Bills

Supply Bill 2016

Supply Grievances

Debate resumed.

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (17:24): Thank you for the opportunity to talk on the grievance debate for the Supply Bill. I am proud to represent my electorate in the northern suburbs, close to yours, Deputy Speaker. It is the electorate that I grew up in, I went to school there, and I have spoken many times in this place about my relationship with Holden and my family's relationship with Holden, and the fact that all of us who grew up in Elizabeth grew up basically in the shadow of that factory. So it is no surprise that I am standing here talking a little about Holden and the impact of the decline of the automotive sector on my community.

I want to concentrate again on some of the positive aspects that have grown out of this as a direct result of government policy, but also as a result of the resilience of the local community. The northern suburbs area—and for the purposes of this exercise, I will define it broadly as the councils of Playford, Salisbury and Port Adelaide Enfield—is a significant contributor to our economy in this state. It accounts for about 16.5 per cent of gross state product, and it has been identified as the state's major urban growth area for both population and jobs into the future.

But as we all know and, again, I have spoken about this many times, it does face particular challenges. The traditional jobs and heavy manufacturing and, in particular, the automotive sector have fallen away or are falling away, and many people, particularly local workers, and particularly men approaching retirement age, are asking what is next for them and for their community in the face of this challenge new economic landscape.

I have said before, and I will say it again, that my priority while I am in this place is to get local people into jobs, or back into jobs, or continuing in jobs, in meaningful jobs and training which will set them up and set their families up for the future. That is why I am proud to be part of and to support the government's Northern Economic Plan. This is a plan which not only identifies areas of potential growth but also significantly commits resources to helping business and workers in the transition and training for the emerging opportunities in the north.

The Northern Economic Plan, which was announced by the Premier and minister Maher in January, after consultation with local workers and business, and in close liaison with those three local governments, is a plan for a prosperous northern suburbs. It is focused squarely on creating jobs and it is focused on supporting the northern suburbs communities. Under this plan, business, workers and federal, state and local governments have committed to working together on projects which will help to absorb the losses caused by the end of automotive manufacturing among other things, and to sustainably transform the employment base in the northern suburbs in the coming years and decades.

It is a plan which is built on the existing economic fundamentals in the north because, despite the decline of traditional manufacturing, there are still compelling reasons to do business in the north. I spoke before about the resilience of the community and the resilience of the workforce itself, and the latent skills in the workforce largely as a result of the automotive sector, but not only as a result of the automotive sector. There are skills which can be transitioned, and the Northern Economic Plan and minister Maher and the Premier, in particular, are working hard on transitioning those workers to the new opportunities.

The northern suburbs are also, as you well know, Deputy Speaker, well serviced by transport facilities: by roads, by railways, by ports and by a working airport. There is land available, and there is plenty of space and opportunities for businesses to cluster and to forge their own economies of scale. There is also good community infrastructure. When you combine this, of course, with the overarching low exchange rate, the stable wages, and the state government's commitments to reducing costs for small business, the northern suburbs, I believe, are full of opportunities.

Within the Northern Economic Plan there are strategic directions focused on industry growth, thriving communities and responsive government. Within those directions, the plan identifies the economic sectors of the future, and it identifies them as tourism, recreation and culture; mining, equipment and technology; defence; agriculture, food and beverages; health, ageing and disability; and construction and urban renewal. It is the last of these is where I do have a particular interest and a commitment to supporting local jobs in these projects.

Late last year, the Premier tasked me with the job of ensuring that certain job targets on the Northern Connector road project are realised. The Northern Connector project is an enormous investment in the north by the commonwealth and state governments. It is almost $1 billion over the next three years. It is absolutely essential that we capitalise on this investment by ensuring local people and local contractors are the ones who build it and, therefore, support the economy in the north.

It is my job to ensure that at least half of these 480 jobs a year, which will be supported by this project, go to people who live in the northern suburbs, from the Playford, Salisbury and Port Adelaide Enfield council districts. The Northern Connector project is currently in a kind of holding pattern, as the final tenders are assessed before the successful contractor is announced later this month or early next.

Work has already begun on the early works at the intersection of Bolivar Road and Kings Road in Paralowie, which has long been a black spot in that area. This $3 million project has been awarded to BMD Group, and it involves the installation of a roundabout at the intersection of those two roads as well as a significant realignment of those two roads. It has been widely commented on in the community, but I think largely accepted by local road users. I think something like 30,000 motorists use it each week. When the work is done, this intersection will not only be far safer but it will also ultimately feed into the Northern Connector at the proposed Bolívar Road interchange.

As I have said in this place before, one of the great things about this upgrade is the on-site live training programs for disadvantaged jobseekers. I met with some of those jobseekers, and I can attest to the fact that this is a great opportunity and an opportunity which will continue along the life of the Northern Connector project. I believe the first batch of those trainees will be graduating very soon. It is the government's hope and intention that these on-site live training facilities will be a permanent fixture along the Northern Connector worksite and of course on all major infrastructure worksites in the future.

The Northern Connector is also subject to the South Australian Industry Participation Policy, which means in short that all tenderers are required to submit a participation plan, which includes the requirement that a minimum of 20 per cent of the total labour hours is to be carried out by apprentices and trainees, Aboriginal workers, and people facing barriers to employment. I have met many times in the last several months with the industry advocate and his office and I am very confident that these targets will be achieved.

In closing, I just want to say that I am working very hard to ensure that projects like the Northern Connector and other infrastructure projects, which come up in the north—and I will be pushing for more of those, obviously—support jobs for local people and support the local economy in the northern suburbs.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Flinders.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (17:32): I will just grab a couple of minutes to deliver part 3 of—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Part 3; so it's a trilogy?

Mr TRELOAR: —my Supply Bill debate in the form of a grievance. I finished off talking about the desperate need for investment into the Port Lincoln High School and the temporary classrooms that were placed there more than 40 years ago and that remain very much as temporary classrooms. They are not air conditioned, I might add. I urge the Minister for Education to consider that application, which I know she will see in the next budget round. She has seen it before; it has not been successful. It is difficult to pick favourites, of course, but I do believe that as our largest high school on the Eyre Peninsula it deserves some investment in its campus.

Infrastructure, of course, remains a big ticket item and it is much required. It is the enabling infrastructure that our leader often talks about is so necessary for an economy to keep growing and generating the wealth that is required in South Australia. We talk about roads, rail and ports. I know there is an amount of state funding going into the Tod Highway. As members here would know, I have petitioned and spoken many times about the need for an upgrade on the Tod Highway. It would seem that, with a combination of the state and, more significantly, federal funding, that is finally going to happen. I believe the work is going to start quite soon, maybe even this month, so I am pleased to report that to the parliament.

The rail line, which is much diminished from what was, serves the wheat towns up through the middle and the east of Eyre Peninsula. I have to suggest that it is in a serious state of decline. Money was spent some years ago on the stretch between Cummins and Port Lincoln, but anything north of that remains delicately poised. Certainly the train is still carrying grain, but the trains are running particularly slowly. I think these transport corridors and these big infrastructure needs need to be part of the government's thinking going forward.

We have talked a lot about potential port development on the west coast of Spencer Gulf or the east coast of Eyre Peninsula. The latest one to float to the top is Cape Hardy. Of course, most recently there was an announcement by Iron Road and Emerald Grain jointly that they had gone into a joint partnership venture to perhaps invest in a port development at Cape Hardy. It is a classic case of build it and they will come, otherwise known as a chicken and egg scenario, because without a product there is no real need to develop a port and, without a port, there is no capacity at all to develop a product from a mine or whatever else.

It will be interesting to see how that unfolds. There was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Iron Road and a Chinese company in the last couple of weeks, so that sort of progresses Iron Road towards mine approval which, according to the Treasurer's statement this week in the parliament, is hopefully within the next 12 months or so. Ultimately, it is going to be funding which will dictate whether that project goes ahead. There is certainly a big deposit: some four billion tonnes of magnetite. Of course, that deposit is not going to go away at all, but the world markets and the availability of investment finance will determine whether that goes ahead or not.

Before I leave the subject of ports, I might go back to the Port of Thevenard, which is already in existence and has been for the last 150 years probably. It is the second busiest port in South Australia, exporting grain, salt, gypsum and of course mineral sands. I cannot get over the lack of investment into some of these infrastructures. The wharf there is quite rusty. It is still used. Two and a half ships a week come in and out. It is a busy place and it looks decrepit, sadly. Once again, it is so important that both state and federal governments consider investment into enabling infrastructure. This is existing infrastructure that is so vital to local industries.

I might touch on some big ticket items that I have noted this state government has spent money on over the last few years, which ultimately is going to take us towards a peak debt of about $13.5 billion sometime in the near future. Of course, that matches the famous State Bank collapse and the debt of 1993. The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is coming in at about $2.3 billion at the moment. It has become known that it is the third most expensive building ever built in the world, which is extraordinary.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do we know the other two?

Mr TRELOAR: We do know the other two. I do not know—one is a palace somewhere in eastern Europe and I think the other is a skyscraper somewhere in the Middle East, so we are coming in third. It is quite extraordinary that a small city like Adelaide can justify building the third most expensive building in the world, without floors that are even able to hold filing cabinets—extraordinary.

The desal plant, coming in at about $2 billion. I understand it is still not being utilised much. That is not to say it won't be in the future, but at the moment it is not required. Of course, famously, the government decided to build one twice as large as what the opposition at the time suggested. The North-South corridor, $500 million. The O-Bahn tunnel, $160 million. Adelaide Oval, $535 million, which has proved popular amongst football fans in particular. We are having home AFL games in the city now, which is a wonderful thing. I have actually been to one of those games. But, of course, we had to sell the forests to fund it.

The River Torrens footbridge, $40 million, and there are other extraordinarily large expenditures. For the most part, it is all borrowed money, and herein lies the problem. After 14 years of Labor rule—in fact, by the time we get to 2018, I did some rough calculations and I think, out of the five decades between 1968 and 2018, the Labor Party will have ruled in this state for 34 years out of 50, or more than two-thirds of the time. Ultimately, this government and the Labor Party more generally has to take some responsibility for the fact that we are on the bottom of almost every economic indicator compared with other states in this great country.

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (17:40): I rise today to speak about three recent initiatives in our southern community. These are three very important events. The first that I wanted to speak about are the City of Onkaparinga Youth Recognition Awards that were held last weekend as part of the Regeneration Festival, which was also part of National Youth Week, which is celebrated right around the country and recognises the contribution of young people in communities right across Australia.

The Regeneration Festival, which was held at Seaford Quarry Reserve, which I attended with Chris Picton, the member for Kaurna, was a fantastic event. There were many things happening at this event. There was a skating and BMX competition, there were bands, there were hip-hop artists, there were DJs, art exhibitions, campaigns around respectful relationships and all sorts of performances.

One of the highlights of the festival that occurred just before the Youth Recognition Awards was a performance by local Aboriginal man Allan Sumner. Allan Sumner gave a beautiful Welcome to Country at the event, and also played his didjeridu but, really importantly, led the community in a smoking ceremony. The really lovely thing about this particular smoking ceremony—it is always lovely—is he actually took what he was using all around the event and talked to a whole lot of young people about it. He was ably assisted by two very fine young men I know who live in the south, Brode and Sam Foscaro. He took this around and really had a chance to speak with the young people about what it meant to Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri people and, indeed, Aboriginal people around the country.

Following that, we had a range of fantastic young people who live in the south recognised through our Youth Recognition Awards. All of these young people were recognised for different categories of work, including their work in our communities, in their school, with family and friends and for family and friends, and also at a personal level.

The thing that struck me about all of the award recipients is that they had all, I guess, gone through a personal journey where they had made a very strong decision to act differently, to give to their community, to lead and to go through a personal transformation themselves. There were all sorts of different young people who were recognised for different things. There were some from surf lifesaving and various sporting clubs. Some had taken on caring responsibilities in their family, but every single one of those winners was very much deserving of their award. It was really great to see our young people recognised in the way that they were.

I just want to say congratulations to all of those award winners, and also say thank you to all of the City of Onkaparinga staff who put the day on, particularly Tyson Brown, Craig Cooper and a number of others. Really importantly, I want to acknowledge the dozens and dozens of young people who acted as volunteers on the day, who convened the awards and helped in so many ways to make the day a success. It was lovely to see young people's efforts recognised in the way they should be.

The second thing I want to mention, that I attended last Friday, was the fortnightly community breakfast at the Woodcroft Morphett Vale Neighbourhood Centre. The Woodcroft Morphett Vale Neighbourhood Centre, like all community centres, does many things to bring people in our community together.

At this centre, which is connected to the Woodcroft Library, they have tuition on a range of things for newcomers to our community. They have homework clubs that run there. They have children's programs and walking groups that leave from there.

As I said, every second Friday they have a community breakfast where literally dozens and dozens of community members come together to eat breakfast but also to connect with one another. When I was there last Friday, I had so many great conversations with people, and every one of those conversations was a story about why they had come along and about the people they had met and the connections they had made.

I had a really lovely conversation with two women who had actually, through their connection at the Woodcroft Morphett Vale Neighbourhood Centre community breakfast, managed to match-make their grandson and granddaughter. We are very much looking forward to hopefully an impending wedding in the future. So, those breakfasts are on the second and fourth Friday of the month at the Woodcroft Morphett Vale Neighbourhood Centre, and they are a great way to bring our community together.

The third thing I wanted to speak about today, which is something that both the member for Kaurna and I went through together, is our participation recently and achievement of our surf lifesaving Bronze Medallion. Surf lifesaving has a very special place in my heart. Surf lifesaving is something that I became engaged with from about the age of three when my brother started in the nippers at West Beach Surf Life Saving Club at the age of seven. One of my sisters and I competed in surf lifesaving before girls were officially allowed to compete.

The member for Colton, Paul Caica, was actually our running coach at one point in time at West Beach Surf Life Saving Club. He had much more success with my brother than he did with me, but he was a fine coach. I wanted to mention his efforts, because lifesaving clubs right across our community are absolutely fuelled by people like the member for Colton, who are there to look after kids, to support them and to see them do their very best. I know that for me, when things were quite difficult, it was leaders in those clubs who were there to create a really great sense of community and family and to be there to look out for you and after you and to make you feel included and supported and, as I said, to see you do your very best.

As I said, they certainly had their work cut out in seeing me do my very best in an athletic sense. I did do a number of surf certificates, etc., when I was younger and studied towards my Bronze Medallion then, but it was my great pleasure to work with my current lifesaving club, the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club, which I have been a member of in a social and volunteering capacity for a number of years in my adult life, and to actually be supported by them to achieve my Bronze Medallion. At the same time, the member for Kaurna was working with his lifesaving club, Moana Surf Life Saving Club, to achieve his Bronze Medallion.

I just wanted to put on record my absolute thanks to my two trainers at my lifesaving club, Julie Locker and Richard Nurmi; to my training partners, Belinda Uppill and Lindsay Martin; and also Chloe Amos. They were absolutely supportive of my efforts during the course of our Bronze Medallion. For anybody who has done it, and I know there are other members in the house, including the member for Bright, who have completed their Bronze Medallion, it is quite an exercise to go through, particularly for somebody like myself who is really not as fit as they should be. There was a great deal of support from my training partners and my absolutely fantastic trainers at the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club, who I was very lucky to have.

We came to the day of actually doing our Bronze Medallion, and it was quite an experience being assessed for that medallion. Personally, I had to end up doing the run-swim-run component of the Bronze Medallion twice so that I could actually get faster on the second occasion. I literally thought that on that second swim I was going to die. I was crying and screaming underwater. It is very lucky no-one could hear my distress, and somehow I made it through. I am not quite sure how, but I actually managed to somehow get back on the beach without needing lifesaving, first aid and resuscitation treatment myself and was really proud to be successful in regaining my Bronze Medallion in adult life.

As I said, I just wanted to say thank you to my trainers and my wonderful friends who are my training partners, but also to Nat Hincksman who was our assessor that day and who really helped me get through that second swim. I also wanted to mention Surf Sisters. I was very proud last year to become the patron of Surf Sisters, which is an organisation that has been formed to celebrate 35 years of women officially being in Surf Life Saving, and to really support women to become more involved in Surf Life Saving at all levels, including on club boards, official positions, and at a competition level as well.

I must say that every one of the Surf Sisters, particularly Sita Bacher and Clare Harris at Surf House, coached me and mentored me through that process as well. It was a really great experience to have their support, and I am really looking forward to continuing to be their patron and to supporting the activities of all women of Surf Life Saving into the future.

Third Reading

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (17:49): Thank you, everybody. I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

Sitting extended beyond 18:00 on motion of Hon. J.R. Rau.