Grievance Debate

Crime Statistics

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:16): There is some absolutely astonishing feedback that we have learnt today, after three years of Labor being in power. While crime has soared Labor has ignored. We know they still have not fixed the ramping crisis and they basically now have torn up the only energy policy that they had. They have torn it up and, of course, South Australians continue to suffer from some of the highest power prices in not only the nation but also the world.

This week we saw the government on the backfoot on various issues that really matter to South Australians. We have now learned that they do not have a plan to bring down power prices for South Australians and they have delivered 32 of the worst months of ramping in South Australia's history. Of course, they were indeed elected basically on one promise and that was to fix ramping. And it took the opposition, and effectively a citizen's arrest in Rundle Mall, for the government to finally start to attempt to address what is a very serious spate of crime in our state.

This government's priorities—they said quite clearly that they would fix the ramping crisis and that they would help with electricity bills, but at the moment what we have seen is they have absolutely failed to deliver. And what about jobs for the boys? Even though the hydrogen bubble has burst—it has burst in Australia and it has burst all around the world—we are still paying one of the Premier's Labor mates around $600,000 a year, making him the fifth highest paid public servant, paid more than the chief executives of education, child protection, primary industries, and defence as well. What is this guy doing?

This is while businesses across South Australia are struggling to keep the lights on, literally. Their power bills they are showing us are sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars, week in and week out. We are seeing hospitality businesses closing their doors as well. But not the head of the hydrogen office. What's he doing? Well, let me tell you, he is certainly sitting very pretty, on over half a million dollars a year.

We heard this week, unfortunately, about the harrowing tale of Mr Haigh, who after suffering a stroke was left to languish for hours and hours in the Lyell McEwin Hospital last week. Mr Haigh I believe remains in hospital and our thoughts are with him and his family. His wife, Brigitte, was brave enough to tell their story publicly this week. Unfortunately, even after three years of this government, we are seeing cases like Mr Haigh's all too regularly. But don't just ask me, let's also hear about what the Australian Medical Association had to say recently about the state of Labor's health system in its recent hospital report card. I think you will find it very interesting.

Let's go through it. Firstly, it said: 'South Australia's emergency department performance went from bad to worse in 2023-24.' It goes on to say: 'Only 50 per cent of ED presentations were completed in the required time, a near worst-in-class performance.' Then it goes on further: 'Just 38 per cent of ED patients triaged as urgent were seen on time, down 65 per cent from 10 years ago.'

What this means is that 60 per cent of patients triaged as 'urgent' in our hospital system are not seen within the clinically required time. That is not fixing the ramping crisis. In fact, according to this evidence here, in some respects it has actually never been worse. This is frightening for patients. It is frightening for their loved ones, just like Mr and Mrs Haigh. Obviously, Labor said that they would fix the ramping crisis, but the truth is, in some respects, it is only getting worse.

When they are not making the health system more dysfunctional, Labor of course likes to play their hand at letting the justice system slip into disarray. Case in point: what we have seen today is a fail on bail, a fail on bail for the last two years while we have been calling on this government to review the bail laws. We know that, despite what the government wants to cherrypick, breach of bail by adult offenders is up by around 20 per cent. Breach of bail by youth offenders is up by around 60 per cent. Unfortunately, it has taken the opposition hounding this government for them to finally wake up to the crime crisis that is plaguing our streets.

At the moment, you cannot go one weekend without seeing evidence of this crime crisis on our streets, and the government know it. These victims could have been spared. These are crimes that would have never been committed had this government actually taken this matter seriously, but of course they have been distracted. We know that we have around 20 youth offenders who are committing around 11 per cent of total respective crimes. They are having regular interactions with the justice system, yet our government just cannot seem to get a handle on these criminals.

The promises that they made are not worth anything, quite frankly. They cannot keep their promises, they cannot deliver on what matters, and the people of South Australia deserve much, much better.