Diversity

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (15:27): I rise to speak on a matter of interest. During yesterday's joint sitting of both houses the Leader of the Opposition Mr Steven Marshall made the comment that it was a privilege and an honour to become a member of this parliament. Indeed, it is an honour and a privilege to serve and represent the people of South Australia in this parliament and in the Legislative Council.

In representing the full breadth of South Australia's diverse population, I believe that it is important that the elected representatives in this council especially reflect this diversity, allowing us to draw on a similarly diverse range of experiences and backgrounds for the betterment of the people of South Australia.

Many of the members of this council embody diversity. For example, I come from a farming background; my colleague the Hon. Michelle Lensink was a physiotherapist; the Hon. Terry Stephens was a small business owner; and the Hon. Mark Parnell was a lawyer with the Environmental Defenders Office and, as he constantly tells us, he was a very good lawyer.

Without this range of experience we cannot hope to properly understand the needs and concerns of our constituents around the state. We need to have experienced the things that keep a small business owner awake at night or which keep a farmer or a self-employed tradesman from enjoying time with their family. We need the representatives in this council who have lived these experiences if we are to properly understand them and if we are to work with the people of South Australia to address the problems that exist and improve this great state for all, not just a club for a few.

The lack of real-world experience held by the Labor members opposite is an important contributor to the state's poor economic performance in recent years. The leadership of this state under this Labor government is made up of a group of people who have not run a business, who have not employed people and who do not understand the things that actually matter.

Instead, the government benches of this council are filled with people who have played the political game successfully, people who have been loyal to a small group of union party officials and who have been rewarded for their loyalty. We have a leader, at least for now, who has been rewarded for her role as a union official. Soon she will be gone, replaced by a state secretary of a union and former party president. He is sitting next to someone who has secured 20 inches of red leather by becoming a Labor staffer and a union official.

Our former and current presidents—you, Sir—are former union officials. Our current Minister for Manufacturing and Automotive Transformation and the minister for water and the environment are both former state Labor secretaries. And the government whip has worked diligently as a staffer before waiting for his turn to become a member of the Legislative Council.

None of these people have run a business. None have been responsible for employing South Australians and creating jobs or experienced the daily struggles of ordinary South Australians trying to find work in today's economy. They may have represented the interests of those belonging to these unions, but these days roughly only one in 10 workers belongs to a union. So Labor's legislative councillors have no understanding of the experience of the other nine out of 10 people and have done nothing to support the majority of workers.

The collective lack of experience of the Legislative Council members on the government has a real and damaging impact on the quality of the outcomes achieved by this Labor government for the people of South Australia. This group's lack of understanding about what actually matters to business filters through their policy, or lack thereof. Instead of having a series of concrete actions to fix our state's economy, we have Labor's economic priorities.

These are aspirations and platitudes, not firm commitments to take specific actions. Today we could see the Minister for Climate Change unable to tell us the date for their target for being a carbon neutral city. In fact, he was embarrassed that he was unable to tell us the date. It is quite surprising that the government does not have a date for its carbon neutral city.

Until the people of South Australia are represented by people who have actually experienced the real world, the world as it exists outside of politics and unions, we cannot hope to have a government that is capable of fixing the problems plaguing our state and its economy. The state Liberals understand these issues and understand how to create jobs, because we have lived these experiences and actually created jobs alongside the thousands of other small and medium-sized businesses that employ South Australians.

Mr President, I can assure you that we will continue to work with South Australians from all backgrounds to ensure we deliver the right policy settings to create jobs and positive outcomes for the people of South Australia. I encourage the members opposite to start doing the same for the benefit of our great state.