Rural Regions

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:28): Football-deep potholes along busy roads, mobile phone blackspots just a few kilometres out of town, people staying in caravans, being in the middle of a housing crisis, being kicked off privately-owned land because of archaic SA laws, and grassroots concerns over the SA Voice to Parliament—these and other important issues were raised during my two most recent trips to a couple of SA rural regions.

In a few days, split between the state's South-East and the Copper Coast, I was presented with a landslide of commonsense views. Thankfully, these views were not laced with spin or ulterior motives, they were genuine opinions, formed via lived experience, a proclivity for hard work and a penchant for straight talking.

In August I spent a couple of days in the Limestone Coast, and that old cliché 'it's not the destination, it's the journey' was very apt, as I was forced to drive a particularly dangerous stretch of Princes Highway linking Millicent to the important regional centre of Mount Gambier. The state of rural roads was perhaps the most common complaint I fielded during both trips, and unfortunately it seems some South Australians are resigned to the fact that many of our roads are substandard and dangerous.

Upon returning to Adelaide—safely, I am glad to say—I wrote to our federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King, asking for a please explain on the state of Princes Highway. I did so because my office noted the road's decrepit state contradicted the federal government's vision for the Princes Highway Corridor outlined in a 2019 strategy report produced by Minister King's department. That vision was aimed at achieving improved safety and efficiency along Princes Highway, and so I asked Minister King what strategies were in place for corrective measures to address this specific stretch of road. I also asked what funding has been set aside for this purpose.

Minister King replied, essentially advising of a significant amount of federal funding dedicated to Princes Highway, but also pointing out that the priority for work rests with the state government. I have since written to South Australia's Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Tom Koutsantonis, asking about the Malinauskas government's plans to prioritise funding for this potentially treacherous stretch of Princes Highway, and requesting an estimate of when we are likely to see any action taken.

The poor state of local roads was a popular theme of conversation across both rural areas, but I encountered other recurring topics, again firsthand in the case of mobile phone blackspots. Just a few minutes out from some Limestone Coast towns, my mobile phone—monitored by a staffer, not me—was basically useless due to the proliferation of blackspots. While a mere inconvenience for me, such disconnectivity can be life-threatening for farmers when accidents or medical episodes occur. I was given tragic local examples of this, and I know other South Australian regions, which could hardly be labelled remote, have the same problem.

My principled opposition to the divisive and undemocratic South Australian Voice to Parliament was proud and well publicised. As we all know, the Federal Voice to Parliament was rejected by Australians, especially South Australians, but unfortunately the Malinauskas government inexplicably soldiered on with is own version. Months ago I tabled a bill to repeal the South Australian Voice, and I must say even I was surprised by how front of mind the South Australian Voice remains amongst people in regional and rural areas. Unprompted, it was brought up multiple times during my recent trips.

Such unfiltered views were also applied to the creeping influence of public schools on the moral teaching of children. I plan to address this latter, insidious trend, via my Parental Primacy Amendment Bill 2024 but, again, simple principles of common sense were applied to this scenario. Disturbingly, a local case on the Copper Coast of a 13-year-old girl being asked by a school librarian about her preferred pronouns illustrated this madness.

A final example of another issue I uncovered on my recent trips, and one I possibly would never have heard about had I stayed in Adelaide, was learning of the unsatisfactory situation unnecessarily exacerbating South Australia's housing and homelessness crisis. Perhaps surprisingly to some, homelessness is rampant in certain rural areas, including the Copper Coast, and I was told of people staying in caravans on private land effectively being evicted for no good reason, and of others being forced to move caravans off their properties. I am currently exploring how we might adopt temporary accommodation laws in place interstate to help these people and address that crisis.

My rural visits hammered home the seriousness of cost-of-living pressures in South Australia. These pressures extend beyond householders being forced to shiver under extra blankets for fear of ballooning power bills. Power is a major input cost for many South Australian primary producers, and those I spoke to passed on eye-popping information about how much extra they have had to find over the past year or so to cover the ridiculous, untested renewable energy fantasy being driven by Labor governments at both federal and state level. These are real people suffering real consequences from reality-deprived ideologies.