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AAP SA Opposition Leader Steven Marshall says he is not convinced Labor can serve its full term.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall has threatened to use the tight numbers in South Australia's hung parliament to possibly bring down the Labor government.

Mr Marshall is not convinced the minority government can serve its full term and will keep the Liberals on a "war footing" to be ready to take over.

The Liberal leader has not shied away from using the numbers in the house to defeat the government on key legislation and possibly issues of confidence, if government MPs are absent for votes without good reason.

"People are elected to serve in the parliament," Mr Marshall told reporters on Wednesday.

"If they're not here when votes are taken, then they do it at their peril."

When parliament returns in May, Labor will have 24 votes on the floor of the House of Assembly, just two more than the Liberals 22.

But that slim majority comes courtesy of independent MP Geoff Brock, who decided to back Labor after the March 15 election.

Labor must also appoint a Speaker while a second independent, Bob Such, is expected to be absent for some time as he battles a brain tumour.

Mr Marshall said he still believed Mr Brock had made the wrong decision and would continue to try to change the MP's mind.

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SA Liberals keen to use parliament numbers

OTTAWA An apparent plan by the Ontario Liberals to turn their next budget into a month-long series of image-boosting announcements has been blown by a leak to the Progressive Conservatives of a preliminary schedule of the events.

Traditionally, budgets were kept rigidly secret until the finance minister got up to give a speech and revealed major new spending and taxes for the first time. That secrecy has lessened in recent years, with governments at all levels dripping out bits of their plans in advance to get maximum bang out of them. But even by that standard, the 39 events contained in the calendar released by the Tories, leading up to an anticlimactic presentation of the actual budget on May 1, would have been extraordinary.

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of drafting civil servants to do the Liberals campaigning for them through what he called a budget leaking team.

Until now, it had been kept secret, he said in the legislature. We did hear from whistleblowers within the civil service who are very concerned that you are now drafting Ontario public servants to do the work of the Ontario Liberal Party. Its not their job. They have a job to do but its not to be Liberal party staffers.

Wynne replied that of course the government has a communications plan to explain whats in the budget.

It is normal, when ministers make spending announcements, for civil servants to help organize their appearances and answer questions about government policy. Its just that those detailed announcements are supposed to come after the annual budget is released, not before.

The plan that fell into the Tories hands is not quite current: it includes details suggesting it was a draft prepared between March 4 and March 20. It includes the sketchiest possible entries about releasing a poverty-reduction report on Monday and an event touting consumer protection on Tuesday. Those events didnt happen; on the document, there are blanks where the details should be.

On the other hand, Finance Minister Charles Sousa is to deliver an in-depth analysis of Ontarios economic future Wednesday, right on schedule.

Where there are details, they describe some big spending. The biggest tickets are a $2-billion capital investment to support (1) school consolidations to reduce underused space and (2) repair and school maintenance, and a new $2.5B 10-year Jobs and Prosperity Fund to attract significant business investments.

The document also notes a $300-million plan to provide support to front-line public sector workers who deliver important services to most vulnerable and an investment of close to $730M over three years to address critical pressures and support long-term transformation of developmental services (and significantly reduce wait-lists).

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Reevely: Provincial Tories blow lid off Liberals budget plans

Jindal Calls on Liberals to Be Tolerant of All Americans #39; Religious Views
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) sits down with an exclusive interview with The Foundry #39;s Genevieve Wood.

By: The Heritage Foundation

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Jindal Calls on Liberals to Be Tolerant of All Americans' Religious Views - Video

Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals
John Buehrens questions the fundamentalist reading of the Bible, offering those with a liberal or progressive outlook ways to reclaim the Bible from literali...

By: Forum Network

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Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals - Video

The Ontario government is pushing ahead with a plan to put liquor kiosks in grocery stores, a bid to shake up the way alcohol is sold in the province and head off the champions of privatization ahead of a possible spring election.

The Liberals move also comes as the party casts about for any good news amid the gas-plant scandal, in which Premier Kathleen Wynne looks set for a legal showdown with Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and new revelations that the boyfriend of a Grit staffer was hired as an IT expert on the taxpayers dime.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa is expected to unveil a request for proposals Tuesday that will ask grocery stores to sign up to have an LCBO Express store placed in them, a government source said. The government will then select a handful of stores to receive the kiosks.

The tentative step toward liberalizing liquor sales does not go as far as Quebec, which has long allowed beer and wine to be sold in grocery and convenience stores.

Alberta has an entirely privatized liquor retail system and British Columbia, which has a hybrid model, is set to allow liquor in grocery stores in the near future.

The idea, first announced in 2012, follows several similar moves from the LCBO, which has in recent years put liquor stores adjacent to supermarkets. This, however, would be another step at mixing the government liquor monopoly with private retail. The kiosks will still be owned and run by the LCBO, but will occupy space in the middle of grocery stores.

Mr. Hudaks Tories have stirred the age-old privatization debate over the past year, putting out a policy paper that envisages selling off all or part of the LCBO. Proponents of privatization argue that introducing competition into the market would lead to more liquor stores, better selection and service. Alberta, for instance, has more than 1,100 liquor stores, only slightly fewer than the combined total of LCBOs and Beer Stores, in a province less than a third the size of Ontario. Unlike the LCBO, many of the prairie provinces liquor stores keep late hours.

The Liberals have repeatedly vowed not to privatize liquor sales in large part because of the money the LCBO funnels into government coffers.

With the Grits holding only a minority of seats in the legislature, they must secure the support of at least one other party to pass a budget and avoid a spring election. In the event of a vote, the promise of more accessible liquor may be a method to deflect the Tories privatization promises.

The kiosk announcement is also coming down unexpectedly after several days that saw Queens Park dominated by explosive developments in the gas-plant scandal. Last week, an unsealed police document revealed that investigators believe former premier Dalton McGuintys chief of staff brought in outside IT expert Peter Faist to wipe clean government computers.

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Liberals push forward with plan to sell liquor in grocery stores