Private Members' Statements

Private Members' Statements

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:41): I rise for a happy statement: a surprise community event this morning for one of the Riverland's living legends in Loxton. At 9.30 this morning the community gathered at the Cross of Sacrifice in Loxton to celebrate Howard Hendrick OAM, who turns 101 years old next week.

Today's event was kept secret and Howard was not told why he had to be there this morning, but when he arrived the road running behind the Cross of Sacrifice connecting Kokoda Terrace and Tobruk Terrace had been named Howard Hendrick Way in his honour. This is a great way to acknowledge Howard's outstanding contribution to the nation as well as to his local community.

Howard left his Riverland block to serve in World War II as a fighter pilot. He logged 31 successful operations over Europe in a Lancaster bomber. He returned home and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and, in 2019, a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to the country and the Riverland community. His legacy in the streets of his home town could not have made him more proud.

I also want to acknowledge the thoughtful work of the Loxton RSL and the Loxton Waikerie district council for organising this great event. Howard is a legend. Howard is a great friend of the Riverland. He is up and about every day. He has his seat at the coffee shop and he is there to entertain people who come past. Congratulations to Howard Hendrick.

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (15:43): I rise on behalf of several of my constituents who are somewhat concerned about a business practice in need of a bit of friendly tinkering. Specifically, I am singling out organisations that insist hardworking Australians stay home for up to half a day to wait patiently for one of their staff to pay them a visit. I do not want this to be a witch-hunt and I am going to refrain from naming anyone, but specifically I am referring to technicians, tradesmen and delivery drivers who insist an adult stay home for a protracted time for them to visit.

In most cases, one or two hours of waiting is reasonable, but being told you need to be on the ready between 8am and 1pm or 1pm and 5pm seems divorced from reality. Noting most workers have just 20 days off in a year, the last thing anyone wants to do is to take a day off and sit around waiting for half a day for the doorbell to ring. I appreciate they have time pressures, but so do workers, and I want to take this opportunity to suggest there is a need to tone down the expectations.

It is my intention to share this message on my Facebook to hopefully generate a polite message in the hope this motivates them to do better. When you consider that most of these visits at best take up to an hour, there is a lot of time either side that some respectful scheduling could significantly reduce. After all, the boss is probably flexible to let you duck out for a few hours, but it is a bit of a stretch to allow staff out for half a day without taking leave—and let's face it, who wants to do that?

We are all about give and take in this world and I am simply asking that certain companies begin to appreciate that half a day of waiting is time wasted and, in respect of the busy lives everyday Australians lead, there is good reason they should consider mending their ways.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:44): I take this opportunity in parliament to congratulate everyone involved on another successful City-Bay Fun Run, from the organising committee and the volunteers to all the participants—the runners, the walkers and even the rollers. This year's City-Bay was the 50^th anniversary. Started in 1973 by Bob Clarke, the first race had 1,600 runners and went from the Adelaide Town Hall to the Glenelg Town Hall.

After the challenges of COVID and not being able to run the race for two years, there were over 25,000 people who took part, including my wife, Tammy, and myself. In a fitting result, both the men's winner, Isaac Heyne, and the women's winner, Izzi Batt-Doyle, are from South Australia. While Tammy and I were slightly further behind, we both enjoyed the colour and friendly atmosphere, with the highlight being running up Jetty Road and seeing many friendly faces encouraging the runners towards crossing the finish line.

Special mention goes to two of these runners, Tony Heard and Gil McIntosh, who have run in all 50 City-Bays. I caught up with Tony after the race. While this year's race was a challenge on his body, he was always going to cross the finish line. Thank you to Joe Stevens and his team for a fantastic City-Bay and for ensuring the 50^th celebrations were worthy of the significance of this race both to Glenelg and South Australia.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:46): On Friday night, I was very proud to be accompanied by agriculture students Noah McKiggan and Fred James from Trinity College Senior and Daniel O'Reilly and Jasmine Reid from Gawler and District College at the Agricultural Bureau of South Australia 2024 Spirit of Excellence Awards. The Ag Bureau motto is 'connecting sustainable communities' so it is no accident they support both a Rural Youth Bursary and a Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship to encourage research in agricultural sustainability.

The 2023 award winners, Lourens Coetzee and Emma Faint, both provided reports on how they utilised their awards in exploring innovative farming practices, with Emma speaking about how to improve soil biology while Lourens discussed how to improve viticulture practices. Their talks were the highlight of the award night.

With more than 40 branches across the state, the bureau, which is governed by a very hardworking six-member board, provides members with learning opportunities through the sharing of information and knowledge. It was the last night that Chair Janette Ridgway would be attending in that role as she has decided to retire from the position. Janette has been a tireless supporter of the bureau and the agriculture sector in general. I thank her for her contribution to our state.

The 2024 winners, Tim Paschke from Waikerie and Emily Weir from Macclesfield, will be exploring how to improve dry farming practices and the cheese fermentation process. I look forward to hearing their reports at the 2025 awards. The bureau members and branches provide an important forum for our farming community to improve their practices through the sharing of information and knowledge.