Why law and order has become the focus of the 2025 state budget

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

If you asked South Australians what they'd like to see in this year's state budget, it's likely their answer would touch on housing or cost-of-living relief.
Both have been persistent issues over recent years and, despite taking centre stage in prior budgets, affordability is still a widespread problem in SA.
The cost of housing — for both renters and buyers — continues to soar.
But the key theme of this year's budget, to be handed down by Treasurer Stephen Mullighan on Thursday, is shaping up quite differently.
For what will be Labor's last budget before next year's state election, Mr Mullighan will shift the focus to law and order.
The government's change in priorities hasn't happened overnight.
Over recent months, moves have been underway to elevate issues involving police and the broader legal system.
In December, police in SA won their biggest pay rise in 30 years — with salaries increasing up to 17.9 per cent within a single year.
The following month, Premier Peter Malinauskas tapped Mr Mullighan, one of his most senior ministers, to add the police portfolio to his responsibilities.
Mr Malinauskas set the scene for budget week on Monday, spending the night with workers at the police communications centre.
Pre-budget announcements this week have included $6.8 million for new police firearms, and the same amount for high-tech security scanners at prisons.
Then on Wednesday, Mr Malinauskas and Mr Mullighan stood alongside Police Commissioner Grant Stevens to announce $17.8 million to double the number of motorcycle officers.
With polling day now less than 10 months away, the budget will give a glimpse into the government's direction as it enters campaign mode.
As the Premier is keen to stress, ensuring community safety is a key responsibility of government.
It's also played a major role in deciding political fortunes interstate.
Reducing youth crime rates, including with an "adult crime adult time" policy, was an integral part of the LNP's campaign in the lead-up to the Queensland election last year.
Youth crime has been an issue in Victoria too, where the government came under significant pressure to tighten youth bail laws.
The NT government last year lowered the age of criminal responsibility in the Territory from 12 to 10 — reversing a move of the previous Labor government.
Crime has not been the political liability in South Australia that it has elsewhere — and Mr Stevens has denied that there is a "youth crime crisis" in this state.
But issues of community safety, including youth crime in Port Augusta, have generated publicity and fed into repeated opposition claims that there is a crisis.
It is one area that has the potential to become a vulnerability for the government in the lead-up to the election — and a problem they'd rather get ahead of.
A law and order budget will be well-received by sections of the community who believe there's a crime problem in SA.
But the government must be careful not to leave the impression that it has moved on from issues of housing, cost-of-living and health before they have been fixed.
A recent "Wicked Problems Report" from Flinders University surveyed more than 30,000 Australians to determine the issues that matter most to them.
Cost-of-living topped the list of concerns for South Australians, followed by housing unaffordability.
A lower number, 27 per cent, listed crime and safety as one of their major concerns.
Such diversity of views makes selling a budget a tricky exercise — even for a popular government.
The state government will be keen on Thursday to draw attention to funding commitments and "sweetener" measures that will help household bottom lines.
But budgets are largely made up of existing funding commitments, which don't win the government any new brownie points.
In recent years, Labor has poured billions of dollars of extra funding into the state's health system.
The budget must also cover the $3.2 billion new Women's and Children's Hospital and SA's 50/50 share of the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington Project — the two biggest infrastructure projects in the state's history.
The Whyalla rescue package and drought assistance measures are unforeseen costs that will also need to be factored in.
To do all this, the government has needed to take on more debt — and convince the taxpayer that it's all for good reason.
When then-treasurer Tom Koutsantonis described his 2017 budget as "very sexy" and "walking down the street with a red dress on", he set up a challenge for his successors.
Rob Lucas, the next to hold the job, described one of his budgets as wearing overalls and a high-vis vest, while another was in a business suit and sensible shoes.
This year's state budget looks as though it will arrive in a blue police uniform.
It may not be as seductive as the red dress, but the government will be hoping it does just as good a job at wooing voters in 2026.