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May 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Public sector jobs will go and infrastructure projects will be delayed as South Australia grapples with a record budget deficit and the loss of its triple-A credit rating.
The government will axe another 1000 workers over the next three years, on top of the 4100 cuts announced in the past two years.
It outlined savings measures worth more than $800 million in Thursday’s state budget.
Treasurer Jack Snelling said the deficit for 2012/13 was now forecast to balloon to $867 million, the highest in the state’s history, after a massive fall in GST and other revenues.
The deficit would remain high in 2013/14 at $778 million but would drop to just $15 million in the following year before rebounding to a $512 million surplus in 2015/16.
Premier Jay Weatherill said the budget was “finely balanced” at a time of continued global economic uncertainty.
“It’s been a budget framed in some of the most difficult circumstances that the government has had to face in 10 years,” Mr Weatherill said.
But Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond said South Australia had plunged to a new low.
“This budget brings no relief for struggling families and pensioners and no help for small business, just more pain, more of the same,” she said.
Ratings agency Standard Poor’s said SA was making progress on its savings targets but still cut its credit rating from triple-A to double-A+.
Credit analyst Claire Curtin said the state’s financial performance was weaker than expected, and its credit rating could be lowered again within six to 12 months if it deteriorated further.
Mr Snelling said he was determined not to increase pressures on families already struggling with rising power, water and other costs.
“Most importantly in preparing this budget we’ve had an historic revenue write-down of $2.8 billion,” he said.
“I didn’t want to impose any of the burden of that write-down on South Australian families and businesses.”
The only real winner was the disability sector, with an extra $212 million allocated over five years, including $20 million to host one of the launch sites for the federal National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Dignity for Disability MP Kelly Vincent said the extra funding showed the government was finally taking the crisis in the disability sector seriously.
“The lack of funding in the disability sector was bordering on human catastrophe,” Ms Vincent said.
Key infrastructure projects will go ahead, including the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval, the duplication of the Southern Expressway and construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.
But the government has suspended electrification of some suburban rail lines and will delay an upgrade of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to save more than $400 million.
Other previously announced measures include more than $40 million in extra funding to support the mining sector, $45 million in rebates to offset water price hikes, and keeping the $8000 first home buyers’ grant for 12 months at a cost of $5.6 million.
SA Unions State Secretary Janet Giles welcomed extra funding for training manufacturing and mining workers, but the Public Service Association (PSA) raised concerns about the loss of more jobs.
“We know that the services are really hard to deliver as they are,” PSA general secretary Jan McMahon said.
Peak business group Business SA said the state government had been restricted in what it could do after the downturn in revenue.
“We acknowledge that the economy has been hit with a perfect storm of challenges and a damaging slash-and-burn approach would not be in the best interests of the state in the current economic environment,” chief executive Peter Vaughan said.
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