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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-11 Daily Xml
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Address in Reply

Address in Reply

The SPEAKER: I draw members' attention to this being the member for Fisher's maiden speech, and I ask members to extend the customary courtesies to the member. The Chair will, as is also customary, give much latitude to the relevance of her comments to the motion. The member for Fisher.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (11:19): I 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.

I am honoured to have the opportunity today to move this adoption of the Address in Reply. I begin by thanking Your Excellency for attending parliament yesterday and for the address to which we all listened in the other place. I also thank the distinguished Kaurna elder and friend of many Lewis O'Brien for his Welcome to Country yesterday. I acknowledge that we meet here today on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people and I acknowledge and respect their relationship with this land. I also acknowledge my fellow members on both sides of the house.

I feel so privileged to be given the opportunity to deliver this opening Address in Reply and I deliver it on behalf of all ordinary Australians who have an extraordinary story. I am only one of many ordinary Australians who live every day with positivity and commitment to their community despite circumstances that could have pushed them to lie passive and give in.

During the by-election campaign there was a story in The Advertiser which described Fisher as 'middle South Australia'. The first paragraph reads:

If Fisher were a person, she would be married with two children and live in a three-bedroom house with two cars parked in the driveway.

Yes, that's me. This article goes on to say that latest census data shows a distinct resemblance between Fisher and the state population as a whole. Fisher's work patterns are consistent with many experiences of many South Australians, with 56 per cent of people working full time and one-third part time, mostly in whitecollar professions. The community is largely less engaged in political rhetoric and more interested in getting to Saturday's junior sport's match on time and finding a way to meet the mortgage payment. This is something I relate to.

We are a migrant family, and I am a first generation Aussie. My mum and dad came to Australia in the mid-1960s as English migrants. My dad always had a fascination with Australia as a country and he knew it would be a place of wide open spaces, fresh air and quarter-acre blocks. Everyone would have a job and there would be growth and excitement. While Mum was not entirely happy about moving to a completely new and unknown country—that is an understatement—and reminded Dad of this regularly, she was a loving and committed wife and mother and brought her kids on this journey. She knew her children would have a better future in this country and grow up to be happy and healthy. She also wanted another child and saw this as a great opportunity.

When they arrived in 1966, Dad fell in love with a brand new three-bedroom, double-brick home on a large block of land in Morphett Vale. He saw this as a much better option than the foreshore at Brighton which would have cost him the same price as the Morphett Vale home but it would have seen his cars rust. You could argue that this may not have been a sound financial investment but, having lived in that same postcode of 5162 all my life, it is a decision that has profoundly shaped me, I believe, in a good way.

My family settled in to their new home. My dad got a job and in 1969 I was the very lucky child chosen to join that family. It was a great childhood. My siblings, Julie and Martin, being nine and 12 years older than me, and my parents being a little older and very patient, saw me with plenty of love and lots of opportunities. I am very lucky. My father passed away two years ago, but something he taught me and my siblings from a very young age was that if you commit to something, you are in it for the long haul. We are a very committed family. My mother still lives in that same family home that we grew up in.

During my younger years, I attended Flaxmill Primary School and later went on to secondary school at Mitcham Girls High School. My brother and sister attended local state high schools and might have tested the rules a bit before I became a teenager. Mum and Dad decided an all girls school would be best for me. I travelled a long way out of my local area for high school which allowed me to be exposed to a whole range of activities and meet a diverse group of people and teachers who instilled in me a desire to reach for the stars. While I did not initially get the academic results I wanted, learning the value of dedication and hard work is a good result, I would argue.

In high school I was always very active on school committees, I tried and played every sport possible, and I drove my teachers wild because I tended to get involved in other people's issues. One particularly passionate school counsellor, Mrs Kutcher, saw the value of putting those who did not always focus into roles of leadership.

My friend and I were given the opportunity to submit a written piece to attend a United Nations Youth Conference, which was being held in Perth that year. Our piece focused on the use of beautiful Australian quotes. Mine was about Australia being the lucky country. My feelings about this wonderful country have not changed since I was in high school, and one very special thing that I learnt from that conference was: 'it's only a small drop but it's all the little drops that fill the bucket'—translated to much later in life with the Sammy D Foundation, when we used that phrase on our collection boxes. It shows that a small effort can translate into so much more.

Flaxmill Primary School in Morphett Vale sits in an area of high disadvantage, according to the Socio-Economic Index for Areas. It also has a large number of extremely vulnerable children, according to the Australian Early Development Census. I believe I may be the first member of parliament to have attended either Flaxmill Primary School or Mitcham Girls High School. If that is the case, I feel extremely honoured, and I will wear that badge proudly and publicly with the hope that students from those schools will see that anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

My nursing career really started as a volunteer with St John Cadets when I was 11. I had many role models in the St John's brigade who helped me to decide that nursing and working in health care was something that I needed to do, because I really cared for other people. I got enormous satisfaction out of volunteering every weekend, sometimes in multiple locations on any one day. This early volunteering has really stuck with me, and it has given me great empathy and understanding for our volunteers, especially those in the emergency services. Our volunteers do not want to be nor should their roles be politicised. Our volunteers are what makes our country what it is. We have one of the highest levels of volunteering in the world, and I will do everything I can to support them.

I trained as a registered nurse at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in our wonderful public health system. I also went on to both study and teach nursing at Flinders University. My father again taught me the value of union culture, and I proudly became a union member, joining the ANF (now ANMF) on my first day of work as a nurse. I became a worksite representative at a young age during a time of change and uncertainty in brain injury services, which was at that time based at Julia Farr Services. I was active and vocal, with a determination to make sure staff had a voice and opportunity to participate in the change process. Melissa Bailey and Lee Thomas are two women whose industrial tenacity, consistency and determination to ensure a fair go and a voice for all has left their mark on my life.

Following a meeting with the then minister for health, Dean Brown, I was asked to participate in a project as a project officer in a nursing services review being undertaken by the then known health department. This project became part of the move from the Fullarton site to the Hampstead Centre for brain injury services. Things have changed since that time. Now we see an incredible opportunity again to align rehabilitation services in a new way, to our acute care centres as part of Transforming Health.

In October last year, the Minister for Health (Hon. Jack Snelling) released a discussion paper detailing the need to transform the South Australian healthcare system. That paper has certainly generated some robust discussion amongst many of my former colleagues in health, as well as community members. Since then, a summit was held and attended by health professionals, consumers and other stakeholders who play a role in our health system, and subsequently a proposals paper was released last week.

The world around us is constantly changing, evolving as new discoveries are made and technology becomes more advanced. Our health system needs to move in step with this change, otherwise we will be left behind and the burden on our health system will become even greater.

While services may move and sites may be decommissioned, it is important to remember that it is the staff and their skills on which the culture of our health system is built. I would strongly encourage anyone who has something to say on the proposals made in the paper to submit their feedback through the Transforming Health consultation process, which ends on 27 February. I would also urge anyone who is making public comment from a position of influence to think very carefully about how they frame their argument. There is nothing to be gained by creating unnecessary panic among our most vulnerable citizens, if for political gain.

I have been fortunate to do many different things in my nursing career, and if I have learnt anything from nursing and what happened to my beautiful son Sam it is that life really is too short to compromise your integrity for short-term gain. Life is too short for regrets and far too short to not take advantage of opportunities and challenges that present.

Sam was born in 1990. Neil and I were just really a couple of crazy young adults who knew how to have fun and we made it our mission to enjoy life. We had a great connection to our community through sport, a fabulous family growing around us, with young nephews and nieces, as well as Neil's beautiful five-year-old daughter, Sheree. We gave everything we could to our children and shared their dreams. Sam, like us, loved sport. He was cheeky and loyal and perfect.

On 3 May 2008, Sam played a fantastic game of football for his beloved South Adelaide Panthers. I am so glad I arranged to leave work early that day and saw him play. They won for the first time in over six months. Sam went out that night. He was 17½, 194 centimetres tall and 95 kilograms. He and three other friends shared the cost of a carton of beer and were dropped off at a friend's birthday party. This was the home of a good family. They loved their children. They cared about our children. They did not deserve this to happen at their home. Young people need guidance. What seems obvious to us as adults is not always clear to young people. Alcohol, drugs and other influences lead to bad decisions.

A group of uninvited youths, known to most at the party but not part of the same friendship group, arrived and managed to get in to the party. Alcohol, drugs and other influences lead to arguments, to fights, to conflict. Sam did not talk to these people. Sam did not know these people. After the party was shut down, Sam was swept up in a fight out in the street. He did not know what happened. He did not see it coming. He could not defend himself. One punch killed our son.

On 4 May 2008, our family and our community learnt that bad things happen to good people. Sam was our world and was loved by everyone who knew him. He was fiercely loyal to his friends and family and would stick up for the underdog—don't know where he got that from—and this is why 1,700 people attended his funeral. We knew we could not let his death be for nothing and that there was a serious problem in the community that needed attention. This is how the Sammy D Foundation was born.

My journey since losing my son has been almost impossible to endure. It is a daily battle where your feet are too heavy to lift and your heart is too empty to go on. The constant reminders of what you no longer have and the thought that to look forward would mean to leave our son behind makes even the most mundane tasks sometimes seem impossible. Neil, Sheree and I have never had the opportunity to deliver a victim impact statement. We were left without anyone to blame and without anyone to pay for what had happened. What we realised was that no amount of anger, no amount of blame and no punishment would ever bring back our Sam.

The Sammy D Foundation stems from the most traumatic and heartbreaking event in mine and Neil's life, and in the lives of our family and friends. The journey with the foundation has shown us what strength, resilience and a positive community can achieve. Over the past six years, the foundation has shared Sam's story with 40,000 primary and secondary school students across South Australia and the Northern Territory, empowering young people with the skills they need to make safe and informed life choices and developing a culture where young people are inspired to reach their potential. While the foundation will always hold a special place in my heart, I now embark on this new adventure in which I will bring the same enthusiasm, passion and dedication to the people of Fisher.

If I could briefly touch on our roles with regard to the budget and economy, we all understand the budget is not a bottomless pit and we all understand the need to tighten the belt, but I think we also need to recognise that although we need tough economic change, we also cannot starve our communities of opportunity by pulling our belts too tightly. We need to be investing in our communities, creating jobs, growth and excitement in our city. Life exists outside the economy.

We should be equally determined to improve our society. This parliament should also be concerned with the development of good citizens, instead of a narrow pursuit of profit and productivity. My vision of community is built from the ground up, through sound policy that ensures world-class education, health care, social supports, access to employment, all wrapped up in sound environmental policy. This is a strong community which attracts investment and grows.

By holding all the hands that I have held through nursing and seeing many terrible things since we started the foundation, many concerning child protection, I have realised that there are so many disadvantaged people, the underdogs and battlers, who need a voice. That is where nurses, teachers and community workers do an amazing job. They help those people find their voice. Our job as politicians is to be the best advocates for those people who are helping and being helped, and to do that in a professional and responsible way, with integrity and honesty.

We have to set an example to the public. I am going to look people in the eye and say, 'This is what I'll do,' and know that I will follow through on that commitment. I stand here today as the member for Fisher, a community I am honoured, grateful and proud to be a part of and especially proud to represent in parliament.

I would like to pay tribute to the efforts of my predecessor, Bob Such. Bob was a hardworking, honourable and courageous man. He showed compassion and empathy to the people of Fisher and fought hard for them in this house over many years. He was respected and loved by the community because he was willing to listen. He was willing to be their voice and he was truly connected to them. This legacy is an inspiration to me and I will stop at nothing to be a local member who is as connected and committed as Bob was to the Fisher community.

Community connection is so important in this world of leadership and advocacy in which I now find myself. Truly connected and committed community people, who make sense to the rest of their community by speaking their language and also have lived experiences that contribute so much, can help to shape policy and legislation and formulate direction for government. It is the participation of these community members that is essential. Connected community people must be encouraged to participate in parliament. They must not be scared of or put off by others who have lost their connection or their relevance.

It should never be that someone is too scared to put themselves forward as a community advocate because of their journey which inspired them to commit to public life and their connection with things that they love so much. It must not be that they then feel those things which they must leave behind are at risk because of their desire to put up their hand and expose themselves to the community and to the scrutiny of people who oppose them.

This is why today, before my fellow members and on the record, I am announcing that I have stood down from my role as a board member of the Sammy D Foundation, something that is forever close to my heart and that I will always have a spiritual connection with. The foundation is my son. The foundation is our son. It will always be this and I will not allow it to ever be used as political ammunition against me. The good that it has done for tens of thousands of South Australians must never be threatened in any way. This work will continue under the guidance of an amazing team of volunteers who dedicate thousands of hours to ensure that South Australia is a strong and safe place to raise our families.

My past has been a journey to where I am now. I have taken the elevator to the bigger picture, to this privileged role I now hold. I have often been frustrated watching the to-ing and fro-ing of politics. The behaviour often witnessed by the public in this house does nothing for the reputation of people in public office. The public wants leaders, the public elects people they believe will represent them in a true and respectful manner. To paraphrase the Premier, 'Civility is not a quaint notion.'

There is no higher honour than representing your community in this house. I will be a proud and honest representative. I will not go backwards in my standing when I step onto this stage. Politics needs to progress ideas through the debate of great minds. Politics is a collective opportunity to move forward.

We cannot give up the fight, either, for gender equality. While we have come a long way since Muriel Matters, we still find terrible inequities in pay and conditions for women in the workplace. I have recently spent time with many groundbreakers who have paved the way for women in politics, and I would like to pay tribute to just some of them: Molly Byrne, member for Barossa, the first Labor woman elected to the House of Assembly; Anne Levy, the first and only woman to be President of the Legislative Council; Carolyn Pickles, who was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council in 1985, the first woman elected to a major political party in any chamber; and Rosemary Crowley, a South Australian senator who held a range of portfolios in the federal government during the 1990s, the first Labor woman from South Australia to be elected to the Senate. Thank you.

I had hundreds of volunteers supporting the campaign for Fisher. I could not have done this without every one of you; you are all an inspiration. When I felt the pain of hundreds of hours of walking—and showed it as well—there was always someone beside me, just doing it because they believed in me, just doing it because they wanted Fisher to be in safe hands. While I am reticent to name individuals for fear of forgetting a name, I really must single out just a few.

The amazing Young Labor team. You are, without doubt, one of the most dedicated groups of young people I have ever met. You are a campaigning machine. From this group I am so lucky to have Sam and Emily, combined with the incredible Poor Charles, now to be my right hand. You are all incredible.

Rhiannon, you worked almost 24 hours a day in pulling together all the volunteers to make sure that no stone was left unturned. You are an amazing young woman who is destined for greatness in your career.

My parliamentary colleagues, who gave up time, endured blisters and pain while doorknocking (some not in this house), messaging, talking and supporting. Your collective political wisdom has helped to get me to this point, and my determination and positivity is intact. Together we can continue to drive this state and achieve great outcomes.

My campaign team, you are all amazing. Your belief, and the trust you showed in me, assisting me to deliver myself to Fisher in a way that is truly reflective of me. Cameron, Jesse, Amy, Emmanuel, Reggie and Steve, you have all got me to this point. We connected.

Labor's heart, the leaders of our union movement: Peter Malinauskas, Dave Grey, Cheyne Rich, Joe Szakacs and David DiTroia. Your belief in me will be rewarded over and over again.

Bronwyn, Sarah and Jane, our message to the community was strong. The positivity and thought was always there. Thank you for being there for me.

My community. You told that you wanted honesty. You backed me based on my commitment to work tirelessly for you and always put you first. Your letters of support were humbling. Thank you.

The amazing Penny Wong and Amanda Rishworth, who have been great sources of advice and a wealth of knowledge. I aspire to your incredible standards.

Katrine. You have an unwavering determination to make sure that life is as fair as it possibly can be. Your story is one that talks to this, and is one that I am so absolutely inspired by. You are my friend and my mentor. 'No words, lady; just wine.'

Sheree, Ty and Sid, my children. Sheree, you are a mother to the boys when I cannot be there. You are the most beautiful soul and I love you. Since you were two you have been the pink in my world. Ty, you are so brave and so very special. You have been through so much. I hope you now feel that you are home with us. You do not know yet, but your story is your power, and your journey will be an inspiration. You are a very big part of why I feel strong enough to do this. I am so proud to call you my son. Sid is our joy. He has made me lift my feet again, and he is the beat in my heart.

Poor Neil. You put up with me when others would sprint out the door. You sit and listen while a million world-changing plans come pouring out of my mouth at a rate of knots, and you gently question if I am overdoing it—usually to be ignored. You are my calming influence, and I do listen to you even if I say that I am ignoring you. You are more than my husband, you are my best friend.

Politics is now, it is immediate, and we in this house have the power to truly affect people's lives. To stand in this house with you all is a great honour, and I am looking forward to being part of some robust discussions and decision-making. Thank you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:47): I have forgotten how many of these I have taken part in now. I congratulate the member for Fisher on her maiden speech. I can think of nothing worse than having lost a child. I look forward to her contributions in this place. As people know, I had a veterinary practice in Chandlers Hill at Happy Valley for 20-odd years. I know Fisher very well, and I will be watching very carefully what happens there. I certainly look forward to the maiden speech of the new member for Davenport. The new member for Davenport, I know, will be, like our new team, the 2014 crew, an exceptionally good member for this place.

On the Address in Reply, it is always an interesting experience for us to have the Black Rod come over and invite us across to the other place. We all march over there, sit down with their honours the Supreme Court judges and listen to a speech which we know is written by the government for the Governor.

In this case, it was the maiden speech for our Governor, His Excellency Hieu Van Le. I have known Hieu and Lan for many, many years, and I do not think I am being too familiar by using their Christian names because they are really decent people in the same way as Liz and Kevin Scarce were. I look forward to watching Hieu and Lan develop in the job as Kevin and Liz did. When Hieu delivered his speech yesterday, he did so with the usual high levels of decorum and respect for this institution, and that is what we all should continue to recognise.

I think, though, that this—and it is the government's speech, not the Governor's speech—is probably one of the most lightweight speeches I have heard in this place, and I will have a lot more to say to that over the next 12 months. There is no mention of emergency services, no mention of Aborigines and a very small mention of disabilities. There is a lot about plans for plans and we have a bit about time changes and nuclear waste—some things which, in this case, I actually agree there is a real need for discussion on. Whether or not we will end up with atomic clocks, I am not sure.

The people of this place need to take note of the words of the former governor, Kevin Scarce. When addressing Youth Parliament in Government House and also in my own electorate of Morphett on Proclamation Day, he said that there are three things wrong with Australian governments and he was including the South Australian government in that. This is from a serving governor: 'The Executive ignores the parliament, there is no ministerial accountability and the Public Service has been highly politicised.' For a serving governor to say that shows what a disgrace we have in South Australia.

Once again, we have seen it with 'announce and defend', the health review and the emergency services restructure which I will say a bit more about. So many times we see 'announce and defend'. We were promised that there would be a discussion, that there would be involvement of the people of South Australia. We have talks about citizens' juries. I think South Australians have been judged and delivered upon by this government too many times without any evidence that those decisions that have been made have been worthwhile decisions.

The need for South Australians to get quality government—quality members of parliament—will be something that may be reflected in the reviews of the remuneration of members of parliament. As people know, I was just a humble veterinarian before I came into this place. It was actually 13 years ago on Monday; it was the ninth. I was actually earning more than I am now. I worked very hard. My wife and I built up a very good practice. We were earning more then than I am now, but I did not do it for the money. Nobody does it for the money but, to attract people from some positions, sometimes there has to be some decent remuneration. We see the extraordinary levels of remuneration outside of this place that executives get, yet in this place, we make the laws, we make the rules, we make the regulations and we decide how people's lives are being lived.

There is a lot more to say about the taxation reviews and the nuclear debate, and certainly there will be some more said about the time. As for driverless cars, we have a rudderless government; we have a plan without a plan; we have a plan without rationale, as the nurses' union said about the health review. We heard the Supreme Court judges say that there were unlawful and irrational decisions being made in the Gillman issue. That extends to so many other areas, but I will move on.

I will move on to the main areas that I want to speak about today and those are veterans and volunteers. I will just give the Premier, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Emergency Services a bit of a heads-up about veterans and volunteers because they just do not get it. They just do not understand veterans and volunteers. I can say that my dad was a Royal Marine, mum was a Wren and my brother was in the Royal Navy. I have had a lot to do with veterans and volunteers through the CFS, the SES and St Johns over many years.

I think I have an appreciation of the passion that veterans and volunteers have for their causes and that is the big difference between what this Premier, this Minister for Health and this Minister for Emergency Services think of veterans and volunteers. They think it is about politics. They think it is about getting paid. They think it is about big government and Big Brother telling them what to do. For veterans and volunteers, it is from the ground up. It is about passion, it is about pride, and it is about being valued for what they do. The veterans in South Australia deserve much better than we are getting from this government.

A senior military figure said to me, 'South Australian Veterans' Affairs is really window-dressing.' I could not disagree more. The Veterans Advisory Council with my good friend Sir Eric Neal at its head is doing an excellent job and I congratulate them on the work they are doing and the new people who have just come on. Veterans are an iconic part of the South Australian culture and this year, above all—1915 to 2015, 100 years since Gallipoli—I look forward, with my colleagues on both sides, to attending as many remembrance functions as we possibly can to value our veterans.

The Repat is the spiritual home of the veterans. We all know that the facilities there are getting older; I think some of them were first built in 1945. They are getting older and they are getting tired, but like everything, there has been a lot of renewal, a lot of replacement and a lot of refurbishment. Just recently, we saw the opening of the rehabilitation centre. Also, there are the aged care facilities, and I heard about a new $200,000 ultrasound machine which has just been bought for the Repat. A lot of equipment and facilities there are state of the art and the best in South Australia, yet what have we got from this government?

They are talking about a plan without rationale, according to the nursing federation, and a lot of that involves their closing of the Repat. We saw former premier Rann say the Repat would never close under a Labor government. We are seeing weasel words and all sorts of rhetoric being used to give the impression that they are not really closing it, but we know. We know what this government is all about, we know what their agenda is, we know how broke the state is thanks to them, and we know what they are going to do with the Repat.

But, the veterans will not give up. This is about pride, this is about passion, this is about perseverance, and this is about place—their place: the Repatriation General Hospital. Let me remind the house of the brochures which were, until recently—as I understand, they have all been removed—in the Repatriation General Hospital: the veterans' service guarantee for veterans and war widows. Let us not forget that this is not a hospital that just treats veterans. Now, probably only around 10 per cent of the patients are veterans; when you add in the war widows and all those who are there to use the Repat, it is a very important hospital.

Just before I get on to the veterans' service guarantee, I will remind the house about how important the Repat is. It is the site for a large number, about three and a half thousand, of urology and orthopaedic procedures every year. It is without doubt the place with some of the best facilities for both orthopaedic and urological surgical procedures to take place. If the changes are made, and if these departments are shut down and shunted off somewhere else, waiting times will increase significantly. There are 750 arthroplasties (joint replacements) done at the Repat every year. Where are they going to go? Into already overcrowded surgical suites where we know surgery times are blown out?

There are 400 new referrals to the orthopaedics department at the Repat every month. Where are they going to go? There are 700 outpatient appointments at the orthopaedics department at the Repat every month. Where are they going to go? I have spoken with the clinicians down there, and I have had a lot to do with them over many years; there was no consultation. There was no input into the clinical decisions by the clinicians down there. Certainly, the EPAS trial that has been going on has been an unmitigated disaster. I think there has been $430-odd million spent on EPAS so far. I know the government is beside themselves over getting EPAS into the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, but at the Repat, it has been an unmitigated disaster.

The Repat is a vital part of the health services in South Australia. Let me just go back to the veterans' service guarantee. According to the brochure that is put out by the South Australian government (SA Health), there are 15 different opportunities that are guaranteed. On the inside of the brochure, it states:

We guarantee that veterans can be provided with:

Priority access to services

Specialist care 24 hours a day

Access to arranged admissions 24 hours a day

A 'Repat Card' for entitled patients to make access easier

Reduced waiting times for appointments in clinics

Reduced waiting times for elective surgery

Reserved parking for ex-service organisation representatives

Veteran advocacy and patient information services

Forums for veterans and ex-service organisations to discuss their needs

Complimentary meals and office accommodation for ex-service organisation visitors

Low cost, furnished accommodation near the hospital for use under special circumstances

Free hospital ambulance transfers from another hospital to Repat, or from Repat to appointments at other hospitals

A choice of specialists, where appropriate

Department of Veterans Affairs transport, for those entitled to it, booked by staff

A complimentary coffee in the coffee shop near the Repat clinics.

There are 15 different things there, 15 different things that were guaranteed by this government in a veterans' service guarantee. Unfortunately, this guarantee is not worth the paper it is written on. We have seen veterans being deceived by this government. We are seeing them abandoned by this government. They are not being listened to, but I know last Monday was just the start. The passion and the pride of the veterans will not go away. They are the ones who have faced real bullets, so this political onslaught is nothing to them. That is not stress and that is not pressure after what they have been through. They will fight to have their service recognised—as we should be doing.

We should be valuing veterans in this place, valuing this guarantee and making sure that the Repat does continue to provide the services they have expected and wanted for many years and, in many cases, have had delivered. We need to make sure that the changes now are done in ways that veterans can guide. Those special places—whether it is the chapel, the memorial garden or Ward 17—are spiritual homes, not just places for sanctuary, thought or treatment. It is much more than that. This government just does not get it. I suggest they actually go and talk to veterans and the veterans' organisations and ask them what it is that drives this passion, because they just do not get it.

The other area that I have, and this government, once again, just does not understand, is volunteers. The Liberal government, under the former member for Davenport, started the Office for Volunteers. We have the highest level of volunteering in South Australia, and I heard the member for Fisher say that in her maiden speech. I think the latest estimate of financial input of volunteers in South Australia is about $5 billion. We need to value our volunteers for their in-kind input but, more particularly, we need to understand our volunteers and, once again, like the veterans, they are not doing it for reward.

If you give them Clipsal tickets—and I think the government should be giving the CFS volunteers Clipsal tickets again this year and I hope they do—and tickets to the cricket and that sort of thing, that is nice. If you live in the country it is hard to do, because you have to come down and have accommodation. It is a small token. They are not after that. What they are after is to be valued and, when it comes to emergency services volunteers, they want to be respected, they want to have their values listened to, they want to be able to contribute to any changes and they want to do it in a methodical, thorough and consultative fashion.

What we are seeing, again, is the Minister for Emergency Services and the Premier not having any understanding at all of that passion that the volunteers have in the emergency services. I am a life member of the CFS and I am very proud, very privileged and honoured to have been given the opportunity to become a life member. I can tell this house that volunteers will not abandon their communities. They might make noises about not fighting fires on government land but they will not abandon their communities, and this government should never, ever, play on that passion and loyalty to the communities. What they do need to take notice of is that volunteers in the emergency services will not be taken for granted, will not be bullied, will not be lied to and will not have the wool pulled over their eyes in any way, shape or form.

We have this restructuring of the emergency services here in South Australia and we have seen report after report, right back to the Bruce report in, I think, 1993 or 1996. I think the member for Colton, when he was with the UFU, was on that committee. It goes right back to then. There has been report after report into reshaping and restructuring emergency services. What we have now is the latest version of this. It was based on the Holloway review. There were 38 recommendations in the Holloway review of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005. Only two of those 38 recommendations talked about restructuring, and that was more about independent heads and chairs of SAFECOM boards or a commission if you wanted to go down that path. However, what we have is far more than that. The other 36 recommendations were more nuts and bolts stuff about equipment and structuring the operational side of things.

What we have now, though, is the latest iteration and there is a real fear out there that it is being driven by the United Firefighters Union. May I just say that I am not the enemy of the UFU. I want them to talk to me. They have not responded to my letters; they have not acknowledged my letters. I am trying to talk to them now. I spoke to one of the UFU moderates, shall I say, the other day to try to get some dialogue going. The UFU in South Australia has given the impression that it is a winner takes all attitude and they have also scared the hell out of volunteers by some of their members not showing the respect to CFS volunteers that they should.

I grew up in a MFS—or, as it was then, the South Australian Fire Brigade—household. My father was in the MFS for 30 years. I remember the days of the South Australian Fire Brigade (SAFB) and the EFS. I remember the animosity and the angst. I remember being in a car with my father and stopping on the Philip Highway at Elizabeth and seeing the Elizabeth fire appliance stopping at the intersection of Commercial Road and Philip Highway when there was a fire across the road in a CFS area, but the MFS truck would not go across the road into the CFS area. That is ridiculous. Nobody ever wants that to happen again; nobody ever wants the angst and the animosity to come back again.

What we all want—and I say 'we' as a member of the CFS and having many friends and relatives in the MFS and good friends in the SES—is change for the better. Nobody is against change. What we do not want is a predetermined path. We do not want the union going out there, as they did in their edition of Word Back in November last year, stating:

…the UFU supports the proposal to introduce a one service model for fire and rescue services in South Australia.

We do not want that; we cannot have that. What we have are three services that are working exceptionally well at the moment. The minister and the Premier had briefings at Sampson Flat on how well the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) is working. They have started to realise that there is something more than just the chiefs and the baggy pants in these emergency services. They have realised that the structures are there already to make sure that the services do work and do work well now.

We have had SAFECOM for a number of years. The Ernst & Young review that was done by this government into SAFECOM was scathing of this government and the way it has defunded SAFECOM and the way it took away the staff in SAFECOM, so that a lot of the jobs that SAFECOM was doing are now being triplicated across the emergency services, the SES, CFS and MFS. Of course we do not want that: we do not want triplication of services; we do not want duplication of services.

There is a real opportunity for change but that change has to be managed. It has to be consultative. We do not want the minister going out there and talking to people and then coming back with preconceived ideas. We have a minister who said he had met with over 2,000 people. He has—he has met with over 2,000 people but has he listened to them? I do not think so. I do not think he really has.

There are so many areas in this proposed restructure that we just do not know about, and it is the level of detail that is scaring everybody. Even my friends in the MFS—and there are many of them—are saying to me that they are sick to death of being treated like mushrooms by both the UFU and this government. It is not just the CFS Volunteers Association and the SES Volunteers Association, SES and CFS volunteers and community members are saying, 'Look, show us the detail on this. Don't go rushing headlong into what you're proposing with a commissioner, six assistant commissioners and a whole bureaucracy under each of those. Don't do that. Let's talk about this.'

The minister says, 'Look there's a lot more to be done and it's going to take 12 to 18 months to work out the details of what has to be done.' Then why, minister, are you sacking the three chiefs now? They are all going to be gone by June—all three chiefs: Grant Lupton, an exceptionally fine leader of the MFS; Greg Nettleton, an exceptionally fine leader of the CFS; and Chris Beattie, an exceptionally fine leader of the SES. They will be lost to South Australia; that will be our loss. Why? Because this minister has decided that there is no room for them. He said that in Hansard when I asked him a question about it last year—I do not have the date here.

He said, 'I have four chief executives in the emergency services sector'—he was including Mr Place then—and if the proposed model goes ahead there will be one. Four into one will not go, and we know that the chiefs are getting sacked. It is just not the way to do this. You said there was going to be 12 to 18 months of discussion and you are sacking the chiefs now, so what have you predetermined already? You have already advertised for a commissioner. The commissioner's role is going to be one to manage this restructure. The statement for the commissioner for emergency services role that is out there states that the commissioner will provide critical and complex advice, establishing the new department for emergency services, championing and leading the reform agenda and change management process.

Why are you getting a commissioner on now, ignoring the Ernst & Young review, ignoring the advice from the three chief officers, ignoring the advice from the volunteer associations, and ignoring the advice from people who know far more about it than the minister, the Premier and I do? Why is he ignoring that advice and going headlong down this path and then saying, 'Trust me, it will all be okay. It is still open for changes; we have 12 to 18 months'? But we have a new commissioner coming in, we are going to sack the three people who know the most about it, we have ignored the Ernst & Young review that said you should be providing more money for SAFECOM and an independent chair. You could be looking at amalgamations of three areas: procurement, human resources and training, and there may be opportunities there. That is what we should be doing. We should be going down that path, not down the path that this minister is driving this restructure.

I can guarantee this, minister: it will be just like the veterans turning up here every Monday morning on the steps of Parliament House until the government starts to listen. We saw 54 fire appliances turn up out the front of this place with about 300 volunteers on a Wednesday morning. That is how strong the feeling is amongst volunteers about this proposed restructure. That is just the start. This government is very lucky that it is summer and it is going to be 41º this Saturday, because I can guarantee that there would have been 200 trucks and 2,000 volunteers out there this Saturday were it not predicted to be such a horrendous day.

I just hope that the people of South Australia do recognise that, no matter how many volunteers and how big our emergency services are, if we do have a tragic day in South Australia, nothing will save us other than acts of God. On days like the day the Sampson Flat fire started and this coming Saturday, I value our volunteers and I respect their ability to do the job they want to do, but let us make sure we look after ourselves as well and look after this state. Were it not for that predicted day, our volunteers would have been back here with the pride, the passion and the perseverance that they are showing to make sure that this government understands they are going down the wrong path with this proposed review.

I have been to the minister's meetings. Yesterday he had a bit of a crack about me only coming out when there were photo opportunities, and one meeting. Well, it is not about going to your meetings, minister, it is about actually meeting with the people who really matter and who really know what they are talking about—talking to people who are both paid and volunteer firefighters. I have been to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth to talk to the ministers and the chief officers. I do not believe some of them wanted to speak to the minister when he went, but they spoke to me. They gave me the truth. They knew my background. They knew what I was after and, I tell you what, I was very surprised at some of their attitudes to what we are doing in South Australia. They said that it is the wrong thing to do.

We need to make sure that we are getting the truth out there, and the direction we are going to take in emergency services needs to be well and truly understood, and that is not happening. We saw the minister put out a press release entitled 'The myths and facts behind the Emergency Service reform'. I have a response to that, the CFS Volunteers Association have a response to that and the SES Volunteers Association are constructing their response to that. Let me tell you that my version of the minister's document with the real facts, not the spin doctor presentation and the glossing over of the real facts, is quite different. I will be making sure that that is a publicly available document so that the real facts are out there.

My facts are backed up by the opinions and the factual evidence being presented by both the SES Volunteers Association and the CFS Volunteers Association. I do not know what is driving the minister, I do not know whether his position on the front bench is at risk—I understand it is—but I said at the CFS rally that it should be the minister being sacked, not the chiefs, with his current attitude. I need to see a significant change before I will change that attitude. I appeal to this minister: take a breath, Tony, and sit back and listen to the people who know what they are talking about, you do not need to rush in on this. Your job will be safe if you show this government, show the Premier, that you are capable of being a statesman and not just some politician hell bent on serving your own political purposes.

I hope the United Firefighters Union starts to talk to me; I hope that Greg Northcott has the courage to listen to his members, because I know that they are cross with him for not responding to me. There are about 150 in the MFS, most of whom are UFU members who are in the CFS as well. They are starting to understand the ramifications of the current proposal. They are starting to understand that. This is not an anti-union thing. Certainly anybody who dares say to me that this an anti-MFS thing will have me to answer to. Certainly it is not just a pro-CFS or SES volunteers thing.

This is about getting long-term solutions for long-term issues in South Australia. We have issues with training, we have issues with resourcing, we have issues with response times and issues right across emergency services. Those issues need to be sorted out calmly, responsibly and in a fashion that will be inclusive. I do not want to go back to the old SAFB/EFS days; I do not want to go back to the days of the boards being completely separate and not talking to each other. I want a central body where we can organise, cooperate and collaborate within emergency services. We have that with SAFECOM.

So, just do what Ernst & Young says: restore SAFECOM, put in an independent chair, talk to the chiefs, talk to the volunteer associations, and I guarantee, minister, that you will get the support of the opposition, you will get the support of the MFS firefighters, you will get the support of the SES, the CFS firefighters, Volunteer Marine Rescue and Surf Life Saving, which gets $12 million a year out of the emergency services levy. They might even start talking about swift water rescue, inland rescue and the work they are doing as well, because they have been left out of this.

This is not a complete restructure, not a complete review, but rather a perverse way of trying to go forward with emergency service delivery in South Australia. It will not work; it will destroy the cultures of the CFS and MFS as they are now. You will go back to the old days of the SAFB and the EFS. You will cause a lot of angst and, unfortunately, a lot of volunteers will walk. They will turn in their pagers, because they do not want to be part of a system where they have not been part of coming up with a solution. They will not abandon the communities because our volunteers will never abandon our communities.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Thank you, member for Morphett. Member for Kaurna.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (12:18): First, I begin by paying tribute to the Governor for his fantastic speech in opening this session of parliament yesterday. I have heard a few governor's speeches over the years, and I have to say that this was by far the most interesting and contained the most number of new policy proposals that I have ever heard in a governor's speech. I also congratulate the new Governor on taking up his role. I have known the Hon. Mr Hieu Van Le for a number of years, and I was particularly delighted to see his ascension to this high office. He is somebody of immense credibility, honesty and commitment to the people of South Australia.

I have been very pleased to see the large number of people from all across the state to whom I have spoken who have commented on what a great job he has been doing in the short time he has been in the role as Governor, and the huge number of commitments that being the Governor takes on, whether you are Chief Scout or patron of any number of organisations. It is quite a busy job, and our new Governor is doing a fantastic job in taking on that role.

I also congratulate our new member for Fisher, who gave her first speech some one hour ago; I think that it was one of the best first speeches I have ever heard in this parliament or in other parliaments. I think that you would be hard pressed to find a first speech given by a member which showed more commitment and more passion and which gave us more insight into her life story and what drives her to serve the people of her electorate than the speech we have just heard from the member for Fisher. Having known her for the past few years, I am very confident that she will not only make a tremendous impact upon this state but also in helping the people in the area of Fisher, which is near my electorate. I am very happy to have her in the south as well as a fellow member there. Of course, she also takes over from the Hon. Bob Such, who did a tremendous job in Fisher. I think that that electorate is going to be very well served.

I would like to talk a bit about some of the things that have happened in my electorate over the past year, since we started this parliament, and then go on to some of the broader issues that were dealt with by the Governor in his speech. Of course, in my electorate, which is the southern most tip of Adelaide's metropolitan area, transport is a massive issue and has always been a massive issue and will likely always be a massive issue. This year has seen some amazingly good news for the people of Kaurna and associated electorates down south with the opening of the Southern Expressway, which is now a dual carriageway expressway. There has been huge happiness expressed by people all around the south that this project has been delivered and is finally open.

We have also seen the opening of the Seaford rail line extension and the electrification of the Noarlunga line, which is now the Seaford line. Both of those projects have meant that, over the past couple of years, there have been a lot of delays and disruptions to people's lives as those transport projects have been implemented. The Southern Expressway was closed for large parts of the day and, when it was open, it had reduced speed limits and, of course, for a long time, the whole Noarlunga line was shut down while the track was relaid and the electric lines were installed.

So, people are delighted to see both those services back up in operation, but also I thank people for their patience in dealing with their daily commutes or businesses in their getting back and forth around the area. We now have a truly world-class transport link between the southern suburbs and the city, which will only be improved by the government's commitment to upgrade the Darlington interchange over the coming years. This will be yet another improved transport link, which will remove one of Adelaide's worst bottlenecks, which is, I understand the busiest section of road in all of South Australia—the Darlington interchange.

The other fantastic thing that has happened since the rail line was reopened is that express services have been reinstituted on the Seaford line. There are now two services in the morning and two in the evening, both to and from the city, which take people very quickly to their office or their place of work in the city. People are very happy to see those services reinstated, and I pay tribute to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure for his hard work, not only with the department but also with the commuters who use the Seaford line, in finding a solution to address those issues. As we see more and more electric trains being delivered on the Seaford line, we know that the timetable is going to improve over the coming year. There will be a chance to look at improving it even further and ensuring that we can remove any of the delays that are happening at the moment on that line.

As with all members of this house, a lot of my work has been in the electorate working with community groups—of course, mine in the southern suburbs. I really want to pay tribute to some of those fantastic community groups that I have had the privilege of working with over the past year. There is a huge number of sporting groups, whether they be brand new sporting groups, such as the Aldinga Soccer Club, which had its first season last year and had a tremendous record of success with just one season in the league in which it is participating, or more established clubs, for example, some of our football clubs, such as Christies Beach, Port Noarlunga and Aldinga.

Of course, Aldinga Football Club shot to national prominence last year when they hosted the Shane Crawford comeback game, in conjunction with The Footy Show, which helped put Aldinga Sharks on the map and has helped their resurgence as a footy club in inspiring more juniors to participate. I certainly thank The Footy Show and Channel Nine for their help, but also all the members of the community for putting on that great event that saw some 5,000 people turn up to Shark Park or Aldinga Oval to see that game. They were very privileged to be the joint winners of the City of Onkaparinga's best community event award for 2014 and I think that was very well deserved.

But there is a whole range of non-sporting clubs as well, whether they be the Rotary Club of Noarlunga, which I have been honoured to be an honorary member, or the RSL club of Port Noarlunga and Christies Beach which I have had a lot to do with as well as the member for Reynell. There is a huge number of community groups doing fantastic work in the south.

As well as that, I know all of our communities rely a lot on the work of schools. I have been very privileged to go around and visit all the schools in the electorate and have hosted a number of morning teas for teachers which has been very well received, I have to say, giving them an opportunity to talk to me about issues they are seeing in the education system, to talk about what is happening in the school, and how the government can better support the important work that they are doing. I am really excited when I see lots of school leaders and lots of teachers who have great ambitions for their students who do not want to see their students just ticking the grade, but want to see them striving to do the best that they possibly can.

I particularly would like to note Seaford Secondary College in my electorate, which is the high school right in the heart of the seat of Kaurna, and their principal Cez Green. She is a fantastic advocate for the students in her school and wants to make sure that they have every opportunity to succeed as much as if they were going to any other school in South Australia, even in much richer areas of our city. I have been very happy to work with them and look forward to doing so in the future.

Also it has been great to meet lots of emergency service workers in the south, whether they be people who work in police or ambulance, but also our CFS workers at the Aldinga and Seaford stations. I particularly pay tribute to them for their hard work on the Sampson Flat fires that we saw a couple of months ago. I think this was one of those fantastic moments where we saw people from all across the state drop everything to try and contribute what they could to serve other South Australians in need. No better example can you see of all of South Australia being brought together as a community, but particularly those firefighters who put themselves in harm's way from my electorate. I pay tribute to them.

We saw an amazing picture go viral on Facebook from the Aldinga CFS station where they arrived back late one night at 4am to see somebody had got out there and printed a massive sign on their garage doors of the station saying thank you from all of us. I think that just summed up what tremendous heroes they are and what gratitude we have for all of the CFS workers in this state.

In terms of other events that we have been doing in the community, I have been very happy to host the Premier, Jay Weatherill. We had a forum on a lot of the issues that we are seeing coming out of Canberra, particularly cuts to our hospitals and schools from the commonwealth government and their not honouring signed agreements that we have seen.

We have also hosted two seniors forums in the electorate that were very well attended and I thank the Minister for Health and the Minister for Ageing for attending them and discussing issues that our seniors in the southern suburbs have faced, but I also thank all of the not-for-profit and government groups that came out and held stalls at those seniors groups that really made them such a success.

I think broadly for our state we have fantastic years of growth ahead. There are some fantastic developments on the horizon, whether they be the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, further upgrades to our north-south corridor or discussions about how we can best place our health and education systems for the future.

In the Governor's speech, I was very delighted to see his discussion of reforms to the education system in South Australia, particularly how we can improve our schools. I think first and foremost the reforms included getting some of our head office staff of the Department of Education and Child Development out from the middle of the city and into the regions. I hope that we will be able to see some of those staff members out at Noarlunga, as well as, I am sure, Elizabeth and Port Adelaide, and in country regions of the state as well, where they can be more in touch with what is going on with the schools—

Mr Griffiths: Someone said it—country regions. Beautifully worked.

Mr PICTON: Yes, absolutely—where they could be more in touch with what is happening in the schools and can also help boost the economies in those areas. Say, in Noarlunga, if we can get more department of education staff working there, then that will help other businesses which provide food or services for people in that area. I am sure the same is true for everywhere else in the state.

We have seen other states do this quite a lot, in terms of decanting a lot of their public servants out from the city centres into regional or suburban areas. Particularly New South Wales and Victoria have done quite a lot of this over the past couple of decades. I know Victoria now has a number of government departments in areas such as Geelong and Bendigo. I think that that is a fantastic thing that we should be looking at in South Australia. I know that the government has made a commitment to move more government staff out to Port Adelaide, which I wholeheartedly support. I think that is something we should see more and more of.

The other things that were talked about in education included the development of more super schools, as they were known a few years ago, amalgamations of schools, where we can bring together schools which were created when there were boom times of children in a particular area and schools had to be brought up to a high capacity. Many of them are now at much lower capacities than what they were designed for. If we can bring together those schools, there can be more subjects taught, there can be better resources, and the savings can be pumped back into those schools and the education system.

I am very delighted to see that that is going to be a continued part of the government's agenda, but I also think that it is important that we also provide more resources for growing areas of the state, such as the peri-urban areas of Adelaide, whether they be the southern suburbs, the northern suburbs or some of the Hills areas that are seeing quite large growth in student numbers. I hope that that is going to be a continued part of the government's plan, to provide enough classrooms and teachers to make sure that those schools meet the requirements that we have for our children.

I think that the other fantastic thing we are seeing is a renewed emphasis on improving standards for schools, bringing back what was originally brought in many years ago in the Bannon government. Minister Crafter, I think in fact, when he was the education minister, brought in the ability for schools to be reviewed when standards were slipping to find out the reasons that that is happening and what can be done to remediate those schools and to try to improve them. I think when that government lost and the new government came in and looked for savings that was one thing that was cut, unfortunately, but this government—and I pay tribute to the previous minister, minister Rankine—is now bringing back the ability to review schools and to see where we have standards slipping in particular schools and to try to remedy them with good actions. I pay tribute to that.

There are a number of other reviews that the government has started that I think are really important. They are probably not front page exciting material, but they are very important to our state. First and foremost of them is the paper that the Attorney-General released a couple of months ago on justice reform. This is probably one of the first times that we have seen a top to bottom review of our justice system to see how we can improve the outcomes that we are getting, right the way through from when somebody is arrested to when they are incarcerated, and to try and work out where the blockages are in the system and how they can be fixed.

A lot of the time you look at the blockages in a particular area, say, Corrections, and the blockages have been caused by another part of the system, whether they be when someone is arrested or how they have been granted bail or how a trial is proceeding; so you really need to look at the whole system. I think it is fantastic that that is now happening, and I look forward to further papers that, I understand, the Attorney will release in coming months with detailed reforms in those areas.

The other area of reform that the Treasurer has just released a paper on today is about our tax system in South Australia. I know everybody is very interested in that. I think that that paper is really about how we create an efficient system of taxation in South Australia that can provide the revenue that we need to provide the services in schools and hospitals that all of us in this chamber, I am sure, agree should be provided, but how those taxes can be provided in a way that is efficient and fair. We as state governments have a bit of a random assortment of taxes that are available to us with the commonwealth/state break-up of taxation powers.

There is a bit of a limited scope in what is available, but working with what is constitutionally available, how we can best allocate them across the state so that not only are they efficient, encourage growth and investment but also fair to all citizens. I look forward to seeing that. As I said in my first speech, the issue of vertical fiscal imbalance is very important for South Australia. We are very reliant on grants from the commonwealth government, particularly as states such as Western Australia continually claim that they should be getting more funding and we should be getting less funding. That is a real risk for our state.

One last area that I would like to talk about is the area of concessions. Unfortunately, we saw in the federal government's budget last year not just a cut but a complete tearing up of the agreement that has been between the states and the commonwealth for I think well over 20 years of how concession payments should be made and what concessions should be covered, and funding from the commonwealth to the states to enable that to happen. In its budget last year the state government was able to cover one year of the council concession cut, but we said, 'We are hoping to get the federal government to reverse that. We will not be able to cover it in the future. If they do not reverse it, then of course we will have to review that in due course.'

We are now seeing local councils agitating about that. I think some councils have said that they will support seniors' concessions in their areas, which is fantastic, but I know a lot of councils have said that they are not interested in doing that at all, and they are pushing the buck back to the state government now, as well as the federal government, and saying that we should be covering them. We are left with this problem where the federal government has cut funding of some $30 million, which is equal to the cut of $30 million that the council concessions cost, but local government is saying that the state government should fund it. Of course, we are saying that the federal government should meet their requirements under the agreement and fund it.

One thing that I found very disappointing in the campaigning, though, is that, while all councils, as I understand, have sent out letters to their residents pointing out the issues and directing them to various federal and state MPs, in my area the City of Onkaparinga and its mayor Lorraine Rosenberg sent a letter to residents, including me, that was completely inaccurate. It said that the council concessions were some $61 million a year and the state government funded over half of those concessions and that we had cut our funding of those concessions to the tune of well over $30 million, in addition to the commonwealth $30 million cut.

Now that is completely incorrect. All the other council letters that have gone out to people across the state have not said that. As I understand it, the website of the Local Government Association is now correct, but there has been no retraction issued to people in the City of Onkaparinga by its mayor, which I think is disappointing because she has really misled residents as to the state of affairs of funding. The cut is almost exactly equal to the cost of the council concession. There is not some extra $30 million cut that has been found from the state government. There was a $30 million cut from Canberra and the cost of the concessions to councils was $30 million.

I hope that that can be corrected. I know that this is a very important issue for people in my area and all across the state, and I hope that the federal government is going to be able to reverse that and provide funding for people and give people the peace of mind that they will be able to pay their council bills in the future.

To sum up, I think we saw a fantastic speech from the Governor yesterday. I think it has outlined some amazing areas of reform that have really put this government at the forefront of trying to think about and develop policies as to how we can improve and grow and create a fairer and better state, and I think that that will benefit not only the people in Kaurna but also people across the entire state.

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (12:40): I also rise in support of the motion to acknowledge the Governor's speech and the Address in Reply which is to become the vision for the government over the next 12 months. I do also acknowledge the contribution of the new member for Fisher and commend her on her fine words and recognise the challenge that that would have presented in delivering that full message because of the conflicts and tragedies that the Cook family and the Davis family have faced—it is a very emotional one.

Indeed, on the day on which the now Sammy D passed away, my son, also playing football that day, tore his ACL cruciate and has never played football again. So we all deal with things but mine is a very minor one in comparison to the tragedy that occurred to them but, as a parent whose son was one year older at that stage, I cannot even begin to imagine the challenges that they have gone through.

I did pick up on a few things, though. Because we are elected to this place and we become politicians, we are not different, we are still people. That is why I think there has to be a level of humility attached to what we try to do while we are in here, and the forcefulness of the argument that we put, the beliefs that we hold and the principles that we hold true that have directed us in life to be seen to be good enough either by a significant size political party or by community members as an independent candidate to be elected in the first place. It is a challenge to hold true to those beliefs but we all have to. We all have to say what our heart tells us to say. I believe I do that most of the time. You pay the consequences for it sometimes, but it allows you to sleep easier at night.

The words that I say while reflecting upon some of the things said by the Governor in his speech are a critique of the words, not of the Governor himself. I do congratulate the Hon. Hieu Van Le and Mrs Le on the role, and the way in which they have undertaken the role over this short period. I congratulate them on the appointment, recognise the significance of it and the commitment that they as a couple will make to the role and the importance of it to South Australia. I wish them sincere good luck in retaining that enthusiasm which defines them, I believe, and the worthiness of the position that they take on. It is a very important role to the people of South Australia and I have no doubt that they will undertake it exceptionally well.

The speech itself was a good collection of words. As a person who believes in the significance of individual words, I have not only listened to the speech but I have read it three times since because I actually want to pick up on some of the nuances of the things that are included in it. It was not until listening to the radio this morning that I have come to respect the fact that apparently there are 18 ideas attached to it but I am not sure what all those 18 ideas are. It made me think a little about the need for words to inspire us, and although I am not from the same political thought bubble on things, I do respect Barack Obama when first elected and the saying 'Yes we can' and how that captured an imagination.

I am a believer that words are there to inspire us, they have to capture us, they have to make us believe in opportunity and they have to give us some direction on how that opportunity is going to be realised. That is where my concern actually lays. In that time frame you cannot deliver the absolute detail on everything, but there has to be some information about how some things are to be done and an assurance that previous commitments are actually upheld and followed through.

I note that the member for Kaurna talked about—and he did so with pride, I respect that—'my electorate'. I never actually use that term. I do not believe that I own Goyder, and I do not believe that it is my right to represent Goyder. It is my absolute honour to do so but I am very much dependent upon the level of support from people. So, I do not use the term 'it's my electorate' and things like that; I believe I talk about 'the Goyder electorate'. It is just a bit of a difference in attitude, and it is important for all of us because it brings about a level of humility.

Having read the Governor's speech, I am concerned with the very scant recognition of regional South Australia—and I have tried to identify it. It frustrates the life out of me, and it is perpetuated by other members in this chamber: when the member for Kaurna talked about regions, he talked about what I define as suburbs. I talk about regions as being beyond the boundaries that we acknowledge the city area to occupy, and it is such an important part of the state.

There were references to mining and the regulations, and the world's best practice that apparently is adhered to in South Australia. It concerns the life out of me that in such a land mass, such a significant part of the state—we are not a city state, we are actually a whole state—my frustration is that, depending on how you measure it, the population can range between 18 per cent—that is in the Strategic Plan—and 24 per cent of the total population of a bit over 1.6 million people. It is such an important part of not just who we are, but what our future opportunities are going to be. The intention of the government about what it is to deliver for regional South Australia should have been mentioned in great detail, and that is an accountability issue.

The minister is in the chamber, and I am pleased by that, because it concerns me that with the importance of the position he holds, there was not an assurance given to him in the uniqueness of the way in which he holds a position—

The Hon. G.G. Brock interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Okay, but for me—

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