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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-03 Daily Xml
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CABINET MINISTERS

The Hon. P.L. WHITE (Taylor) (15:33): I take this opportunity to congratulate today's new ministerial appointments—the new Minister for Correctional Services and the new Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education. I also acknowledge and thank former ministers Carmel Zollo MLC and Rory McEwen (the member for Mount Gambier) for their hard work and dedication to the roles they have played over many years in the South Australian cabinet.

Apart from my current role as a backbencher, I have had the privilege of working with both these individuals. Before she entered parliament, Carmel worked with me, and I also experienced working with the member for Mount Gambier around the cabinet table for some years, too. So, I do have some insight into the quality of those two individuals, and I know how dedicated they have been to their jobs as ministers. I wish them both well in their new roles, and I hope they do enjoy the opportunities they now have to serve South Australia in a different way.

I often muse about what type of minister is the most effective for a government. Is it the good communicator, the media darling, the one who, perhaps, takes the focus of protecting the government image, perhaps takes the credit for all the good news and sends their public servants out to take the flak for the bad news, or is the most effective minister the one who takes pains to get the right outcomes, worries less about the personal reputation but who goes that extra length to fix the problems before they become media fodder and shares the credit broadly?

Is it, perhaps, that a minister needs to be the right balance of each measure? Perhaps you need both types of minister in your team. Whatever the answer to that question, there is no doubt that Carmel Zollo has been a most effective minister for South Australia. During her watch, the South Australian road toll was reduced to under 100 lives lost for the first time in this state's history, and that is an important difference to our state, and I commend her for her work in achieving that. That outcome is influenced by the minister, police and the media constantly spreading the road safety message and reminding the public of the risk.

If you ask anyone who has worked in road safety over many years, the one thing they say that does have an impact on the road toll from year to year is a minister being vocal and focusing effort strongly to that end. I commend Carmel in her work and dedication to that task. She also made changes to the graduated licensing scheme that impacts on all our young drivers and their safety and the safety of others on our roads, and I commend her on that. Carmel, of course, was the correctional services minister, as well as minister for gambling and the minister assisting the minister for multicultural affairs. She has done a fantastic job in her role. She has served our state well, and I, and I know many other members of this parliament, wish her well in her new role.

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