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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-24 Daily Xml
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MEMBER'S REMARKS

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:55): First, I will correct something that the member for Finniss said. He said that the first wind farm in South Australia was started by the former member for Bright, Wayne Matthew. That is not correct. When we came to power in 2002, there were no wind farms in South Australia and the proposal for a wind farm at Starfish Hill—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PENGILLY: I seek clarification on whether it—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Finniss, I think that you might be seeking to make a personal explanation, which you do at the end of the member's contribution. The member for Mawson.

Mr BIGNELL: The proposal by Tarong Energy—a division of the Queensland government's energy arm—had actually reached a stalemate here in South Australia, because the government could not get agreement between government departments. I was actually there when the new Minister for Energy (Pat Conlon) sat the three different departments down in an office and explained to them that this was something that the new government in South Australia was very keen to do; that is, install wind energy in South Australia. In the eight and a half years that the Liberals were in government, they did not install a single wind farm. As we see today, we now have more wind farms installed, or on the drawing books, than every other state in Australia combined. It is wrong to claim credit for things that were not done by the previous government and the former member for Bright.

In the first speech that I made in this place in 2006, the very first person I thanked was a guy called Robert Brokenshire, the former member for Mawson, whom I defeated in the 2006 election. I find it quite amazing that, two and a half years later, Robert still does not seem able to get over the fact that he lost. We have all heard him on talkback radio, when he rings in from his tractor suffering attention deficit disorder, a little bit like another former member of this place, Mark Brindal. They always start with, 'When I was the minister—'. These people just cannot seem to get over the fact that they do not hold ministerial positions any more.

Up until recently, Robert Brokenshire did not hold a seat in parliament. He has now taken a casual vacancy in the upper house representing Family First. He was so desperate to get back in here that he changed parties. There are a lot of Liberals down in Mawson who are not very happy with the way he has carried on, and I know that some people in here, who used to sit alongside him, are not happy with him either. He is in there representing what is supposed to be a Christian party.

By way of contrast, when I came in, the very first person I thanked was Robert Brokenshire, his wife Mandy and their three children. In the very first week that Robert Brokenshire was in the upper house, he actually had a go at me about presenting a petition in here. He asked whether or not it went against the Australian Labor Party policy. Well, he should know; he was the local member for Mawson for 12½ years. He should know that, when residents of the seat that you represent come to you with petitions, it does not matter whether or not you agree with those petitions, you agree with their right to have those petitions lodged in this parliament; and you bring them in and present them.

Yesterday and again on radio today, Robert Brokenshire has criticised me for giving out certificates to primary school kids in the electorate. I made these certificates up after consultation with principals, teachers and parents of students in schools in my electorate. If Mr Brokenshire had himself spent some time in the schools, he would understand that that is what you do: you go out and put up suggestions to the schools. In this case, they said they would love to have the certificates, so I went ahead and printed them at a cost of 7¢ per certificate.

Mr Brokenshire says that this is an inappropriate use of taxpayers' money. He is the guy who should know; he is the guy who was the subject of an auditor-general's inquiry when he spent money set aside for a helicopter to build an ambulance station at McLaren Vale—an ambulance station for which he had no funding for ambulances, ambulance officers, stretchers, defibrillators, or anything else. This is the guy who wants to have a go at me for providing things for the children of Mawson when he was the subject of an auditor-general's inquiry. He was also the subject of an investigation into using public servants to go out doorknocking for him during an election campaign. This is a bloke who purportedly comes in representing a Christian party, but not acting in a very Christian way.

I might remind the former member for Mawson, Mr Brokenshire, that he might have been out there trying to help his mate, Kym Richardson, and deflect a little bit of attention from the poo that he was in yesterday when the company, of which he is CEO, let private health records fly all over Huntfield Heights.

Time expired.

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