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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-16 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Holmes, Mr Allan

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:19): I would like today to make a few comments about the departure of Mr Allan Holmes. I think the title of my speech this afternoon should be 'Bye bye, Allan, adieu, farewell, adios'. Members may be aware that as part of the Weatherill government's revolving door policy towards senior public servants, Mr Allan Holmes of the environment department has now departed the public sector. I know many members will have a black armband on for this departure and I must say it is an unusual one, even for this government.

The government usually gets rid of anyone who has shown any initiative or has done something. The list of high achievers who have also been shoved out include Rod Hook and Jim Hallion, both of whom have served this state extremely well and put together a large number of projects. Mr Holmes, though, has been recognised for doing nothing and allowing nothing to happen under the new banner of 'environmentalism'.

I have to say that Mr Holmes has been immensely successful at stopping any project that he personally did not like. When he departed recently he sent out a note to various parts within his empire—because that is what he built, an empire—and the note said, 'The king is dead, long live the king!' What a curious statement for any public servant to make.

In a radio interview Mr Holmes lamented the freeholding of shacks, a rather curious statement given the coming down of the Berlin Wall, the end of international communism and the rest of the history of the last 25 years. He also lamented the fact that he had only been able to stop the Port Wakefield project and not to bury it. He stated that it was still out there and possible—dreadful!

For those members who have not been to Port Wakefield or through it, the Port Wakefield project was the brainchild of the Chapman family who built the outstanding and well-awarded Hindmarsh Island marina. Although its inhabitants are very proud of it, and rightly so, Port Wakefield is not exactly pristine wilderness. It is in parts ramshackle with an environment damaged heavily by uncontrolled run-off stormwater, and other degradation. The Chapman family proposed to remedy all this, and the only casualties were going to be three mangrove plants that would be potted and cared for and replanted at the end of the day.

Mr Holmes obviously does not like the Chapmans, and obviously thinks Port Wakefield, despite its environmental degradation, is all fine as it is now. Recently, he even went further and stated that the second-only surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, had no heritage value and should not be housed on any South Australian government land. What an extraordinary statement. The real reasons for Mr Holmes' curious outburst on this topic—the 'because'—was the Chapman family was part of the consortia that brought this very important part of South Australia's maritime heritage to South Australia and that he, Mr Holmes, had nothing to do with it. Sour grapes, I suspect.

Mr Holmes fitted in perfectly with this government's objectives: do nothing and sack anyone who does something, and a minister for planning who inherited a 30-year plan and then deducted 28 years. Members will remember all the leaking about the Adelaide Zoo and its financial problems a couple of years ago. Mr Holmes, I suspect, knows all about that because he lamented that he was the only chief executive in an environment department in Australia who did not have a zoo. He not only wanted his own zoo, but he wanted that one and all the employees under it—that would have been a nice, tidy addition to the empire.

Before I finish, let me also raise the subject of Southern Ocean Lodge, which has been spectacularly successful and which the government is great at expounding the virtues of. In another life when I was mayor on Kangaroo Island a number of years ago, that project came to us and I immediately contacted Paul Holloway, the then minister, who was a great bloke and a good fellow to deal with and could be trusted—unlike some others.

Mr Holmes did everything possible to try to stop Southern Ocean Lodge, and I say 'everything possible'. It was widely known in tourism and environment circles that Mr Holmes did not want that project and he would stop at nothing to inhibit the progress of that including using the Native Vegetation Council and anyone else who happened to put their hands up.

I say that the state is well rid of Allan Holmes and I hope that the environment department comes under a new charter and a new direction. I hope that the last public servant shafted by this government remembers to turn the lights off.

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