Country Cabinet

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:27): I would like to make a few points today about the recent country cabinet visit to my electorate. I welcome country cabinet regional visits. It is always good to get government ministers out and about to see what is going on. They visited Kangaroo Island, Victor Harbor and Yankalilla. I may start at the end and work back to the front.

The people of Yankalilla were somewhat perplexed that the cabinet was there. They were highly amused and bemused at some of the antics that went on in what was a deliberate pork-barrelling exercise. I was not amused. The Premier, the Minister for Education and the Minister for Tourism went to the Yankalilla Area School. On their sign out the front, the Yankalilla school welcomed the Premier and the Minister for Education, but they were instructed to put Leon Bignell down as the member for Mawson, rather than as the minister. It was a deliberate tactic that did not go down well. I might add that I was not invited to that function where they handed out money to the school, which I gratefully accepted.

Victor Harbor was another case of an interesting exercise, where the ministers ran around the town. I went to the high school with the Minister for Education, which was a congenial type of visit. I do not have any argument with the Minister for Education but, once again, the session in the rec centre was rather entertaining. It was quite clear that the Labor Party had organised people to ask questions. The first two or three questions came straight from local Labor Party identities. No-one else got a look-in. If you think I am cynical on that lot—yes.

But the one that really took the cake was the visit to Kangaroo Island where they descended en masse—46 vehicles that I know of came over on the boat, including ministerial limousines and drivers everywhere, and 46 of them went back on one boat. The cost to the taxpayer of that particular trip across the water and back would have been around $15,000 on its own. Of course, Kangaroo Island residents just love to see shiny chauffeur-driven limos driving around on their rough roads. I do not think they went on the rough roads, but enough of that. I am getting even more cynical. It was a great pork-barrelling exercise.

They had a function on Sunday night in the Town Hall that was well attended. I might add that most of the functions they held were half-full of bureaucrats, hangers-on and government agents but, be that as it may, they held them. Afterwards, there was a business dinner for investors. They had potential investors and already committed investors into various projects on the island and they had the full board and hangers-on of KI Plantation Timbers. They invited them along, but they did not invite anyone from Yumbah Aquaculture. They did not think they were investors. They have only invested $30 million, I might add, and they want to make further investment, but they did not invite anyone from there. It was a complete set-up.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the government's agents, the KI commissioner and a few other hangers-on over there sorted out who was going and who was not going. What they did not pay any attention to was the infrastructure on the island. To the best of my knowledge, they did not discuss in any way, shape or form the SWER lines out at the west end of the island, which are severely rundown and degraded. They did not discuss at any time the critical water situation. The minister in another place today failed to tell the house what was going to happen in this dry year if the Middle River dam does not fill up, because you are not going to have golf courses or developments without water. That was a really critical thing that happened there today.

They did not want to talk about the BJ Jarrad creditors who have never been paid. They did not want to talk about the NBS contractors on the airport project who have not been paid. They wanted to put out all the good spin, but they did not want to talk about the bad spin. I think what we have here is a version of SA Inc. and they have actually turned it into more of a KI Inc. on Kangaroo Island. It is KI Inc. with those who support the government and get into political bed with the government and do the government's bidding and the rest of them can just run around.

Interestingly, on Saturday the member for Mawson, the Minister for Tourism, went to two games of football and I had local people ringing me up saying, 'What is that fool of a man doing out here? We don't want to see him.' That was another interesting point. You might want to refer to minister Hunter in another place, who had quite a bit more to say about it yesterday and said that the member for Mawson was mobbed. I can assure you that he was not mobbed when he was on Kangaroo Island. He was not mobbed at all. It is all interesting in the lead-up to the election.

Time expired.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Unfortunately, member for Finniss, we are going to have to wait for another instalment to finish off an exciting report.