Grievance Debate

Malinauskas Labor Government

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:06): As we know, it is Halloween. It is scary, it is spooky: it is life under Labor. Do you know what is scarier than Halloween? I will tell you what is scarier than Halloween. Firstly, it is scary that under Labor stamp duty is $8,250 more. It is chilling that under Labor fees and charges are up by 30 per cent. It is shocking that under Labor power prices are the highest in the nation. It is horrifying that under Labor water bills are up by $90 per year per household. Can you believe it?

In the spirit of Halloween we might have to ask ourselves if the Minister for Energy and Mining has been playing pranks on us recently. First we learned that he will be using diesel-fuelled B-double trucks to truck gas into his experimental green hydrogen plant for four hours a day—four hours a day.

Then we learned that the acting chief executive of the Northern Water project has quit and a number of others are rumoured to have followed him, all due to this government's mishandling of what is going to be a multibillion dollar project that is meant to actually play a critical role in the production of green steel and hydrogen in the Upper Spencer Gulf and also provide a new source of water for Eastern Eyre Peninsula.

Is there something a bit spooky about the minister's handling of this project? The Auditor-General certainly thought so when he raised the alarm bells around this project and its lack of a fixed estimated cost and timeline for completion.

This all sounds familiar to me. I can remember; it was not that long ago. What was that third-party independent government organisation that had a fair bit to say about some of these ministers and something called the Gillman land deal? Do you remember that? The Gillman land deal—who was involved in that bad deal? Could it be history repeating or just Labor subjecting South Australians to another horror movie sequel?

Mr Telfer: Zombie raised from the dead.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Exactly. Whyalla is on its knees, unfortunately. The opposition have heard recently, even overnight, about job losses and creditors coming out of the woodwork. This is just days after Peter Malinauskas and his cabinet did a fly-in fly-out taxpayer-funded cameo appearance.

Do you know what is really scary this Halloween? Labor's failure to get tough on crime and the horror scenes we saw only a week ago in Elizabeth: youths wielding knives and a young man left fighting for his life. If the government will not get serious on crime then we will, which is why the member for Bragg this week introduced a bill to stop knives being sold to minors in South Australia. While the Premier spent the week talking about the Liberal Party, we stepped up to deliver what South Australians are calling for, which is safer streets, safer shopping centres and safer communities. In another blow to accountability, the Premier revealed he was not going to make public the report from the task force into South Australia Police recruitment and retention issues. What does he have to hide?

This week we read with anguish about women left living in emergency accommodation, some having fled domestic violence and single mums who are struggling day after day. Not only are they struggling, they have found that the Housing Trust did not fulfil the requirements that it should be fulfilling. The Advertiser's Be Their Champion campaign showed the devastating impact the housing crisis is having on vulnerable members of our community.

When we asked the Minister for Housing if he had taken up the invitation of single mum Cass Richardson, who has been living in emergency accommodation since July, we learned that he had not. It is absolutely appalling—no empathy whatsoever from this government. Over 1,700 Housing Trust homes remain vacant, is our mail, yet the minister will not release the review into maintenance contracts under the SA Housing Trust.

We also asked the Premier about housing targets and whether there are enough people to actually build these houses. When asked if the Premier has targets in place for how many homes South Australia needs, and the workforce to build them, he simply ghosted us. He absolutely ghosted us. A Housing Roadmap to nowhere is what we got from this government: lots of TED Talks, lots of shiny things but, alas, no actual road map going anywhere.

While families are out trick or treating tonight, they should be asking themselves: are they better off or are they worse off under this Labor government? The people of Black have an important decision to make in the coming weeks. I do not think they are going to reward incompetence. They are going to remember the failings of this government and they are going to hold them to account.