Flinders Electorate

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:39): I rise today to speak on a couple of issues that have taken up a great deal of my time as the member for Flinders—issues that have been concerning my local community. They are issues that, probably, in the grand scheme of things, do not seem particularly important but they have become critical to my constituency and, as a consequence, I have had much correspondence on these two issues and, as I said, it has taken up a lot of my time.

The first of these issues has already been discussed today and that is the issue of time zones. I was very pleased today that the Minister for Trade and Investment announced to the parliament that the draft bill regarding the state's time zone will not be proceeding. I believe that this is a victory for common sense and I certainly believe that this is a victory for the people of South Australia: 86 per cent of all respondents to the consultation process opposed a move to Eastern Standard Time. Of those 86 per cent, it was around fifty-fifty as to those who wanted the time zone to remain as it is or those who wanted to move half an hour back in time and be closer to what I would call true Central Standard Time.

Interestingly, when the former member for Flinders had a private member's bill way back in 2005 proposing a move to half an hour to the west, at that time the member for Waite supported that particular bill, although the bill did not get up. It was decided that it was a conscience vote, but it was interesting to see the support from the member for Waite at that time.

Most of the people, almost to a person, who I spoke with regarding this understood that this was a distraction by the government from the real issues of the state, and I have to say that it was a distraction and it worked very well. It has taken, as I said, a lot of my time over the last few months and indeed a lot of time for a lot of people.

I suggest that there are other issues that are far more important than this and I am pleased that the issue has been resolved for the time being at least, and hopefully finally. But of course, just today we have seen that our state's unemployment rate sits still at a very high 8.1 per cent. The nature of the state's economy should be a priority for the government, not messing about on the fringes with distractions. So I thank the minister for withdrawing this particular bill.

The minister alluded to the fact that solutions would be developed for those people who lived in the west of the state. I cannot see that that would be possible with a change to Eastern Standard Time because it would invariably result in those who live in the west being disaffected from the rest of South Australia.

The other thing I want to talk about today which, once again, has taken a lot of my time, is the issue of open road speed limits. I note that the Minister for Road Safety is here and I would thank him for his visit to Flinders recently and also the presentation that he and his departmental people made—

The Hon. A. Piccolo: Part presentation.

Mr TRELOAR: Part presentation, I will get to that, minister—to the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association—and it was a part presentation. The presentation was not completed. The EPLGA has agreed to invite the minister back—and the minister has accepted—to finish the presentation. I would have to say, and I am sure the minister would agree, that it was a fairly cool reception to the proposal that open road speed limits may be reduced from 110 km/h to 100 km/h.

I would urge the minister not to do this in the west of the state. It is Eyre Peninsula: distances are vast, populations are sparse. I understand, of course, that speed limits have been reduced in the nearer areas, but we are not Yorke Peninsula, we are not the Fleurieu, we are not the Adelaide Hills, we are not even the Gilbert or Clare Valleys, we are Eyre Peninsula. As I said, we drive a long way every single day and we would much prefer, minister, to be able to drive those distances at 110 km/h.

The Hon. A. Piccolo: I would prefer to keep people alive.

Mr TRELOAR: We cannot argue about road safety ever and I am not arguing against that but there are a whole number of reasons for accidents on the road: fatigue, drugs, alcohol, inattention—

The Hon. A. Piccolo: Speed.

Mr TRELOAR: Speed is sometimes a factor certainly, but the most important thing that drivers can ever do is drive to the conditions, and I believe that what we need to do is encourage good driver training, responsible driving and driving to the conditions.