Adjournment Debate

Mayo Electorate

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:52): I would like to take the opportunity this afternoon to pick up on a couple of subjects. The first one is that clearly at this juncture we do not know who is going to be in federal government in Australia and that it could take days if not weeks to sort out. However, I would like to refer to the electorate of Mayo where Jamie Briggs has been defeated and Rebekha Sharkie has been elected. I congratulate Rebekha Sharkie on her election to the seat of Mayo.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: If I could have the floor, ma'am. I congratulate Rebekha Sharkie on her election to the seat of Mayo and no doubt we will see what unfolds over the next three years or so. It is going to be interesting to see what happens with the Nick Xenophon Team and just how they perform, whether they stick together or implode or whatever may happen.

In relation to Rebekha Sharkie, she has made a number of commitments during the course of the election campaign which I am going to push her on to make sure that she achieves. If Rebekha Sharkie, as the member for Mayo, is in a position where she can actually do something—and I say 'if'—then she has a lot of pressure on her because the electorate of Mayo has spoken, and the electorate of Mayo may well speak again if things do not come into place.

Let me say that during the election campaign Rebekha Sharkie said that she would match the $500,000 promised by Mr Briggs and the federal Coalition towards the RSL at Victor Harbor. Unless she is on the government benches, she is going to have no hope and she has made that commitment. She had a photo appear in The Times of her surrounded by people in Victor Harbor. The headline was basically to the effect that Sharkie commits to the same funding regime as the former member, so she has left herself open there, and if she wants to discuss any of these matters with me, I will be pleased to discuss them.

The second thing she raised, in no particular order, was the issue of the Adelaide to Victor Harbor road, when she pledged to get that upgraded as well. I am delighted about that because I have been pressing for that for the last 10 years. If she would like to discuss that with me, she can and I will be raising it in due course. In three years, if she has not delivered that upgrade to the Adelaide to Victor Harbor road, she will be reminded.

Thirdly, she has committed, quite naively, I believe, to stopping oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight to appease a group of radical lefties on Kangaroo Island—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do such people exist on Kangaroo Island?

Mr PENGILLY: —who seem to think that the world is going to end if they explore for oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight. It is worth putting on the record in this chamber that the government side and the Liberal side of the house both support oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight, no more than the Treasurer. I am making a few other inquiries about that, I might add, as well.

I heard the Mayor of Kangaroo Island on the radio today gesticulating about his inner knowledge of the oil and gas exploration industry. I went on briefly and just reminded the radio station that the mayor would have had about as much knowledge about it as I have and that NOPSEMA are the appropriate authority. We will see whether Ms Sharkie and the Xenophon team can stop oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight. I think not. Interestingly enough, there were people handing out how-to-vote cards for Ms Sharkie on Saturday at the booth I was at who were closely aligned with the Greens and the left side of politics.

I am delighted about this next issue because the new member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, has said that she is going to pick up and sort out the transport link between Kangaroo Island and the mainland across the sea passage. If I have not been pushing for that for 10 years and many years before that, I do not know what I have been doing. I would have to say, and I put on the record, that Mr Briggs and I had quite divergent views on this: he did not want to know about it and I wanted to know all about it; he would not discuss it and I would. Anyway, that is politics and that is history.

However, I am delighted now that the new federal member for Mayo, Ms Sharkie, has said that she is interested in fixing it, so I challenge her to pick up the Watergap Project, to work on the federal aspect of that and do something about the sea journey between Kangaroo Island and the mainland. I will be absolutely delighted if she can actually achieve a fix of that particular issue. She will be a hero not only to me but to people on Kangaroo Island as well. I am going to hold her to it and make sure that she does do it because she said she will.

Changing tack, I would like to raise the issue of the Kangaroo Island airport. I am absolutely horrified and, after nearly two hours of having witnesses at the Public Works Committee—unfortunately, that is not going to get to the parliament this week—I have to raise what occurred last Thursday. Mr Whelan and Mr Hogben from DPTI are now part of a board of control with the CEO of Kangaroo Island Council, Mr Boardman.

Mr Boardman, when questioned at length by me, could not answer what is going to happen when the airport runway is closed for upgrading. He put on the record that the main runway on Kangaroo Island will be closed for up to six to eight weeks to large aircraft and to the Rex service that comes in. There are a few other matters that I can talk about later but, in essence, what is happening is that he had no answers. He could not answer. He had no fallback position. This is a real failing of what has happened with this whole project.

There has been no section 41 committee of the council overseeing it as elected members. It has all been done by the CEO in a secret squirrel move and he has completely forgotten about what is going to happen when Rex cannot land. They will not land on dirt strips. February/March is the period he is talking about, which happens to be almost peak tourist season. February is the KI Cup, when we have 3,000 or 4,000 people at the KI races and Cup Carnival. He said that small aircraft can do it. I am sorry, but they cannot.

On top of that, Regional Express has been treated extremely badly. I put on the record here my absolute disgust with this project's matter-of-fact plan that does not include having the ability for Regional Express to come in during that proposed six to eight-week closure. He said it, not me. This will really impact on residents. It will impact on people who need to go back and forward for health treatments. It will impact on public servants who move back and forward quite regularly. It will impact on me, for sure, but it will impact dramatically on the tourism industry.

There is no point in the Minister for Tourism and the Deputy Premier standing up and puffing and blowing about what they are doing for Kangaroo Island when the main runway is going to be closed for six to eight weeks. It is lunacy. There is only one option for this—that is, seal another runway to ensure that Regional Express continues to operate during the time when the runway is closed. That is the only option. I know it has to be closed, and I have said that in committee. I do not know where the funding can come from.

You can probably kiss goodbye to any more federal funding. The former member for Mayo got $9 million and the state is putting in $9 million. The council has stuffed it up completely. They may well have to find the money to seal the other runway while the main runway is upgraded and lengthened. It is not an option to have it closed. It is an absolute disgrace. The council have failed dismally to oversee this project. They have been howled down, I suspect, by the CEO, who seems to think that he knows everything and that no-one else knows anything. This is an abject failure.

I am delighted that DPTI are now the project managers in control of it with the overall say. It is the only way it could go. It is going to be watched very closely by me. What has to happen, I repeat, is that the other runway has to be sealed to accommodate Regional Express during the time that the main runway is being lengthened and upgraded. It is pure, simple common sense.