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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-25 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

VALEDICTORIES

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (16:25): I rise with the indulgence of the house to make a few customary remarks, those remarks we make at this time of the year. I think I am doing it for quite possibly the ninth time, which is a long time.

I greet the house with the news that Peter Siddle has just taken a hat-trick for Australia against the old enemy, which is outstanding news, and I am sure it will cheer up everyone to leave their first inning in tatters.

My job today, after a year of angst and anger, is to share good wishes with all those in the house and offer our thanks to those who help us. Of course, my thanks, first, to you, Madam Speaker, new in the job, the first woman Speaker, I believe. Congratulations on that, and I hope that you get a slightly less rowdy chamber next year than you have endured sometimes this year. For my part, I think my behaviour has improved out of sight in recent times.

Can I thank Hansard, who do a marvellous job under trying circumstances, as always. I thank all of those who make the parliament work: parliamentary catering, of course, and the library, which I use a great deal. Can I say I think there have been some very good improvements in the library in recent years, not that they have not always done a good job, but we enjoy the improvements as well.

I thank the building services staff; the finance manager; parliamentary counsel, who I think are outstanding; all of those who work to make it easier in this place; our drivers, of course; and our electoral staff. I thank the ministerial staff, in particular, my staff, and the prodigal son, Matt Clemow, my Chief of Staff, who has come home again after being away helping out others, and my electorate staff.

The electorate staff of a busy minister do a very fine job, because you simply do not spend the time there that you would have in times past. I thank all of my ministerial staff who put up with my wanting everything done perfectly and yesterday. It is not an easy job; I recognise that, so once a year I like to say something nice about them, and for the rest of the year they can get back to work, frankly.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: As Michael Atkinson said, once is enough. I thank our families who endure a great deal for our service in this place. I am pleased to say that we have managed to make rather more family friendly hours than we used to keep by starting earlier in the morning. I, frankly, would never go back. I know the Leader of the Opposition is in the house. It is not simply what occurs in here in or in the electorate office; the functions can be endless. With young children, and I only have two—I am not quite sure how my colleague, the minister for further education, does it with—what is it now? Six?

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: Six.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Six and counting, or—

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: It's the only reason we haven't got eight.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I am reliably advised that the parliament it is the only reason that he hasn't got eight. I thank our families, particularly my wife, Tania, and my daughters. I am sure that all members would like me to thank our families for what they endure on our behalf and on behalf of the people of South Australia.

I do not know if I have left anyone out. Please indulge me while I make sure I have not. I must thank the whip, who does a most difficult job. I think sometimes she feels that she is herding cats, but on other occasions I think that perhaps cats are not as difficult as a bunch of parliamentarians. I also thank the deputy whip, who has fitted into his job so admirably. For a person in his first year you would swear that he has been here forever.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: And who prevailed in the court.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: And who prevailed in the court. My old friend, the former attorney, always helpful with advice. I do miss him next to me because we liked to point out other people's grammatical mistakes from time to time. I do not share that with John Hill; he thinks I am a bore. To all my backbench colleagues, to people on the other side, what people do not recognise is that there are good strong relationships that go on behind the scenes here. I have worked with many members of the opposition over the years, and where we do not need to be in conflict I do not see any reason why we cannot try to help each other, and I try to do that where possible.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I thank the house. I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I urge you all to take some sort of a break. I am hopeful this year that it will not be too hot, that there will be no heatwaves, electricity blackouts, bushfires, or anything like that, and that we can get an uninterrupted week in Goolwa with the wife and children. I wish everyone a very happy new year. I know that we all have a lot of functions through to about 20 December, but after that I hope that everyone has a well deserved break.

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (16:31): I, too, rise to thank the very many people around this place who make our jobs so much better than they would be if they were not here. I notice the fact that the minister referred to a year of 'angst and anger'. I have to say that the government brought it on themselves.

Like the minister, on behalf of all of those on this side I would like to thank our families first of all because they do put up with a lot. I think a lot of people who are not in this job would not realise what the family members have to put up with. Last night I had the pleasure of the company of the former member for Heysen, David Wotton, for dinner in the strangers dining room.

He had quite a young family when he was first in this place; indeed, he had the sole care of some children for some time. There is no doubt that there are people with much more difficult family circumstances than mine who have to juggle quite a deal and forgo quite a lot of family life for the honour and great joy of being in this place, and their families make a significant contribution just in that sacrifice.

Happily for me, I only have one 27 year old at home these days, and if he cannot cope by himself then I have been an utter failure as a mother, so I do not worry too much about it. He has followed me into the law, so we have some interesting chats of a night, but like me he is not particularly a morning person; he is more of an owl than a fowl. Our only discussion in the morning is usually, 'Good morning. Good morning.' That is the extent of our conversation in the morning before I leave for parliament.

I also thank my parliamentary colleagues, in particular my deputy, Mitch Williams; the Hon. David Ridgway, the leader in the Legislative Council; Michelle Lensink, his deputy up there; all of my shadow colleagues; and, indeed, all of my back bench, particularly those who came in at the election in March. We have six new members on this side of the house and one in the Legislative Council; no doubt they are still on a steep learning curve, but I thank them for the contributions that they have made, particularly the member for Norwood for his outstanding contribution this afternoon during the grievance debate. We have found that they have settled in pretty well, they are still on a steep learning curve, as I said, but they are doing extremely well.

The team, as a whole, needs to be congratulated, especially the member for Hammond, who is the whip for us; the new member for Flinders, Peter Treloar, who is the deputy whip; and in the upper house, the Hon. John Dawkins, and his deputy, the Hon. Jing Lee. As I said, I particularly want to mention the member for Adelaide, Rachel Sanderson; the member for Chaffey, Tim Whetstone; the member for Norwood, Steven Marshall; the member for Stuart, Dan van Holst Pellekaan; the member for Flinders, Peter Treloar; the member for Morialta, John Gardner; and the Hon. Jing Lee in the upper house.

I also make special mention of my staff not just here in the parliament but also in my electorate office. Nick and Gaynor have been there the whole time that I have been in parliament. Gaynor was my PA for several years before I came into this job, so she has been looking after me for some years now. Indeed, when I became Leader of the Opposition we suffered a great deal of separation anxiety because I was not used to not seeing Gaynor every day and having her run everything about my life, but I guess she is happy with some of that.

Can I also thank the Director of the Liberal Party, Bev Barber, who was, of course, my chief of staff until shortly after the election and has now moved up the ladder to become the director of our state division in this state.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mrs REDMOND: Yes. I also thank the President of the Liberal Party South Australian Division, Mr Grant Chapman. The parliamentary staff of the leader's office often have to work under a great deal of pressure. On the other side of the coin, the electorate staff of all members, I know, have to work under considerable constraint because often they just have to make decisions and get on with it in the absence of the member. Often, they have to take the flak and they are very much the front people who deal with the public day in and day out on our behalf. I think they need our thanks, as well as our congratulations, on how well they do it. On behalf of the opposition, therefore, I thank all opposition and government electoral and parliamentary staff.

I also make special mention of the drivers. As the deputy said, it is only since being in this job that I have had a driver. As a backbencher, I used to wonder how I would cope with having a driver because I am someone who actually likes to drive. I thought, 'I don't know whether I want this because I like driving.' It has always been the time when I got my headspace. I used to, in fact, drive my kids to school so I could have the drive back from the city to come back up and be able to think about things on the way.

I worried that I would miss that but, having now been in the job some 15 or 16 months, I know that I would not be able to do this job if I did not have the driver to help me, not only get to places and not have to think about how to get there, where to park and all those sorts of things, he obviously also enables me to do radio interviews and all sorts of other things. While I am travelling in the car, I don't have to think about the traffic or anything else.

Can I mention one other driver. I have had a number of people fill in this year, and I thank them all, but can I especially mention the young man who drove me yesterday whose name is Avdo. I want to mention Avdo because he has come to us from Bosnia, via 10 years in Germany, and then to Australia. He thinks he has gone to heaven, having a job working for us. He might not think that forever, but he thinks he has gone to heaven having a job as a driver in this parliamentary fleet. He is getting married on Saturday, so on behalf of us, I wish him all the very best and welcome to the service. I think he is still in his probation period but he certainly drove me very well yesterday. It was very pleasant and we do wish him well.

I also thank Perry Brook and the chamber attendants. I want to make special mention of Perry because, of course, Perry is leaving us before too long.

Mr Piccolo interjecting:

Mrs REDMOND: He keeps promising and he keeps staying.

Mr Venning: He has been here longer than I have.

Mrs REDMOND: Yes, he has been here some 30 years. I was having a chat to him last night and he said he has actually seen 154 members come and go in the time that he has been here. I have always looked up at Hansard and thought these guys must see people coming to this place and think they are full of it and the next thing they are gone and another lot are here. They probably have a better view of us than anyone else.

Similarly, Perry has watched people come and go over 30 years. So, as well as thanking the chamber attendants, I wanted to take the opportunity, on behalf of the opposition, to officially wish Perry Brook all our very best in his retirement, if and when he actually gets around to leaving.

I also thank Paul Collett, the Serjeant-at-Arms, and, of course, Malcolm Lehman, as our Clerk, and Rick Crump, as our Deputy Clerk. I know Gerry is sitting over there at the moment. Gerry is all the way from Scotland. We have got a very multicultural thing going on in the parliament.

I also thank all the committee members and staff and the table staff. I noticed that the Leader of Government Business mentioned them first, but parliamentary catering staff do a brilliant job. David Wotton, last night in the dining room, said, 'Things have improved since I was here.' He was very impressed with the menu, the staff and everything else.

Mr Venning: A better wine list.

Mrs REDMOND: As the member for Schubert says, a better wine list—not that that affects me since I drink water most of the time. Creon and the catering staff and the Blue Room staff do a magnificent job. Hopefully, we are mostly pretty polite, but I know there must be occasions when they put up with a fair bit from a number of people.

I thank Hansard, who every year manage to make us sound as though we are making sense.

An honourable member: They make great speeches!

Mrs REDMOND: Yes, they make great speeches. We might not necessarily make great speeches, but they make it sound as though our speeches are much better quality than they perhaps are.

There are so many people to thank. For a start, people do not realise how big this place is in terms of how many floors and rooms. In addition to Hansard, we have the procedures office, the cleaning staff, the switchboard staff, the maintenance staff, the security staff and, of course, the library staff. I was interested to hear the minister praise them and say how great they are, because I had just come from hearing that, in fact, our library staff are being cut. The government's cuts have cut into our own library staff. I am sad to hear that that is the case because the members opposite, if they are ministers, have the benefit of access to entire departments, but we rely very much on the research staff of the library. They are all, without fail, well qualified and do a wonderful job.

There are so many people in this place who work hard all the time. They are the soul of discretion and are unfailingly polite in spite of, sometimes I am sure, less than appropriate behaviour from members of this place. Sometimes we can get a bit restive, as you yourself would know, Madam Speaker, and I apologise for any shortcomings on the part of those on this side of the house.

Certainly, at this time of the year, we want to wish everyone a safe and a very happy Christmas. We hope that, as the minister said a short while ago, everyone takes a good break and hopefully a good deep breath and comes back mightily refreshed ready to join battle again in the new year.

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (16:42): I, too, wish all members in this chamber a very merry Christmas and safe and happy travel, if they do that. We have had a very torrid year this year for many reasons and I hope that we all come back next year happy and healthy. I thank our deputy whip, who has done a fantastic job. I particularly want to thank Carol and Wendy, our whip staff, and Val, who has retired, for their great service, and also my electorate staff, who are fantastic people.

To our Speaker, who is a great friend of mine and has been a great comfort to me this year, I apologise on behalf of us all if we give you a hard time and make life difficult from time to time, and also to our Deputy Speaker.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mrs GERAGHTY: We have members saying that they are perfectly well-behaved. I will not name those members in order of bad behaviour. Thank you to our Clerk, Malcolm, and his assistants; our chamber attendants; Hansard, who do a fantastic job; catering, who keep us moving around because we are well fed; and to all the staff of the house, including library staff.

As a member of the JPSC, I make mention that I was somewhat surprised to hear the Leader of the Opposition say that she has been told we have cut library staff. As a member of the JPSC, I can only tell you that that is surprising news to me. Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding in the information that has been given to her.

To our Opposition Whip, Adrian, who is representing us ably at a conference, I wish him and his family well, as well as our deputy whip.

Mr Venning: He is a good bloke.

Mrs GERAGHTY: Yes, indeed; a good bloke.

Mr Venning interjecting:

Mrs GERAGHTY: Ivan, you are always a favourite. We have a good working relationship based on trust and understanding, and that is extremely important. I wish everyone a very happy Christmas and I look forward to seeing all of us back here next year—perhaps not a few pounds heavier, but happy and healthy.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (16:45): As Acting Opposition Whip this week, I will make a small contribution to this valedictory debate. I will not go over everybody who has already been—

Members interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: We are. Is it not a valid—

Members interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: Moving on, I would like to thank all those who have already been thanked. Certainly, our leader has listed them quite clearly and all those who are involved, but for me, as a new member, I would like to pay special tribute to the Government Whip, in fact. My relationship with her over this last week has been fair and plain speaking, and that is exactly as it should be. Also, the deputy whip, who, like me, has come into this place as a new member this year and taken like a duck to water to his role, no doubt. So, I would like to wish those two in particular a happy and safe Christmas.

In our whip’s absence I thank the whip staff, Helen Dwyer and Todd Hacking, for their assistance and contribution along the way. I know it is a busy job; I have discovered that this week, and Adrian certainly appreciates their help. Incidentally, our whip is currently, as the Government Whip has indicated, busy on parliamentary business, and it just happens to be a long way from here. I spoke to him the other morning—afternoon our time, early morning their time. He actually answered the phone at 6.30 in the morning. It was pitch black and about three degrees, but they were already on the bus and heading west, so I know he is working hard at the moment. Our wishes go to him and his family, as well.

While we are on the subject of whips, I also acknowledge the Opposition Whip in the other place, the Hon. John Dawkins, and his deputy whip, another new member, the Hon. Jing Lee, as well as their staff. Madam Speaker, I commend you for what is a very challenging role. I wish you and your family a happy and safe Christmas, as I do all members in this place.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (16:47): My first thanks—it is not every year, but it should be every year—is to Hansard. I remember being called ‘machine gun McFetridge’, ‘the mouth of the south’, ‘motor mouth’, and I think I speak in a very slow, calm, collected manner now, compared with then. Perhaps the grieve today was not but, Hansard, I thank you very much for making my speeches look like they are from a very intelligent man and quite comprehensible. It is really a pleasure to work with the professionals in Hansard in this place.

There are so many people in here we should be thanking and certainly, Madam Speaker, it is great to see you in that role. I know we have had a close relationship on the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee and share a lot of passions and issues with Aboriginal affairs. I know this week particularly has been trying for you. I am sure you are looking forward to a good rest over Christmas, and I wish you the very best.

I thank all my colleagues, particularly the Leader of the Opposition, Isobel Redmond. Isobel and I came into this place at the same time. We seem to move around the benches together. She has actually taken that leap of faith and gone onto leadership. I am very pleased to see her in that position, being the person she is, with a mind like a steel trap and high integrity, and certainly as honest as the day is long. If you want to know what Isobel thinks, just ask her. You are never left in any doubt, but not in a nasty way.

To the rest of the Liberal Party team, can I say that it has been a terrific year this year working with them, particularly the new members, the bright, fresh young minds we have on this side. In this crazy place that we call the Parliament of South Australia, we all put our hearts and souls into doing what we think is the best thing to do for our constituents. As the minister for Transport said—and he and I have differed on many things but do agree on this particular thing—there are many members in here who you get to know not only on a political basis but on a personal basis through being on committees and going on various trips.

I had the pleasure of being with Lee Odenwalder and Leesa Vlahos on the recent trip to China. Can I say that they are two delightful additions to this place and I look forward to watching their progress, hopefully in opposition after 2014, but that's politics. We are looking forward to that. I would be very surprised if they are serving their same masters then.

It is Christmas and it is a time of goodwill. I will finish up by saying that I wish everyone a very happy and safe Christmas. I must not forget my electorate staff—Kate, Heidi, Andrea, Danielle and my volunteer whom I inherited from John Oswald, Shirley Whoston. Shirley is 85 now. She has been volunteering in my office now for 30 or so years. It is a hell of a long time. I thank my electorate staff for what they do to assist me to do the work that I do. I hope that they get a few days off between Christmas and new year because they do work very hard at all other times.

With those remarks, I wish everyone a safe and healthy Christmas, and I look forward to seeing everyone back on 8 February next year.

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