Grievance Debate

Public Policy

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:31): I rise today to talk about policy, to talk about ideas and to talk about the battle of ideas. In this place, the Liberal Party and the Labor Party have been fighting each other for generations. We have tested our ideas and we have tested our policies, and we have received the expected scrutiny from our opponents. We have undertaken the same function on behalf of the Labor Party. When they put up their ideas, we scrutinise them, we find the holes, with the idea that through this debate we get better public policy. We have used the political debate to affirm what we believe in, and what we believe is the best way forward for our beautiful state. This process is not perfect. We as political parties are not perfect, but the degree of scrutiny that we apply to each other is high and, by and large, it works in the South Australian context.

In this election, though, there is a third party that is seeking to hold power and has talked about their desire to hold the balance of power. This statement, 'the desire to hold power', brings with it a greater level of obligation for scrutiny. Of course, I am talking about former Senator, current electoral part-time officer, Nick Xenophon, and his SA-Best team. The question that people should be asking, as we get towards the polls in March next year, is: what does Nick Xenophon stand for? And the answer is: nobody knows.

At the 2014 state election, the first and most important policy that the X-Team took to the state election was to support rate capping in South Australia to ease the burden of the cost of living. The flyer states:

…the Essential Services Commission needs more power to rein in the cost of utilities and be given power to make councils accountable for their rates and charges. Proposed increases must be limited to no more than CPI.

A couple of weeks ago, though, Nick Xenophon said that he no longer believes in lowering the cost of living. What he does believe in is the lobbying power of the Local Government Association. He stuck his finger up in the air, sniffed the political wind and changed direction. John Darley has revealed that, on discussions about the bank tax, initially Nick Xenophon was in favour of it. But having been convinced by John Darley to go the other way, what does he do? He sticks his finger in the political air and backflips.

There is no consistency there either, but the one thing that South Australians should be able to know about Nick Xenophon is that he is against pokies. When he first ran in 1997, his platform was as the No Pokies MLC, but six weeks ago on ABC radio when questioned by David Bevan, Nick Xenophon backflipped on that, too. He refused to say that he would even get rid of one poker machine if he held the balance of power post the next election, not one poker machine. If Nick Xenophon is no longer the No Pokies MLC, who is he? There is no way for South Australians to know what Nick Xenophon believes in because he refuses to stick to what he actually says.

He will go in one direction if he believes it is politically advantageous, he will honk on the brakes and he will turn around and go the other way. The only thing that South Australians can be confident of is that Nick Xenophon wants power. He wants to control South Australia. He cannot tell you why he wants power. He cannot tell you who he will support if he gets power. He cannot tell you what he would do if he gets power. What he can do is tell you that he wants it. He wants to supplant the rights of South Australian voters to make a decision on whom will form government at the next election and he wants everybody to leave it up to him. Well, that is simply not good enough. That is a recipe for chaos.

If South Australians want somebody who has a clear focus on the cost of living, they need to vote for their Liberal candidate. If they are voting in the seat of Hartley, they need to vote for Vincent Tarzia. That is the only way they are going to get relief on cost-of-living issues. If voters want somebody who is going to reduce their emergency services levy bill, they have to vote for their local Liberal candidate because, as Nick Xenophon said cryptically in a press conference, 'Our policy is a game of Whac-A-Mole.' I am not 100 per cent sure what that means, but I am fairly sure that Xenophon has just driven the analogy bus off the cliff.

The only way householders are going to get ESL relief is to vote for their local Liberal candidate. If people want somebody who is going to stay consistent and true to what they believe in, who is going to put policies up for scrutiny by their political opponents, who is going to deliver in government what they say they are going to do, then they have to vote Liberal in the next election, and that is what I urge all South Australians to do come March next year.