Private Members' Statements

Private Members' Statements

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:46): A couple of weeks ago the Governor, Her Excellency Frances Adamson, celebrated Ronald McDonald House Charities at Government House. In doing that she acknowledged a couple of volunteers, one of those being Ms Colleen Billows. Colleen is well known to this house for her role, amongst other things, as central to the push to keep the Western Hospital open in my local community.

She is, and I do not use this term lightly, an incredible human being. She puts her heart and soul into absolutely everything she does, whether that be collecting signatures for a petition that garnered more than 20,000 signatures. You would see her down at the West Lakes Westfield Shopping Centre, or at any cafe in the Henley and Grange area over that period of time. She was recognised in this instance for her more than 25 years of service to Ronald McDonald House Charities, where she ran the dinner program for upwards of two decades.

In 2019, at 83 years of age, Colleen abseiled down the Westpac building to raise money for, as she would say, 'Ronnie Mac House.' She was recognised in the Westfield Local Heroes award and was awarded an Order of Australia medal in 2002, and this comes on top of her professional career of more than 30 years teaching at both Siena and St Michael's College.

Colleen has had a pretty tough run over the last couple of months and I know that my community wishes her well and thanks her for absolutely everything she has done, not just in our local community but more broadly for all of South Australia.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (15:47): I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the year 5 and 6 students at Warradale Primary School who came on a parliament tour with me just last week. It is always fabulous to show students the people's house and give them an opportunity to have some insight into parliamentary procedure and what it is we do in here and what makes up the building.

Always a great opportunity for students is to participate in a parliamentary debate and they took that on, they read out their scripts and they got dressed up and took on the roles with gusto. Then the Speaker asked if anyone else would like to speak and Benji stood up and he spoke off the cuff, completely unprepared, but gave his contribution to the debate. Other students saw this happen and so another one stood up, and the students supported them, and then another one wanted to speak.

I have honestly never seen a student debate run so long with everyone wanting to have their voice heard and I really congratulate them. It takes courage to speak out, it takes critical thinking to engage in a debate, and that is exactly what these students did. We missed out on some of the tour that was planned after that because I did not want to hold back any student from having their opportunity to speak up in their Parliament House.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:49): I want to speak about what this government is imposing on one of the most prominent and unique ecotourism operators in South Australia. EP Cruises' whale tours at Fowlers Bay have been told by the environment department that, come 2027, there will be no renewal of their permit that they have held for the past 15 years, which has allowed them to approach adult whales to 100 metres and calves to 150 metres, with no detrimental impact on calving, whale migration, population or density in Fowlers Bay.

There have been scientific studies conducted across several seasons, which highlighted a notable population growth and recovery in Fowlers Bay that exceeded any other location. These guys have been operating there for over 15 years and have seen the number of whales and calves grow exponentially over that time. They clearly have not been impacting what has been going on. They are the most conscientious, environmentally aware operators, but they have been told that they will only get a permit to get within 300 metres of these whales, essentially making it impossible to operate due to the average distance between whale groups being 100 to 200 metres.

This was the whole reason why they were originally granted the exemption all those years ago. DEW witnessed and understood that it was impossible to navigate through the bay at Fowlers while adhering to a distance of 300 metres from all whales. Fowlers Bay is nearly 1,000 kilometres from Adelaide, yet the unjustifiable decisions made here have meant that this business will not be able to continue.

So I am challenging Minister Close, Minister Bettison and the Premier to please visit Fowlers Bay and realise what this decision means for one of our unique tourism experiences. It will cost our state and my region dearly.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (15:51): I want to take this opportunity to speak to something I am really proud of that our government did last week. We announced that we are expanding the mental health co-responder model to the southern suburbs as well. So it now will be in SALHN, CALHN and NALHN. This program is where, when there is a 000 call-out for a mental health crisis, a police officer will attend with a mental health clinician as well, and that means a much better outcome for the person in distress.

It also has meant more than 2,400 emergency department presentations have been avoided. From my conversations with people in SAPOL, it has also changed the conversation around mental health in those stations, which is really great for reducing stigma and improving mental health literacy. So I was really proud that we are going to be expanding that program in the upcoming budget.

I also want to take a moment to recognise someone very special, and that is Danica Gates. She was recently awarded Volunteer of the Year in South Australia and she does incredible work in Tumby Bay. She has chosen to turn her grief into something really powerful, and I have been proud to meet her a number of times, both in Port Lincoln and in Adelaide, and to recently visit the centre she is running with others in her Suicide Prevention Network in Tumby Bay. So congratulations to Danica and thank you.

Mr Telfer: Hear, hear! Good speech.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Brown): I do note the member for Elder managed to use her entire allotted time and no longer, unlike some other members.