Motions

Illinois Legislative Friendship

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (12:00): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognise and celebrate the establishment of a legislative friendship with the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois;

(b) commit to ongoing collaboration, mutual support and shared advocacy for the cause of representative government as a fundamental human right;

(c) express the house's hope that this relationship serves as a model for other legislative bodies around the world to form bonds rooted in democracy, peace and mutual respect; and

(d) present a copy of this resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois as a symbol of the house's shared commitment to democracy and enduring partnership.

We understand that this legislative friendship is the first of its kind between an Australian state legislature and a US state legislature. The legislative friendship is a result of a visit to Illinois by you, Mr Speaker, where you worked with the Hon. Emanuel 'Chris' Welch, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and other Illinois state representatives to establish this partnership.

An equivalent resolution was passed in the Illinois House of Representatives on Tuesday 14 October local time. A copy of this motion will be presented to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois as a symbol of this partnership. Sir, I take this opportunity to thank you for your leadership on this matter, and I understand that the Leader of the Opposition will also be strongly supporting this initiative.

Our cultural, people-to-people and economic relationship with the United States has never been more important, and I am pleased to advise the house that it has never been stronger. Here in South Australia we are responsible for and charged with building the most important and most strategic industrial undertaking that our country has ever undertaken with the AUKUS submarine build.

I can advise, notwithstanding the complex geopolitical challenges and economic headwinds that many Western democracies around the world are facing, that our exports from South Australia to the United States are at a record high. Just in the last 12 months we have hit an all-time record high, fed in large part due to the great understanding and great respect that the United States has for the premium primary production of our state, be it from meat, be it from other commodities or be it from our great wine, particularly I am sure from the McLaren Vale region.

However, what underpins this motion is the value that the people-to-people links have in underpinning that economic opportunity. I had the great privilege as an early 20 year old for a couple of years of living in the United States. I attended the University of Missouri as a division 1 athlete/swimmer in the NCAA program. As I reflect now as the Minister for Trade and Investment and having the privilege of engaging with the United States on behalf of our state, there are probably few things in my life that have had such a profoundly formative impact than my time in the Midwest of the US.

I note that Illinois is a great Midwestern state. My college team, Mizzou, had a great rivalry with the Fighting Illini from Illinois. I think more often than not it would be the Mizzou Tigers who would get over the line. But whether it be sport, whether it be our great love for the company that sport brings, or whether it be the South Australian and Illinoisan unshakable dedication to democracy, equity and fairness, we are in a good place to capitalise on this. I say on behalf of the government, South Australia fully supports this initiative and for the house this is a progressive and important initiative to further the opportunities that we have with our most important ally, the United States.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (12:05): Mr Speaker, I also rise to support the motion:

That this house—

(a) recognise and celebrate the establishment of a legislative friendship with the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois;

(b) commit to ongoing collaboration, mutual support and shared advocacy for the cause of representative government as a fundamental human right;

(c) express the house's hope that this relationship serves as a model for other legislative bodies around the world to form bonds rooted in democracy, peace and mutual respect; and

(d) present a copy of this resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois as a symbol of the house's shared commitment to democracy and enduring partnership.

Sir, I thank you for instigating this initiative. I also have had the great fortune of visiting the United States on a number of occasions, and when I heard about this, in terms of Illinois—otherwise known as the Land of Lincoln—I saw a lot of similarities between that place and us, especially given the agricultural powerhouse that it is.

Today I rise with great enthusiasm to support this as a proud member, like yourself, sir, of the South Australian United States Parliamentary Friendship Group and to lend my full support to this motion which recognises and celebrates the establishment of a legislative friendship between the House of Assembly here in South Australia and the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois. For me it is not just a ceremonial gesture. I think it is a deliberate reaffirmation of our shared democratic values, a celebration of our enduring alliance with the United States and our belief in the power of representative government to uplift and protect the rights of all people.

I understand, sir, that you had the honour of visiting Speaker Welch in July to share policy ideas and also leadership lessons, and I think there are a number of things that we can learn from each other. I had the great pleasure of attending the NCSL—the National Congress of State Legislatures. What you often find when you undertake these exchanges is that there are similar problems that have been resolved in other parts of the world, and I welcome this collaborative approach.

I am glad that, out of that, has come a resolution that has been adopted by the Illinois House of Representatives that recognises and celebrates the establishment of a legislative friendship with the House of Assembly of South Australia. The resolution adopted in Illinois also expressed a commitment to ongoing collaboration, mutual support and also shared advocacy for the cause of representative government as a fundamental human right. Of course, it is a right that is not enjoyed in all parts of the world.

The resolution passed by the Illinois house, led by Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, rightly notes the importance of democracies standing together in solidarity, especially in a time when democratic norms are under pressure, and they are under pressure globally, as we know. We see around the world the rise of threats to some of our civil liberties. Against this backdrop is a more critical than ever notion that institutions like ours should declare loudly and clearly that democracy is not only alive but thriving, where it is defended and where it is immensely valued.

South Australia and Illinois, while geographically distant, share a deep connection through our democratic traditions, our innovative economies and our commitment to the common good. Both legislatures are the voice of the people, elected to deliberate, to challenge and to build consensus in the service of a just and fair society.

In my capacity as a delegate, as the Treasurer was, to the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, I was fortunate to visit the United States, with other leaders, only as recently as January this year. This was with other dignitaries from government, enterprise, defence, technology, space, education and the community, and I can attest to the valuable experience and the strength and the depth that our two nations share in terms of our relationship.

But this friendship goes beyond parliamentary resolutions and symbolic gestures. It is about creating real and tangible opportunities for collaboration, and I am sure that we will see them down the track, whether it is in economic development, education, environment resilience or public health, just to name a few. Our shared experiences can offer valuable lessons from one another.

On a lighter note, we extend our thoughts to the people of Chicago on the recent defeat of the Cubs at the hands of the Brewers. Perhaps next year, on the 10^th anniversary of their 2016 World Series win, they can go all the way. But I digress.

This motion before the house today serves as a model for how subnational diplomacy—state to state, legislature to legislature—can promote peace, prosperity and mutual respect in a world that is too often divided.

I commend this motion and congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your role in it being brought forward. I know these are not easy things to do. I also thank Speaker Welch and the Illinois House of Reps for their leadership and their partnership and may this be the beginning of a long-lasting relationship, one that inspires others and strengthens the global democratic community. I commend the motion to the house.

The SPEAKER (12:10): I would like to take this opportunity to thank the government and the opposition for coming together in a unanimous vote of support for this initiative. As has been mentioned, I was in Chicago in July this year where I met up with Speaker Welch and some other representatives. The welcome you get from the Midwest is very similar to the welcome you get from South Australia. People there are very, very friendly, very open and progressive. They do not necessarily want to get stuck in the past but look at how we can learn from each other and how we can work together to improve democracy, not just in our own states but around the world.

If we look at democracies on a global basis, fewer people around the world live in a democracy than they did 10 years ago or 20 years ago. When you have democracy it is easy to take it for granted. This relationship, amongst many things it will do, will remind us of how important it is.

When I met Speaker Welch at his constituency office, he gave me this badge from the House of Representatives 104^th general assembly. It is the badge that all representatives in the Illinois house wear. I gave the Speaker a bottle of Hickinbotham cab sav, made in McLaren Vale by a winemaker who is from Napa Valley. Chris Carpenter is one of the best winemakers in Napa Valley and works for Kendall-Jackson, the second biggest privately owned liquor business in North America. Chris Carpenter is a very good friend of mine. He was born in Chicago. So to be able to give the Speaker a bottle of wine made from grapes from my region, made by a native of Chicago, was a terrific thing.

I do not know whether Speaker Welch read the briefing notes but he gave me a bottle of his Speaker's Reserve bourbon made from corn from Illinois. It still has the seal on it. It is not normal practice for me to have that little bottle of bourbon tucked away in the Speaker's chair. It is one of those things that symbolises—the very first time that we meet, we do an exchange of gifts. A shout-out too to all those people in Illinois who are watching. It is 8.30 at night there which is much better than the four o'clock start I had the other morning to watch the same resolution, or motion, pass through the Illinois House of Representatives.

It was terrific. From there we went to a steakhouse, we had the Chicago cut and then that night we went to see Speaker Welch's favourite team, the Chicago Cubs, up against the Red Sox from Boston. Chicago had a good win. I was there with Speaker Welch's mum, his wife, his kids and a few of his friends. It was over that night that we worked out that we would probably be stronger if we worked together on a lot of things.

I also went to visit Kam Buckner, who is the assistant speaker and also the state representative of the 26^th district, and Sonya Harper, who is the state representative for the 6^th district. To go into their constituency offices, as they call them—we call them electorate offices—was an eye-opener as well. It was a month after the assassination of the Speaker in Minnesota. I walked into these offices; one had no security at all. Representative Harper was just sitting in her office on her own, and I was thinking, 'How does that work?' when you look at our electorate offices and the funding that goes into those. Simple things like that are important, that people can go about their jobs in a safe way, that their staff can go about their jobs in a safe way.

We are swapping some ideas about how we do things here on that level. We are swapping ideas on our voting systems, how our houses work. Importantly, we are going to do an exchange where our part of the deal will be that we will send three members of parliament to the US each year. They will go to Illinois and catch up with our friends there. Then they will go to two other states. Illinois is what they call a blue state, and then we will go to a red state and then a purple state, where you have shared leadership between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, so that we can learn from all sides of politics.

I want to thank the Australian Consul-General in Chicago, Chris Elstoft. He represents about 11 states on behalf of Australia. He is very keen on the idea and happy to help us in any way. I also want to thank Ambassador Rudd. I had a good 90 minutes with him at his residence in Washington DC. We cannot think of another state that has done this in the US or in South Australia.

If we look at our history, we in Australia are modelled on the Westminster system but also on the federal system of the US, where we have a federal parliament and a state parliament. We tend to look at what happens in the commonwealth a lot, but maybe we do not work as closely with our friends in the political sphere in the US, so that is something that we hope this relationship will help forge.

The Leader of the Opposition mentioned the National Conference of State Legislatures. I went to that as well. It was in Boston this year. It was incredible. It was actually on the recommendation of several of your colleagues in the Liberal Party who had been there—9,000 representatives from 50 states, plus their staff, were all there. It was the most amazing learning experience that I have ever been involved in in that political sphere. As part of that trip to the US each year, we will go to Illinois, we will go to those other two states. We will go to DC and learn a bit about their federal government, but we will make sure the timing is around this National Conference of State Legislatures, which coincidentally next year is on 27, 28 and 29 July in Chicago, so it makes it an even better trip.

I would like to thank a few people who helped make this trip possible. Firstly, Bridget Black in my office, who spent time in the US as part of her Flinders University studies in politics, made invaluable contacts and insights into the political system of the US, so thank you, Bridget, for that. I also thank her equivalent in the Speaker's house in Illinois, Mika Baugher, who is the Executive Assistant to the Speaker of the House, as well as Clayton Harris, the Chief of Staff to Chris Welch, the Speaker in Illinois, and Dan Johnson, who quickly became a good mate of mine. He works in politics in Illinois and he helped draft this resolution, which was obviously passed this week by the Illinois House of Representatives and now House of Assembly here in South Australia.

We are really proud of this initiative, and we are hoping that we can get backwards and forwards between our two countries on United Airlines, formed and based in Chicago. On 15 December it will be the first time in aviation history that we have direct flights linking the US and Adelaide. Those flights will be direct out of San Francisco into Adelaide. The first one takes off, I think, on 11 December and lands on 13 December this year. Again, congratulations to the trade minister, the Premier and everyone who was involved in getting those flights into Adelaide. It is an absolute game changer for the visitor economy, for tourism and for trade to have direct flights to the US and to North America. Again, thank you, everyone, for the hasty, unanimous passing of this motion. I commend everyone for their work.

Motion carried.