Bills

Dangerous Substances (LPG Cylinder Labelling) Amendment Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of message No. 109 from the House of Assembly.

(Continued from 31 March 2021.)

The Hon. C. BONAROS: I move:

That the House of Assembly's amendments be agreed to.

As members would know, in the other place there were some amendments that really are of a technical nature, which addressed a couple of the issues in this bill. They were passed by the other place. I acknowledge that they actually improved the bill overall in relation to the labelling issue. Under these new laws that we have now passed, the warning signs will generally be at least 10 centimetres in length, except in the case of smaller gas bottles where the minimum size of the warning on the bottle will be two centimetres in length.

Those amendments that were successful in the lower house were of a technical nature in relation to the issues around those minimum standards when it comes to the warning signs on those bottles. Generally, we have been very supportive of those and I thank the honourable Mr Blair Boyer for picking up those issues.

An honourable member: He's not honourable.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Sorry, he is not honourable, I am told. I am sure he is an honourable man. I thank Mr Blair Boyer MP, or the member for Wright—I should refer to him correctly—in the other place for picking up those issues and addressing them and also managing, obviously, to get a majority of the other place to support them. That is all I have to say.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I would like to thank the Hon. Connie Bonaros for her efforts in bringing this bill to the chamber and securing its passage now through both houses. It is not an easy thing to do sometimes, and this one certainly was not an easy thing to do. It is no mean feat. I would also like to thank the honourable—the member for Wright—Blair Boyer, who will not be honourable until possibly after the March election next year.

I visited Paddy Ryan's dad in Port Lincoln with the member for Wright, the member for Cheltenham and the member for Mawson in the middle of last year, and it certainly created a pretty lasting impression on me of the need for this. I pay tribute to Adrian Ryan for his advocacy and for turning what was a tragedy into something that hopefully can prevent future tragedies. I again thank the honourable member for her work on this. I am very happy to support where we have landed.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: The Greens supported this bill when it passed the Legislative Council, and we support it today as it finally comes back to the Legislative Council in amended form. I would have thought such a small change, a cautionary approach to ensure that no other young people lose their lives as a result of a lack of education, would have been something that we could have got through this parliament with the minimum of fuss and with more respect for Paddy's Law, as it will become, but we are here now and we will support it.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: I am not on the list to speak, but I wish to add my congratulations to my colleague the Hon. Connie Bonaros and to Mr Boyer for his efforts in the other place. This is quite a significant piece of legislation that will actually save lives. I want to congratulate the Hon. Connie Bonaros for the way she approached this very sensitive area and dealt with the family that was involved in this and has been able to achieve a result that is an Australian first. I am really hopeful that other jurisdictions will now follow suit and do a similar thing.

Again, thank you to all the members who have supported it in this place and also the other place. I think it is important when there are issues like this where lives are at stake that members are able to get together, there is a consensus and legislation can be passed, regardless of who proposed it at the time. I congratulate Connie Bonaros again on being able to pull this one off. It is very hard for crossbenchers, as we all know, to get bills passed, but I am glad that this one has gone through because it will make many people very appreciative of the work done in this place.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The government acknowledges that the majority of members in the House of Assembly supported the bill with the amendments that were moved, and the government acknowledges that a majority of members in this chamber are likely to support the suggested amendments, so we accept the reality of the numbers in both chambers.

The concerns that the government has about the impact of the legislation remain. I have placed those on the public record on at least one or two previous occasions, so I do not propose to delay the discussion this afternoon by repeating those. The concerns that we expressed continue to be expressed by the government and by some stakeholders in the industry, and we fervently hope that the wishes of the movers of the legislation, the family and other interested parties are achieved by the passage of the legislation.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: In closing the debate, I thank all honourable members for their contributions and for their support. As the Hon. Tammy Franks has pointed out, this is one of those issues that was a no-brainer and should have had the unanimous support of this parliament, but I acknowledge that we have accepted this is where we are. The law is passing, and that is a wonderful outcome. I have already thanked the member from the other place for their support, who did an incredible amount of work on this bill as well with me.

Above everything, I would really like to thank Paddy's parents, Adrian and Josie. I cannot tell you how relieved they were because they are the people who have been pushing for this reform harder than anybody. We saw it through the press. I spoke to Adrian after that happened and said, 'We would like to help you see this become a reality.' Of course, if it was not for their advocacy and their belief in what they were trying to do, none of this would have been possible.

Their community has rallied behind them. They have had amazing support, and I think that they can find some comfort in knowing that while this will never bring Paddy back it could potentially save another person, another child, another young person like Paddy from the same devastating outcome that fell upon Paddy and his family, who are living with the consequences of that every day.

I said in my second reading that Paddy was a good kid and he just made a silly mistake, and that happens every day of the week. I do not think it is too much, and I am glad it has not been too much of us in here to ask that we move these measures which are directly aimed at preventing other kids and other people from making that precise same mistake. So I am extremely grateful for the support, but I am particularly extremely grateful to Josie and Adrian and their entire family, and everyone who has supported them, for entrusting us with this and seeing it through to its end.

Motion carried.