Finniss Electorate

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:12): I rise to talk about the beauty of the area of Finniss within the seat of Mayo. To me, there is great beauty in our electorate, with the beautiful beaches like Horseshoe Bay, through to the wonderful scenery around Mount Compass with the rolling hills, through to the River Murray and the beauties of the lower reaches of the Murray.

We have a real opportunity in this electorate now with a by-election. It is a by-election that is through no fault of the electors of Finniss or Mayo but the fault of the previous member in not getting her paperwork in order. This previous member, Rebekha Sharkie, has previously also been a member of the Democrats. Yes, she was a member briefly of the Liberal Party, then she was a member of NXT, now Centre Alliance. It even now appears that she may be eventually going to join the Labor Party following a grieve recently by the member for Mawson. There is great support there from the member for Mawson for the Centre Alliance candidate. It even appears to be so strong that it is above his own candidate.

Last week in Victor Harbor, a forum was held where four of the candidates who indicated they were going to be running in the seat were given the opportunity to put their positions forward. The Labor candidate, Reg Coutts, was given the opportunity to speak first. I was insulted by his opening remark, which was, 'I am the second dark horse in a race,' which I think is insulting to many.

That insult to the people of Mayo continued, with no solutions offered to the electorate. His dismissing of questions by saying that he had only been preselected very recently so he was not across the issues within the electorate, to me, was dismissive of the people of Mayo. I see this as Labor Party support for the person they would really like to see elected, that is, Rebekha Sharkie. A real alliance is occurring there and that really concerns me with regard to what we really need in Mayo.

This is the perfect opportunity to elect Georgina Downer, the Liberal candidate for the seat, to get a strong representative in the seat. She has the ability to go a very long way at a federal level. Having had personal interaction with her over the last few weeks in particular, re-acquainting myself with her as she started campaigning, I think she has real potential to be a minister. I do not even rule out the potential, eventually, if circumstances were right, for her to be prime minister of this country.

There are many things that this area needs. Members of this parliament and in the federal parliament advocate for those needs, but to take credit for matters that you write supporting letters for I think is a big call. Even in my brief role as member for Finniss I have supported things, but I do not say I have delivered. I have certainly supported people trying to achieve things, but to say that I am the one who has delivered something just by writing a letter of support is false and misleading to the community.

During the state campaign in Finniss, enormous promises were made: $600 million towards the duplication of the Victor Harbor Road, $2 million to the Goolwa sporting precinct, extra buses, etc. Again, these promises were never deliverable. This was trying to buy the support of people in the electorate. People are waking up to this, though. We need to make sure that we work hard and get the best candidate elected down in the seat of Mayo to deliver the best outcome we can for those people in Mayo generally, and for the people in my electorate of Finniss, and that we get the support of the federal government behind the wonderful Marshall government we now have here in this state and deliver what we need in Finniss and Mayo.