Bills

Supply Bill 2018

Second Reading

Debate resumed.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (11:27): I, too, rise to speak on the Supply Bill. As some speakers on our side of the house have already pointed out, the new government have said on many occasions, both before the recent state election and since, that they will seek to be what they describe as a more transparent and accountable government than the previous one. I note that this is only my third time on my feet as a new member of this place and already I am asked to speak in support of a Supply Bill that seeks to gain the approval of the opposition for $6.6 billion of spending, yet we have no detail at all on what it is we are approving that spending for.

Nonetheless, I would like to speak, as other members have before me, during this debate about commitments that were made not only in the seat that I now represent, the seat of Wright, but also in the north-east more broadly. I refer not so much to commitments that the then Labor government made, because I acknowledge that we are no longer the government. There is a new government, and I would like to focus instead upon commitments that were made by the then Liberal opposition and how they will benefit or otherwise the communities of the north-east.

First and foremost, there are other members who represent seats in the north-east, and I know that we have the member for Newland, the member for King and the member for Torrens in the house now. I think the biggest issue in the north-east during the election campaign—at least the biggest specific local issue separate to the broader issues at play around unemployment, cost of living and power prices—would be Modbury Hospital. I know that speakers opposite have already covered in pretty extensive detail the many back and forwards that occurred about Modbury Hospital during the 12 months of the state election campaign. I think it is always true that people are very passionate about their own local hospital.

No-one wants to see services removed from their local hospital. After having doorknocked all the homes that I doorknocked, it was not lost upon me that Transforming Health was certainly not popular in the north-east. That was certainly feedback that I got in a very up-front and honest way from the residents I was at the time seeking to represent.

I might draw some distinctions between Modbury Hospital and other local suburban hospitals. I mentioned in my maiden speech the beautiful green space we have in the north-east, and the fantastic schools and that I think a lot of residents chose to move to the suburbs of Wynn Vale, Modbury, Ridgehaven and Golden Grove so they could be near those schools and that green space, but they also very much chose to move there because they would be near Modbury Hospital and they wanted to access the services that that hospital provided locally.

What happened was that the then minister for health, the now member for Croydon, upon becoming the new minister for health last year, did listen and conducted a series of community consultations, which I was very fortunate to be a part of. They were very well attended and very productive, and what we got out of that was a commitment from the then Labor government to put more services back into Modbury Hospital and upgrade the hospital. I was very proud at the time because I thought the campaigning of the members in the north-east had been listened to and that the complaints of the local residents had been listened to.

What we put together was, I thought, an excellent plan. I will point out that it was not an election commitment, of course. This was a government commitment, which meant that regardless of the outcome of the recent state election, these commitments, which were made by the now member for Cheltenham and the now member for Croydon, were going to be going ahead regardless.

Just to go through them briefly, they included eight new beds in the emergency department, in what was referred to as an emergency extended care unit. I will explain to members quickly what I believe that means. It means that if you were to present to the emergency department at Modbury Hospital, and it was potentially something that could not be treated there long term, then the extended stay unit would ensure that you could be at least treated and stabilised in the short term, perhaps over a night or over multiple nights, while the staff at the hospital made a decision about whether or not your treatment could continue there in the long term.

That is really important because one of the biggest complaints I had from people in the north-east around Modbury Hospital and the changes to services was a perception, at least, that you presented to Modbury Hospital and would then be told that it was no longer something that was treated at the hospital. You would potentially be put in an ambulance and moved to the Lyell McEwin or maybe the RAH.

There will also be the construction of an acute medical unit, which I understand assists in helping patients who are coming out of the emergency department with a high level of care, so again they are able to stay at the hospital at which they have presented rather than being shipped off to another hospital. The commitments included also a brand-new 16-bed palliative care ward, each room with an ensuite bathroom.

I will touch just briefly on one related interaction I had with a resident in my seat, an elderly gentleman at whose home I doorknocked. He was very upset, and he had good reason to be upset: he had recently lost his wife, who had died of cancer. He was an elderly gentleman, as I said. I think his wife was in her 80s. She had gone and sought palliative care at Modbury Hospital, and she passed away there.

Whilst this gentleman only had very, very positive things to say about the staff at the hospital and the care they received, he was disappointed that a room with an ensuite bathroom was not available to her. He felt that she did not have the dignity she deserved in her final days and instead had to leave the room and use a toilet outside the facility. So I was pleased that the 16-bed palliative care ward which will be built there is going to have, I am told, private ensuite bathrooms in each room.

The commitments included also an acute surgical unit to allow a wider range of elective surgeries to be carried out at Modbury, including multiday elective surgeries. They included also an internal infrastructure upgrade, including air-conditioning units, and replacement of the ageing lifts in the building. All those people who have been to the hospital as I have, having used the services there for my young daughters a couple of times, will know that the lifts are very old and desperately in need of replacing.

The commitments also included a facelift of the outside of the building. This was something that I pushed really hard for with the member for Croydon. To some, maybe it seemed less important than other things, and that is probably true. I am sure services are more important than the façade of a building. However, I have had a lot of comments from people I doorknocked who said that Modbury Hospital really is in many respects the defining building of the north-east. It towers over pretty much everything and you can see it.

There were people, who I think possibly have not actually needed to use the services at Modbury Hospital for many years, which is a good thing, who looked at the state of the building from the outside and decided that it must be neglected because it looks so tired. So I thought it was an important thing to do, not just to invest in the services inside the hospital but also to upgrade the outside of the hospital to make it clear that the future of the hospital was secured and that we took its future very seriously.

I felt that this commitment was very well received by members of the north-east. We put a lot of material out to them, announcing that we had made this commitment. The feedback I got was very good, so good in fact that I note that those opposite decided to basically copy our commitment word for word. There was of course one very important difference, which I am going to address just briefly. I honestly believe that the then opposition now Liberal government decided that it probably was not enough to produce exactly the same plan as the Labor government, that there needed to be at point of difference. That point of difference became the high dependency unit and committing to a return of the high dependency unit at Modbury Hospital.

Much has been said about that both in this place and in the public arena already, including a letter that was signed by 46 senior northern Adelaide doctors, who claimed that it was unsafe and not clinically viable. I am certainly not a doctor, and I take the advice of people who know these things far better than me. However, the way it was described to me was that, if a patient's condition requires care in a high dependency unit, and they are in that high dependency unit and their condition deteriorates beyond that, possibly the only place for them to go from there is to an intensive care unit, which Modbury Hospital does not have.

It was put to me that if we were to have a high dependency unit at a hospital that does not have an intensive care unit, the risk is that you are putting patients into an ambulance at what is probably the most critical time in their care, and that is probably not where you would want to be. Having said that, the member for Croydon, then minister for health, made it very clear that, if the advice from those senior doctors was that it could be done safely, then we would support it.

Certainly, my own personal position is that, if the new government can produce some evidence (for want of a better word) from clinicians and doctors that they believe it can be done safely at Modbury Hospital, I of course would support an HDU being put into that hospital because, as the local member for the seat of Wright, I know what the people in my electorate want. They want more services in their local hospitals.

There were other commitments made in the area, not many actually in the seat of Wright. It seems to be largely forgotten each election by the Liberal Party. There were things around the seat of Wright that certainly would go to benefit the people in the seat of Wright, but very few things that were actually specific to my seat. One of those things was a commitment that was made first by the then Labor government to conduct a business case into extending the extending the rails from Tea Tree Plaza to Golden Grove. I assume by that we were probably referring to extending the rails to the village, now called the Grove.

From my own personal perspective, I am a huge supporter of the O-Bahn; I catch it quite regularly from Golden Grove. I have, of course, followed very closely and taken note of how long my travel times are now since the tunnel leading to the stops on Grenfell Street was opened. What I am saving in peak hour traffic is as many as 15 minutes one way. If you were to have a look on Facebook—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

Mr BOYER: The member for Colton seems very surprised. I do not think the O-Bahn goes to Colton. If you look at Facebook and talk to people who catch the service regularly in peak hour traffic, you will find that many other people are reporting time savings of exactly the same amount. A 15-minute one-way time saving and a return trip on a single day of up to half an hour is pretty significant. I remind people in the house that this was a tunnel that Nick Xenophon told us was a complete waste of money.

That was the commitment made by the then Labor government. Not long after, we saw the then opposition come out and copy the policy and say basically the same thing. Their commitment, though, is that the business case of sorts will be done by Infrastructure SA, which will look at the viability of extending those tracks. I think it will also look at the viability of, if not extending tracks, potentially having dedicated bus lanes, and I certainly support that as well.

However, I think it is very important that, given this new government's commitment to being transparent and accountable—certainly, in its words, more transparent and accountable than the previous government—then it is important that whatever findings are made by Infrastructure SA into the extension of the O-Bahn are released publicly so that not just people in this place but also residents in the north-east more broadly can see what the reasoning was for either supporting or not supporting that extension.

There was also a commitment made by first the Labor government and subsequently by the then Liberal opposition, which has been touched on by the member for King and the member for Newland, I believe, about Golden Grove Road and a much-needed repair to that road. I echo the sentiments of those two local members. In fact, the member for King and I probably do not live too far apart and both use that part of the north-east regularly. I certainly do.

Golden Grove Road is in a state of disrepair—at least the 3.4-kilometre section from Golden Grove to Surrey Downs is not at all in the same state as the previously upgraded part. There are lots of potholes, the lighting is inadequate, and there are no places on the side of the road for buses to pull over so that people can hop on and off. I am pretty confident in saying that the intersection of Hancock Road and Golden Grove Road is probably one of the most dangerous intersections in the north-east. If we do not have a serious accident there soon, it will only be a matter of good luck. I see the member King nodding. Indeed, it is a very dangerous intersection. I am glad to see we will be getting a roundabout there.

If I could return to the O-Bahn very quickly, one more announcement was made by both parties during the election campaign concerning the O-Bahn and that is the park-and-ride at Golden Grove, which, for those who are unaware, is a piece of land opposite the village, now The Grove. Due to the exponential growth in the number of people in the north-east who use the O-Bahn, it is now regularly full of a morning and people who wish to park their cars there and hop on the O-Bahn to take them from Golden Grove down to Tea Tree Plaza where it hops on the rails cannot get a park.

We committed to increasing the number of car parks by 210 places, which as a member in the area I certainly welcomed. As has been the case with the other two or three commitments I have spoken about already, it was then followed not long after by the then Liberal opposition who said they would match what we had done, although I note that the number of car parking spaces that has been committed to by the new government is, I think, 400, which is 190 over and above what was announced by the Labor government. I do wonder how exactly the extra number of spaces is going to be delivered. I know that part of my territory very well.

To the north of that spot at the moment is a big development being built called Helping Hand, which is a residential aged-care home of 110 beds, and directly to the west is the North East Hockey Club. What I am worried about—and I certainly hope this is not case—is that the new government is going to encroach on the synthetic pitch at North East Hockey Club in order to be able to build the 190 extra car spaces on top of the ones committed to by the then Labor government. Nonetheless, I welcome the commitment to build extra car spaces there; it is really needed.

Given that I only have about three minutes left, I might go directly to the two commitments made by the then opposition that are in fact specific to the seat of Wright. It will not take me very long to talk about them because they are rather small commitments; nonetheless, they would be welcome. The first was a bus stop on Wynn Vale Drive in Gulfview Heights. For those who do not know the area, Wynn Vale Drive connects The Golden Way in Wynn Vale with Bridge Road in Salisbury East. Between those two points is Gulfview Heights, which is a very pretty spot that has beautiful views down over the plains and out to the gulf.

When I saw this commitment by the Liberal candidate, Mr Luigi Mesisca, who I might add is a very decent man, I thought it was a good idea. People in Gulfview Heights raised the same thing with me and I had always wondered why it was that we did not have a bus route that went up Wynn Vale Drive. People living in Gulfview Heights currently must walk up the hill to Wynn Vale, a very steep hill, or walk down the hill to Salisbury East to catch a bus.

I am going to seek confirmation of this from the new Minister for Transport, but I am concerned that the reason there is not a bus stop or a bus route there is that the bus cannot get through the roundabouts on Wynn Vale Drive, and what has been announced by the new government is a bus stop that will be sitting by itself and a bus stop to which no buses can get. I hope that the research has been done on that because at the moment there is no bus route on that road. I will be following with great interest what the government does in order to make sure that commitment can be delivered.

The final commitment specific to the seat of Wright by the new government was for a shade sail over the play equipment on Kestral Way in Modbury Heights. As the father of three young girls who spend a lot of time at playgrounds and who have all inherited their mother's very pale skin, I know how important shade sails are, and I wholeheartedly support that commitment and look forward to it being delivered.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:46): It is an unusual experience for me to stand and speak on a Supply Bill in the position that I am in; nevertheless, it is a welcome opportunity to put a couple of thoughts on the record. Of course, I will be supporting the Supply Bill, as everybody else will be in this place, because we want to see good government here in South Australia. Supply speeches are broad in their range and scope. Without a budget to look at in this context, we do have to focus our thoughts on the '2036' document, which was taken to the election by the now government.

In listening to other candidates' contributions, I have heard the word 'mandate' used a lot lately. Of course, what the government actually has is a majority. It is very difficult to say anyone has a mandate on any one particular issue. While I will not, unfortunately, be happy to agree with everything they are going to put forward, I thoroughly agree with them on Modbury Hospital. They do, however, have a mandate on that most definitely in the north-eastern suburbs. I guess that is why I felt it necessary to speak this morning. It is very important for me that people understand the issues at Modbury Hospital as part of the whole Transforming Health package.

Without a very strong, well-run and well-resourced Modbury Hospital, we are not going to be able to make sure that Transforming Health works, particularly for the people of the north-eastern suburbs, which is where I am centred and the area I represent. While the Florey boundaries have moved quite considerably from my initial boundaries, they have only really gone back to what the original Florey looked like, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the people from all over the north-eastern suburbs have strong opinions about Modbury Hospital and how it needs to work to make sure that the Lyell McEwin Hospital also works.

Of course, there is the nub of the problem: Transforming Health saw Modbury Hospital make a great deal of sacrifice to make sure that Lyell McEwin Hospital could operate in the way we wanted to operate so that Transforming Health, which seemed okay on paper, would be the success that we all hoped it would be. As we all know, health is our biggest issue. If we do not supply good health services, we are not looking after our community.

I have just left a rally this morning where a lot of people are calling on governments of all persuasions to get behind the notion that Newstart is so low that it is not even worth considering how one could survive on a Newstart allowance with a family and that it is important for parties of all persuasions to get on board and to understand those issues, just as it is important for all parties to get on board and understand the issues behind health, Transforming Health and Modbury Hospital, more particularly.

If my situation had not changed at the time it did, it would have changed not long after because Modbury Hospital did become the major issue of the election for us, and rightly so. There were many people very concerned because, as we have heard other members say, they have moved out to the Modbury area to be close to the hospital and the services it provides. While there is absolutely no doubt that those people are mostly older people now, 40 per cent of the electorate is still under the age of 60 and therefore we need to look at services for the entire community. This is more so though, of course, because Modbury is becoming a hub, a centre of excellence, for gerontology and all sorts of care for older people who are recovering from operations and serious health issues, but it is also going to be there for good service to the whole community.

This brings us to the raft of policy initiatives announced on both sides. I think the defining moment, of course, was when the bricks fell off the corner of the front of the building. I heard various reasons that might have happened. One was that that was the corner that took the wind. Whenever the wind blows out our way that is the corner where the bricks get the treatment. Luckily for us, no-one was hurt in that episode. The bricks fell straight to the ground. They could have killed anyone walking around beside them and it is the only part of the building that has fallen apart in that fashion so far.

However, it has not been possible to get hold of an engineer's report. I am really looking forward to seeing the new government push ahead on that because that is really important, not just for the aesthetics of the front of the building but because they must be safe. I would hate to think that, in months to come, having been spring-cleaned or steam-cleaned, that that did something else to the render or mortar and then the next lot of bricks fell off. We do have to make sure that the building does not create its own patients. It would be a very sad state of affairs indeed.

It is great that we are having the outside looked at, but even greater is that the inside is going to be looked after. We all know that Modbury Hospital has been around for a very long time and it is a sadness for all of us in this place that it has not been possible for governments of any persuasion to spend a lot of money up there. Everyone is welcoming the fact that there is going to be a big infrastructure spend, particularly in palliative care, which is going to be an issue that is going to unfortunately have a lot of people using it in the future. Again, it is a really good initiative.

However, the extended stay area in accident and emergency is a problem in that it has been announced three times and nothing has yet happened. You can only go to your community so often and say that this is going to happen. If it does not start to happen, then there is a problem in the announcement, the timing of the announcement or the tenacity behind the announcement. I am still waiting to see the extended area in accident and emergency appear.

The next problem I have is that the staff turnover at Modbury Hospital has become high. This is not a good thing in a hospital, where it is very good to have experienced staff on hand who know the area and the people and who know how a good hospital is run, so this is a very important issue for me now. The important thing to remember is that the new government has announced the importance of safety in these measures, as has the now opposition. They keep talking about the word 'safety'. What safety actually refers to is the resources put in place to make sure that services are working correctly, and I will go into that a little bit more in a moment.

Ramping does occur at Modbury Hospital; it is just that you do not hear very much about it because apparently, from what I hear from our friends in the ambulance association, Modbury has a very long corridor that allows everybody to be brought inside, so it is very unusual for them to be ramping in the same way as they ramp at Flinders Medical Centre or the Royal Adelaide Hospital or, indeed, from time to time, at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. But let's not pretend that ramping does not occur at every hospital because one of our biggest issues is to make sure that people can be discharged in a timely fashion so that beds are made available for people who need them to go upstairs or onto the wards for the work that they need done.

A lot has been said about the issue of high dependency or higher care at Modbury Hospital being returned, and a lot has been said about a paper from 46 doctors signing to say that it would not be safe, but of course the detail is the problem. It is not safe if it is not properly resourced. So it is going to be a very important job for all members in this house to make sure it is properly resourced, because when it comes back it will be a very important part of health care in the north, because without it you will not be able to support the services that you think will go into Modbury Hospital.

I want to talk a little bit about one of the reasons I hear trotted out regularly for not having higher care services returned to Modbury Hospital, and that is that you cannot have a higher care area without an intensive care area. All members here today know that this is just not the case. Many hospitals have higher care areas without intensive care areas. It is also important for you all to realise that, if that were the case, everybody who ever went into higher care would go up to intensive care, and that of course is not true: 80 per cent of the people who are in high care actually go back to the ward or are discharged, so we are looking at around 20 per cent, again an issue, but we have always had that issue at Modbury Hospital—you have always needed to be shifted if anything has to go further with your care or treatment.

These are the sorts of issues we need to unpack, we need to make sure that members are all on the same page, and we need to get behind the new government, make sure that these resources are available, that the higher care unit is available sooner rather than later and that the extended stay area in the accident and emergency area happens immediately. I will be watching the new government to make sure this is the case. We will not let that slip by either. It is a very important part of what we see needing to happen in the health area. As I said, I have just left the Newstart rally. If we can't supply our people good health care in a timely fashion, we are letting everybody down and we are failing in our role.

As we saw this morning, hardly a day goes by when you do not see some other story in the paper about what is going on, this time with pathology. I must declare a conflict of interest here in that my son works for South Australian Pathology, and I will be speaking to him in detail shortly to find out what is happening because, as we often find, truth is the first casualty in every story.

The only other thing I want to add to the Supply Bill debate is that I was most concerned to hear overnight that there may be some parts of the transmission of the Lands Titles Office that we were not aware of at the time. I will find that deeply distressing if that is the case. At the time I spoke up quite vociferously about the transfer of the Lands Titles Office. I must admit that, when it achieved such a great sale price, I wondered what I did not know. I look forward to the government making sure that that is known as soon as possible, because it is going to be an important thing to be able to go out to the community to inform them exactly what has gone on with that particular transaction.

In closing, we want supply, we want the state to be working, we want the state to have good services, we want as many opportunities for our people as possible. We do not want people going to work or, worse, to school hungry, and we do want people to have the opportunity to have a decent job with decent wages, full-time. We know we have a large number of underemployed and unemployed people in the country.

We do not want to be facing issues in the winter season where people are hungry. We know that the demands on Foodbank and other resources, particularly in our area, now are serving a greater number of people in hidden poverty, people who are experiencing poverty from time to time. As that number starts to increase we will start to see and examine how we supply our services, how we have come to the point where we are not sharing resources as well as we might.

These are all very big problems that the new government has to deal with. I know that every member in this place will be working with you to make sure that the aspirations of our community are met as quickly as possible so that we all have a decent standard of living.

Mr BROWN (Playford) (11:59): I rise to support the passage of the Supply Bill. The government has introduced this legislation because it wants to appropriate $6.6 billion to spend. What should it spend it on? We have some suggestions. In the short time available to me today, I would like to discuss some of the spending areas that are important to my electorate of Playford. Perhaps the government will take notice, but I despair that they probably will not.

First is the area of social housing. My electorate contains areas that have some of the highest levels of social housing anywhere in the state for people who need the assistance and the security that can only come when you know where you are going to be staying that night and when you know that you are going to have a roof over your head. Before I came to this place, I was lucky enough to work in the area of social housing policy in the office of the member for Ramsay, the then minister for social housing.

I found Housing SA to be an agency that was dedicated to making sure that as many South Australians as possible were able to know where they would be sleeping, that the stock they were caring for was kept in as good a condition as possible with the maintenance budget they possessed and that the services they provided were the most effective that they could be. Just this week, a national report on homelessness showed that South Australia luckily had one of the lowest growth rates in the number of homeless between 2011 and 2016.

While we can take some comfort that the increase was not as bad as it has been in other states, we must act to try to reverse the trend and reduce the number of South Australians who are homeless. It has also been well established that the provision of social housing support is an important tool in addressing domestic and family violence. By enabling those who have suffered domestic and family violence to have an option of an affordable place to live, many will choose to leave a potentially dangerous situation that they would otherwise not be able to, due to financial constraints.

We know that agencies like Housing SA, in cooperation with the non-government sector, are already providing excellent services to those who find themselves homeless in our state. We know the government has already promised to perform an audit of every asset owned by the Housing Trust. I hope that this is not an example of the government just working out what it can potentially sell. These homes are too important to be simply flogged off in some short-term fix for a budget suffering under the weight of unaffordable promises.

But the lives of so many of our most vulnerable South Australians should not be made intolerable simply so that those opposite can continue to preach their trickle-down economic theories. For example, one thing I hope the government spends some of its appropriation money on is the continuation of the previous government's plan to deliver renewable energy to social housing. During the recent election campaign, I received an overwhelmingly positive response to this policy, not only from those who are likely to receive assistance to install solar panels and batteries but also from the public at large.

I spoke to a number of people during the campaign whose view was that not only was this an important social policy initiative but that the distributed nature of the proposal would help grid stability and reduce prices overall. I say to the government: do not just junk this policy because you did not come up with it. Deliver it as organised by the previous government. The way has been prepared for you. You just need to put partisanship aside, say thank you and follow up on the good work already done by some of the best and brightest available in our state.

Another priority area of policy and spending for my electorate is that of education. Due to the policies of the previous government, schools in my electorate were able to receive an allocation of considerable funds with which to upgrade their facilities. Take, for example, Parafield Gardens High School. Parafield Gardens High is a fantastic school, with students from dozens of countries all over the world and from extremely diverse backgrounds and cultures. They come together to advance themselves and our society through the pursuit of knowledge and the acquirement of skills. They may not have the financial resources of students who go to other schools across our state, but I wager they have as just as much dedication as those anywhere else.

One of my first acts upon becoming a candidate for this place was to attend the school's 40^th anniversary celebrations. There I met not only the students but also the very dedicated staff. One of the very first things they told me was about their ambition for their school to have a new hall, one that could be used not only by students but by the whole community and one that would be big enough, so that school graduations no longer had to be held in Elizabeth because there was currently no facility existing in the City of Salisbury that was of an adequate size.

I passed on their concerns to the then minister, the member for Port Adelaide, and asked the school to do the same through the department. It was therefore extremely pleasing for me to see that the previous government had listened to the students and staff of Parafield Gardens High School and provided $10 million of funds for the construction of a new hall which not only would be suitable for school assemblies and arts performances but would also be available for the community to use.

One of the other schools in my electorate, right next door to Parafield Gardens High School, is Parafield Gardens R-7 School. Due to an increase in enrolments, capacity has been an issue at this school and it has also suffered from a lack of dedicated music facilities. The previous government allocated funds of $6 million for the upgrade of the facilities at this school. I was fortunate enough to have students from that school here at Parliament House for a tour. I can tell members that they were among the most engaged and well-prepared students I have ever taken on a Parliament House tour and, during my time as a member of staff of various members of parliament, I have done quite a few.

Another school in my electorate seeking funds for the establishment of a more specifically targeted performance base is Para Hills High School. During the commonwealth program Building the Education Revolution, they submitted detailed plans for the building of a performing arts centre that would have been the envy of schools throughout the nation. Although they were lucky enough to get short-listed to the final five nationally, unfortunately they were unsuccessful. After this experience they despaired of ever seeing enough funding for the construction of the performing arts space that so many students and teachers so desperately wanted. It was, therefore, great news for Para Hills High School that $5 million was made available for just that purpose.

Last, but not least, of the schools that were successfully funded to be upgraded was the local primary school, Mawson Lakes School. The school is extremely popular and thanks to the support of the previous local member, the member for Port Adelaide, the school was able to secure funding for some extra demountable buildings to increase capacity. Thanks to Building Better Schools—and here I would like to thank the previous treasurer, the member for West Torrens—$6 million was allocated so that Mawson Lakes School can not only plan to replace these demountable classrooms with new permanent structures but can also build a new learning hub and upgrade the school's IT infrastructure. This is a fantastic result for the local community in Mawson Lakes.

There has been much speculation about the plans the schools have developed for the expenditure of money from the Building Better Schools program. I urge the state government to respect the views of the schools and not divert funds to pay for their statewide education promises.

The other area that I would like to talk about today is that of community safety. We have seen over the last 16 years how a government can transform the administration of justice in this state. When the previous government came to office in 2002, our state had suffered through an unprecedented period when the Brown-Olsen-Kerin government had made community safety such a low priority that police officers were forced to march in the streets simply to get a fair result from their enterprise bargaining negotiations with the government.

Luckily for the people of South Australia, the government, led first by Mike Rann and then by the member for Cheltenham, made the safety of citizens a higher priority. It is worth considering the extra resources allocated to our police over that 16-year period. The previous government oversaw a 139 per cent increase in the South Australia Police budget from $369,372,000 in 2002 to $822,400,000 in 2014, and then to a record $886,400,000 in 2018. This has enabled the recruitment of close to 1,000 extra sworn officers, with officer numbers rising from 3,729 sworn officers in 2002 to 4,480 sworn officers in 2014, and then to 4,713 sworn officers and community constables in 2018.

These numbers have given South Australia Police the highest operational staff per capita of any Australian state, with 333 operational staff per 100,000 people. Importantly, the former government has ensured that this increase in police numbers is representative of South Australian society, with 50 per cent of the cadets starting at the Police Academy in 2017 being female. Budget increases have also included $19 million for SAPOL's acquisition of new technologies such as facial recognition technology, a statewide rollout of body-worn cameras for front-line police, tablets for police officers to use—and I note that the ability for police to take and examine evidence out in the field has dramatically increased their efficiency—as well as world-leading, infrared sensor technology for the SAPOL helicopters.

Resources have also been used to rollout protective vests for police dogs and open new police stations at Henley Beach and Murray Bridge. New technologies introduced by the former government over the 16 years have also included the use of point-to-point speed cameras, which have served to boost the safety of roads right across South Australia. These extra resources for front-line policing have been complemented by enhanced police powers. These have included new powers for the management of antisocial behaviour in declared public precincts and increased powers for roadside drug testing, resulting in around 50,000 roadside drug tests each year.

There have also been new powers for police to prevent and respond to terror incidents and tough anti-biker gang legislation, which I hope the new government will properly implement. The previous government also sought to react to the behaviour of so-called 'hoon' drivers with new powers to clamp and impound their cars. The former government also established a permanent gun amnesty. This measure, along with historic reforms of our firearm legislation and regulations, achieved the dual goal of protecting the community from gun crime and clarifying the regulations on the possession, use and storage of guns for gun owners.

The former government also presided over the establishment of a nation-leading Multi-Agency Protection Service (MAPS). This innovative service has put together elements of SAPOL and other government agencies to ensure a coordinated response in high risk cases involving domestic violence and child protection. In this respect, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work of former police commissioner Gary Burns. Former commissioner Burns went on a trip to the United Kingdom, observed the operation of the MAPS model overseas and was immediately struck by how effective it was and how it would be effective in South Australia. On returning from overseas, he lobbied very hard with the previous government for the introduction of MAPS, and I am very pleased that the government listened to his request.

It is important for the community to respond to these sorts of issues together, and this principle motivated the previous government to increase the funding of Neighbourhood Watch SA. This has resulted in the hiring of dedicated staff and an increased online presence, which has done a great deal to revitalise this important grassroots institution and provide the community with a forum to discuss and engage in the issues of community safety.

I know personally, as I am sure many members of this house do, of the good work our Neighbourhood Watch groups do. I am proud to be a member of the Mawson Lakes Neighbourhood Watch group, and I also regularly attend the Para Hills group in my electorate. Both those groups have benefited from the support of the extra resources we have provided. The Labor Party's privatisation of community safety in these ways has had a remarkable and profound effect on life in South Australia. We are extremely proud of the work of the previous government in this area and the empirical effect it has had on crime in South Australia.

Over the past 15 years, we have seen a 30.5 per cent drop in the state's overall crime rate and a 50 per cent drop in crimes against persons and property. During this time, the incidence of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads has also fallen significantly. We also appreciate that community safety does not end with a well-equipped, properly staffed police force or with community engagement, or indeed with a low rate of crime. The former government took a more strategic approach to combatting the rate of recidivism.

This included funding the ReBoot program which operated to ensure that young offenders who had come into contact with the criminal justice system were diverted to specific rehabilitation services. Programs such as ReBoot have ensured that South Australia enjoys a return to prison rate of 36.9 per cent, the lowest rate in the nation and far better than the national average of 44.6 per cent. South Australia's rate of return to corrective services is also far better than the national average at 46.1 per cent versus 52.6 per cent.

The previous government was also acutely aware of the impact crime can and does have on members of the community. In appreciation of this impact, the former government doubled the maximum payments available to victims of crime to $100,000. A good example of the root-and-branch approach to community safety taken by the former government is the approach taken to tackle the prevalence of ice in our community. It is something I know only too well due to my involvement with the community in Parafield Gardens.

In response to this issue, the previous government established the Ice Taskforce, which concentrated front-line police resources while also providing an $8 million commitment towards funding support for families, additional counselling and rehabilitation, and building education and prevention strategies within community groups and grassroots sporting clubs. Prevention is better than cure, and these measures have been complemented by legislation to curb the supply of ice through the development of new national regulations to restrict the sale of the chemicals used to manufacture ice. This approach demonstrates the sophisticated and comprehensive response required for issues of community safety.

In supporting the Supply Bill, it is my sincere hope that this new government will be mindful of the undeniably positive impact which has resulted for the community through our properly resourced police force and a more practical and less ideological approach to community safety which were the hallmarks of the past Labor government. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr GEE (Taylor) (12:16): I rise today to speak about the Supply Bill. I support this bill, which relates to the provision of $6.6 billion of funds to operate the public services in South Australia. The bill lays out the basic expenditure for the operation of state government over the next year. The same as a household might budget the mortgage or rent payments, electricity, gas, water, council rates, telephone and other services, this all occurs before a household considers discretionary or enhanced spending.

The problem, as I see it, is that the government is not providing any details of what they are going to use the $6.6 billion for. Something that all South Australians know is that you obviously cannot spend money that you do not have, so it is important that this bill is passed. In the Mid-Year Budget Review last year, the predicted result for the end of the 2017-18 year was a $40 million surplus. We now know that in the first two months of the Liberal state government they are now predicting a deficit at the end of the 2017-18 year. This is despite a significant increase in GST revenue.

We have heard that this government will inherit an additional $150 million in the current financial year for the operations and cost pressures within SA Health and a specifically allocated further $24 million for child protection activities and cost pressures also in the current financial year. If a deficit is delivered for the 2017-18 financial year, it will clearly be seen that this government is either inept, has not been able to adjust to government—

Mr Duluk: Did you read my speech from last year?

Mr GEE: I always read everybody's speeches—or believes that just playing political games is more important than providing stability for South Australians. The former Labor government, when it came to office in 2002, delivered responsible financial management for our state with appropriate expenditure and the elimination of state government debt. This continued for the next 16 years. I probably do not need to remind members that the current Treasurer, when he last held office as state treasurer, delivered four state deficit budgets that totalled nearly $1 billion.

I want to turn to aspects of the economy. I will start with a portfolio area that I am quite passionate about, which is education. The former Labor government invested heavily in our schools and, as every Labor administration does, they invested in significant upgrades to most of the schools here in South Australia. In and near my electorate, the former government delivered two brand-new schools: John Hartley School and the nearby Mark Oliphant College. Both these schools have proved extremely popular, as has the almost brand-new Lake Windemere B-7 school, led by Michelle Lennox who, along with her immediate committed group of teachers and school service officers, does an amazing job.

There has also been a $5 million upgrade to Swallowcliffe Primary School, where the strong and passionate Tonia Noble leads the way; a $1 million upgrade to the very multicultural Burton Primary School, overseen by Alison Lynch; and a $1 million upgrade to provide improved STEM facilities at Two Wells Primary School, where Lynda Fitzpatrick-Brown delivers leadership for our children. The former state government also invested $1 million at One Tree Hill Primary School and Elizabeth Downs Primary School.

There were further significant multimillion dollar upgrades at Craigmore High School and Playford International College. In fact, both schools have and will see significant change, including a significant positive turnaround in enrolments and results. Graduations at both schools now see over 90 per cent of students achieving their SACE—in fact, it is over 95 per cent—compared with the past, when I can recall graduations were as low as 35 per cent.

There was also the installation of security fences at most schools across the state, allowing the community to access school ovals while protecting the school buildings from vandalism and arson. This program was conceived and implemented by my predecessor as the member for Napier, Michael O'Brien, following a large fire at the Elizabeth Park Primary School. I also remember a large fire at the Unley High School, and other schools, prior to the widespread introduction of school fences. Before we had that fencing, I remember that vandalism, fires, theft and graffiti were a weekly occurrence. Now these sorts of things are rare at the schools in the north, and I suspect across most schools in the state.

It would be remiss of me, when talking about the Supply Bill, not to mention our teachers, school service officers and site leaders. These professions, along with early childhood educators, play such an important role in shaping the future of our society. The appropriate funding of our schools, with quality resources and facilities for students, is important, but, more important are our teachers and school services officers.

I also want to acknowledge the educational leaders in Taylor whom I have not yet recognised: the very talented Ilia Tsoutouras at Virginia Primary School; the passionate Sharon Rich at Angle Vale Primary School; local bloke Rick Jarman at Trinity College, Gawler River; the committed Jo Everett at the John Hartley School; Leanne Carr at St Columba College; and I am yet to meet the new principal at St Patrick's Technical College, Danny Deptula, but catching up with him very soon is on the cards.

As we all know, the federal Liberal government has cut education funding across Australia, so we need to ensure that in the upcoming budget this state government does not further cut educational funding and actually pledges funding for more teachers and more school services officers. Education funding must not be cut. We need to encourage young people to choose teaching as a career and to pursue their teaching career here in South Australia. One of the best ways for this government to achieve this outcome is to ensure that more teachers and school services officers can achieve permanency. Further, we also need to ensure that our educators and school services officers can undertake appropriate professional development, to provide them with higher qualifications and skills to assist students with wellbeing, mental health issues, behavioural issues and learning difficulties.

The former government also invested heavily in literacy and numeracy, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To improve the performance of our students, the former state government also invested in extra places for students with a disability, including a new Adelaide North Special School led by a very passionate leader in Byron Stuut. On this side of the house, we want to ensure that the government continues to deliver better outcomes for our children and grandchildren, including delivering their commitments in the Literacy Guarantee policy.

I am sure the government wants to have the best educated and trained teachers educating our children and grandchildren and have them using the latest technology and techniques to further improve literacy, numeracy and STEM outcomes. We also want to ensure that the proposed coaches, workshops and conferences linked to the Literacy Guarantee policy focus not only on the basic skills and students with dyslexia but also on wellbeing, mental health, autism and other learning and behavioural difficulties so that they can provide the latest knowledge on these challenges to parents and their peers.

The state government has committed to honour all the Building Better Schools commitments that the former Labor government announced, and I commend them, because this will make our communities stronger. Locally, they include $5 million to Elizabeth North Primary School, led by the very committed Graham Wood; $12 million to Paralowie R-12 School; $10 million each to Salisbury High School and Craigmore High School; and $3 million to Playford International College. I hope the school governing councils and leadership teams can continue to invest the funding in the areas of need that they have identified for their schools.

I will now speak about employment, jobs and businesses. As I have said previously, I have been lucky to have been employed continuously since I was 14 years of age, but not everybody is so lucky. As elected officials, we need to ensure that we are doing all we can every day to promote economic growth and the development of employment opportunities for South Australians. I am proud that South Australia's economic growth outperformed the nation in the 2016-17 financial year, and that is expected to occur again in the 2017-18 financial year. The previous state government also delivered 30 months of consecutive job growth and record levels of business confidence.

Business confidence is currently threatened under the new state government, as they have created investment uncertainty. The announcement on coming to government that they will review all the grants and loans provided as part of the Future Jobs Fund, and potentially other programs, make investment in South Australia a risk.

Members interjecting:

Mr GEE: Yes, I know, you think that is funny.

Mr Pederick: Who writes your stuff?

Mr GEE: You still think you are in opposition.

Mr Pederick: No, we don't.

Mr GEE: Yes, you need to be serious about these things.

Members interjecting:

Mr GEE: One day the sun will come up and you will wake up and you will realise you are in charge, that you are responsible. The state government is failing to understand that the commentary about not picking winners or the government not being a bank does not encourage businesses to look to South Australia when considering spending or investment. Further, South Australian businesses are very concerned about the current business environment in South Australia.

Our state needs businesses to be investing in South Australia, creating jobs and employing local workers. This should be occurring, as changes made by the previous government made South Australia the most competitive place in Australia and one of the leading places in the Asia-Pacific to do business, but under the current government this is at risk.

Mr Pederick: You have to try to keep the facts right.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Hammond, could you refrain from interjecting, please. Continue, member for Taylor.

Mr GEE: Thank you for your protection, Deputy Speaker. It is pleasing to see that the state government is promising small business tax relief, which was also offered by the previous state government, although like all policies it is doubtful that this will be delivered in the time frame outlined by the state government, as they continue to provide a diverse mix of answers in relation to this policy and its implementation.

As a former small business owner for five years, I know that small changes to taxation or other business costs can have a big impact on small businesses. Other policies, such as the proposed deregulation of shop trading hours, will also have a negative impact on small businesses, particularly retail stores. It is timely to note that retail consumption has been strong across the last 18 months, but it will not be further strengthened by changes to shopping hours, as households only have so much money to spend. While I am talking about the amount that households have to spend, I will turn to the emergency services levy and council rate capping.

It should be no surprise to any member in this place that households in South Australia and across the nation are suffering from cost-of-living pressures. It is therefore important that the commitments made by the state government in relation to the ESL are clear for the community to understand, and that they are delivered. As my colleague the member for Lee mentioned in his contribution on Tuesday evening, the state government has so far announced four policy positions in relation to the ESL. ESL reductions are suppose to occur at the start of the new financial year so will impact on the Supply Bill as a state budget will still be several months away. My residents need certainty and not four possible policy positions.

Local government rate capping is another area where the state government has announced a proposal, a thought bubble, but no details. How many local councils plan their budget and their forward estimates if they have no idea what course the state government will take? The Liberal Party say that they are about more jobs, lower costs and better services, yet their rate capping proposal will likely deliver fewer local services, see a reduction in jobs, and may or may not deliver lower costs. The government has been found wanting on this and on so many other policies. I will now talk about infrastructure, which is where there is a huge contrast between the former and current state governments.

It seems clear that in next year's Supply Bill there will be less funding for the infrastructure as this state government stalls the infrastructure spend in South Australia. The Liberal state government will create a valley of death for construction workers, just as their federal colleagues did in the defence industry. The former government delivered a large but responsible infrastructure spend that created and maintained thousands of jobs. The infrastructure spend, particularly in the city of Adelaide, along with an increase in world-class events in Adelaide and across South Australia, has driven tourism growth. The former government transformed the city of Adelaide by upgrading the Adelaide Oval, which the Liberals opposed—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me, member for Taylor. I ask members to listen in silence to the contribution of the member for Taylor. Thank you.

Mr GEE: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. We invested in the Riverbank, again something the Liberals opposed. We delivered a world-class city hospital, which the Liberals opposed, and invested significantly in the upgrade of the Festival Plaza Precinct and the Adelaide Convention Centre. There are also small bars, the tram extension and the footbridge. These investments have significantly benefited our state.

The previous government also delivered the Port River Expressway, the Northern Expressway and the South Road Superway, which were delivered with contributions from the federal government, along with the Gallipoli Underpass and the dual lane Southern Expressway, and of course many other projects. Currently underway is the Northern Connector project, plus the Torrens to Torrens and Darlington projects, both of which attracted an 80:20 funding split between the federal and state governments.

This is better than the 50:50 agreement achieved by the current state government for the Regency Road to Pym Street upgrade. As we know from the recent federal budget, there is very little funding in the forward estimates for this section of South Road, or for the remainder of South Road between the River Torrens and Darlington. This is despite the Liberals setting a deadline of 2023 for the completion of the full project from Gawler to Old Noarlunga.

One project I get asked about regularly is the electrification of the railway line from Adelaide to Gawler—another project that will not be troubling a supply bill in coming years, as most of the federal contribution is beyond the forward estimates. We have had some positive steps with the former Labor government funding the rail electrification from Adelaide to Salisbury. It looked like the federal government was finally going to step up and fund the remainder of the line, but once again the Liberals have failed South Australia and the residents of Adelaide's north.

Health is an area of the budget that we all hope our families and friends do not have much interaction with, as we hope that everyone remains healthy and does not need to use our hospitals. However, we all know that at some point in our life we will have an interaction with the health system. It may be that our wife or partner is having a baby, our parents have had a heart attack, a stroke or other sickness or injury. Mr Deputy Speaker, I can tell you that, if I were to require hospital treatment, I would hope I was close to the Lyell McEwin because, while we have outstanding public hospitals in South Australia, I believe the Lyell McEwin Hospital is one of the best.

It is very relevant to talk about health as part of this debate as it consumes a significant amount of the state budget. As far as health is concerned, I am going to talk specifically about vertical fiscal imbalance, health services and mental health and suicide. I mention vertical fiscal imbalance because it is well known that a significant amount of funding for health comes from the federal government, as they have a greater ability to raise revenue. Therefore, the cuts that the federal government have made to health and education over the last few years—the savings from which they are now passing on to big businesses as corporate tax cuts—are very regrettable as are some of the decisions that this new government is making regarding health.

I call on the state government to ensure that, while they are investing in the Repat, Modbury and The QEH, they continue to increase funding and services at the Lyell McEwin and Gawler hospitals as demand increases at these hospitals. I also hope to see appropriate resources provided for services to assist South Australians with mental health concerns who are experiencing suicidal thoughts. Many members have spoken in the last few weeks, particularly members representing rural electorates, about residents experiencing concerns with mental health and suicide. I am afraid, Deputy Speaker, I will have to close down my presentation.

Time expired.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:37): I rise of course to support this very important bill. As we heard from other members, it is asking of the parliament that the government appropriates $6.6 billion. As far as I am aware—and I have been listening to the speakers on the other side—we have not really been given a clue about exactly what it will be spent on.

Mr Pederick: That's how it works.

Mr ODENWALDER: Is that right?

Mr Pederick: You did it for 16 years. Have a look; you were there.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Continue, member for Elizabeth. No interjections please.

Mr ODENWALDER: Thank you, I appreciate your protection, sir. He is getting extremely boisterous. You should be on the front bench, mate; I can barely hear you. That being the case, there was not even the courtesy of briefing the shadow treasurer, as I understand.

An honourable member: Shame!

Mr ODENWALDER: Shame indeed. I might start by making a few suggestions about how these funds might be spent by talking a little about my own electorate and my own experience in it. Road safety, as members may know, is a genuine passion of mine. It is one of those issues which I think just bubbles away under the surface for all of us in our electorates. As we doorknock, we talk to people about the larger issues around health, the economy and jobs, of course, but road safety is always bubbling away underneath.

I listened with interest to the member for King's speech, her Address In Reply or it could have been her contribution to this debate. She talked about Skyline Drive in Hillbank, one of the areas where she concentrated, concerning road safety. Hillbank is an area that I know very well, as the member for King will know. It brought to mind a time very early in my first term. One of the first things I did was to change some of the traffic conditions around Skyline Drive because, as the member for King said, it is a notorious blackspot area.

One of the very first things I did as an MP was write to the then minister, the former member for Newland, who was very quick off the mark and was able to very effectively fix the problem, which was that large trucks coming down from the quarry would speed past Skyline Drive before settling down to a more pleasant speed of 60 close to Main North Road. We were able to slow those trucks down further up Black Top Drive. I give credit where credit is due: if the member for King is making that intersection even safer through her relationship with the Minister for Transport, then good luck to her, and I support her on that.

My interest and passion in road safety come out of my experience as a police officer. When I first started at the academy, my dream, as is the case for a lot of young people going into the police force, was to be a major crime detective, someone who dealt with proper crooks.

Ms Cook: And you are.

Mr ODENWALDER: Indeed, I am dealing with proper crooks every day, as the member for Hurtle Vale rightly observes. I very quickly came to the realisation that the much maligned traffic police do an excellent job in keeping our community safe. I have seen them firsthand and I would not do their job for quids, to be honest.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: That is right; indeed, some of the other police have it easy, in retrospect, in the sense that they do not, as a matter of course, attend awful accident scenes. That experience turned my head around in terms of road safety and I now recognise that it is a very important issue. As I said, in all our electorates it is one of those issues the bubbles away under the surface. With that in mind, there have been some initiatives in my electorate. There has been some spending on some road safety initiatives.

In one of my newer areas of Craigmore, following representations from the former member for Napier, now member for Taylor, a roundabout is being installed as we speak on the corner of Blair Park Drive and Yorktown Road. It is not without its controversy, as a lot of people were discussing the fact that it slows down traffic and that sort of thing. It is immediately adjacent to a shopping centre. It is immediately next to a large and rapidly growing Christian school. However, on balance, I think the residents there recognise the need for it. There is a lot of congestion around there, particularly around school time, which I will get to later. I think it is a welcome thing. Roundabouts generally—and this is a personal view, but I think it is borne out by the research—keep traffic flowing better than traffic lights, which some people prefer.

Following on from that and following on from public meetings about this particular roundabout, a second roundabout is on the wish list, further down Yorktown Road, on the corner of Adams Road and Yorktown Road. Anyone who knows Craigmore at all knows that that is a very important arterial route out of Blakeview and Craigmore. It is in desperate need of some sort of traffic control measure.

Again, people are suggesting traffic lights. I would moot that a roundabout is a much more sensible approach. It is immediately adjacent to Eastern Park Football Club as well. I do not think traffic lights would be a good solution. The traffic banks up very quickly and sometimes unpredictably. I think a roundabout would be much more self-regulating. That is something that I was beginning to pursue with the previous government and it is something that I will start pursuing with the current government. We will see how far we get.

Similarly, there was a need for a roundabout at the corner of Harvey Road and Ridley Road in Elizabeth Grove. This is the very area where I learnt to drive. It is an area of very long straight roads which intersect and, for that very reason, it is very dangerous. Cars routinely go through these intersections at great speeds. Harvey Road is essentially a racetrack running through Elizabeth Grove from the Vale to Elizabeth City Centre, crossing Ridley Road. I am glad that in the last year of our government we received some funding to put in a roundabout there.

Following that and following community meetings, there have been some representations from local residents, including a former mayor, who is insistent that we put the roundabout in the wrong place and that it should have been further down the road, on the corner of Harvey and Judd roads. I think she is right, and I think the other residents are right, in that that is also a particularly dangerous area. That is something else I will be pursuing with the Minister for Transport.

I mentioned schools earlier. Parking and road safety around schools are of major concern for us all. In the old days when I was going to school, most kids would walk to school. Nowadays, that is no longer the case, sometimes for very good reasons—for safety reasons or people are more time poor. Traffic congestion around our schools has grown exponentially over the last 20 years. We as a legislature need to confront this as a big problem when we are planning schools or when we are retrofitting developments around schools.

The previous government did recognise this. Some election commitments, which my electorate was lucky enough to be part of, were made around road safety around schools, particularly schools in Blakeview and Craigmore. There are two conglomerates of schools in Blakeview and Craigmore. There is the Playford Primary School and Catherine McAuley School joint campus—a Catholic school and a private school—and there is also Park Lake Boulevard, which has three schools including two high schools and a childcare centre all within a space of a couple of hundred metres. We made a commitment, if re-elected, of a share of $2 million to resolve the parking issues around the Playford Primary and Catherine McAuley conglomeration.

Adams Road, which bounds the schools on the western side, is a car park in the morning. As I said before in relation to the roundabout, it is a major artery out of Craigmore and Blakeview and it comes to a standstill every morning. People are double parked, sometimes triple parked across that road. People even park in the kiss and drop zone. In the afternoon, similarly, parents arrive generally up to an hour or 1½ hours before the end of school simply to get a park so their kids can find them.

I held a public meeting with representatives of the school council and others in relation to trying to resolve this issue and I stupidly scheduled the meeting for 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I was quickly told that it was impossible because no-one would make it to the meeting at 2 o'clock in the afternoon because they would all be parked outside the school. Somerset Grove, which bounds it on the eastern side, is similarly congested. In that case, it is more of a problem for residents. It is less of an arterial road but a major problem for residents.

So the schools got involved: Playford Primary School and Catherine McCauley School both got involved. Students started school projects about how we could spend our share of this $2 million in terms of ameliorating some of these traffic problems. As part of what I would be doing anyway during an election campaign, I was calling everybody in the local area and doorknocking, looking for solutions. We were some way towards finding a solution in terms of a car park on Somerset Grove, which would have taken some of the traffic off it; however, the Labor government was not re-elected. I will, of course, be making representations to the current transport minister, who I know is an honourable man and will recognise the great need for some solutions to the traffic problems around those schools.

Similarly, on Park Lake Boulevard in Craigmore, there is a major traffic problem around schools. Craigmore High School is there, along with Trinity College Blakeview and Blakeview Primary School. There are major problems. That stretch of road has always been a problem. It is a single-lane road with some pedestrian crossings basically servicing two large high schools, a fairly large primary school and a childcare centre as well. For a while, it has been recognised that it needs to be a larger solution to that problem. We have been attacking it incrementally.

Blakeview Primary School, as part of the Fund My Neighbourhood program last year, entered a proposal to extend their car park. I am glad to say that that was one of the successful Fund My Neighbourhood projects, along with some other pedestrian and cycle paths around those schools. In the process of doorknocking around there, getting to know the residents, parents and the school community better, since they are in my new areas, it has become pretty apparent that this is an area that needs to be looked at.

There needs to be a major traffic study. I know that council have looked at it in the past. I know that the office for the member for Wakefield have looked at it. I think this needs to be pursued with some more vigour, particularly as those schools grow and as fewer and fewer parents allow their kids to walk to school. The school fence around Craigmore High School, too, has had an unexpected effect of channelling children out through one gate.

In the old days, of course—I do not know if other members will remember—the school fences were very low and children would scatter in all directions. Now children are channelled across Park Lake Boulevard and so, as an unintended consequence, it has actually made the traffic problems along there worse, so that does need attention. Similarly, Elizabeth Vale Primary School approach the council on a regular basis attempting to get traffic control solutions on their council roads surrounding their school. So far they have been knocked back, but they will continue to pursue that.

I have talked to the primary school many times about this. From memory, I believe they also had a Fund My Neighbourhood project around this, which unfortunately was not successful, but we will keep trying. Finally, on the issue of traffic lights, there is a traffic situation on John Rice Avenue, immediately adjacent to my office and the Lyell McEwin Hospital, where for a long time there have been two roads that intersect—John Rice Avenue and Haydown Road. They are very busy roads and it is also a bus route. Obviously, there are ambulances coming in and out. It has needed fixing for a long time and I am sorry that I have not been able to fix it so far.

It has been perennially listed on the blackspot funding list, always to be pushed out of the top 10, pipped at the post every time at the last minute. We keep trying. We eventually arrived at a kind of solution, which is a pedestrian crossing a bit further up, but I think that is something we still need to look at, particularly in terms of the growth of the Lyell McEwin Hospital, as the member for Taylor alluded to. It is much busier than it used to be. Of course, there are ambulances in and out at all hours of the day. One of the unintended consequences of the demise of Holden is that John Rice Avenue is less congested, so perhaps the argument for traffic lights has lessened a little. I might have to look at the accident stats, but I will certainly be pursuing that in the near future.

In regard to sports clubs in my electorate, I suggest that the current government could do worse than funding female change facilities in some of the sports clubs in my electorate. There are some very large sports clubs, including Central District Football Club, which some of you might have heard of. Before the election, I got a commitment from the government for half a million dollars for female change facilities. I went out there and announced it, but, sadly, we were not elected. I need to begin discussions with Central District about how we pursue this now. They are insistent on their need for female change facilities. They want to be a part of growing women's footy, particularly in light of the success of the women's AFL and—

Ms Cook interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: Indeed. I will be supporting them in that in any way that I can. Similarly, there is the Elizabeth Football Club. While it is a smaller club, I also gained a commitment that, if re-elected, we would provide half a million dollars for female change facilities at the Elizabeth Football Club, which may seem extreme until you realise that the Elizabeth Football Club is on a site that also hosts the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club, which I understand is one of the biggest amateur soccer clubs in the metropolitan area, and also the Craigmore Cricket Club. The discussions I had with the Elizabeth Football Club were that the Craigmore Cricket Club and the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club would also have use of these facilities. I know that the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club are very keen to expand their women's and girls' participation.

I would talk about the promises the Liberals made in my seat, but unfortunately—I am not playing politics here—they just did not make any. They preselected, as far as I am aware anyway, after the writs were issued and, as far as I am aware, made no promises at all. This is despite what I alluded to in my Address in Reply speech about Elizabeth hitting some pretty hard times in recent years with the closure of Holden, which the previous government did respond to. Holden, to their credit, responded to it, too. We responded with an Automotive Transformation Taskforce and money for the restructuring of subsidiary industries.

Unfortunately, we could not stop the closure of Holden. That was a fait accompli before the election rolled around, but we looked at restructuring existing industries. We also looked at giving the Industry Advocate more powers and restructuring the way tenders are conducted in relation to large infrastructure projects. Again, I recognise Industry Advocate Ian Nightingale's role in this to ensure that so many of the people on these large infrastructure projects, including the Northern Connector project that I was involved with in a peripheral way, were from local areas.

I think, at the last count, more than 90 per cent of the workers on the Northern Connector project were South Australian workers. Well over 50 per cent, which was the target, were from the northern suburbs, and that included former auto workers. It was really satisfying to be involved in that project, to promote it in my electorate and to tell people that this was a project where people from the northern suburbs could get jobs.

There were targets. You could log on to the NorthHub website, and you were already ahead of the game if you lived in the northern suburbs. This is a turnaround from years ago, when there was some criticism of some projects that did not have the same amount of local content. This was a perceived problem and something we addressed, particularly in light of the demise of Holden. Similarly, the Lyell McEwin was the subject of heavy investment by the previous government, as the member for Taylor alluded to.

Just last year, we announced a further $50 million to expand the emergency department and, importantly, as part of that, to separate children into separate areas from adults and drug-affected patients. It will be really interesting to see how that progresses. I sincerely hope the current government will continue to invest in the Lyell McEwin. The northern suburbs are growing and they need the best health care.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Wortley.