Members

Weatherill, Hon. J.W., Retirement

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (17:48): I was just saying that no-one has better epitomised the quote from Teddy Roosevelt that you should speak softly and carry a big stick than Jay Weatherill. So many people over the years have underestimated him because he is somebody who speaks softly and they have taken that to mean that he might act softly. I think those of us who have got to know him know that no-one is tougher. You do not want to mess with Jay Weatherill, and a few people have found that out to their detriment over the years.

The first time I got to know Jay was when I was working as a chief of staff in the Rann government in the health portfolio. Jay had the families and communities portfolio at the time and quite often there would be an intersection with those two portfolios. I also think Jay acted for my minister a few times as well.

Every time we dealt with Jay, he was inquisitive, well-researched and legally minded in wanting to know the facts and the details about everything, but he was also very caring towards the people who were under his care. There were some very tricky cases that we dealt with during that time, and I was struck by how much he genuinely cared about the outcomes in those cases.

I then had the privilege of being elected to this parliament. For the first two years, I was replacing John Rau's position down in the proverbial compactus in the library, but then I got the opportunity to be appointed as a parliamentary secretary to the then treasurer, the member for West Torrens. I got to do a number of projects you designated to me over that time. It was a delight to have elements of government work to work on. I was obviously privileged when you recommended my appointment as the police and emergency services minister.

I was really struck during my time as assistant minister, and then minister, by your vision and your energy. There have been some comments—in fact, from you, I think—about how your energy was particularly waning during that period. I never noticed that, and I do not think anybody in the cabinet noticed that. Your energy seemed to be fully present at all times. The area in which that was most highlighted was in dealing with the state energy plan. That was a tremendous crisis facing our state, particularly when we had the situation where power companies were willing to turn off electricity to our state so that they could make more money.

That demanded a response to ensure that we had sovereign control over our energy in South Australia. In delivering that plan in a very short period of time, and in going through a very complex set of arrangements where any number of things could have triggered a negative result, you showed what leadership is all about, and I think the state will be better for that for years to come.

Jay has had so many different portfolios that it is hard to name them all. It struck me that, pretty much from 2004 through to the end, you had responsibility for early childhood policy in South Australia, first as families and communities minister, then as early childhood minister and then as premier. It is something you have always taken a great interest in, and we have seen the benefits of that in our state in the improvement of services for children under five, whether that be through children's centres, upgrades to our schools or fighting for the Gonski deal that you signed with the then prime minister, Julia Gillard.

There were also changes to the curriculum through the Reggio programs, the STEM programs and the Building Better Schools program. I am lucky enough that, in my electorate, the STEM project at Seaford Secondary College is about to open at the start of school next year. I think that there will be great credit given to you and your legacy in all the openings of those projects.

In conclusion, I do not want this to be the last we hear of Jay Weatherill. You are still very young, and I hope that we see a lot more of your contribution to this state, this country and this world. Potentially, a future Shorten government might see the wisdom of using you for various projects. However, whatever capacity you take on in your next tasks, I hope we continue to see more of you. I know you will continue to work hard to make the world a better place. Thank you very much, Jay.

Sitting extended beyond 18:00 on motion of Hon. S.S. Marshall.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (17:53): I was not always a fan of the member for Cheltenham. I was the convenor of the right of the Labor Party—a sceptic—and Jay Weatherill was the darling of the left. The reason I was not a fan of the member for Cheltenham is that my worst fears were recognised, namely, that he was the best of our generation. He was without a doubt the very best we had, and I was really, really annoyed by that. He is smart and articulate and he actually cares about people—it is not an act: it is real.

We both have daughters. There is not a member in this parliament with whom I have worked more closely than the premier—as his treasurer, his transport and infrastructure minister, his energy minister and his mining minister. We worked together through that whole period leading up to 2014 and throughout the last four years of the Weatherill government.

He will not remember this, but when we were talking about domestic violence, I remember him saying, 'Look, I'm running out of time. I'm a man on a mission. My daughters can't grow up in a world like this.' It was not a speech; it was just me and some public servants and he said it as he was getting up to move to the next meeting, but you knew with Jay that he meant it.

Leadership is a precious gift the state gives to very few people. The current Premier is enjoying that now, our former premier had that for a while, and before that, Mike Rann. These are snapshots in time. I cannot give an accurate assessment of his premiership because I am too close to it, but I think it was spectacular. People will look back at the Weatherill government and the Rann-Weatherill decade-plus as one of the great moments, I think, in our movement, as a state and as a party.

The reason you rise to the top of political parties is that you are the best of all of us. We do not choose people out of convenience and we do not choose people because we think, 'He can do that for a little while and we can move deck chairs around later.' We actually choose the best person to lead us for a reason. Bugger me if all the people he grew up with in the left are not really amazing and committed people, as are people within the right wing of the Labor Party. I often say to people in Young Labor who are coming up through the ranks that if you can beat the left the Liberals are a lot easier. I do not mean that disrespectfully: I mean it as a compliment.

Look at what we were up against in Young Labor: Mark Butler, Penny Wong, Jay Weatherill, Patrick Conlon. These are ferocious people with brains double the size of their skulls. They were smart, they were articulate and they did not join the Labor Party for the sake of a career; it probably had an adverse impact on their careers. I am sure that Jay Weatherill would have made a lot more money as a lawyer. He started his own small business and went through it all. He did it the hard way. He never once had the numbers in this party—not once—but had everyone behind him. That is a rare feat in politics today and will not be repeated.

An honourable member: Never again.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Never ever again. I remember the former premier talking about understanding power and what the qualities of leadership are, and I think he got it absolutely right. He might have been just pulling the strings on me a bit to get me more in awe and enamoured of him, but the truth is that the test of leadership is independent thinking, which is thinking for yourself and understanding power. You, my friend, have those in spades, and you only get those in spades if you are smart. I do not think anyone can deny that Jay Weatherill is one of the smartest people ever to have walked in this chamber.

What does independent thinking mean? Independent thinking means that when the state goes black, you do not react politically: you talk to the engineers, you talk to the scientists and you work out the solution. That is thinking independently. When the commonwealth government walk into the Treasurer's office and say, 'We won't guarantee Nyrstar,' independent thinking is, 'We will because we can't afford to have that city go to its knees,' and that lesson gave us the ability to stand up in Whyalla.

What the premier was teaching the cabinet the whole way through was that we needed to think for ourselves because we are a sovereign government, we are a sovereign people and we are doing it on behalf of others. I will never forget all those lessons he taught me over the entire time I was treasurer and transport minister, and I thank him for them.

I also thank him for the personal moments. He came back from Jerusalem and gave me a rosary, which I still have to this day. He gave it to me because he was worried about me and he cared about me, and it paid off. We have all had personal tragedies in our lives, and when I had a personal tragedy the first person who came to me was the premier. It was touching, and Anthea and I will never forget it.

I am sad he is going, and today is like the end of an era. I was very sad when Mike left because I thought Mike was a great leader, and I thought it would be very difficult to see anyone live up to the legacy he left us. Jay has done that. What that means for us as a movement is that Peter and Susan can go out and campaign standing on their shoulders. I am sorry I am tearing up—I often tease Peter about it—but the truth is that we are lucky to have had him. He did not have to be here, but he chose us anyway.

He could have gone to Canberra and he could have been a senator. He could have just stayed a lawyer and made a fortune and would probably be a judge by now. He could have done something else, but he chose us. When I say 'us', I am not talking about the caucus; he chose our movement. He cares passionately about working people and would talk about them as though he knew every single one of them in every cabinet meeting we had. He talked about those workers on the Holden assembly line as though he knew each and every one of them, as though he knew their wives and their husbands and their kids.

I remember Treasury telling me not to fund any money for the supply chain workforce that surrounded Arrium. Jay said to me, 'What are they going to say at Christmas when they can't pay their bills? What happens when this thing is saved and they are all gone, and they see some other company or some franchise come in and get all the work they had? They're stuck in Whyalla, they can't sell their house because it's not worth very much, can't pay off their mortgage, and husbands fight with their wives.' You want a Premier who will care about the person on the street. We had that and it guided us.

We lost. I do not think we deserved to lose, but we did. The voters are never wrong; we obviously accept that, and there are lessons to be learned. The lesson I have learned is that when you see real leadership, cherish it, because it is rare. We have been lucky in this state and in this party. We have had Dunstan, we have had Rann, we have had Weatherill, and hopefully we will have Malinauskas. We have been led well.

Make no mistake about the other legacy Jay has left, which will go on for another generation: he taught another generation how to lead, how to govern and how to care through his example. I am not very good at mentoring people. My view of survival in politics is to take you out to the longest jetty and throw you off, and if you swim back to shore we will take you and preselect you. The Weatherill approach was much better: to mentor, to nurture, to promote and to trust. He trusted us.

I remember, when Jay was telling us that we could win 47 per cent of the vote, I thought, 'No chance.' He was right. I remember him telling me that maybe Martin would join our cabinet. I thought, 'No, we're moving things around a board now; it's not real.' It was. That self-belief is bloody impressive. I do not have that self-belief. To be fair, I have seen it in three people: I have seen it in Mike, I have seen it in Jay and I see it in Peter.

You have been away from your young girls for too long and they deserve you back. We thank them for lending you to us for so long. I remember when I first came in here your father told me, 'You watch Jay.' I was a smoker back then and George would always bum cigarettes from me, in the great working-class tradition, and we would always talk outside. You can tell why he was a good premier: it was because of the grounding he had in his family.

I saw a documentary last night on Bobby Robson, the great UK manager who led Barcelona, and England to two world cups. Sir Alex Ferguson, who is a life member of the Labour Party in the UK, said, 'You know why Bobby Robson was a great manager of people and a great coach? It was because he grew up in a mining town. In mining towns, you look after each other.' Some might call it socialism, some might call it caring for your neighbours, but it was a community spirit. The reason the Weatherill premiership was, I think, one of the most inspirational things I have ever been part of was because of his upbringing, because of that instinct inside him, that Cornish miner instinct, to help your neighbours and look after each other.

Jay, I am going to miss you. I am sorry I was not nice to you before. I am sorry for not understanding what ageing well really means. I am sorry for not understanding earlier what it was we had and not nurturing it more and being more supportive of it. But, while you were there, you had my loyalty unconditionally. You are right about not having to look over your shoulder. I remember thinking to myself, 'If they come after him, I will have to stop them. We can't let anyone stop this. We have to do the right thing by the party and the state.' That was difficult, but it was worth it.

So, boss, thank you for your service. I do love you and I wish you all the very best. I know it will not be the last we see of you. I know that whenever we need you to come back and campaign for us, you will be the first one there. Thank you very much, Jay.