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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-12 Daily Xml
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Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Adjourned debate on motion for adoption (resumed on motion).

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:16): I will resume my comments. I think I was just about to touch on some of the trade initiatives that we have seen the current government undertaking. It has been very sweet and very cordial in the way the government has embraced both the Chinese industry, Chinese trade partners, and we see the Indian embrace at the moment, particularly with the World Cup and the cricket. I was at a function with the Premier and the Attorney about a week ago and I would like to endorse the program of bringing over the Dream Team 15: 15 young cricketers from India, to sponsor them and to give them an experience in Adelaide with the cricket hierarchy within SACA. I think it was a great acknowledgement of what South Australia can do to hold out an olive branch, in particular with these 15 young Indian cricketers.

It is a good initiative because those young cricketers will come here and they will have an experience that will probably last them a lifetime. They will go home and they will be good ambassadors for South Australia. They will talk of their experience, they will talk of the beautiful country they have just visited and they will talk of the friendly people. I spoke to a number of those young cricketers and they were in awe of how they had been embraced and the attitude that people had towards them. They were absolutely in awe of the remodelled Adelaide Oval, and I think it was a great initiative.

Another great thing was that the Premier pulled out the winning ticket for a draw to win tickets to the cricket world cup match at Adelaide Oval between India and Pakistan and it just happened to be me. I want to put on the record that I have not indulged; I have donated those tickets to the Indian temple in Glossop in the Riverland. The person who will be the winner of those two tickets will make a substantial donation to the church. So, I hope that those tickets are put to good use and someone in the electorate of Chaffey will be the successor of the tickets and go along and enjoy themselves at the cricket on Sunday.

Again, I did touch on the trade strategies in South Australia with our free trade partners. Japan and Korea have been signed off and are moving along. The agreement with China is soon to be fully agreed to and put in place. One question I would like to ask is: where is the strategy with our free trade agreements? We have all the warm and fuzzy press releases from the Minister for Trade and the Premier, but where are our strategies to assist businesses in South Australia access new FTA markets?

We are all giving the pat on the back to the people who come and visit from India and China, but what are we doing for the businesses in South Australia to help them embrace a culture so that they can go over there, present their products, present what they are manufacturing or growing, and be part of this free trade agreement? To date, I do not see a really clear strategy.

We do have a Gateway Program that has been a dismal failure and I know that the Minister for Trade made mention of that in budget estimates last year. Just recently, he has said that he has overhauled that Gateway Program, but we have not actually seen all of that money or all of that expertise hit the ground and make a difference.

Our exporters need to have readiness training. They need to understand the culture of the country they are sending their products to. They need to have that preparedness and be ready, so that they can actually produce, process or grow a product that will fit the needs of that country, and it has to be a product in demand. We cannot have products or goods and services just put on a ship or a plane and sent over to these free-trade countries.

We actually have to understand their packaging and the presentation that they require. We have to understand the numbers. A lot of Asian cultures rely on lucky numbers; they rely on all sorts of colours. In my previous experience as an exporter, until I made a cultural trip over to China, I did not actually quite understand or realise the importance of the lucky numbers and the unlucky numbers, the lucky colours and the unlucky colours.

It is important when we are putting a product into certain packaging that we know what the numbers are on there for and what reasons. We need to understand that and we need to be much better prepared. For these markets I think that is where this state government is falling down. They are not providing adequate support preparing our businesses, our producers, our manufacturers and our processors in the best possible way in terms of readiness.

There are some groups that have been over there and they have had a very rude awakening, so I say to the government that preparedness support needs to be much more available to our businesses and to our producers, particularly to our agricultural sector with our growing and our packaging, because we need to do more than just fill up a truck, a ship or a plane and send our product away. We have to value-add, and I think that is critically important.

I look at some of the commodities in my electorate and in the electorate of Flinders where industries are doing great things with promoting their product but also having the right product, so they can put it on the shelves over in those new markets. I would like to just touch on some of the commodities that are making adjustments and change.

In the citrus industry, it is a long transition from going to a nursery, asking for a tree, getting that tree propagated and getting it to the property. That takes about three years, sometimes four. To get it in the ground, get it growing and get it producing is another four years and, to do that, we have to produce and grow something that is in high demand for some of these new markets.

In citrus, we are growing smaller fruit. We are growing easy-peel fruit and fruit with low acid. We are growing fruit with high sugar—something that really appeals to the taste and the eye particularly of many Asian countries. They like bright colours and very sweet products. I think the industry has recognised that and they have stepped up to the plate, so I congratulate them.

When we look at the almond industry, we are now pasteurising almonds and that makes them much safer. For those of you who do not know the way almonds are harvested, the tree is shaken, they drop to the ground and they are swept up, put on a conveyor and then taken away for cracking and processing. Sometimes, we get pathogens and bacteria in the nuts which can spoil them during a journey to an export destination. The pasteurising is a great process that gets rid of any pathogens and bacteria. It smooths the nut and makes it very presentable, and it is very much admired by every country around the world.

Stone fruit is another great example. Many of the stone fruit breeders are trialling varieties that, again, are pleasing to the eye, particularly the Asian eye. They are a sweet and compact fruit with very intense flavours, and that is something that will capture the imagination of, particularly, our free trade partners that are looking for that small pocket of impact—the colour and flavour. Again, they are doing a great job.

The wheat and barley industries, particularly malting barley: I have had many millers, brewers and exporters in my electorate looking for a consistent, high-quality product and I think that we are positioned beautifully to present high-quality products. I think the way of the future might not just be the big multinational companies. A lot of the exporters are getting very sick of irregular quality. They are getting that quality which is at the very bottom of the scale that they are looking for, and I think growers can work collaboratively and put a good quality product into a market and cut out a lot of these marketers' agents that are clipping the ticket along the way and, inevitably, the grower has to get a better return.

We look at the potato, carrot and onion industries. They are producing new styles, which is a great initiative, particularly for shelf life, and particularly here, domestically. I am sure that many people have seen some of the new varieties of potatoes and onions on our shelves. They have much better flavours and a much more intense flavour, and they are more purpose-ready for our export markets. In relation to olive oil, we are looking at producing high-end olive oil not just a medium quality oil that comes out of Europe in shiploads. We are going to send the most premium, pristine virgin oils of all types.

Also, hay. Hay is something that has widely been grown in high rainfall areas. That is not the case, these days. We are growing varieties of hay that can be grown in low rainfall, which reduces disease, but can be irrigated. We are seeing a lot of intense farming, particularly in the Asian countries where they have feed lots but not the feed, so they are looking to import the hay and feed and nutrition, and that is something we in South Australia can do exceptionally well with our low pest and low disease rates.

That has been touted as being very appealing, because you can imagine that no country wants to import anything that is going to have bugs or disease or any unwanted items in a sealed bale of hay. Most members would know that the one-tonne bales have been ultra compressed and then wrapped in plastic so they can get overseas in pristine condition.

That is touching on just some of it. I will speak about the seafood. We have some of the best seafood in the world. Our tuna industry is reaping the rewards of the trade partnerships they have had with Japan for many years, but markets in those destinations are opening up further. There are agreements now in place with China. I know that some of the ASEAN countries are looking at high-end seafood products. I am sure the member for Flinders has his eye firmly on that industry in his electorate and making sure that they are harvesting some of the best product in the world to fetch a premium price.

We look at just exactly how South Australia can benefit from those trade destinations. The Asia strategy is about to be launched, but sadly the current government previously closed our trade offices in Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We are going to have to reopen them. I fail to see their strategy. As I said in the first part of my contribution, this government has rested its economic goldfield in the resource sector, and it is clearly not happening in South Australia. The big miners have shied away. We are seeing jobs being lost at the moment, we are seeing mines being scaled down, and we are seeing some mines being mothballed. Again, we are looking at relying on a renewable resource, and that is agriculture.

We continue to improve the quality of our crops, and that is where the energy of the government needs to be focused, on something that is renewable and something that can be improved every year. Again, I call on the government to stop turning its back on the grassroots of agriculture and stop focusing on the shiny bits and backslapping, hopping on a plane and telling the rest of the world how wonderful we are withour solid benefits. We have to become better prepared for our export markets. We have to produce better products so that we are leaders in the world and not just followers.

I see that with the wine industry. For many, many years South Australia has produced the majority of premium wine in this country. The Riverland in particular is the engine room of the wine industry in Australia, producing 26 per cent of Australia's wine, 51 per cent of South Australia's wine. Yes, it is not ultra premium, but it produces some fantastic entry-level wine and some fantastic alternative varieties. In the ASIAN region, particularly Japan, they are picking up some of these new, alternative varieties, and they like them. They like the style.

They are not ready as yet for the big, bold, beautiful Barossa shiraz or the inclement Coonawarra cabernets that just melt in your mouth. They are looking for affordable entry-level wine, and I think the Riverland is beautifully positioned to supply that; but we have to be able to market and sell our wine. We cannot be price takers. We cannot just keep loading the ship without thinking about the markets our commodities are headed to. We cannot just keep loading the truck and hoping we are going to get paid for our product. We have to have that expertise around how we sell our product. We have to be proud, because all the other continents in the world are now producing wine, with a lot of Australia's expertise.

We need to be competitive. We have rested on our laurels for too long. I call on the wine industry to look beyond, to look at new styles, new varieties and new marketing skills. We are being plagiarised with some piracy, particularly in China. We need to look at how we can chip our bottles. We can put on labels that cannot be easily counterfeited. We need to continue the ownership of those premium and iconic brands that we have been so proud to own and ship all over the world.

We look at how we can promote our export businesses. Regional South Australia produces over 50 per cent of our overseas exports, but with only 30 per cent of the population. They are doing it with fewer people and fewer resources, because they have to, because that is the country culture. Regional South Australia does more with less, we produce more with less, and we grow more with less. That is the way we have remained competitive and that is why we are still on the land. If we had a government running agriculture, believe you me, it would have died long ago.

We also hear the government talking about establishing a new body solely focused on attracting investment. Is this not just another layer of bureaucracy? We already have some of these investment bodies. We already have Invest SA, Education SA, Food and Wine SA, and now we hear the government talking about establishing another body, another layer of bureaucracy. Is this just propping up another government department? I hope not because I look at the defunding of those very important R&D programs and R&D bodies that continue to be shunned by a government that is relying on our expertise in R&D.

I will just touch on interstate migration. On average almost 3,000 South Australian residents leave the state on an annual basis. Why are they leaving this state? Is it because running a business is so expensive here in South Australia? Yes. Is it because young ones cannot get a job here in South Australia? Definitely.

I have three children and all of them have considered leaving to find a job interstate. I have a son who has just entered the construction industry and he almost gave up on South Australia and I urged him to stay. If it were not for the goodwill of a good South Australian family company, he would have left South Australia and moved on.

My daughter has just finished year 12 and she is wondering where she should go for her career. The message she is getting from her peers and her friends is that there is no work in South Australia and she should look interstate because that is the only place you are going to get a job. That is a sad indictment of South Australia.

We do have to build growth and we do have to build job opportunities. We cannot just keep getting the spin from the Premier and the Treasurer that everything is fine. We cannot just believe that we are going to pull jobs out of thin air. We actually have to create jobs. We have to make robust policy. We have to make this state attractive. We cannot just keep saying we are going to and ask people to believe us. We have to have the runs on the board and we have to make this state great once again.

We are at the bottom of the tree with employment. We are at the bottom of the tree with investment and yet we have a government that keeps criticising the opposition for not believing in this state. We are only stating the facts, and the facts are that people are walking away because they have a lack of commitment to and a lack of confidence in South Australia.

Again, we look at unemployment. Tasmania has a better employment record. The figures are out today and it is embarrassing for South Australia that we are bottom; we cannot go any lower. We now have to build on our employment strategy and the government has to build real policy rather than feeding the people of South Australia spin.

Since 2002 South Australia's population growth has achieved just half the national average, with more than 38,000 net interstate migrants under this current government. The average number of South Australians leaving for interstate per annum has grown by 9.8 per cent since 2002. That is a sad indictment of exactly what South Australian is all about—we need family business and entrepreneurs coming over here. It was once a state of opportunity. It is now a state where people are leaving and migrating elsewhere. Those figures are staggering and extremely concerning, considering the state government has no plans to arrest the decline.

Again, we heard the Premier today, and it is all spin and we do not believe in him. We do not believe in him because he is not putting anything credible on the table. He wants to change time zones and close hospitals. They want to walk away from our servicemen's hospital. It is not about spending $19 million on a new service; that is rubbish. That is not going to provide the care they need and it is not going to provide the service they need. That establishment is there for them for serving our country. It was a gift, originally, so I think it is a sad indictment once again of the government. The Governor said in his speech:

Investors and business leaders, and perhaps most importantly young people deciding where to best pursue their dreams, intuitively judge a state by the energy, vitality and values expressed by its capital city.

If that is the case, many South Australians are pursuing their dreams elsewhere, and that is something that must change. I want my children to remain in South Australia, to be great South Australians and to contribute to a great state.

I will touch quickly on attracting events. We have seen a number of events attracted to South Australia. The government has to work harder, the ministers have to work harder, on attracting world events. We cannot just rely on an India-Pakistan cricket match. We have to give our fans something, and our fans are partly Indian, we have a part-interested crowd, but we have to give our Aussie fans something. Again, we had a Rolling Stones tour but we need Australian content.

Time expired.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (16:40): I welcome the opportunity to take on the role of Minister for Education and Child Development but, before I turn to a discussion of what I expect to see in that portfolio over the next year and respond to the Governor's excellent speech, I would like to acknowledge the two people who have joined this house since we last met. The member for Davenport I have not yet had an opportunity to spend much time with; however, he is representing the area where I grew up and where my parents still live, so I will be keeping a somewhat watchful eye on how he represents his area.

I also welcome and know far better the new member for Fisher and her extremely moving speech yesterday which was not only personal about her own experiences but also clearly evocative of who she is—an honest, clearly spoken person who is ultimately driven by her values. I am sure many people have said to her on coming in that she should not change. That is often what is expected of politicians, sadly, in our community. Of all of us, the new member for Fisher will not change as a result of this job, other than to grow and become even better as a representative of her area.

I turn now to my role as the education and child development minister. I would like to say that I am delighted to have been given this role, although admittedly quite sorry to farewell my previous portfolio which I enjoyed very much and which was extremely important to my electorate. However, the opportunity to have anything to do with young people is precious and I am genuinely delighted to be given this opportunity. Young people, it is a truism and it is tedious to say, are our future. That is not only because of time passing because they grow and therefore become the adults who run the place but because when they are young they have the opportunity to develop the skills, the knowledge and the values that will carry them through for the rest of their life.

I said at the SACE graduation the other day that the generation who are graduating from school now are brilliant. I see in them not only high capability and excellent performance in their academic world, but they seem to have a value base that might have been missing in older generations, not older than me but perhaps around my age or a little younger. The people who are coming through now seem to be so driven by making the world a better place, and I find it extremely refreshing to be with them and I look forward very much to their taking over this society and economy of ours.

I am also a parent of children who are in the state system. I am a graduate of the state system myself and an extremely proud advocate of the state education system. I will in this portfolio be unashamedly proud to talk about our state system and to make its quality and the improvement of its quality central to everything I do. I believe that you can have no better institution in society for the future than an excellent and strong state education system, and that is what I will be dedicating the education side of my portfolio time to.

Although I probably draw too much on my experience as a parent in this first week of being a minister in coming to grips with it, I have also had the privilege over the last three years of spending a lot of time in local schools in and next to my electorate. My practice has been, as I am sure it is with many members here, to embrace the schools that might sit just outside my electorate boundaries but which are the schools where children from within my electorate attend. So, I have had the very great fortune of attending a number of graduation ceremonies, too numerous to count, over the last three years, of going to governing councils, of spending time with principals.

My job, I think, as a brand new education minister is to get out to many of those schools beyond my electorate now and understand what it is that they wish to see. The best way to know what is happening and what can happen is to take advice from people who experience the issue every day, in this case, principals, teachers, SSOs, administrative staff, the students themselves, and the parents, grandparents and caregivers, all of whom have such an enormous investment in our education system.

One of the important values that the education system brings to us is its capacity to support families who are in a more vulnerable position. We know there are families for whom life is harder, and in those cases life is harder for the children in those families. What I want to see is the power of the school system being used to help those children to have an opportunity at a better and brighter life. What I want to see is that the few hours of the day when children who are in distressed or vulnerable families are at school are the best hours of their day, where they are nurtured, valued and recognised for the potential that they have, and I will carry that desire and that value with me. That is one of the reasons that I personally think keeping the portfolio of education and child development, including Families SA, together is a good idea, although I will, of course, be interested to hear what the royal commission has to say.

I carry with me from my previous time as the minister for manufacturing and innovation and also the minister for automotive transformation a much better understanding than I had previously about the enormous change that our economy not only is going through but, more importantly, will go through. It has become extremely clear to me that, for children who are just going into school now and even for children who are in late primary and getting into high school, the jobs they will have in the future will be nothing like the jobs we are now aware of. Therefore, the kind of skills we need to give those children need to be ones that are transferrable, translatable and broad.

I have said in a couple of media interviews, when people ask me what I want out of the education system, that I believe very much in the basics. I come as a parent in particular, and a child of people who taught at university. I come with a bias for the basics. I like good grammar. I appreciate good spelling, although I must admit I was not a good speller as a child and had to work extremely hard at that, and I value numeracy. However, the basics are a lot more than that now. The basics now need to encompass not only additional skills such as digital literacy, which I have to admit our children seem almost born with, but also, as you go into high school, an increasing emphasis on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

The basics also have to be about how you learn and how you think, because if we do not equip children with the capacity to be creative, to be problem solvers and to be able to think critically, then we will hamper them in their capacity to embrace the jobs as they emerge, as those new careers and those new jobs become reality. One of the great challenges with the digital era is that it is so easy to slip into what people call an echo chamber, where you are on the internet where theoretically you have access to a huge range of ideas, opinions and facts, but in fact very quickly and easily you can fall into just looking at the sites that conform to your own pre-existing prejudices and ideas, which feed you facts, even if they are facts that only support your pre-existing assumptions.

So, even more than before when teachers would often be the mediator of knowledge, when students are capable of gaining knowledge themselves directly through the internet—which is largely a fantastic thing to happen—we need to equip those students, those children and us as adults with the capacity to think critically about what they are being presented with, to have the tools to question what is before them. I know our education system is very much focused on doing that, and I will be absolutely insistent on seeing that continue and expand. It is one of the very great qualities that we can give our children. Other personal qualities, of course, include resilience and competence.

We used to have a world where, if you were lucky enough to get a profession, a job or a trade, you could have a reasonable expectation that that would be what you did for your life. My parents, essentially, only had one job each for their whole working lives: one workplace, one job. That is completely different now already. I have had several—constantly starting again—but I know that the next generation does not even expect to have longevity in work, and to give the level of resilience and self-confidence required to go through that is another very important feature of our education system.

I would like to note some of the announcements or plans that were articulated so beautifully by our new Governor on Tuesday on education. What he talked about was our capacity to have schools able to choose to amalgamate if they want to. While that may sound qualified and very much just about location, it really is not. It is much more about equipping schools within a community to make a decision that they might be able to better serve their community together than alone and to give them some of the financial instruments to facilitate that.

I am very keen to see our schools be the base of our education system. They already are, but where is the weight of our attention; where is the weight of our expenditure and of our decision-making? The chief executive and I have discussed this and he is, of course, already absolutely supportive of this growing trend we have seen across the world in schooling, in education, to really push the autonomy towards the school level and to push the capacity to make decisions there, not only with the offer of assisting amalgamations where schools wish to do it in providing the financial mechanisms to do that but also to look at the role that head office plays.

At the moment, we have a head office in Flinders Street that is very full. Many staff members spend a lot of time out at the schools, but the chief executive and I have discussed the absolute importance of pushing as much as possible out into the school level and, therefore, giving the power and the strength to those schools.

I would like to close by referring to the Families SA side of my portfolio. It is a difficult one because it deals with families and children who are in the most vulnerable situations. The most vulnerable, of course, are the children for whom I am now responsible. There are around 2,600 who are under the care and guardianship of the minister, and I take that responsibility extremely seriously. The government has an enormous role to play in regard to the number of families who we know have challenges in their lives and in their parenting. Of course, we do. We are asked by the community to take that role, of finding out where there are problems and supporting families, and where that is impossible, looking after the children separately from the families. It is not something that government can do alone. It is a responsibility we all share for all of our children.

The new member for Fisher referred to a role she plays as the carer of a child who has had an interesting and challenging life and for whom that story will become very important and powerful, as she said in her speech. That is one way of supporting. However we all have an obligation not to turn away, not just—even if we notify officially that there might be a problem—to leave it at that. We all have a responsibility to be deeply engaged with our neighbours and in our communities to support them in every way we can. With that, I thank the Governor for his speech, and look forward to the next three years. They will be interesting and challenging. I thank the house for its time.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (16:55): I rise today to contribute to the Address in Reply to the Governor's speech. The role of all the members in this place is to move that the following Address in Reply to His Excellency's opening speech be adopted:

May it please Your Excellency—

1. We, the members of the House of Assembly, express our thanks for the speech with which Your Excellency was pleased to open parliament.

2. We assure Your Excellency that we will give our best attention to the matters placed before us.

3. We earnestly join in Your Excellency's desire for our deliberations to serve the advancement of the welfare of South Australia and all its people.

That is most important. I do not know His Excellency the Governor as well as some of the other members in this chamber—I have met him just the once—but it would appear that he is admirably suited to the role, and I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him well in that role in the coming years.

At the outset of this speech I would also like to take the time, as others have, to congratulate the two new members of the House of Assembly, the member for Fisher and the member for Davenport, who were both elected over the Christmas/New Year period. I welcome them to the chamber and wish them well in their time here. It is not easy to get to this place, we all know that, and both of them have earned their position. They have now been sworn in and will go down in history as members of the House of Assembly and the South Australian parliament. It is a marvellous privilege and, from her maiden speech, the member for Fisher certainly comes in admirably well prepared and well intentioned. I suppose now we will hear from the member for Davenport next week, because we are nearly at the end of this sitting week.

I would like to pick up on a couple of things that the Governor mentioned in his speech. Something I have actually spoken about today during the condolence motion, but would also like to mention in my Address In Reply speech, is to pay tribute to the Hon. Arthur Whyte AM, who was a member of the Legislative Council from 1966 to 1985, including time as president from 1978 to 1985.

I knew Arthur a little bit; in fact, everyone on Eyre Peninsula knew of Arthur. My father certainly used to speak of him. He was well known, and was a lifelong resident of Kimba—or a farm nearby—and was very active in the community of Kimba. He was 93 when he died, and was one of the few remaining Rats of Tobruk. I made the comment in the condolence motion that on this occasion a man had passed and an era had also passed, and I truly believe that. So vale Arthur Whyte.

Now to the speech proper. We have had another opening of parliament. Of course we have only just had the state election back in March 2014, so in fact we had just eight months of parliament sitting yet the decision was made to prorogue that parliament and reopen, for whatever reason that might be. It seems somewhat unnecessary to me.

Sitting extended beyond 17:00 on motion of Hon. S.E. Close.

Mr TRELOAR: So, with much pomp and ceremony and, of course, cost, which has been mentioned a number of times, we have opened parliament, we have opened a new session after just eight months of sitting after the state election in 2014, for whatever reason that might be. As we have noted over the years, the Governor speaks at the opening of the parliament. He is, of course, the Queen's representative in a Westminster democracy, and it is not the Governor's speech, it is actually the government's speech and they lay out their plan, their agenda, for the coming session. In previous years we have had the seven-point plan, we have had a 10-point plan and we now have an 18-point plan. I suspect that either or of that, nothing really changes.

The member for Kavel spoke wistfully about the MFP, the multifunctionpolis, and the airy-fairy nature of a lot of this government's spin. The Leader of the Opposition and I went to New Zealand a little while ago to talk particularly with the conservative government over there and also Prime Minister Key, who has since been re-elected. The conservatives over there use a wonderful term when they describe the Labor Party—the Labor Party is in opposition in New Zealand—they use the term 'séance economics'. I guess what that really means is: we have a lot of plans, we have a lot of planning, we have a lot of consultation, but the nuts and bolts, the numbers, are never really considered in any of this and it becomes some magical figures.

The intention is, I think, that by having a plan we will suddenly become economically viable and a robust state, when in fact the Premier himself has described this state as heading towards genteel decline. I suspect we have been on that path for some time already, but from this plan I see nothing but that quest for socialist utopia, which Labor governments around the world have been seeking and have inevitably brought the economic situation to a grinding halt. I think the real difficulty with this government is its failure to meet its budget projections, and we have seen that particularly since 2005.

The deficit has blown out, we have seen the debt blow out and despite the rhetoric and the stated intention of achieving surplus and reeling back in the budget surplus, it never actually seems to come to pass. It is very simple: if you reduce waste and spend less then you can make a difference to your government budget lines. The contrary has occurred. We have seen debt spiralling. We see governments now talking about reforming the tax system. That is code for increasing taxes, I am sure. We will wait and see on that.

The member for Goyder pointed out, in his capacity as shadow minister for regional development, that the regions were left out completely from the Governor's speech, and that speaks volumes about this government and its general ignorance of the economic contribution of the regions. You will hear that many times from this side of the house. We say it over and over again, but it does not seem to be striking a chord with the government. The citi-centric attitude of this government has not changed.

I might refer to the member for Fisher's maiden speech. It was a wonderful maiden speech. I do agree with that sentiment. She put a lot of emotion and thought into her maiden speech and it was well worth listening to. However, she said at one point that:

We need to be investing in our communities, creating jobs, growth and excitement in our city.

Therein lies the problem. It is not just jobs, growth and excitement in our city, in fact it needs to be right across the state and we will continue banging on about that until the government starts to listen.

The member for Chaffey spoke about the value of our productive sector, a lot of which, at least, we find in our regions. He talked about the recently completed grain harvest. I have not had the opportunity, since coming back, to speak about the harvest but, in my electorate of Flinders, which covers almost all of Eyre Peninsula, the harvest was generally good. The farmers right across this state have been very active in their adoption of new technologies, and they have been able to achieve results in any particular season that just a few years ago would have been unthought-of and viewed as impossible.

West of Ceduna, in the 2014 cropping season, I know they had their best year ever and that is a remarkable effort because it is low rainfall country. As I said, through the adoption of new technology, timely sowing, new varieties and generally good farming practice and good farming systems, they achieved results. It was not so good down the bottom end. It was quite wet during the wintertime, but across the state generally, once again, the grain harvest was really quite successful and is such a critical factor in this state's economy.

Also, in the agricultural sector, we have viticulture and, of course, the horticultural sectors kicking goals as well. The most important thing is for our agricultural and primary production sectors to be able to remain competitive. We also have a large fishing and aquaculture sector—seafood, let's call it—around the West Coast and along the coastline of the seat of Flinders.

Once again, the most important thing is for us as legislators and for the government to allow them to be competitive. It is not about encouraging them to be competitive, because they will be that, given their own time anyway, but it is allowing them to become competitive. It is about not burdening them with red tape, with increasing costs and also the difficulty of dealing with bureaucracy.

The Governor talked about Transforming Health and, of course, that has been very much the topic of the week despite some distractions that were attempted by the government along the way, such as time zones and electric cars. I will come to that later in this contribution. We saw a rally on the steps of Parliament House. They are becoming quite regular about one thing or another.

Mr Gardner: Paris in the spring.

Mr TRELOAR: Paris in the spring, member for Morialta, indeed. Eventually you would think the government will start taking note. Country Health, I am sure, will fit into Transforming Health somewhere along the line. I just want to talk a little bit about a situation that has arisen within my electorate. Just recently, Country Health SA set up a general practice model to serve the townships of Cleve, Kimba and Elliston.

The model placed three general practitioners, three country doctors, in the town of Cleve and they were to service Kimba, which is half an hour to the north, and Elliston, which is probably an hour and a half to the west of Cleve. Unfortunately, that model does not appear to be suited and the reason I say that is that two of the doctors have decided to leave.

I trust the minister is aware of the situation because, as of next week, we will have only one doctor servicing Kimba, Cleve and Elliston. Population indicators suggest that that could be a four-doctor demand practice, so obviously the model was not right. The model did not work. I cannot be critical of the two doctors who decided to leave. They made a personal decision but, despite their attempts to negotiate with Country Health SA, there was not a great deal of reception or flexibility, I guess, in the model that was presented.

The other thing that has occurred within Country Health in Flinders over the last little while is that, of course, we have had a $40 million refurbishment of the Port Lincoln Hospital. That was completed late last year and I would like the minister to be aware that the lift still is not working. I have written to the minister about this. The Public Works Committee is due to visit in about two weeks, and I am very pleased about that because some of the questions that are asked will be about why something as simple and as basic as the lift that provides access to the entrance is not working after all these months. It is quite extraordinary.

I understand that a mental health ward has been fitted into the Port Lincoln hospital. It is a brand new ward and it is part of the refurbishment. The doors are locked: there is no staff. I think that is a sad indictment of Country Health SA and this government, that is, the lack of funds they put into mental health (because mental health staff should be available for a mental health ward) and the fact that they are prepared to shut away valuable bed space, a valuable ward, in a major regional country hospital is beyond me. I look forward to the Public Works Committee visiting in a couple of weeks and asking some questions about that project, in particular.

Time zones were mentioned in the Governor's speech. Most would suggest (as I would) that this is just a distraction. However, nothing raises the ire of the good residents of the West Coast like a discussion of time zones. I have done a bit of research on this and, in fact, in 2011 I asked the parliamentary library to do some research on the history of the time zone debate here in South Australia. It turns out that the time zone we are currently operating in has been in place since an act of parliament in 1898. In 1899 we clocked on to nine hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and that was half an hour ahead of what our true central time zone would be, but that was the decision at the time. The reason given was that it would be better for business.

Of course, communications were much more difficult in those days. Most of the communication was with both Sydney and Melbourne, but there was also another player in all this and that was the mining town of Broken Hill. Broken Hill, of course, runs on South Australian time but it is in New South Wales. It was settled from South Australia and they play Aussie Rules, it is so South Australian. The fact that they were such a major contributor to and an important source of wealth for the Australian economy at that time meant that consideration had to be given to that. So, there we go: we have been 9½ hours ahead since 1899.

A number of times since this debate has occurred—three times in the last 15 years, I am guessing, it has come up—and each and every time we have finished up remaining exactly where we are. You might think this sounds rather simplistic, but there are some maths and geography involved in this. As I said, I did some research and our true Central Standard Time zone, should we be sitting at nine hours ahead of GMT, would be taken from longitude 135ºE which, in fact, runs through Eyre Peninsula. It runs through a tiny settlement called Bramfield just east of Elliston. We currently take our time zone from 142.5ºE, which runs through Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, so we are already a little ahead of where we should be.

Should we make a shift to Eastern Standard Time, which is one of the possibilities that is being floated, we would be taking our time zone from 150ºE which, of course, is very close to Sydney. It is 1,400 kilometres east of Elliston. It is a bizarre situation and nobody is going to be impacted more in this state than the people on Eyre Peninsula and the West Coast. It is a distraction but it has certainly created some interest on the West Coast, and I have had numerous calls about the significance of any time change that might occur. It is as simple as children going to school in the dark and coming home in the middle of the day. It is that basic. Be careful what you wish for, I think.

Something that the government needs to look hard at is the issue of police checks. I know each and every one of us, as local MPs, would have been contacted by constituents saying they are having difficulty with the timeliness of police checks coming through. Sadly, it seems to be taking weeks and weeks, sometimes months, for people to get a police check through. It should not be that hard. Everything is available on the internet these days. All of our business is done on a computer, so surely people's records are readily accessible and readily available to those departments who need to access them. I cannot for the life of me see why people are being kept out of work in some instances because they cannot get their police check back in time.

There was a rather bizarre situation in one of my towns. I will not say which, because that would be a bit enlightening, I guess. In one of my towns there was a bus driver who was accredited and had a police clearance to drive schoolchildren. He was qualified, he was accredited and cleared to drive a school bus. On one particular day, he volunteered to drive the Probus club to the neighbouring town for a luncheon. They were all very excited, as was he. It turns out that he was not allowed to because he did not have a police clearance to drive old people. Now, this is a bizarre situation, and I urge the government to get a handle on this. It is not that hard.

Unfortunately, it is all about South Australians being overregulated and overgoverned. On emergency services reform, I can tell the parliament that the volunteers are not happy. The volunteers in my patch are not happy about the reforms that have been proposed. They are wondering why, in the first instance, they need to become one. They are concerned that they will lose their autonomy. In a conservative electorate they are really concerned about union domination and what role the unions might play in this. It is going to be a difficult one to sell, I think.

I was pleased—and I will state a personal opinion here—to hear the Governor announce a royal commission into the nuclear industry. I think one of the real opportunities for any state or entity is to make the most of their natural resources. My understanding is that in South Australia we have 80 per cent of the country's known uranium. We have 40 per cent of the world's known uranium in this state. It is an extraordinary situation, an extraordinary natural wealth. It is an incredible shift for the Premier, I would suggest, from where he once was as a member of the left in the Labor Party. No doubt it was a hard sell for him within his cabinet room.

Former governor Kevin Scarce has been nominated to head up that royal commission, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. Who knows where it will go? It is not just about the generation of nuclear power, of course; it is about a whole host of things, really. It is about the potential to store waste, it is about the potential to build a generation IV reactor, which I understand can take waste from previous nuclear reactors and use spent fuel, in effect, to generate further electricity to the point where just 1 per cent of the waste remains.

I have been doing a little bit of interesting work on this, and I certainly have a constituent who has been a passionate proponent for the nuclear industry for some 17 years, he tells me.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon: I think I got a letter from him once.

Mr TRELOAR: Yes, we may all have had a letter from him, I think. I will mention his name. He is a former Labor candidate for the seat of Flinders, a former high school geology teacher: Terry Krieg. He and I have become friends—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: Indeed; I am his local MP, Deputy Speaker. We have had many discussions about this, and nobody is more pleased than Terry to see this announced. We will see where it goes. I think we have to really take seriously any opportunities we might have. Having said that, this is my personal opinion. We have not discussed this at all in our party room, so I will declare that.

The Governor talked about climate change. I am a bit sorry that the climate change debate has hijacked the environmental debate. I have spoken in this place before about the importance of a productive and stable landscape. That is my view of an environment; in fact, just today we attended a briefing, organised by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, from the Wentworth Society. I think that is what they are called. They really are looking at the environment as a whole and looking to see how some hard numbers, some hard fiscal discipline, can be factored into the environmental argument. As I said, I think the climate change discussion has hijacked a much bigger and broader debate about the environment itself.

One of the things I hope for is that it can be steered back towards a more wholesome and holistic environmental discussion which would include water and, of course, there is no real discussion on water in the plan. How quickly we forget about this challenging Australian continent that we live in and there is certainly no indication, no suggestion, that our water issues on Eyre Peninsula are being considered at this stage.

There is no real talk of infrastructure either. I was speaking with the Minister for Infrastructure when the cabinet visited the West Coast and he asked about infrastructure. For me, as a country member, as somebody representing a rural and regional community, infrastructure is pretty basic. It is about our roads; it is as simple as that. Those arterial roads are the lifeblood of the nation really and, of course, all of the goods we produce in the countryside we must transport to market and export via the roads, so it is a really basic infrastructure need. Unfortunately, sadly, a lot of our country roads are crumbling, despite the fact that they are carrying more and more produce than ever before.

Sadly, the government would rather talk about cycling in the city or driverless cars. Now, they are going to come anyway. They are going to come and I know, for example, there are trains in the Pilbara that are being driven from Perth and there are dump trucks operating in mines in northern Western Australia that are being operated from Perth. There are tractors in the field in this state that are almost driving themselves. The technology is available now for those tractors to be driverless, and once the cost of that comes down, then I am sure we will see people investing in that.

I do not think it is the big things that are going to be necessary to change in this state. It is not the big plans that are going to rescue this state and get the economics of this state back on line; it is actually the little things. If we do the little things everything else will follow—the administration costs in this state, the effort to reduce waste and the effort to reduce costs.

In many ways I think the best thing—and I do not mind saying this, I am not embarrassed about this—governments can do anywhere is to get out of the way and let people get on with it. Finally, what I would say is my opinion is that a good government is one that people do not notice. A good government is one that people do not even realise is there and I have to say that this government is certainly not that.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (17:23): First of all I would like to thank the Governor, Hieu Van Le, for his fantastic speech. I think it was such a special day when he became our governor and I really value that time when South Australia stood out as the first state to put forward an Asian-born governor. I think it shows a great journey that he and his lovely wife have made in their commitment to Australia, and most importantly their commitment to multicultural affairs and welcoming people of different communities to South Australia.

I would also like to congratulate the new member for Fisher and the new member for Davenport. It was only just three years ago that I was sworn in and gave my first speech in this house and it is such an honour to represent and advocate for the people of South Australia in the parliament. I rise today to speak in support of some of the initiatives outlined in the Governor's speech. To be part of a progressive, consultative and forward-looking government is indeed a privilege, and I relish the opportunity to work with the community, my department and my parliamentary colleagues to help deliver this bold agenda outlined in the Governor's speech.

I note the references in the speech to South Australia's capacity to rise to a challenge, evident in spades in the recent Sampson Flat bushfire. Having seen firsthand how the community rallied to the aid of those affected by the fires assures me that we can achieve anything in this state when driven by a common purpose.

From the very beginning, I had a strong role as a member of the Emergency Management Council and, as the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, I had responsibility for the relief centres. I would like to thank the volunteers and those members of the department who looked after the people in those relief centres. We ran them for 24 hours a day in the first week or so, and it was the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion staff and a lot of the Housing SA staff who put their hands up to look after the people in those centres.

What really stayed with me—and I visited the centres at Golden Grove and Willaston many times—was how every time I walked into the relief centre, there was a sense of calm. People who had to evacuate very quickly from their homes who were unsure about what had happened to their home and about when they could return to their home while the bushfire continued were able to come into the relief centre. They were greeted by the Red Cross who talked to them about their needs and then people from the department were able to talk to them about the emergency payment that the government could offer to them. We also had at those relief centres people from the pastoral ministries of the Uniting Church and they were able to provide for people some immediate counselling and to talk through about how they were feeling.

We have now moved from relief to recovery and, as we did that, we also had more people provide services at the relief centres. Centrelink was there. While we had 1,200 people registered through the relief process, and we gave about 800 grants out to families, Centrelink then came in to support people who were hardest hit, who had houses that were lost and damaged. I also thank the Insurance Council of Australia which had a representative at the relief centre and continues to have people contactable at the recovery centre. We also had the RAA which came to talk to people about their car insurance. I remember one time when I was there a Bowen therapist had come in to offer free massages to people who were obviously under a great deal of stress.

We know that the recovery centre is now in Gumeracha at the Torrens Valley Community Centre. We have St Vincent de Paul offering services. Red Cross continues to have volunteers there. People from numerous government departments are there to help, and I thank Karlene Maywald for the great job she is doing as the local recovery coordinator.

Over the past week we have held four community meetings, the last one being tonight. I attended the first meeting at Inglewood along with the local member, the member for Newland. About 16 different service providers were there to answer questions for people as they go about this recovery process. I will mention some of those volunteer groups who are not only at the relief and recovery centre but they have also been at these community meetings: SAVEM, who are the veterinary group helping people with their animals; BlazeAid have come in to look at the repair of fences; and conservation volunteers, talking to people about how they can start the regrowth on their property. I have mentioned St Vincent de Paul. We have also seen Habitat for Humanity offer their services, as did people from the planning industry. Summit Health were there to help people who are finding it difficult to move forward.

Bushfires are very traumatic, everyone reacts differently, and I think we need to continue to talk about this and how we can support the community. History SA have come along because they are doing a project about recording history now and are asking people to put forward their photos and detail their experiences during the bushfires. Samaritan's Purse is a group that organised people to go around and clean up properties. There was also the Salvation Army. Within the relief centres we had both the Rotary Club and the Lions Club cook barbecues for several nights when the fire was still going. It was a great way to support people, and I thank the Rotary and Lions clubs for their support. The CWA also provided immediate support for people, not only financially but also being there to talk to people.

I would like to acknowledge Volunteering SA & NT. We have an agreement with them about spontaneous volunteering. It is something that we saw happen after the Queensland floods when people very generously offered their time. However, we need to organise those people. We need to connect the volunteers at the right time with the people who need help. I thank Evelyn O'Loughlin for her leadership and the great work she did handling the more than 1,500 people who indicated that they wanted to volunteer.

Above all else, it was the CFS, the SES and SAPOL who were there fighting the fire, and we thank them very much. The other departments that helped out were the Department of the Premier and Cabinet; the Emergency Relief Functional Service through Housing SA; the Department for Education and Child Development; the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, which was providing support; the Environment Protection Authority; the Department for Health and Ageing; and the Local Government Association. I have had the opportunity to meet and work quite closely with the councils impacted—Adelaide Hills particularly, and Playford council as well as Tea Tree Gully. I want to thank Tea Tree Gully for going out of its way for us to use the Golden Grove Recreation Centre as the relief centre when we needed to do so.

I applaud the Premier for having the political courage through the Governor's speech to address big issues affecting South Australia, including energy security, climate change and tax reform. I also welcome the Premier's commitment to continue to make Adelaide a vibrant and energetic city, one which is attractive to our young people and visitors alike, no more so than we will see this weekend when we host the India versus Pakistan world cup event.

I had the opportunity yesterday to go along as the Indian cricket team was presented to the community. It was a public event and I got to meet many members of the Indian community, many of whom I know through my role as Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and they were ecstatic to get that close. It is an opportunity that they do not get back home. So many of them told me that family and friends are staying with them, some on the floor and some in rooms. They have all come to Adelaide because they want to see the cricket. It is a really exciting weekend for us. We can put South Australia on the map.

This vibrant city is really coming alive. We have seen the upgrade of Adelaide Oval, and the Riverbank redevelopment which marries that is coming along. There has been the installation of the laneways and creating activities within the laneways, which invites you in to spend time in the city. If you look around, you see increasing levels of public art, which I think is really exciting, and of course there is the upgrade of Victoria Square. We know we are into Mad March soon. It is probably a favourite time of the year for me. We have the Fringe and the Festival, not to mention the Clipsal. It is a time that is really lively. We have something for everyone.

Our commitment to renew all Housing Trust stock predating 1968 will see more than 4,500 old homes renewed by 2020. This provides a welcome economic boost to our domestic construction industry. Not only has the construction industry welcomed this news but so have community organisations like Uniting Communities that work on the front line with the most vulnerable South Australians.

Recently, I brought to the house a triennial report about our housing, and one of the key things it emphasised was the current mismatch between our tenants and our homes. I know that 60 per cent of Housing SA tenants are the only person living in their home, but they are often living in three-bedroomed homes with quite large yards, front and back, which require significant maintenance. I welcome the focus on public housing. We have seen significant changes in who are living in our public housing. We know that public housing in South Australia is part of our economic story.

When we invited migrants here in the 1950s we said to them, 'Come to South Australia, come and work in our factories, come and be part of our car industry,' but also, 'There is public housing that's available for you.' That is what our public housing was. That was the story there. What we see now is more of the people who are in public housing are more vulnerable, they have high levels of need, and I think that by renewing stock and giving support not only supports the industry but it gives people the kind of housing they require. You will have universal access, so as people age and have mobility situations the housing will suit them. So, I really welcome our focus in housing.

One of the great parts of my portfolio is to be the Minister for Ageing and I am really glad we spoke about ageing. We want South Australia to be the place where you age, but you do not grow old. Our plans are to make South Australia a place where older people can maintain an active interest in their communities into their 80s and 90s. This is an important objective. By assisting people to maintain meaningful roles working, caring and volunteering, we will make South Australia an even better place to age than it is today.

One of the key things we have here is a triumph of civilisation. It is a great problem to have. I do not even think it is a problem. It is just something we have to consider. We are now living longer than we ever imagined, and I think we are only at the start of talking about what will be our encore career? What will we do when we finish the full-time job that we have had? For some people it comes earlier, for some people it comes later. But how are you going to continue to be engaged for longer where your health and wellbeing, and being included as members of our community, continues to be important at every age?

One of the things we look at—and we have had some real innovations in looking at baby boomers and their roles from the ageing perspective—is talking about people wanting to have meaningful roles in their community at any age. What they also want to see is that their age does not define who they are. Age is just a number. Who you are, how you look at the world, the way you see your place in the world, is more about your wellbeing, your resilience and your interests than it is about the age you are.

One of the ways we see ageing as a challenge and an opportunity is also to support our businesses to seize opportunities to develop assistive technologies, medical devices, smarter housing, retirement living options and innovative products both for consumption in Adelaide and abroad. Jane Mussared from the Council of the Ageing is among those in the ageing space who have welcomed our focus on making our state friendlier for people of all ages.

I also look forward to working with our remarkable multicultural communities to help promote South Australia overseas. One of the greatest joys in my role is being Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and what I really enjoy doing is talking to people about their journey to Australia. Many people came to Australia for safety and security. Others made the choice to come here for better work opportunities. Some even moved because they fell in love with Australians. What we want to do when they come here is engage them as much as possible, to welcome them here, but also to understand the knowledge and expertise of these communities, and we want to draw upon them to help promote South Australia—their trade, arts and education from their countries of origin.

The Governor touched a little bit on where we see the future of multiculturalism, and what we see is a change and a movement from acceptance to understanding. We know that South Australia is a small market, and we need to look beyond our borders to uncover further opportunities. This is an ideal way that we can support our migrant communities as they thrive here in South Australia. Through a greater understanding of our migrant communities, we want them to help us thrive. Knowing the customs and cultures of different communities enables us to know the customs and cultures of our trading partners.

The Governor mentioned our focus on our LGBTIQ strategy, and I would like to note that the Rainbow Advisory Council, which reports to me as Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, has done a lot to look towards addressing the discrimination that is still there. However, as noted, some individuals and families are still unable to fully participate in our democracy simply because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

Discrimination against anyone due to sexual orientation is unjust, and I continue to work closely with this community to find real solutions to existing issues of abuse and discrimination. What really motivates me to help people who face discrimination is, at the heart of it, for me, wellbeing and resilience. We want people to flourish in South Australia, to be confident in their life and confident in their choices.

In closing, I would like to urge my colleagues in the parliament, in the public sector and our community organisations, to join the government in realising these goals and ambitions for our great state. We must seize the moment of opportunity. Now is the time to recreate South Australia.

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (17:42): It gives me pleasure to rise late this Thursday afternoon to give my Address in Reply response to the Governor's speech. First, I would like to spend a moment congratulating the newest members of the House of Assembly here in South Australia, the member for Fisher and the member for Davenport. I look forward to working closely with both those members and their electorates of Fisher and Davenport, particularly the electorate of Fisher, which has quite close synergies with my own electorate, especially down in the southern parts of Bright around Hallett Cove which stretch over towards the seat of Fisher.

During my year in this place, I guess in many ways the seat of Fisher has been vacant. Certainly there has not been a member of parliament actively representing the residents of Fisher in this place, so I do look forward to continuing my close working relationship with Corey Wingard next door in the seat of Mitchell but also working with the new member for Fisher as she takes on that role. I am sure she will represent that seat with a real heartfelt commitment, which we saw demonstrated in her maiden speech in this place yesterday.

I would also like to congratulate the new member for Davenport for attaining his role in this place, and I really look forward to working with him as well. He extends the renewal and regeneration of this side of the house, and I think it is really worthwhile having someone like the member for Davenport, with his financial services background, joining us here as part of the opposition team.

I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate minister Close, the Minister for Education, on her promotion within the government. I think she is someone who will bring a new approach, I hope she brings a new approach, to managing the education portfolio and I look forward to being able to work with her in perhaps a less adversarial way than her predecessor had become used to dealing with members of this side of the house. I think that portfolio will benefit from a different approach. Minister Close is one of the ministers on the other side who I have quite a bit of respect for and I look forward to being able to work with her in her new portfolio.

I was also heartened to see that she was able to retain the role of Minister for the Public Sector, an area which members of this house would know I have quite a significant interest in, given my previous career in the public sector. Again, I have been able to work with minister Close in the past in her role as Minister for the Public Sector and I look forward to continuing that. I would also like to congratulate my neighbouring member to the south of my seat, the member for Reynell, for her elevation within the government's ranks as well. She will be missed, I am sure, from the Economic and Finance Committee which I serve on, but I look forward to being able to work with her in her new role as well.

I listened with great interest yesterday to the Governor's speech. I felt that the Governor was able to deliver that speech with a great sincerity. I think Mr Le and his wife Lan have taken to that role with great honour and significance over the past few months since he became South Australia's Governor. He is someone I did have a personal relationship with prior to me becoming a member of parliament and he becoming Governor. Our paths crossed quite regularly when I worked in the Premier's department and he was someone I had a great deal of respect for in his previous role and I am sure I will continue to have that respect for him in his current role as Governor of South Australia.

What I liked about his speech yesterday was his ability to inject some of his personal heritage and background into it, particularly his statements about the connections between South Australia and South-East Asia, obviously his background in Vietnam and his real interest in helping forge those links, cultural and economic links, and his mention of the South Australian South East Asia Engagement Strategy, which is something I think is very important for our, not just cultural but also economic development in this state, particularly tourism, as well as other traditional forms of trading commerce as well.

The government promised us, going into the period of consideration prior to the Governor's speech, that this was going to announce a bold legislative agenda and there was going to be a considerable amount of boldness in the speech, lots of new ideas and perhaps confronting ideas, perhaps controversial ideas. The Premier did make a couple of statements in the media prior to the speech that that was something that South Australians had better get used to. I think give credit where credit is due, and that is something I hope I do while I am privileged enough to serve in this place, because I think there were quite a few ideas in that speech which do push the barriers a bit more, certainly more than the first year of the government's fourth term.

I am really interested in being a part of the debate around those ideas because I think that that is what we are here for, on both sides of parliament, to pitch ideas out into the South Australian community, to work through ideas in this place and to actually come up with ideas that will help prosper and develop the state of South Australia. I am interested in being a part of the government's agenda, supporting good policy along the way and speaking up for good policy and good ideas and being part of a scrutineering opposition as well which looks to hold the government to account and tries to suggest ideas where the government's agenda might be made a bit better along the way.

I acknowledge that the government sits on that side of the house. It has been able to form government and so it certainly has the right to have the opportunity to put forward those ideas. I look through the list of ideas that were in this speech of the Governor and I think some have more merit than others. I think some were a bit overplayed but there are ideas in there that certainly have merit. I look forward to seeing how they unfold and how the government takes the South Australian community on a journey over the coming months and is able to work through some of those ideas, particularly the ones that I think have merit.

I just want to cover off on a few of those ideas. In particular, one that was mentioned was donations to political parties and I think that is something we should look at. I know the government has already done quite a bit of work on that and there are new laws coming into effect with regard to donations to political parties on 1 July this year. I have a personal belief that the reform in that area may not go far enough. The legislation that has been passed is very complex and very messy. It creates a system that could very well leave political parties vulnerable to making mistakes.

I think we should have further campaign finance reform in this state and move further towards public funding. I know there will be public funding as part of the government's package of reforms, but I would like to see that go further because I think the only way you can create an entirely squeaky-clean political system is to really clear out the influence of political financial donors along the way. Tied in with that is the government's desire to reform lobbyists and the influence of lobbyists. Again, personally, I have an interest in seeing what their ideas are and looking to advance anything that creates that open transparency that is so important to give people confidence in our political system.

The Governor's speech talked quite a bit about engagement and the importance of genuine community engagement. It talked about citizens' juries, which some might say are a little bit of an obsession with the Premier. I think the jury is out on the citizens' juries in many ways. I am not sure how effective they have been to date. I was heavily involved in the first citizens' jury on Adelaide's nightlife in my previous role in the public sector. It cost a lot of money—about $150,000—and had very little in the way of outcomes. I think it was a complete waste of time.

However, they can be much cheaper, and if they are done in the right way, as I understand the current citizens' jury was—the one to which the government's response 'Sharing the road safely' was tabled in the House of Assembly today—I think they might have some merit. This afternoon, I have been looking through the government's response to the jury's report on this idea of how cyclists and motorists can work a bit better together on our roads, particularly in Adelaide. Quite a lot of those ideas are things I support. The citizens' jury does appear to be able to come up with quite innovative ideas. They seem to be more innovative ideas than perhaps the government can come up with at times, so I am quite interested in seeing how the Premier wants those to evolve in the future.

I was very interested in the concept of tax reform put forward in the speech. Again, it is a conversation that is very worthwhile having, but I think it needs to result in tax relief. We cannot increase the taxation burden on the average citizen in this state anymore. When I speak to members of my community, particularly in the southern half of my seat, I come across people who are really struggling with cost of living matters and with that increasing burden of taxation that is being put on them by state, federal and local government.

I think any reform to the taxation regime in South Australia must involve general tax relief to mainstream taxpayers in this state. That is why I am nervous about the concept of a broad-based land tax on all South Australian properties, as has been touted in the discussion paper. That is something that really concerns me, because I genuinely believe that the average South Australian householder cannot currently cope with that level of taxation on the family home. Tax relief should be the key to any tax reform, and we need to reduce the taxation burden on the mums and dads living in our suburbs in South Australia.

I was very interested in the government putting on the table the concept of developing the nuclear industry. It is something that really interests me. I think there is a huge amount of opportunity there, and I am very interested in assisting the government to have that conversation. I think a state which has uranium deposits in the way that we do should certainly be looking at broadening the industry in any way it can, and I would be delighted to support that conversation as the government takes it forward.

It is a difficult conversation and a conversation that I think scares a lot of people. Having moved here from the UK and having had a nuclear power station about 200 kilometres south of where I lived and another one 200 kilometres north of where I grew up, there was certainly not the same level of angst and fear around nuclear power generation and all things nuclear that I certainly have sensed in Australia. I do not glow green at night when I am out in the dark because I lived near a couple of nuclear power stations.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: We don't know that.

Mr SPEIRS: My wife tells me I don't. I checked before I made this speech, Deputy Speaker. I think that it is definitely an area which ought to be explored and, again, we should have that really serious conversation, which I think the government is willing to have, and I look forward to seeing that unfold.

A couple of things I felt were missing from the Governor's speech that I would have liked to see fleshed out and think are real challenges and opportunities for our state include our tourism industry. I think that is an industry which, using Kangaroo Island as a launch pad, could be so much more substantial in this state, connecting in with South-East Asia.

I think we could be the continent's playground, and I would love to see us invest more, try to innovate more in our tourism sector and talk a lot more about what South Australia has to offer the world. As someone who came here as a migrant, I never stop raving about how great this place is and I do not think we do enough in the way of promotion. I think we are getting better at it but there is still a huge amount of opportunity. We have got Kangaroo Island, one of the most significant tourism attractions in Australia, as part of our state, and I am not sure we are leveraging quite enough.

Another area that I would have loved to see some boldness in in the Governor's speech is local government reform. The minister is here at the moment and I know he is going to be opening up the Local Government Act—later this year, I think—and I think that is an area that is really ripe for reform. I think people get scared at the idea of amalgamations. I would not necessarily say amalgamations, but I think there are a lot of council boundaries that do not necessarily make sense, including some that run through my electorate, and I think there is a real opportunity to create councils which are economic drivers as opposed to economic inhibitors.

I come across councils in the way they approach their planning and the way they do not necessarily put economic development at the forefront of their operations, and I would really love to see the government tackle local government in this state and look at the opportunities to take on some of those ideas from Greg Crafter's report and make local government in this state the very best that it can be. I think there is huge opportunity for reform around planning, which the government has canvassed. I think there is a real opportunity to do local government reform alongside planning reform. We do have planning reform on the table so let us bite the bullet and look at local government reform as well.

I speak as someone who started their community leadership in local government as a councillor and deputy mayor, so someone who I think comes fairly to this conversation. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.


At 18:00 the house adjourned until Tuesday 24 February 2015 at 11:00.


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