Grievance Debate

Light Electorate

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:59): I rise today to speak about a number of issues that are pertinent to the people just below my electorate in and around the Gawler region and about some of the commentary that has been made in relation to a number of issues that we see as being extremely important for the Gawler area. In doing so, I want to point out that we have been in opposition for 16 years and we know what that means. The government has been the government for 16 years, and they should know what that means.

There is a difference between being in government, being part of the executive, and being in opposition. The idea is that as a member of the government your party can actually achieve for people in your electorate. You are part of the government and that is the basis on which you can achieve, but the member for Light seems to forget that his party is in government whenever it is convenient for him to do so. He does it when he does not deliver for his electorate, which happens, sadly, on too regular an occasion.

We talk about the Gawler East link road where we have received an inferior outcome where the state government, instead of having the foresight to extend the Gawler East link road out to Tiver Road, takes the secondary option of only taking it around to Potts Road and the issues that that is going to create around the southern end of Gawler, especially around the drop-off and pickup times at Trinity College, which, as I understand it, is the largest school in the Southern Hemisphere.

We move on to Dalkeith Road, an intersection that has been notorious for a number of years but interestingly, the member for Light only becomes interested after local candidate Karen McColl and I actually start to get interested in the issue. In fact, it went from being nowhere, an issue that was not on the radar and after our first letter we actually did receive a positive response, saying, 'Hang on, we'll actually now do it in the next couple of years.'

After pressing into the media and saying, 'Thank you for that advancement, DPTI,'—in response to our letter—'but we think this should be a higher priority', it then comes down that it is going to be 12 months. The candidate for the Liberal Party, Karen McColl, was able to achieve in a number of months what the member for Light was not able to achieve even though he is the member of the government. It went from being nowhere to two years to one year. That is what decent advocacy can bring you.

The electrification of the Gawler rail line is an absolute farce and has cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in wasted money so far. What has the member for Light delivered? He has delivered a system that will eventually get to Salisbury. That is not good enough for the people of Gawler. That is not good enough for the people who live in the electorate of Light and once again, the current member for Light has not delivered.

We move on to the project that frustrates me most, which is around the Tulloch Road intersection. The local paper, The Bunyip, a brilliant advocate for everything Gawler which seeks to get the truth out there to the people of Gawler, quotes the member for Light, who says that he has been advocating on this issue but unfortunately the council and the state government did not listen at that time.

I do not know if someone needs to remind the member for Light that he is a member of the government. In fact, he sat around the cabinet table for three years. I do not understand how much more power this government needs to have in its hands, but this is where things can get done. Unfortunately, what the member for Light likes to do is to pretend that he is somehow an opposition member, that somehow his party is not in power because time and time again he does not deliver for the people of Gawler.

What does the member for Light choose instead to focus his time on? He chooses to spend his time on fixing the Middle East peace crisis. What is more important—actually delivering for your electorate, the people who elected you into parliament, or trying to fix an intractable problem on the other side of the world? He stood up and lobbied and pushed for such a long time in relation to the Palestine motion and it got up. Brilliant. What practical effect has it had for the people of Gawler? None. What practical effect has it had for the people of Palestine? None.

He also comes into this place and makes some utterly absurd comments in relation to female genital mutilation that were just absolutely weird. These are the issues he chooses to focus on—Palestine and female genital mutilation—instead of actually getting on and delivering the road projects and infrastructure projects that the people of his electorate actually call on him to deliver. It is something that he will stand condemned for, and in March next year the people of Gawler and the people of Light will be able to make their determination on his performance.