Grievance Debate

State Liberal Government

Mr KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (17:10): Governments begin to die the day they are born, and this government has shown, I think, a propensity early on to have signs of not, perhaps, keeping the words that it said it was going to keep.

But before I go any further, sir, congratulations on your election—a worthy recipient of such a high honour, and may I say, also, a well-fought campaign on your behalf. I congratulate all members who have been re-elected to the house and remember those fallen comrades who are unable to be here with us again, and I pay tribute to our former premier for his distinguished service in this parliament over the last 16 years and his six years as premier.

The current Premier released a series of objectives to have completed within his first 100 days. Time did not allow for us to completely quiz ministers on a number of those issues, but it seems to me pretty obvious that the government is not meeting its own deadlines, and the important thing to remember here is that these are not deadlines that the media has set, these are not deadlines that the opposition has set: these are deadlines that the government has imposed on itself, yet it has been unable to meet its own deadlines.

You have to say one or two, okay, but we are talking of a success rate in the low 20s. So I would say to the younger members who have recently entered the parliament, who are coming from other careers and who have come to the realisation that the worst job in the world is that of a government backbencher—unable to speak out, unable to act, unable to criticise, unable to blame anyone else for the woes that beset them—and that the people who are causing them grief are the ones sitting in front of them, that the ones sitting in front of them have had a very poor start in their first 30 days.

If I were a young, eager backbencher I would be thinking to myself, 'I could do that. I'd be pretty good at that.' There are former mayors, former police officers, there are former professionals. We have seen people of ability sitting on the backbench—or some—who are now watching ministers fumbling their way through question time, not turning up to public meetings, and they would be asking themselves, 'Where was the Minister for Police when that meeting was going on in the southern suburbs? Why wasn't he there? Why didn't he turn up and just simply listen to the concerns of the community? How hard can it be?'

I bet you that the member for Waite would have thought, 'Gee, I'm nearby. I could have driven down there myself and listened,' and that is the thing about politics as we all know—half the job is turning up. We will wait and see how the government and its ministers attend to their duties over the coming months and years, and it will be very long four years. The good thing about opposition is that we can have some fun. The bad thing for government backbenchers is that you cannot. And the great thing about that is that we are ready, willing and able to hear your complaints, and we are ready, willing and able to assist you in your promotion to the front bench, because I can tell you that I have seen the current front bench in opposition and I have seen them in their first 30 days and they are good.

I have not seen the rest of you. I have seen the member for Morphett as mayor. What a good mayor he was—roundly endorsed by his constituency, overlooked by the Premier. I do not know why he was overlooked by the Premier. I am sure there is a very good reason the Premier chose not to select him. The member for MacKillop, I note, is someone who is going to stand up for his local community when it comes to trading hours—a brave decision. It is probably why he was stepped over, but I know that the Liberal Party supports individualism. It likes the idea of members being able to speak out and stand up for themselves. There is none of this solidarity rubbish, none of this, 'We’re bound by caucus solidarity.' In the Liberal Party, they are able to exercise their own individual conscience.

Mr Pederick: Ask that, Tom: why are you over there?

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: I notice the whip is getting agitated. I understand why. I would be agitated too if I were you listening to this speech. The member for MacKillop, I am sure, will exercise his conscience when it comes to trading hours. I know he will not allow the will of the people who have elected him and sent him here to stand up for their values—he will not do the wrong thing and vote against what they want. I know he is a good man.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Absolutely. Then there are other members who have got here by the skin of their teeth, who faced very serious challenges by Independents, but, because of the power of their personality and their campaign, have made it. The member for Heysen—

The SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: What a shame, sir. I shall continue over the next four years.

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart.