scheme and scrapping the GP payroll tax grab."
The government will be expected to respond to calls for increased support for farmers and rural areas, amid the state's worsening drought.
With dams running dry, no sub soil moisture, hay stocks at critical levels and farmers selling livestock, the agricultural sector will be hoping for an increase to the $73 million of support already announced.
The impact on the budget's bottom line of the joint state and federal $2.4 billion support package for the Whyalla steelworks, announced in March, will also be monitored.
The government has already announced $125 million over five years to remove a level crossing on a key northern suburbs thoroughfare, matching a federal funding commitment to the project.
A further $171 million will go towards the expansion of a non-government school loan scheme, to increase eligibility for preschool infrastructure projects before the introduction of preschool for three-year-olds from 2026.
The government will spend $13.9 million over five years to expand the Mental Health Co-Responder Program across Adelaide, in which mental health clinicians are paired with a police officer respond to mental health triple-zero callouts.
A security task force to combat antisocial and violent behaviour across the Adelaide Metro network will also be rolled out as part of a $9.6 million investment in transport safety.
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