Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Debate resumed.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (11:47): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to speak and recognise the opening of the Fifty-Fifth Parliament of South Australia. My congratulations to you on being elected as the Speaker of this fine house. I am certain you will carry out proceedings in an orderly manner in your charge.

Of course, I offer my congratulations to all the new members of parliament in this house, in fact all members new and returning to this Fifty-Fifth Parliament. I also sincerely thank Her Excellency the Governor for opening parliament this week and for the way she conducted herself with great dignity. It was really fantastic to be there for her swearing in last year in October. Already, she has proven to be a fantastic asset to this state.

In terms of being elected to Morphett, it certainly is an honour and privilege to be re-elected by the good people of Morphett to be their voice in parliament. I will look to bring to this role passion, integrity and humility again, as I did in the last four years, and certainly to be a really strong advocate for all those people living in Morphett, irrespective of who they voted for.

The electorate itself is named after Sir John Morphett, who is quite a historical figure here in South Australia, certainly from a European settlement perspective. He came across in 1836 with Sir William Light. They came to Glenelg, where they first discovered fresh water at the Patawalonga. He then went on to be part of the early days of democracy here in what was the colony of South Australia. He was the Legislative Council President in this fine establishment. In 1842, he set about building his house, Cummins House, in my electorate on quite a large portion of farmland—130 acres with orchards, vines and also olives. In fact, there is still a stand of those olives in Novar Gardens near the PHOS Camden Football Club.

As I mentioned, Cummins House is very historic. It is in Novar Gardens and so when their lease expired with the local council, the West Torrens council, back in 2019 there was really a lot of work done between me and the member for Black, who is now our leader, to make sure that by working closer together we could keep the management of that house running in an orderly way. It is now being undertaken by the state government. That was really important. The Cummins Society is a great society that makes sure of the upkeep of that property, where they run tours and Devonshire teas. It was great to work with them, and it was very important that the house be maintained in public ownership for the public to enjoy, so I just acknowledge the president at the time, Jan Ward, during this transition period as well.

As I mentioned, Novar Gardens is certainly one of the suburbs in Morphett. Morphett is really a fantastic place in the world to live. It is close to the beach and close to the city, so it offers the best of both worlds. In the easternmost side of the electorate are the great suburbs of Camden Park, Park Holme and Morphettville. Of course, Morphettville is the home of racing here in South Australia with Morphettville racecourse.

Based out of there, there has been a lot of work done by the South Australian Jockey Club, which will look to develop that land as well. They are looking at doing a significant development, which will also hopefully open up the infield there inside the track to make it available for sporting fields, which will be is fantastic. Certainly, when you look at metropolitan Adelaide from the Hills, what really stands out is a big parcel of open land there in my electorate, and so I look forward to working with the SAJC over these next four years to progress that. It will become a really great community asset for the community, and we hope to work through their vision.

Other suburbs that are very important are Glengowrie, a slight portion of Somerton Park and then all the Glenelgs—Glenelg East, Glenelg South and also Glenelg North. Those Glenelgs border some amazing coastline of about three kilometres in length. Of course, the coast is very important for people and a big portion of open space for our community, so coastal protection is really important to them. Again, I think that is an area where the Marshall government put a lot of emphasis over those last four years to protect the coastline. We recognise the importance of that to people.

One of the areas that I again worked on closely with the member for Black in his role as the Minister for Environment was to have a shellfish reef set up only about a kilometre off the shore near the mouth of the Patawalonga. It would be a bed probably five hectares, so roughly the size of two Adelaide Ovals, and it plays an important role, having oysters there, the natural oysters that used to be up and down the coast, which have been degraded by all the nutrients in the ocean.

Bringing them back will help not only filter the seawater but also attract seagrass and make sure that the sand under the ocean is stable, which in turn helps protect the coastline there as well. That is really important. Coastal protection, as I said, is important to the community. It is important to my family as well. We live very close to the coast there in Glenelg South, Glenelg North being where the shellfish reef is, so oftentimes we walk down there.

It is a very active community in Morphett. As I said, my family lives in Glenelg South. Members of the family work in the electorate, we volunteer in the electorate at the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club and we play sport in some of the fantastic clubs there. It is really important as the community's representative in state parliament to be able to keep in touch with the community, and certainly over the four years I have really sought to engage with the community and of course will undertake to do that again in this four-year term. Morphett is a fantastic place to live. I think it is the best electorate to represent in the South Australian parliament, and it is so fantastic to have that honour and privilege to serve the people of Morphett.

I thought back over the four years. When I was elected in 2018, I outlined in my maiden speech in this place some important priority areas that I held true to over the four years, and really I see no reason to change them. These areas included looking to build the community; making sure that we support the local economy; making sure that our community is safe; protecting the environment, particularly the coastline; making sure we assist seniors, as Morphett has one of the oldest demographics, so making sure we do a lot of work there to protect our seniors; and improving our transit corridors, be that the roads or the tram. I focused on those in the local electorate. I mentioned earlier two of these initiatives: work on Cummins House and also the shellfish reef for coastal protection.

Community safety is very important to Morphett. Glenelg is a bit of a tourism hotspot. It gets a lot of visitors, with over a million visitations a year. A lot of these are in the summer months, of course, being near the beach. In 2018 I made the commitment to extend the Glenelg Police Station opening hours—they were only open Monday to Friday, nine till five. I really pushed for the station to be open seven days a week during those peak summer months, with an emphasis on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to make sure they are open over longer hours because that is when it is busiest. That has been successful.

There are still lots of pressures there, but that is certainly another commitment I gave to Morphett for this election, that we would continue those police station operating hours. Certainly, it will be the expectation of my community that those hours are continued. I pay tribute to the member for Hartley sitting next to me here. As the Minister for Police he made sure that those opening hours continued in our discussions when we were talking through the budget process. The police are there.

I mentioned before that there are pressures in terms of antisocial behaviour. Some of it is from drugtaking and some of it is just from petty crime. It is a concern to the traders, because of course we are trying to make Glenelg family friendly. We want people to enjoy their time down there and not be confronted with violence. One of the other initiatives I set up was an antisocial behaviour round table, which got great support from the Western District Police, and we had a number of sergeants and superintendents come along.

We held these round tables on a regular basis, bringing together the police representatives from SAPOL; the local council, City of Holdfast Bay; the Jetty Road Mainstreet Committee—of course they had an active interest in this, being the traders—and some of the local charity and church faith groups, and St Andrew's by the Sea is one that every week on a Tuesday offers a soup kitchen to help feed people. I have had the Minister for Police attend these from time to time to hear what is going on.

It is a really good way to have two-way communication between SAPOL and the Jetty Road traders in my local community in Morphett. Not only did they provide updates but it was also a way to provide solutions—and solutions there were. The police really set about having more patrols, whether foot patrols, that is, active patrols of police going up and down the street, going into the Bayside Village, or mobile patrols. Because of our communications, a lot of police work today can be done remotely and therefore the police can operate effectively out of their patrol cars.

If I could mention also specific operations that were set up to have an emphasis, especially over that summer period, one of those, Operation Jericho, really has made a noticeable difference and is much appreciated by the community as well.

Another solution that was identified was that, yes, you can have the police there, but prevention is also very important. One of the initiatives coming out of this round table was the importance of CCTV, high-quality CCTV that helps to apprehend and also charge perpetrators. We are really looking to continue rolling out the CCTV network in Glenelg to make sure there is that surveillance there. That is something else I will be focusing on over these next four years, as well as continuing to hold this antisocial behaviour round table to keep this focus on community safety.

Another important project, again, which was an election promise I made in 2018—I should say, the Marshall government; I am taking too much credit, but I certainly support it—was the work done over the last four years by the government to revitalise the Repat, committing significant funding, $125 million worth of funding, into the area to reverse the damage that came when Labor closed the Repat. It was an important community health asset. It has been great over the four years to see it change and it will be a really significant health precinct and health asset for the community.

There is a brand-new brain and spinal rehabilitation facility. There is also the Repat Veteran Wellbeing Centre. The Plympton Glenelg RSL have moved from their premises into the Repat and they are thrilled to be back. There is also the wheelchair stadium, which is a fantastic new stadium, part of the town square that is there in the Repat. We also look forward to the opening of the Repat Neuro-Behavioural Unit. This will provide care for people with advanced dementia. It is really important that they are cared for there.

We are also looking to roll out surgical and procedural services there. It is fantastic to bring surgery back onto that site as well. It was an important initiative. We listened to the veterans community and those passionate about this site and really have revitalised the Repat into a thriving health precinct. Of course, work is still ongoing there. It has been used for drive-through testing during COVID times. It was the first drive-through testing clinic in the Southern Hemisphere, so it really does have a significant place in terms of our response to COVID as well.

When you drive past, as I did just this week, you can see they are still laying foundations for the next building to go up. There is work still being done there, and it really does show that to overcome the challenges when we first came to government as the Marshall government in 2018, to overcome Transforming Health, it was going to take a long time; it was going to take more than four years.

Now my role is to hold this new government to account to make sure they continue the outstanding work that was done in that precinct and, more generally, the work done in our health system in terms of expanding emergency departments and the significant funding that the Marshall government put into health that increased spending in health in the budget by $900 million. We look to make sure that is spent wisely and for the best benefits of South Australians.

I would like to also talk about some of the fantastic sporting clubs in the electorate of Morphett, and we are blessed to have so many. They play an important role in building community. Over the four years, and even before that, it has been fantastic to go to see so many of these sporting matches played, bringing people together and the friendships that are built out of doing that.

One of the commitments I made in 2018 was to upgrade the playing surface at Plympton Oval and, importantly, put in drainage at Plympton Oval to help the Plympton Bulldogs. It has been really worthwhile seeing that rolled out. The drainage improvements went in in 2019. As that has gone through, and the surface itself has knitted and come together, it has been really important. So now in winter, when the rain falls, it no longer just pools on the top to become a mud pit. It is now a pretty reasonable playing surface. Of course, there will still be bits of mud with all the spikes that go through there.

What is significant about that is the explosion of girls playing football, girls playing these sports as well. The Plympton Bulldogs can now cater for more teams, and it gives the girls who were newly introduced to a sport a great surface to play on so that they can concentrate on their skills and not have to worry about the surface being uneven and unplayable.

Unfortunately, the Plympton Bulldogs are no longer in Morphett; they have moved into Badcoe, so I hope the member for Badcoe will look after them as well as I looked after them. Certainly, a lot of the players and families who are part of the club come from my electorate of Morphett. It has been great to see funding put towards other clubs. The PHOS Netball Club has now been relocated over to join the PHOS Camden Football Club at Camden Oval. Four newly surfaced netball courts have been provided. They are hot off the press, so I look forward to those being used this season.

The Glenelg Football Club is the premier football club in Morphett, and it has been a fantastic and thrilling four years to see some of their success. The men's team won the 2019 SANFL premiership, and the women's team won the 2021 women's premiership in the club's centenary year. Again, it was fantastic that the Marshall government provided funding towards unisex change rooms, which allowed both the men's and women's teams to play on the same day because there are now four change rooms there. It happened on the weekend when the women played South Adelaide—my daughter is playing in that team; it is great to see her get the benefit of it, but more generally the team—and the men played against Port Adelaide on the same day. Both teams got to play in front of quite a significant crowd. It is great for the females to get the support that they deserve for their efforts.

I thank the former member for Gibson, the Hon. Corey Wingard, for his fantastic work as the Minister for Sport. Over the last four years, significant funding was put into so many clubs—not only in Morphett, but across South Australia.

If I talk about significant improvement as well, there has been significant improvement in our schools. They are really important for educating our next generation, and that is why the Marshall government looked to transition year 7s into high school. That happened this year. It is going to be really important for those students going forward to accommodate this. There is, of course, massive investment in our secondary schools in Morphett: Brighton Secondary had over a $13 million investment for classroom upgrades. The Plympton International College had a fantastic performing arts centre built and opened as well in the last four years.

Of course, primary schools are also important, so they were invested in. Glenelg Primary School has $7 million of funding to be put towards classroom upgrades. Speaking just today with their principal, Shane Misso, that is being worked through, and I look forward to that being completed over the next four years.

There are also some fantastic Catholic schools in Morphett and we understood, as a government, that it is important that the Independent and Catholic systems also work to educate our youngsters. In my electorate, St Mary's Memorial in Glenelg, Our Lady of Grace in Glengowrie and also St John the Baptist in Plympton received significant funding for their classroom upgrades as well. This is an area I will be working really hard on again over the next four years.

These are really significant achievements that have had a big impact on the electorate, but it has to be said that the biggest impact in Morphett and across all of South Australia over the last two years has been the global pandemic. It has upended everyone's life, and our approach as the government was to listen to the health advice and to make sure that South Australia was one of the safest places in Australia, in the world, initially keeping the virus out.

When vaccines—a modern miracle—were developed so quickly, they were able to be rolled out to protect the population. That took a long time, but as a state we were able to get our population significantly vaccinated to make sure that everyone could be protected as best as possible. In doing so, the figures show that many thousands of deaths were prevented in South Australia. Unfortunately, there were deaths, so I offer my condolences to the families of loved ones whose lives were lost during that COVID pandemic, and unfortunately this is still occurring as we speak.

At this stage, it is important to thank our frontline health staff for keeping the community safe, our police and emergency services workers for their work and also, with the schools, to thank the teachers, who had to adapt to hybrid learning, which meant long hours for them well. I acknowledge them and all South Australians for their role in looking after not only themselves but their family and the community and allowing South Australia to have one of the lowest levels of restrictions but also quite a high rate of compliance in terms of keeping people safe as well.

We are now at the stage where, after two hard years, as COVID has gone through and we have gained that immunity, we are able to open up again. It started before the election and it is continuing as we go through, and we are looking to get Australians back to the genuine freedoms they deserve to be able to prosper.

When I talk about that, yes, it was a health crisis, but we are very mindful that it also was an economic crisis. Business owners especially made many hard sacrifices to keep South Australians safe, and I acknowledge the hardship it caused. It certainly had an impact on the election result, so I commit to reconnecting with the small business community in Morphett and South Australia as well.

I should mention my office staff. All electorate offices had a lot of correspondence and became an important conduit for members in their community to get information, to seek assistance and to try to change rules. In all cases we tried to act empathetically out of our office. We could not solve all issues because of the nature of some of the restrictions, but I thank my office staff—Simone, Hugh, Tayla and Rubie—for their efforts during this time.

It is worth mentioning that the former Premier, the member for Dunstan; the Minister for Health, the Hon. Stephen Wade from the other place; and the rest of cabinet and members on this side worked tirelessly to keep South Australians safe during this time. It was important to keep people safe, but we also had to have that focus to continue to build the economy, and it was during this time that I was made the Minister for Trade and Investment in July 2020.

I thank the former Premier for the faith he showed in me. Trade and investment is very important to this state. Going forward we need to have a strong economy to give people the worthwhile work to be able to pay for the services that the government provides. With international borders closed because of COVID, and trade tariffs coming out of China, especially in wine, a main priority of mine during that time was standing up programs to assist export sectors that had been affected.

As a government we rolled out a global network of trade offices, and these proved vital when international travel was not possible during those COVID times. We had four offices when we came to government in 2018; by the time we finished there were 15 trade offices operating or in the process of being set up. It gave coverage across all our key markets, following the sun effectively, from the USA, Asia, India and the Middle East over to Europe and the UK. These will be really important. They were important while travel was restricted and they will be important going forward.

We have just seen two significant free trade agreements signed and agreed to between the UK and Australia and also India and Australia and places where these offices are. They will be important for us going forward; they are important for our exports. Only last year we saw exports for overseas goods reaching record heights early in 2021, with $12.5 billion worth of exports, which was a new record at the time. That continued to grow, and by July and it had reached $13 billion and has continued on each month since being above $13 billion, with the recent figures in January and February reaching a new state record of $13.4 billion, which is great for our exporters, a testimony of their work, but good for the South Australian economy as well.

It is also important that, along with a lot of those commodities, we grow our service exports, and I think a major legacy of the Marshall government will be the establishment of Lot Fourteen, having that completely transformed from the old Royal Adelaide Hospital into a hub of technology and innovation.

Significantly, we have had the national Australian Space Agency being located at Lot Fourteen and this will cement South Australia as the centre of Australia's space industry. It has also proved a key pillar in attracting some significant global businesses to South Australia. I have mentioned before in this house Accenture, Cognizant, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and a number of others that all add up to thousands of fantastic, highly skilled jobs and also billions of dollars of investment into South Australia.

There was also some great work done in attracting sovereign manufacturing. With the time remaining I will not go through that in detail, but it included being able to attract the Australian Space Park manufacturing hub, $380 million to some significant plant protein manufacturing and also $146 million towards the Port Bonython hydrogen hub. These are massive investments for the state going forward. It really is transformative and will help attract many young people to South Australia.

In terms of thanking people, I thank the staff in my office at Trade and Investment, particularly Rowan, Brendan and my Chief of Staff, Kathryn McFarlane. I also acknowledge the former CE of the department Leonie Muldoon for her work.

In terms of the election result in Morphett, you cannot do it alone, and I had so many volunteers, a fantastic group of volunteers. Special mention goes to Hugh Sutton, my campaign manager, and Laura Coppola, who was the Morphett SEC President. We had a fantastic support group in terms of helping me doorknock and attend listening posts as well as making sure the letterboxing was done, ensuring that was carried out. So thank you to Robert, Roger, Rod, Kym, Frank, Ella and Mary as well as my father, John.

There is a special mention from the listening posts to Hugh, who deserves a special mention there, as well as Simone. Hugh was always there to make sure that the marquee was set up and that everyone was protected from either the rain or the sun.

Thank you to the rest of my campaign team: Rowan, Brendan, Tony, Zayne, Will, Hamish and Baie, especially for their efforts corfluting. There was a magnificent team of volunteers who helped out on pre-poll and election day: Patricia, Christine, Pete, Jonheen, Janet, Glenda, Leonore and Jerry put in so many hours. Thank you to everyone else who helped on election day as well: my brother, Tain, and his wife, Nat, for their help, Chris and Eva Sargeant, Mahbub, Shahrukh, Jamo, Grant, Jamie and so many others.

I would also like to thank my Liberal Party colleagues for their help. I have mentioned the Premier before and our new leader, the member for Black. I also acknowledge the former members of parliament who have retired or who were not re-elected.

Significantly, I would like to thank my family: my wife, Tammy, who puts in tireless work supporting me as a member of parliament, and my children Oliver, Coco, Violet and Gabe. Thank you for your support. I commit to serving my community diligently and in good faith.

Time expired.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (12:18): It is a pleasure to rise and speak following the opening of parliament and our Governor's contribution to those proceedings. I also thank the Governor for making clear her expectations of us both in this place and the other place over the next four years.

After each election, it is timely to remind ourselves not just of the priorities we spoke about perhaps in the context of an election campaign but also of our responsibilities to our communities separately and collectively to the state. Like my 46 colleagues, I know we take that responsibility very seriously, and we will all work assiduously to discharge that to the best of our abilities.

It has been an election campaign which saw significant change, but regardless of that change I would like to congratulate all members who have been elected, both returning MPs and also some of the new MPs. We are very excited, on this side, to have a new cohort of members. We have had the extraordinary pleasure already of hearing some opening speeches to parliament from new members, and I cannot quite remember a time when the quality of the speeches and their content have been so moving and so impactful for members and also for families and other guests who have been fortunate enough to hear them.

It has been an extraordinary change in terms of not just government and opposition but the composition of our parliament, with so many new members elected on our side: of course, the member for Waite, the member for Adelaide, the member for Newland, the member for King, the member for Gibson, the member for Elder, the member for Playford, the member for Davenport.

I know members on the other side are equally proud and excited to see new members of their team elected for the first time. We have already in some way acknowledged the new member for Frome, and we also have a new member for Flinders and a new member for Schubert. I know that those members opposite are excited about new members on their team as well.

Pleasingly, many on our side, but also, we should acknowledge, on the opposition benches—it is really pleasing to see so many women elected to parliament. It feels like we are making more significant strides now in evening up the representation in this place generally speaking between men and women, and that is really encouraging.

Of course, we would say this on our side—but I think we could also expect to say for newly elected members of the other side—that there is extraordinary talent coming into the parliament as well, for the first time, with those members. It is really encouraging to see.

I would also like to congratulate—albeit he is not in the chair at the moment—the member for Kavel not only on his re-election but also on his re-election to the position of Speaker. He had already demonstrated himself to be a considered and diligent Speaker in the previous parliament, and it is already evident that that is continuing here.

I would like to congratulate the member for Stuart as a new member for Stuart and as a returning member of parliament on an extraordinary victory, a resounding victory. I am sure that not only is it recognition of his connection to his local community and the esteem in which he is held by his constituents but recognition of very hard work. I know that the member for Stuart has had a particularly challenging couple of years in his own particular way as well as, of course, like the rest of the community, in dealing with COVID. So it is a remarkable victory in that sense as well for the member for Stuart.

I would also like to acknowledge some candidates on our side of politics who got very close but unfortunately were not able to be elected at the last election: Cressida O'Hanlon, a 6.9 per cent swing to Labor, making Dunstan the most marginal seat in the state, at only half a per cent. With a truly remarkable achievement for a candidate, there is Ryan Harrison in the seat of Unley, a 9.4 per cent swing to Labor, making the seat of Unley a marginal seat now, at only 2.2 per cent. In fact, I do not think we have had a result that close since perhaps 2006, and before that we might have to look back to Australian cricket legend Gil Langley for holding the seat of Unley for the Australian Labor Party—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Brown): A former Speaker.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: A former Speaker. A safe pair of hands not only behind the stumps but behind what I assume was some sort of unelectrified microphone vocal projection device that would have been in existence in the parliament back then. With Matthew Marozzi there was an 8 per cent swing to Labor in the seat of Morialta, and with my friend from many years ago Alex Dighton there was a 6.5 per cent swing to Labor, making the seat of Black a marginal as well. They are really terrific results and, while the four of them fell short, I am very much looking forward to seeing the four of them being successful at the next election for those seats—probably a couple of those four I mentioned before sooner rather than later, I am anticipating. That is going to be encouraging.

As we resume parliament this week after the necessary break for the election, I would like to thank the ever-patient parliamentary staff, including the house staff as well, not only for their patience in having to put up with our contributions in this place but for all the assistance they provide to us, led by the Clerk, Rick, and the house staff, but also all of the other staff throughout the parliament complex. They do a really remarkable job keeping this place running and keeping us looking at least vaguely competent as we are showing members of the community around or attending meetings outside of sitting hours.

This was comfortably the most remarkable campaign that I have had the privilege of participating in. I had previously participated in state and federal campaigns going back to the 2001 campaign, but this was a campaign unlike any other. I do not expect the member for Croydon, the now Premier, or even the member for Port Adelaide, the Deputy Premier, or others to reflect on the campaign that they led because their modesty would prevent them from doing so, but it was a collective and collegiate effort in an election campaign by a political party the extent to which I had not previously seen.

Of course, it was easy for us to be enthusiastic and hardworking and diligent in all aspects of the campaign because of the fact that we were led by the member for Croydon. He is a very easy leader to support and campaign next to because he provided such a compelling vision, conviction and alternative during the campaign to the incumbent Liberal government. But the way in which the campaign was managed and led was something unlike the Labor Party had conducted before, and I think it is worth recognising the role of the previous state secretary, now the Hon. Reggie Martin MLC, and the current state secretary Aemon Bourke for the effort they had put it.

Usually, there are one or two seat campaigns which see each political party, Labor and Liberal, put an enormous amount of effort into. There are a huge number of volunteers, there are a lot of resources put into them, and it is pretty obvious in a particular election campaign which those seats are. But, this particular election campaign, the 2022 state election campaign, on our side of politics, saw more than a dozen such efforts across seats.

It is little wonder that we were able to achieve success in seats that perhaps 18 months ago we would not have reasonably thought we stood a chance of winning, whether it is the seat of Gibson or Waite or Davenport. It started by having just extraordinarily high-calibre candidates and then incredible campaigns supporting those candidates. I did not mean to single out those three to the exclusion of others, but we ran campaigns across at least a dozen different electorates, running at them as hard as possible with as great candidates as possible. Even those we fell agonisingly short of were really terrific efforts.

I am pleased that not only have we managed to see people elected into this place as representatives of those seats where we were successful but also I am really pleased that those people who came so close but who were unsuccessful are going to have that chance again. When I mention Cressida O'Hanlon, our candidate for Dunstan, or Ryan Harrison or Matthew Marozzi, these are quality South Australians who are going to make a real impact in this place, and that is something to look forward to. The sooner we get them in, I think, the better.

Mr Acting Speaker, you would probably roll your eyes as I say this, but somebody with such an extraordinary commitment to the law and somebody with such an extensive academic background—but more to the point a true believer who shares great Australian Labor Party values—like Rick Sarre is going to make a terrific member of parliament. We look forward to the opportunity that he is going to have in the middle of this winter to put his best case forward to the people of South Australia to be the next member for Bragg.

It was also an election campaign where I think most South Australians could say that there was fundamental difference between the two major political parties. It has been a common refrain for the last generation or so where people say, 'There's no difference between Labor and Liberal,' and people on the Liberal side of things and people on the Labor side of things would say, of course, ‘That’s bunkum,’ and they would point out a few key differences usually related to whatever the political issues of the day were.

But there could be no starker contrast, I think, at this recent state election about what the two different offerings were from the incumbent Liberal government and the Labor opposition, and those differences were prosecuted by both sides. It was not just one side representing the issues as being one thing and that not being engaged on by the other.

We had a strong campaign announced a year out from the former Premier, the member for Dunstan, about wanting to focus on future economic development opportunities for the city coalescing around a new Riverbank stadium, whereas the Labor Party priority was around the health system, and that choice was prosecuted strongly by both sides in the lead-up to polling day.

I think it is important to point out—and not to make a political point about which was the better issue to be campaigning on etc., as that matter has been decided—that it reminds us of the importance for us as members to state our position, articulate it clearly and allow our political opponents to articulate their position, be respectful of it and leave it up for decision. That is essentially how this chamber is deliberately designed. We are standing here facing each other where a member will put their particular perspective, and it may be rebuffed or rebutted by the other side, and ultimately the house as a whole will decide that matter.

There have been a lot of times I can recall in the relatively brief time I have been here—I say that because the member for Hammond is here, and of course we have all served briefly compared with the member for Hammond; he is an experienced hand as a parliamentarian—where people, either in government or in opposition-type debates, or in conscience debates, have very firmly held views. They are argued and well articulated and in the end the house makes a judgement.

That process is so important not just for ourselves but for the communities that we represent that they understand what we stand for, what people on the other side of the debate stand for and why decisions get made. I look forward very much, with colleagues across both sides of the chamber, to engage in debates like that.

I would like to talk about my own electorate if I can. It is a tremendous privilege to me to be able to represent the electorate of Lee again after the recent state election. The member for Hartley has already talked about his community changing, for example, with lots of development and so on and the changes to planning controls he has sought as a result of that. My community, in that regard, is much the same: there is a lot of development going on.

There are a lot of older houses on large blocks being knocked over with more dwellings returned on each block and a significant change in the demographics of that community. It is really something that most metropolitan MPs would notice perhaps a bit more acutely than perhaps regional MPs, although that is not to say it is not happening in regional centres. I am sure the member for Finniss has seen this in some of the major townships in his electorate as well or, if not, just greenfield expansion of those townships and with that comes significant pressures.

Although there has been a boundary redistribution and the member for Colton has taken a substantial part of the former electorate of Lee in the suburb of Grange, he is seeing it in that suburb as well as in his remaining suburbs. I am continuing to see it in the suburbs of Seaton, Royal Park, Albert Park, Hendon, West Lakes and Semaphore Park—pretty much across all of the suburbs in my electorate—and that brings pressures.

The western suburbs are not overly endowed with open space or green space and that means that when thousands of families are flooding into these suburbs to live it is hard to find sporting and recreation facilities—ovals or parks—for families to recreate in and so it has been important for us to make commitments to improving what open space we have but also to make a commitment that we will use the Planning and Development Fund, or the open space fund as it is referred to, to purchase open space rather than just improve recreation facilities.

One example of this in my electorate, colloquially known as the duck pond in West Lakes or the freshwater lake on Delfin Island, I have to say galvanised a community in a way in which I had not seen perhaps since it was first announced that the Football Park site would be redeveloped. Hundreds and hundreds of local residents were absolutely aghast at the council's contemplation of filling in what is an extensive area of green space in the middle of West Lakes.

Part of the original design of West Lakes was the inclusion of the freshwater lake system on Delfin Island. Yes, of course, it is expensive to maintain, but that is why residents of the City of Charles Sturt have continued without too much complaint to pay rates each year so that the council has the capacity to maintain local infrastructure like that.

I was pleased in the early stages as a community representative to assist with that campaign to make people aware of the issue and then local residents, Robyn and Paul, led the Save the Freshwater Lake campaign. I am pleased to report that only in the last two weeks the council has now overturned its previous decision to consider filling in those lakes or substantially altering them. That is a terrific community win.

It is yet another example that shows me that, as a local MP—it does not matter if you are Labor or Liberal, metropolitan or regional, or even an Independent—staying close to your community, focusing on local issues, is incredibly important because they are usually the issues that are front of mind for people when they are thinking of who they want to represent them.

I have never had a margin of more than 10 per cent and I am almost embarrassed that for the first time I do have one. I do not pretend to think that it is all a result of people's affection for me. I think the leader of our Labor Party is not just a terrific leader but adept at announcing aquatic centre policies, if I can put it like that, that also garnered some attention, but I would like to think that at least some proportion of that improvement is a representation of our collective efforts to stay close to the issues that our community is concerned about.

I am also really pleased that we will be getting on with something that has stalled for the last four years and that is the completion of the coast park through my electorate. There were lots of flyers, lots of consultation rounds and lots of artists' impressions but absolutely zero progress made between the years 2018 and 2022 on completing this coast park, which was a frustration to me because it was a project that was funded by the former state government and the council in 2017 and should have been opened in about 2020.

Even though it looked like the project was going to be stymied by the new proposal from the then Liberal government, now the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Black, for a sand pumping pipeline, now that we have put that to one side, we can get on with delivering the coast park. That will be a huge relief for thousands of residents in my electorate, and families across the western suburbs, that they will be able to traverse from North Haven—if I get this right—down to Seacliff on a continuous, nonstop coastal path suitable for walking and low-speed cycling. That is great news.

I am also really pleased that we will start seeing some progress on, indeed the completion of, the stage 3 upgrade of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Again, this was a project where funding was set aside in 2017, yet only in January and February of this year did we finally see machinery move onto the site to clear the car park and get ready for that project. That is really pleasing to see.

I am really looking forward to continuing working with key major sporting and community clubs in my electorate, including at the home of SMOSH West Lakes, the West Lakes sports club, seeing the upgrade of their facilities. That is also the home of the Henley and Grange Baseball Club, the Port Adelaide Softball Club and the West AFL Masters Football Club. This is a single-storey facility with a couple of change rooms that caters, in total, across both summer and winter sports, for over 2,000 members. It is well overdue for an upgrade and I am very much looking forward to seeing that being delivered over the next four years.

Also, the council has been working on a master plan for the Grange Recreation Reserve. It is the home of the Grange Dolphins Cricket Club, now officially the most successful cricket club in the state, taking its tally of premierships to 44 after winning two flags in the limited overs turf competition in the most recent season. The reserve is shared with the USC Lion Soccer Club and also the Grange Royals Hockey Club, and we are committing money towards that. The Seaton Ramblers Football Club and the Western Strikers Soccer Club will also see an upgrade to their facilities. We have a lot to get on with in our electorate.

I also want to thank some people absolutely from the bottom of my heart for the never-ending support they provide to me. I want to start with my campaign manager, John Atkinson, who is undoubtedly a rising star of the Labor Party. He is somebody who works extremely hard, has incredible judgement both politically and when it comes to local issues and campaigning. He is a fantastic organiser and most of all he has a quality that is important in this game and that is calm: he is very calm and unflappable. That is great news.

I would like to thank the other people who have helped me in my electorate office over the last four years: Mel, Corey, Carol, Pauline and our trainees, the latest of which is Christian. They have done just the most outstanding job supporting me, particularly when I have not been able to be in the electorate office when the phones ring or people want to come in and meet. They are just the most tremendous support to me and I cannot tell them how much I appreciate their support.

I would also like to thank those people who supported my campaign, and three people in particular I want to thank, not just because they helped with this campaign but because they have helped me with every campaign: Amy Ware, who I first met back in 2003—about the same time you did, Acting Speaker—in a former colleague's office, is just the most generous and giving person to the labour movement, let alone to me as a candidate; David Wilkins is another extraordinary person who is so generous with his time and efforts; and Antonia Larizza, who is not only extremely hardworking in her local community but also in helping me and other Labor campaigns.

There are also those people who helped on booths, helped handing out and distributing flyers, scrutineering and so on, putting up corflutes, and just as importantly taking them down again: Tolley and Barbara, Louis, Yousif, Walter, Damian, Colin, Marylin, Zoran, Michelle, Andy, Vince, Julie, Anthony, Eleni, Irene, Manny, Malcolm, Peter, Georgina, Andrew, Matt, Robina, Glen, Karen and Norm, of course—Norm being a former member in this place and a former Speaker, Norm Peterson—Barbara, Antonia, Olivia, Chris, Sarah, Gerard, Jenny, John and even my former boss, Kevin Foley, for helping out on election day. He was used sparingly at the polling booth but wisely.

Mr Pederick: Did you get him up a pole?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: No, I did not get him up a pole. We would not want to risk anyone kicking the ladder out. I would also like to acknowledge the other candidates in the electorate of Lee, including Andrew Payne, for the Greens—who, I found out while handing out on the pre-poll booth with him, used to teach the member for West Torrens, and the member for West Torrens would like to know that he was tight-lipped about that experience as well—the Family First candidate, John Moldovan, and the Liberal Party candidate, Jake Hall-Evans.

The most heartfelt thanks that I want to issue is to my extraordinary wife, Antonia, to my boys, Ben and Isaac, and our little girl, Olivia. I know members talk about this from time to time, and we are fortunate being state MPs rather than federal MPs who are away so much more than we are, but it is so difficult as members who have families to be consciously making the choice to be attending to work, parliament, community events, night-time commitments rather than being home with family, particularly with young family that need a lot of very careful management to get them fed, showered and into bed each night. I know that that means a huge sacrifice from our spouses and partners when we are not there to do that, so I cannot thank Antonia and my family enough.

I thank my mum and my brothers—those I see, who have not been stuck overseas for years—and also Antonia's family. They give just the most extraordinary support I could ever hope to have from both of our families. It absolutely means the world to me and like just about everybody else in this place we could not do anything that we do as members of parliaments without the support of our families, so my heartfelt thanks to all of them, and I am looking forward to serving for the next four years with my parliamentary colleagues.

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (12:48): It is an absolute pleasure today to rise to address this place in the time remaining before lunch. Taking us to the break I feel like Jason Gillespie, but I will do my best.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Governor, Her Excellency Frances Adamson, for her service to the state. Of course, as we gathered there on the first day of this parliament, the enormous contribution and value that she has added to this state should be recognised. She is a tremendous lady, intelligent and classy. She brings so much dignity, decorum and an enormous amount of worldly experience to the role, and she is doing a fantastic job, so I think we should acknowledge that.

The former government I think has a lot to be proud of. We led the state extremely well through financial and economic challenges that, quite frankly, have never been seen before. The former government did very well to save as many lives, businesses and also as many jobs as possible, and we have seen already a significant economic recovery throughout our state as businesses again have opened their doors and workers have returned to work.

The former government also launched the biggest ever economic stimulus package in our state's history, which did help to reboot our economy. We promised to create jobs, build what matters and deliver better services and we certainly did that as well. I do believe that we helped to further secure our growing global reputation as one of the safest and most attractive places in the world to live, work and also raise a family.

There were significant policies that we enacted for the benefit of our state. For example, payroll tax has been abolished for all small businesses with payrolls less than $1.5 million per year. ESL costs for businesses and households have been reduced substantially, the top land tax rate has been slashed from 3.7 per cent to 2.4 per cent, electricity costs have dropped and water bills for the average business have also dropped.

We finally attracted more people from interstate into our state than actually left the state. We did wonders with the jobs and Economic Growth Fund, and also the Great State Voucher scheme was an enormous success. On health, we of course increased emergency department capacity, provided additional resources to our ambulance services and upgraded the Modbury Hospital that was long overdue.

The former government highlights also include plans to deliver the new Women's and Children's Hospital, with a significant budget allocation in the forward estimates towards that bill. In education, the government committed—certainly in my neck of the woods—over $80 million to construct a new 1,200 student year 7 to 12 high school at Rostrevor which is required to meet the growing demand in the area for government secondary schooling. In the last budget, 2021-22, we also allocated what would have been $17.9 billion towards a record infrastructure program, which is estimated to support more than 19,000 jobs during construction.

We should talk a little bit about the north-south corridor that, once completed, will provide a 78-kilometre nonstop motorway connecting the north and south of Adelaide and slashing travel time by well over 20 minutes. Enormous productivity improvements will result once that is completed, and once that project is completed it will do enormous wonders for people travelling through our great city. I also want to take this opportunity to reflect upon some of the other infrastructure and transport achievements.

We know that, for example, the upgrade of metropolitan roads and intersections is extremely important, and we were able to fast-track vital maintenance work and also create a number of jobs through our $373 million road safety package. We also upgraded around 4,800 kilometres of regional roads, through sealing road shoulders, widening lanes, installing guideposts and resurfacing, because we know, unfortunately, that the majority of our serious accidents happen on our regional roads.

I would like to acknowledge the member for Hammond, who is also the shadow minister for regional roads. I look forward to working with him, and he does a fantastic job in his local electorate. We upgraded the South Eastern Freeway and, through the police portfolio, we oversaw new laws to enable on-the-spot licence disqualification or suspension for people charged with causing death by dangerous driving, as well as increased penalties for hoon drivers.

We also upgraded both grassroots and elite sporting infrastructure assets right across the state and continue to do that, and many of those plans the government will hopefully continue. One of the first calls I made was to the shadow police minister, and I thank him for his service in the last parliament, and also to the new police minister as well, who has very capable people around him in the agencies that do a fantastic job.

I also want to make sure that we point out that the record should show that we funded and began major redevelopment of the Hindmarsh Stadium, bringing their venue to contemporary elite sports standards ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2023. I also want to thank the former Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Sport, Recreation and Racing Corey Wingard for his work.

I have spoken a little bit about our local achievements in Hartley. I want to thank all who were involved in my local campaign. I also congratulate the new members who have been elected. It is one of the highest honours that you can achieve in your life. I also want to congratulate and thank all the candidates from the various political parties who nominated for political office. Locally, I would like to thank all who were involved in my election. I thank them for putting their faith in me and for their assistance. It truly does require a village to support a political campaign.

I thank the people of Hartley. With humility, I say it is an absolute privilege and honour to be the member for Hartley. I will keep working every day to make sure that we work as hard as we can to make our local area the best that it can be. Thank you to the community. Thank you to our campaign team, our volunteers and our supporters.

At a personal level, I would sincerely like to thank my wife, Charissa, for her ongoing love and support. Our little boy, Leonardo, who is now just over six months, absolutely every day fills our hearts with love and joy. Thank you, Charissa, for your steadfast, unconditional and unwavering support and for the sacrifices you make so that I can do what I do as a member of parliament. I am very grateful and I love you a lot.

Thank you to all those who were involved in helping me to perform my role as a minister. I particularly want to thank my former ministerial staff, Sam Hooper, Ollie Everett, Allie Mildren and Ben Harvey in the media. To all the agencies: I want to sincerely thank them for the supporting role that they played. We certainly could not have done it without them. We have great leadership and support in those agencies for which I was privileged to be the minister. For example, in SAPOL, especially led by the police commissioner, the deputy commissioner and all the assistant commissioners; in corrections, Mr David Brown; and in emergency services, the head of the CFS, Mark Jones, MFS, Michael Morgan, SES, Chris Beattie and SAFECOM, Julia.

To all the public servants who work hard behind the scenes, whether it is undertaking briefings or preparing budget papers, estimates papers or parliamentary briefing notes: all that work is greatly appreciated. It is a real team effort and it was a real privilege to be able to serve as a minister. When we look back, it will certainly be an unprecedented period of history.

When you look at what the state has endured and gone through, like in other parts of the world, we should be very grateful that we are here in South Australia, in Australia, not only with the tremendous opportunities that we have in front of us but also, I would say, for the overwhelming majority of the time on the issues that mattered the most in health, when it came to addressing the COVID pandemic, we were able to work collaboratively and constructively in a bipartisan manner. We are in a very fortunate position here in South Australia that we can now recover and rebound stronger than we were before.

I might talk a little bit about local promises in the remaining minute that I have. There remain future projects that we continue to focus on and work on to make sure that we deliver for our local residents. We are looking forward to seeing the Magill Village upgrade, in collaboration with the councils of Burnside and Campbelltown, to enhance the Magill Village. That will improve recreation, socialising, shopping and education and also business experiences for local residents.

We are also looking forward to seeing the Thorndon Park superplayground be built, the St Joseph's School Tranmere local upgrade and, of course, the new school being built at what was the Rostrevor campus of Norwood Morialta High School, now Morialta Secondary College. With those remarks, I again congratulate all members and look forward to serving the people of Hartley over the next four years and, hopefully, a bit longer too.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Basham.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.