Giles Electorate

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:47): I rise today to talk about a number of issues in my electorate. During my last grievance debate, I reflected on the very positive news not just in Whyalla but in the whole of the region and expressed my disappointment at the member for Bragg in relation to one of those very positive stories—namely, the green light for Carrapateena—when she decided to take in the metropolitan media a rather negative approach to what was seen by those of us in regional South Australia, especially in Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Whyalla and the surrounding communities, as a very positive announcement about the Carrapateena go-ahead from OZ Minerals.

There has been a lot of good news. There has been good news about Whyalla, but unfortunately BGC, the big Eyre mining contractor in the Middleback Ranges, went against the flow of that good news. It recently announced the loss of over 50 jobs in the Middleback Ranges, just outside Whyalla. That will have an impact coming on top of the other job losses that occurred in the lead-up to administration.

The only plus with the job losses at this stage is that in the overall region there is now a very significant demand for labour, especially skilled labour. Some of the companies I have been speaking to are finding it difficult to secure boilermakers and welders, which just gets back to the need for continuity when it comes to training and vocational education. I am sure though that, given the list of projects that are in the pipeline, things will move in a very positive direction.

I would like to reflect upon something else that has recently occurred. One of our great wishes, and I think it is the great wish of both sides of this chamber, is to see the establishment of permanent dialysis in the APY lands. We are getting close to that at Pukatja (Ernabella). We are getting closer, step by step.

On the weekend, there was a major art auction of Aboriginal works in Adelaide. When I was in the APY lands a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of seeing two major works that were put up for auction yesterday, and they were major works that were incredibly impressive. They were at the Amata Art Centre. They represented, if you like, collective art: a number of artists contributed to these two major works. In addition to those two major works that were auctioned on the weekend, works from all seven of the art centres in the APY lands were also auctioned and they included not only visual arts but also ceramics and other expressions of artistic endeavour. It was good to see all seven art centres involved, plus communities from throughout Australia making contributions as well.

The money raised at that auction will go towards the first year of recurrent expenses at the Pukatja dialysis centre. Just under $170,000 was raised at the auction, which is an incredibly impressive effort. I am sure it will end up going significantly over the $170,000 because one work of art was passed in because it did not meet the reserve, but they are very confident that that piece of art will sell.

In the second year of operation, the state government may come in and pick up the recurrent expenses associated with the dialysis centre, which will be run by Purple House, which has a fantastic record in the Northern Territory and Western Australia when it comes to running a remote dialysis. The state government is possibly going to pick up in that second year, but there is a national discussion going on at the moment to see if these remote dialysis units could come under Medicare. That would actually be a good model.

Time expired.