Grievance Debate

Finniss Electorate

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:35): Thank you, sir, and I hope it is interesting for you. I would like to talk about the four shows that were held in my electorate over the last four or five weeks, commencing with the Yankalilla Show on AFL Grand Final day.

I have to tell you, sir, the results from the Yankalilla Show were a bit better than the Crows produced on that day. It was interesting that an enormous crowd was in place, and they were in place early. It was a stunning day. The show was opened by Mr John Hutchinson, who is a local identity and a former shearer. We also had the presence of the leader, the member for Dunstan, and he spoke eloquently during the course of the opening ceremony. As with all four shows, a small group of people put these shows together to produce a great community event every year.

I will move on to the two-day Port Elliott show. Last year, the Port Elliott Show was washed out, which was a financial disaster and a disaster for the hardworking committee. However, this year we certainly had two great days, with enormous crowds. One little thing that was interesting on the first day was that we had a Liberal Party stand there, and three or four stands up was the Xenophon team stand, SA-Best, with their candidate for Finniss, who had been proudly announced in the paper that morning. Well, we got rid of him by 1 o'clock that day. I reckon that was a pretty good outcome.

The member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, was proudly introducing their candidate for the state election to everybody, all and sundry, handing out apples and all sorts of things. I left at 1 o'clock to go to the opening of the Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club. I got a text on the way over, and when I got there and looked at it I saw the candidate was gone, so that was the highlight of the day, really. The Port Elliott Show did go over two days. They do it particularly well. On the first day, they had dogs and all sorts of things performing on the oval, and on the second day they held horse events. It is a great show and one that I will miss, as I will the Yankalilla Show, in my capacity as the member for Finniss.

I also attended the 100^th show of the Kangaroo Island Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and it was a great day. They put an enormous amount of work into the show, and once again we had a stand there. It was interesting that SA-Best had a stand as well, with the candidate for Mawson, but she never really did much circulating. The member for Mawson tried to chiack the member for Bragg about people talking to her and what was going on. The member for Bragg said, 'Yes, of course, you were speaking to my aunty Val,' so I do not think he drew too many points there. That was also amusing, quite frankly. That show went on into the night, with a fireworks display. In 100 years of shows, given that there have been breaks particularly over the years during World War II, which was pretty common everywhere, they put on a superb effort and draw a big crowd.

Last Saturday, the 58^th Parndana Show was held in the centre of the island and they had the honour of having the Governor-General in attendance. He flew in from Canberra for the Remembrance Day ceremony and appeared at the show in the afternoon. Once again, Andy Gilfillan and I had a stand there on behalf of the Liberal Party which was very well received. The crowd out there was big. It was a pretty warm day. There were shearing competitions, dog jumping competitions, cricket on the oval and horses in action, so it was all in all a pretty wonderful occasion.

I am very pleased to say that the member for Bragg was also there on that occasion and, coming from the western end of the island, she was particularly welcome. I was pleased that I could introduce Mr Dean Stanton DFC to the Governor-General during the afternoon. He won his DFC for flying bombers over Europe during World War II and is the last of a vanishing breed. They were four good shows, not to be missed, and they were great community events in their own right.