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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-02-14 Daily Xml
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Government Performance

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:37): What a mess we have in South Australia. The great, green giant has successfully emasculated this current Labor government and left the place in a debacle. Electricity, the core of what people want in their homes, the core of what business wants, is just unaffordable for many families. Many families turn to candles. We used to have electricity before we had candles, for the information of those on the other side. The bridges are falling down. The wheels have fallen off the government.

We have had poor old Reggie Martin scurrying around the corridors today trying to sort out the mess with preselections in the Labor Party. We have members from here going into the other place, and we have other people coming in here from there apparently. We have all sorts of fun in Elder. The member for Elder suggested that she might go into Badcoe, but it would appear she is staying in Elder. We have the mouth from the South running around having a fair bit to say on everything. We have the member for Florey being told she is going whether she wants to go or not, and it appears that she is going—

Members interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: Well, if media reports today are right that is what is happening.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do you believe everything you read in the paper?

Mr PENGILLY: We have the member for Waite proceeding to give us lectures on how to run the Liberal Party after he made a complete cock-up himself, and we have the member for West Torrens running around giving us a lecture on just about everything. The member for West Torrens is the only member of the government who has any energy left. They were downcast, completely downcast looking over there today—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I think you are reflecting on members in the chamber. You are sailing perilously close. I know you have your good ear this side, so you can hear what I am saying. Do not pretend you have not heard the ruling.

Mr PENGILLY: The reality is that the government members are embarrassed. I can tell you that here and now. The body language says it all, looking over from this side of the chamber. Outside, people are hurting; they are hurting desperately. Plenty of people in my electorate are hurting. There are families in desperate trouble. They cannot pay their power bills, they cannot pay their water bills, and they have to pay an increased emergency services levy. You have had 15 years to do something about this and you have done nothing. You have left a complete mess.

On top of that, I cannot believe that we regularly have former premier Mike Rann, who is the great architect of all things sustainable and the architect of all your sustainable energy (which is great; do not get me wrong. I have solar energy myself at home)—where is he living? In the UK, using nuclear power; what a joke—tweeting about everything that we should be doing in South Australia. I cannot believe it. Some of the comments are absolutely laughable. I like Mike, actually, and I always have. I got on well with him, but he and former 'King Kevin' went ahead and wrote the script for the debacle we have in South Australia at the moment.

We have jobs going left, right and centre. We have businesses leaving the state. I know this from my own perspective. Our children are leaving the state. One has gone to Darwin, and the other one and his wife are about to go there too, because there is no opportunity for them in South Australia. They can get permanent jobs in Darwin, they can get higher-paid jobs in Darwin and they can have a better standard of living than they are currently having here. It is a joke. This is a decadent government who have no answers. They have been there too long. They are decaying and close to being very, very smelly. It is a disgrace that South Australia has come to this. Today, the Treasurer had the nerve to point to Sir Thomas Playford and tried to use him as an example of where to go.

Mr Griffiths: Twice.

Mr PENGILLY: Twice, did he? Thank you, member for Goyder. Congratulations to my colleague the member for Goyder, who today made the announcement that he would be leaving. He will be a sad loss to this place. The member for Goyder has made the choice to go next March. There are some in this place who will no doubt go and it will not be their choice whatsoever, but we will turn to that in 12 months' time. I congratulate the member for Goyder; he is a mate of mine, so good on him.

I seriously question how we are ever going to get out of this mess. The government seriously have no answers to the electricity problems. Generator sales are through the roof, candle sales are through the roof, brownouts are common and power failures are happening all too often.

Time expired.

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