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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-28 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:31): Madam Deputy Speaker, what an interesting couple of weeks it has been, with the government in turmoil at a time when, as the Treasurer points out to the house, world financial institutions are in turmoil and we are facing very bleak times. At the very time when this state needs leadership, we have too much leadership. We have too many people wanting to be leader.

We have too many people with ambition on the government benches all wanting to be leader or senior ministers in the government when the government really should be concentrating, and the very person who should be concentrating and leading his team at this time—the Treasurer, the Deputy Premier, the one who is responsible for the financial resources of the state—is in it up to his neck.

Opposition members today wonder whether we should have deferred all our opportunities to ask questions to the backbenchers of the government because it is obvious that they are the ones who are getting no answers from this government. They are the ones who are being treated like mushrooms and who probably do need some opportunity in the house to ask some questions of their ministers, because it sounds like it is the only opportunity that they would get.

However, the business of running the state must go on and, under the governance that we have here in South Australia, the role of the opposition is terribly important. Is this about the unbridled ambition of a few people in the government on the back bench? That is certainly what the Premier and the senior ministers would like the people of South Australia to think. They would like people to think that the member for Napier has unbridled ambition, and no doubt he has, but he has been told that he will sit where he is for a fair while.

Is it about the fact that the member for West Torrens got the numbers to get himself into cabinet, but the Premier wanted to foil him, so he said, 'Well, we are not going to open the door,' notwithstanding the member for West Torrens getting the numbers? The Premier has been out on the airwaves saying, 'Well, they've got to fight to get the numbers from their own side.' Well, he did, and everybody in the state knew it, but the Premier was not going to have him, and the Premier knows that that will cause more and more ferment on the back bench.

The reality is, that is not the key problem that this Premier is facing. There was a story printed in last Thursday's edition of The Australian stating, 'Beginning of the end of spin politics: state governments must deliver change we can believe in'. That is what the problem with this government is. After 6½ long years of spin, spin, spin, the people on the back bench have had enough. They are the ones who are out there doorknocking. They are the ones who are out there talking to their community while the arrogants on the front bench stopped listening years ago. Those on the back bench are out there and they are hearing the story from their constituents.

That is the problem this government faces. The real message is starting to come through to those backbenchers. The member for Mawson is sitting there. He knows what it is like because he is out there in his community and he knows what is going on. The PR machine of this government has done its work for 6½ years but has run out of steam.

The article gives four hints regarding what the government should be doing. It says that it should be concentrating on the primary function of state governments, that is, service delivery. It stated that state governments do not exist to provide jobs for politicians' spouses, favours for Labor's developer mates, or sinecures for old union retainers. Does this government do any of that? Damn right it does; it does the whole lot.

Secondly, the article says that state Labor must break the stranglehold of the factions and the unions. Does this government have a problem with that? Why is the Premier consulting with Don Farrell and Mark Butler? They are the power behind this government, and that is one of the problems. The backbenchers know that, and they understand that the people of South Australia have had enough.

The article also says that state Labor must challenge outdated ideology in everything from uranium mining to school curriculums. Does this government have a problem there? Damn right it has, and people are telling the backbenchers that it is time they talked to their cabinet ministers and told them to get back into the real world. It is the arrogance of this cabinet and of this government that is causing problems, not only in the community: it is also flowing through from the backbench.

The article says that they must overcome the tyranny of parochialism. We know what that is like, because this Premier stands up every day of the week—as he did in question time today about wind power—and says how wonderful South Australia is. All he does is be parochial—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

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