HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-15 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Debate resumed.

The SPEAKER: I now call the member for Kavel.

I remind members that this is the member's first speech, and accordingly I ask members to extend the traditional courtesies to the member.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (16:29): Mr Speaker, I have much pleasure in supporting the motion, and I thank you for the opportunity to address the chamber. I express the hope that I will do nothing in the future to unsettle your even-tempered ways. Representing Kavel is the greatest privilege of my own life, and I am deeply grateful to my community for their support. It will not be forgotten in this place.

I am the fourth member for Kavel. Serving before me has been the Hon. Roger Goldsworthy, deputy premier; the Hon. John Olsen, premier; and Mr Mark Goldsworthy, whose grace and good nature I would do well to replicate here and in my electorate. I acknowledge that the Hon. Roger Goldsworthy and Mr Mark Goldsworthy were both in the gallery today. Mr Mark Goldsworthy leaves parliament without an enemy. Very few leave on those terms. I wish also to say that his friendship and encouragement have been fundamental in setting me on this path.

I acknowledge the generous welcome I have received from both sides of the house and congratulate new members. I also understand that it is customary for members in my position to reflect on their arrival here, if not by way of apology then at least by way of explanation. I acknowledge those guests who are now entering the gallery. I acknowledge, too, the generous welcome, as I mentioned, that I have received from both sides of the house.

My parents were schoolteachers and believed in an ethic or spirit of public service. They did not place any emphasis or premium on money, fame or good looks; in any case, such advantages have so far eluded me. However, watching mum and dad as community organisers, I absorbed, despite a lengthy teenage resistance, the first and most valuable lessons in local politics: work hard, treat people with respect, show some courage and be frank wherever possible.

My political hero, Charles Hawker, was also frank wherever possible and utterly fearless in politics—after all, he faced greater trials: Hawker was a survivor of the First World War. He carried deep physical scars. Lilias Needham, Charles' sister—and, in ways I will later explain, my benefactor—records that Charles was wounded twice at Ypres as a result of which he lost an eye. After recuperating from 14 operations, and although classified unfit for service, Hawker insisted on returning to the wretchedness of the trenches. Life was precious to him, and he understood very well the risks he faced.

On 4 October, in Belgium Charles was paralysed from the waist down by machine gun fire. After a series of operations, he was able to walk with two sticks, although his legs remained in surgical irons. Charles left to enter politics, becoming the youngest minister in the Lyons' cabinet but was killed in a Kyeema air crash. Hawker, a veteran of Ypres, would, I feel, have understood how arbitrary the Fates can be. You will know, Mr Speaker, that in Greek mythology the Fates preside over human life and death, spinning our destinies as if they were mere threads. At times, I am sure we have all felt that events are somehow beyond us, particularly at times of unexpected or cruel tragedy.

Opposition leader John Curtin believed that Charles Hawker had been on the threshold of great achievements. Harold Holt, himself later to die in office, said that Charles Hawker was the most inspiring man he ever knew. Some of Hawker's estate was, through his sister, ultimately invested in a scholarship fund that put me through Adelaide University and created the opportunity for me to later follow in Hawker's footsteps and study at Cambridge. In no way would I claim on arriving there that I was even close to Charles Hawker in stature or in service. Charles finished his studies, after all, following the war and with his body broken.

At the time I received the benefit of a Charles Hawker scholarship, my stepmum had advanced multiple sclerosis and, as you know, it is a hard disease. There were three other children still at school and one teacher's salary in the house. I know I would not have made it to university without the scholarship, but following in Hawker's name comes with responsibilities, including the responsibility to serve your community wherever possible.

As I have suggested, Hawker's example is nearly impossible to follow. He was not only brave physically but brave intellectually. At a time when protectionism was described by Sir Keith Hancock as a faith and dogma, Charles was amongst a small group who recognised that protectionism usually serves only special interests. In fact, it usually results in wealth transfers to what firebrand Labor premier Jack Lang described as 'rent seekers'.

In this way, Charles Hawker became a mentor to Bert Kelly, who much later campaigned against Jack McEwen's protectionist agenda inside the federal Coalition and in this process earned the moniker 'the modest member'. You will know, Mr Speaker, that 'Black Jack' McEwen was a fearsome political gladiator. At the end, the free-trade agenda, which Charles and Bert had kept alive even in the face of Jack McEwen, was embraced by Hawke and Keating and Howard and Costello.

The importance and value of Charles and Bert's lessons can easily be measured. As Ray Evans has observed, in per capita terms Australia and New Zealand were the wealthiest countries in the world at the time of Federation. After Federation, we slid down the per capita income ladder. By 1980, Lee Kuan Yew, president of Singapore, said to us as a friend that we were at risk of becoming the poor white trash of Asia. In that year, we were 22nd or maybe 23rd on the income ladder and falling. Only the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s arrested this trend.

In South Australia, our export performance has been a painful disgrace over the last 16 years. When Labor came to office in 2002, South Australia was supplying 7.4 per cent of the nation's merchandise exports. We now supply 4 per cent. Had we retained today in a proportional sense the same share of merchandise exports as in 2002, these exports would be worth $9 billion.

We have the best wool, wine, meat, fruit and seafood in the world. Our manufactured food and other products have few equals. If we are to succeed as a state, we need to find and cultivate new markets. I am proud that our government will open new trade offices. We need to look closely to the success John Key enjoyed as Prime Minister of New Zealand. Over a decade, Mr Key transformed the New Zealand economy, an economy which looks very similar to the economy we have inherited from Labor in South Australia. I am sure that I will speak again on this subject.

As you know, Mr Speaker, Kavel is an electorate of great physical beauty. You can see much of the seat from the eastern slopes of Mount Lofty or, alternatively, from Mount Barker summit. Within Kavel is Piccadilly, Carey Gully and Mount George, Verdun, Hahndorf, Paechtown, Mount Barker, Littlehampton, Nairne and Hay Valley and the Onkaparinga Valley, including the Onkaparinga Valley towns of Balhannah, Oakbank and Woodside. Also within Kavel are the townships of Blakiston, Brukunga, Charleston, and Dawesley. Hans Heysen, Australia's most respected landscape artist, lived in Hahndorf within my electorate, and he was right to make that choice.

I wish to reflect, too, on the deep belief in community that exists throughout Kavel. Margaret Thatcher once said that there was no such thing as community or society, just individuals and families. She did not visit Kavel. From the CFS, the school councils, sports clubs, service clubs, church markets, fetes, country shows, environmental groups and support groups to street parties and book clubs, Kavel believes in the principle that you should wherever possible help your neighbour. As our district grows, it is important to share this ethic with newcomers.

Although a place of great beauty and real volunteer spirit, we face local challenges in Kavel. Members opposite, despite the clear objections of my community, rezoned large areas of Mount Barker for rapid housing development. We referred that decision to the Ombudsman. The minister of the day, the Hon. Paul Holloway MLC, resigned sometime after the rezoning decision. Despite Labor's many commitments to support the growth they had created by executive fiat, Labor effectively abandoned my community. My electorate, not just in Mount Barker but elsewhere, including Nairne and Littlehampton, is now growing rapidly. We are the fastest growing community in the state.

From opposition, and with the assistance of the federal Liberal government, we were able to deliver the Bald Hills interchange, the largest infrastructure investment in the district for a generation. Such an investment was not made because we were a marginal seat. It was made because a majority federal government was able to see through its program of works and following the patient, determined and diligent advocacy of the former member, Mr Mark Goldsworthy.

I am also pleased that we have made a number of significant commitments to improve my community, including opening a Service SA office in Mount Barker, upgrading the Nairne intersection, funding the 24-hour doctor service at the Mount Barker hospital and working with the Women's and Children's Health Network to enhance paediatric services. We are also committed to cutting the ESL, capping council rates and reducing power costs—a platform that we welcomed in my electorate and elsewhere.

Of substantial concern to my electorate is the present condition of local infrastructure, including roads. We need to invest in infrastructure in the Hills and Fleurieu growth corridor. Our Royalties for Regions plan is a substantial commitment to divert 30 per cent of state mining royalties into a special purpose roads and infrastructure fund over a decade. Long-term planning of this type is welcome in Kavel and throughout rural and regional South Australia.

In this election, we have lost from the upper house a great advocate for the rights and needs of disabled people and their carers. Kelly Vincent was not a member of my party; nevertheless, I have great respect for her, her party and also for her candidate in Kavel, Cristina Rodert. I mentioned that my stepmum has multiple sclerosis. She uses a wheelchair. Occasionally, she loses her sight. My dad, after training as an English teacher, later worked as a special needs teacher. My uncle was a disability care coordinator. Perhaps as a result, and also after working in my electorate, I understand the need to be a strong advocate for the rights and needs of disabled constituents, and I intend to be. I believe it is the proper role of government to use its resources to help those genuinely in need.

As well, I bring to this house a personal story and a prayer for change. My godbrother committed suicide at 18. Many other young men in my community commit suicide. I have known several others, including a schoolfriend whose memory is very dear to me. It is not only young men, but it seems it often is. The Premier has acted early on his commitment to preventative health and wellbeing with the establishment of the Premier's Council on Suicide Prevention. It is an unhappy fact that more people in South Australia take their own lives each year than die on our roads. South Australia's suicide rate exceeds the national average.

One of the most practical ways I can address this issue as a local member is to speak widely about suicide prevention in my community. I encourage other community leaders to do likewise. We need to make plain to young men in country South Australia—and to all young people—that they are deeply valued by their communities and that, whatever hardship or anguish befalls them, the value of their own lives is incalculable. I encourage the government to continue to fund practical help. On these and other issues, I hope to find common ground with members of the opposition.

I say in this place, too, that, though it is now fashionable to embrace hyperpartisanship, I have never been very fashionable, and I look forward, as a result, to working with opposition members wherever possible. I am, of course, a member of the Liberal Party. The philosophical heritage of our party is substantial. It draws on some of the most impressive intellectual movements of the 20th century: liberalism and conservatism.

I am a classical Liberal. Classical Liberals jealously protect individual freedom, tolerance, markets, the rule of law and an autonomous civil society. Departure from these ideas, while on occasion seductive, ultimately diminishes the standing of any Liberal democracy. I believe, too, the best way to ensure the ongoing relevance of our party is to reflect more deeply on the value of these principles in crafting new solutions for the problems of our state.

As you know, Mr Speaker, being a classical Liberal also comes with its drawbacks. As P.J. O'Rourke famously said:

One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding someone to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it is remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license.

Further and more seriously, I have been alarmed at times by the readiness of many parliaments to compromise principle, reason and science for expediency.

As a solicitor, working on occasion to defend people's very real liberties from encroachment by the state, long-established principles of English and Australian law are the only thing I have been able to fall back on. In this context, I was taught by a chief justice that, as a general rule, people who are popular or powerful or who enjoy the support of the majority either do not need or do not have any difficulty in securing the protection of the law. The people who need that protection are the weak, the friendless, the people who are accused of crime or other disgraceful conduct, people who can appeal only to the law to protect and vindicate their rights.

On our best days we are the party that defends the rights of individuals against the state and against injustice and inequity wherever it lies protected, and on every day we stand for something else: the rejection of the class logic that our opponents are captive to. In an age when, as the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP has remarked, people increasingly refuse to be bound by outdated concepts or preconceptions about how they fit into society or where they sit in the pecking order of the economy, socioeconomic mobility is the new normal.

When tradies can earn more than lawyers, millennials change career every few years, and with women taking on more than 60 per cent of all new jobs, we are seeing a realignment of the challenges and opportunities available to every person in every community. There is no class logic left in politics and our politics can, I hope, be much nobler as a consequence of that.

Finally, I record in this place my gratitude to the people who have done more for me than I can adequately acknowledge: my campaign manager, the Kavel campaign executive, members of the Young Liberal movement who gave to me much more than I could have reasonably expected, serving and retired parliamentary members, my parents, Jen's parents and the volunteer members of my party who have worked so hard to ensure our success.

I know that you have not placed me here so that I can make a statement of your names. Instead, and adopting for myself the sentiments of the Hon. Christian Porter MP, rest assured that every late night and early morning in service of Kavel is also meant as a small repayment of the substantial debt that I owe to you all. To Jen, your love and kindness has made all the difference. Mr Speaker, thank you for your indulgence. I understand that I am the last of the maiden speakers from my party in this parliament.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the member for Wright. I note that it is his maiden speech, and I ask that all members apply the appropriate courtesies. Thank you.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (16:49): I, too, rise to support the motion before the house and, in doing so, thank His Excellency the Governor, the Hon. Hieu Van Le, for opening parliament nearly two weeks ago now. I acknowledge that this land is Kaurna land, and I pay my respects to the elders past and present. I would also like to thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, on taking your office. I am sure this 54th parliament will be in very safe hands. Can I also congratulate the member for Dunstan on becoming the 46th Premier of the state. To my fellow class of 2018—the member for Playford, the member for Badcoe and, of course, the member for Croydon on this side, and the 11 new members opposite—congratulations, and I look forward to working with you all.

There being a disturbance in the gallery:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Wright, if I can just interrupt. People in the gallery, please remove yourselves quietly while the debate is occurring. Thank you.

Mr BOYER: My great-great-grandfather William Blair arrived in Adelaide from Scotland in the 1840s. I do not know a great deal about his circumstances, but I assume that he, like so many others, was desperately seeking a better life. Many others here today have shared similar stories of immigrant families seeking opportunity that was denied them in their land of birth, making a tentative, faltering beginning in this young country, perhaps coming perilously close to disaster, but persisting and, as William did, finding a degree of economic success and security and, even more important, a sense of belonging and place.

When I arrived here from Victoria in 2011 to work for then minister Jennifer Rankine, while it would be putting too fine a point on it to say that it was a Blair family homecoming, the significance of the fact that, in some way, part of my family had come full circle was not lost on me, nor was the realisation of the enormous opportunity that South Australia has bestowed upon me, first as a member of a vibrant, progressive community and, second, for the incredible privilege of representing the people of Wright in this place.

Adelaide's north-east has a reputation for being a great place in which to raise a family, and that is certainly the experience of my wife, Catherine, and me. We spend a lot of time in the parks and playgrounds with our three young daughters: Evelyn, four years of age, and twins, Billie and Rose, who are two. I know that many of the residents in my electorate chose to live there for that very reason. But there is nothing like doorknocking in 40° heat for days on end to focus one's thoughts and contemplate: why am I doing this? The question inevitably led me to consider the things in life that I value, the path I have taken in acquiring those values and the people who were instrumental in instilling in me some very important lessons in life.

I grew up on the family farm in south-west Victoria in a small coastal town called Narrawong, an hour from Mount Gambier, where I played a lot of my junior football. In many ways, it was an idyllic childhood surrounded by an extended family in a very beautiful part of the world but, as anyone associated with farming will know, it has its challenges, and success or failure is often determined by the strength of the character of the farmers. I know what it is like to spend days sweltering in a shearing shed; what it is like when farmers are offered what amounts to a fraction of the cost of production for their stock, and there is no option but to accept because there is no feed left; what it is like when the rain does not come, and dwindling hay supplies have to be rationed among starving cattle.

But I have also seen the camaraderie and togetherness when people work together to achieve worthwhile things. I have seen the heroic persistence of people like my grandparents, Bill and Maggie Boyer, who married at the height of the Depression, lived in a tent for many months while they built a home, cleared 60 acres of bush by hand—no machinery, just an axe and a draught horse—went on to have 11 kids, never had two bob to rub together, but always considered themselves lucky. Not once did I ever hear my grandparents complain.

That was one side of my childhood; the other was vastly different. Every holiday, we would visit my maternal grandparents, Ken and Peg Ingram, in Canberra, where my mother grew up. Mum's dad had been principal parliamentary reporter to the federal government. In that role, he sat beside 13 prime ministers, from Lyons to Fraser, and recorded what they said. He was an erudite man whose opinion was always considered and balanced.

Ken came to Australia with his parents from Scotland in 1926 and settled in Canberra. He went to school with Gough Whitlam. In fact, they wrote school plays together. When grandpa died in 1999, I answered the phone for my grandmother and heard the voice of Gough calling to offer his condolences on the passing of my grandfather. At 5pm each evening, my grandparents in Canberra would be sitting down to a whisky and biscuits and cheese.

An honourable member: Hear, hear!

Mr BOYER: Hear, hear, indeed! This ritual often included friends who had dropped in for a visit. I found out later in life that these friends included High Court judges and several who had served in senior Public Service or diplomatic roles in Canberra. Meanwhile, at 5pm in Narrawong, my other grandparents would be feeding the chooks and horses and bringing in the cows for milking.

As you can see, their worlds were vastly different but, as I have grown older and looked back at those days, I have realised that, in terms of values, my grandparents were incredibly similar, perhaps because they all lived through a Depression and a world war in which both grandfathers lost a dear brother. There was never any feeling of entitlement, just a quiet acknowledgement that they were fortunate to live in a free country and that not to do your allotted job to the best of your ability would be an insult to the memory of those people who sacrificed their lives to achieve it.

Perhaps it was in Canberra where I developed an appreciation that politics, with all its failings, can change people's lives for the better, but it was on the farm in Narrawong where I began to form my opinions, especially the importance of those who work to produce the things we need, and the self-respect and dignity that come with having a secure job that puts the spuds on the table, as the old saying goes. From both sets of grandparents I have learned the value of hard work and persistence, even when the odds are stacked against you, and how being part of a team is not only more productive but also an enriching experience.

But most important of all was the focus on honesty and integrity. In this regard, there was no room for compromise in any aspect of my upbringing. In Canberra, it was expressed via articulate discussion and debate. On the farm, it was a blunt proclamation that sat above the fireplace: 'If a man is not honest, he is not a man at all.' These values were certainly instilled in my parents. They informed not only the careers they chose but also the way they went about their work.

As the 11th child in his family, my father readily acknowledges that he had significantly more educational opportunities than his brothers and sisters. He became a teacher of English and history and taught in public schools for almost 45 years. He never left the classroom despite the lure of more money in leadership or administrative roles. When you start teaching at the tender age of 21 in a country town, it is not long before you are teaching the offspring of past pupils. By the time dad finished at Portland Secondary College, he was teaching the grandchildren of some of his earlier students.

As a teacher of history, dad made sure that my brother, Campbell, and I were conscious of the fact that the land on which our family had farmed had a long and different past from the mere dot in time that represents white occupation, that this continent had in many cases been violently ripped from its traditional owners, and that this disquieting historical truth is something that our nation is yet to fully acknowledge and reconcile.

Despite the fact that we lived in a traditionally conservative place and in an area known as the birthplace of white Victoria, the history I was taught was not only of the trials, tribulations and pioneering spirit of white settlers but it was also one of learning that, from 1834 onwards, it was a frontier marked by many atrocities committed against the Gunditjmara people. Dad taught us to be fiercely proud of our country but not to harbour chauvinism and ignore wrongs not yet put right that can easily lead to prejudice and injustice.

My brother, Campbell, and I were lucky enough to have mum at home with us until I was in grade 6. The older I get, the more I appreciate just how fortunate I was. When she re-entered the paid workforce, she worked for the local council coordinating rural respite care for carers of people with a disability. Mum took immense pride in her job and rightly so. She became a friend to many of her clients and, as was the case with dad, would be stopped in the street and thanked. Again, seeing up close the sincerity with which these people who had been dealt such a tough hand in life thanked my mother showed me the real personal satisfaction that one can gain from a role or a career in community service.

It was a proud day for my family when I was accepted into arts and law at Monash University. They were great years, too, with many fond memories, too many to mention, but the one that stands out the most of course is meeting my wife, Catherine, in our first year. She was from a small family farm as well, the youngest of seven children. I am proud to have her in the gallery with her parents, Ray and Maureen, who have put aside their distrust of all the commies in the Labor Party to love me like a son.

There are a couple of notable experiences during these university years that had a real impact on my world view. I volunteered my time, as part of my studies, to help at both the Springvale Monash Legal Service and the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault. These were eye-opening experiences. There was a drop-in service where law students provided free legal advice and, even though my advice was free, I am not sure I would describe it as good value.

My first client was a sex worker, who had been in a consensual ménage à trois that had, at some point during the 72-hour assignation, become non-consensual. The client took me through the events in graphic detail for about 45 minutes before abruptly stopping and asking if I had any questions. I think I mumbled something about being from the country. The experience certainly opened my eyes to the need for an affordable legal system. Session after session, I had desperate clients come to me seeking legal advice regarding matters that should not have come across the desk of a fourth-year law student but, instead, an experienced solicitor.

It is not when people are loudly complaining about the cost of accessing our legal system that we should panic: it is when they complain no more because they have simply given up on seeking its assistance. I honestly fear that we are now at that point. That said, my articled clerkship was spent at a small suburban firm in Footscray that practised in a few areas of law, but notably in personal injury, on a no-win no-fee basis. Here, I got to see our firm provide excellent legal representation to many migrants who barely spoke a word of English who had suffered debilitating injuries at work.

I also got to see up close the importance of a strong union. To say that these workers were vulnerable would be a gross understatement. They did not speak English, nor did the few family members they had living near them. Their knowledge of their rights in the workplace was completely non-existent, and their trust in the legal system, based upon experiences they had had in their country of birth, was zero.

I grew up in a very pro union household. Both my parents were proud members of their respective unions for their entire working lives. Seeing how threadbare the safety net was for many low-paid workers crystallised for me why a strong union movement is just as important today as it ever has been. While those opposite enjoy nothing more than to castigate the parliamentary Labor Party for its affiliation with unions, as someone who has worked in that parliamentary party I have seen the role they continue to play in tethering us to the real world. Without that affiliation, we would be forever lost in the bubble that is politics and disassociated from the priorities of everyday Australians.

As I walked from door to door in the beautiful district of Wright, sometimes pausing to admire the view out to the Adelaide Hills or down across the Plains to the gulf, I had time to reflect on those values I had witnessed and learned in my upbringing and how they resonated in the many conversations I had with people each day. It would be of no surprise that the most common sentiment was to do with the issues of trust, honesty and transparency, at times expressed in anger and confrontation but more often resolutely respectful. There was certainly no escaping the depth of feeling about things people perceived as the failings of government.

There was, though, a collective appreciation for what we have here in this state, not just for the beauty of our city and the regions but for the strength and resilience of our community and what has been achieved by setting aside differences and working together. In Wright, the examples of this are too numerous to mention—from the many sporting clubs, to the Wynn Vale Community Garden, to the Salisbury SES, of which I am a proud member. There is no shortage of collective will and talent to build an already thriving community into an even stronger one.

On the other hand, I did notice a tempering of the optimism of many I spoke with and a noticeable disquiet about what the future holds—perhaps even some grieving for what has been lost. All of us here in this place must have an empathetic ear for the concerns of those parents who fret about their children having a secure job. There is no doubt in my mind that this is not an easy matter to solve and that it will require more than clever slogans and a one-sided rearrangement of trading hours. It will require the type of creative, innovative and courageous approach that characterised the Weatherill government, of which I will always be proud to have played a small part.

It should be noted that the electorate of Wright now includes the suburb of Salisbury South, which brings with it many small to medium-sized businesses and also some iconic South Australian enterprises, including RM Williams and Bickford's. I will certainly be doing all I can to support those industries to grow and provide secure employment for more South Australian workers. While I am talking about grieving for what has been lost, let me sound a word of warning about growth.

As one who studied and worked in Melbourne and watched it balloon into the almost unrecognisable metropolis that it is today, I saw firsthand the price that was paid for that growth. The price was the loss of ease of movement and affordability for which Melbourne was once renowned. Such is the sprawl and expensive housing in Melbourne today that any of those celebrated attractions made possible by population growth are quite simply out of reach of Melburnians.

We must decide collectively what we are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of growth. Of course, we want the big attractions—the sporting, cultural and arts events that Melbourne and Sydney have—but are we willing to trade our precious livability for them? When we engage in one of these ubiquitous debates about how Adelaide can attract the same events that Melbourne and Sydney currently enjoy, we must remember this: there was no secret formula or stroke of policy genius that brought those events to the Eastern States. Quite simply, it was a critical mass of population.

Years and years of population growth provided the critical mass needed to support all those events, large and small. It is population growth that attracted the high-end retail stores. It is population growth that attracted the luxury hotels. However, years of unchecked population growth brought other things too: amplified housing density, urban sprawl, permanently gridlocked traffic and an exponential increase in housing prices. It is the last point that I would like to dwell on, momentarily. We often talk about relative housing affordability between the states, but let's compare like with like.

Modbury Heights in the seat of Wright is some 18 kilometres away from this place. Today, the median house price in Modbury Heights is $387,000. Eltham, a similarly leafy part of Melbourne's north-east, is 26 kilometres away from the CBD. Today, the median house price in Eltham is $930,000. I am sure that all in this chamber would agree that cost of living was a key issue at the last election, and it will be a key issue for many elections to come. With the notable exception of wage growth and employment, is there a more important cost-of-living measure than housing affordability?

It is time we let go of the inferiority complex and acknowledge that what we have now in South Australia is actually a truly remarkable balance of livability and affordability and the kind of cosmopolitan living we have traditionally associated with bigger cities. The new Adelaide Oval, the redeveloped Riverbank Precinct, the revitalised CBD and the huge investment the Labor government made in public transport have transformed Adelaide.

So often I have heard people bemoan the loss of our young people across the border, and I, too, want to do whatever I can to ensure that South Australia is a place where our young people want to stay. However, at the same time, I know there are many, like my wife and I, who have come to this great state from Victoria because of the fantastic opportunities that it offers people, particularly for young families like our own. We are now proud and parochial South Australians, and I relish the opportunity to tell my friends in Victoria—who invariably complain about the cost of a house, the terrible traffic and the fickle weather—that they should move to South Australia.

But we must always work to make things better, and my years as a staffer in the Rann and Weatherill governments were spent trying to do precisely that. My time as minister Rankine's chief of staff was nothing if not eventful. Just seven months after beginning in the role, the member for Cheltenham became premier and we moved out of the child protection, disability and housing portfolios into community safety. Fourteen months later, amidst the Debelle royal commission, we were moved into the education and child development portfolio and regained child protection.

It was an unrelenting year, and Jennifer and her staff were tested in every way imaginable, but there were some proud moments, too—being a part of the negotiations with the commonwealth government to sign up to the historic Gonski agreement and watching as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the member for Cheltenham made South Australia a signatory to that agreement. After the euphoria of the 2014 election win, we hoped for some clean air to continue the reforms outlined in the Debelle royal commission, but it was not to be.

I can still remember as clearly as if it were yesterday being told that a government carer had been arrested for sexually abusing children in state care. The 12 months that followed affected us all in lasting ways. This occurred across the two years in which my three daughters were born. Coming home from days spent reading the nightmarish details of what Shannon McCoole had done to children—children the same age as my own—brought everything into very sharp focus for me. But there is no place for self-pity in this story. Nothing we went through could begin to compare with what those children and families endured. The only solace one can find is that, in the hope that from all the changes that have been made since, we make sure that this never happens again.

To the member for Cheltenham and his Chief of Staff, Daniel Romeo, who is here today, to work in your office for almost three years was a privilege. I was particularly proud to play a role in the formation of our Building Better Schools policy, which if honoured by the new government will have a positive impact on generations of students to come.

So, too, was I proud to play a role in legislative changes that enabled same-sex couples to access IVF and surrogacy and to register their relationships and adopt, and I acknowledge those opposite whose support made this possible. More recently, I worked on getting agreement for a set of industrial relations election commitments of which the whole labour movement could be proud.

The more things change the more they stay the same, and that is certainly true of political campaigning. We live in an age of amazing technology. The prevalence of social media is breathtaking, and there is no doubt that people consume news and information in a manner vastly different from the way they have in years gone by. But it is for this reason that personal engagement with constituents is actually more important now than it ever has been, and in that sense the Labor Party's campaign for the seat of Wright was a very old-fashioned one indeed.

Collectively, we knocked on 20,000 doors and made 7,500 phone calls. This required a very loyal and hardworking team, who gave up hundreds and hundreds of hours of their own time, often family time, to volunteer. We were a well-oiled machine and relished the opportunity to prove our commitment to the task by doorknocking on all those cold, wet winter days and scorching summer days, too, when I learned the true value of bike shorts and talcum powder.

I must say that I am relieved that I have the opportunity now to thank my team as the member for Wright. To my campaign manager, Andrew Love, Josh Weidenbach, Kristianne Foreman, Martin Foreman, Lia Lawrie, Bia Delaney, Tom Mooney, Michael Hicks, Joni Carthew, Matthew Hillard, the member for Makin (Tony Zappia, who is also here today), Karen Grogan, Tom Kenyon, the member for Ramsay, James Peikert, Alycia, Bec, Leighton, Tahlia and Candice, I owe you all a debt of gratitude that I can never fully repay. This is especially true if one considers that my reward for the team's effort is a seat in this place, but for some of my volunteers who worked for the previous government their reward has been unemployment.

And there are others who have supported my family and me from the very first day I arrived in South Australia, none more so than the previous member for Wright, Jennifer Rankine. Where do I start with my gratitude? Thank you for the opportunity to work for you through the hardest but most rewarding portfolios of government. Thank you for the personal support you have given me, the mentorship, the opportunities to see our beautiful state but, more than all those things, thank you for the support that you have given Cath and my three daughters.

Thank you also to Michael Atkinson, who has taught me much about South Australian history and whose commitment to one-on-one contact with his constituents I will try to emulate, although I suspect it will never be matched. I would like to offer my heartfelt thankyou to Kyam Maher in the other place. Kyam has been a loyal mate from my very first day in South Australia, and that mateship has extended to his wife, Carmel, and three kids. I would not be where I am without Kyam's advice and support, but perhaps the biggest opportunity he has given me is a place in what could only be described as Adelaide's premier Tuesday night C-grade amateur basketball side, the Desert Dogs.

I would also like to congratulate the new deputy leader of the South Australian Labor Party, the member for Port Adelaide. She is a constant reminder to me that intelligence, respectful discourse and a steady hand can still achieve things in politics. Along with the new leader of the party, the member for Croydon I am excited about the future and it is very uplifting to join a team that has so uniformly endorsed its leaders.

There are other long-time friends of both me and my family I would like to acknowledge today. Mick and Janice Cusick, Andrew Carter, Claude and Jeannette Long, Jos Mazel and Jane Covernton, Cheyne and Anne-Marie Rich, Joe Szakacs, Simmone Reid and Ben Whitlock, Chris Burford and Lucy Wozniak and Jarrad and Lucy Pilkington, I do not take your support for granted, and I sincerely hope that this is just the start of many years working together to deliver a progressive Labor government for South Australia.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank Dave Gray from United Voice, who showed enormous faith in me and entrusted me with the task of holding the seat of Wright. I should not forget to thank Joe Helper and Tony White, who gave me my very first job working with the Australian Labor Party, and all my loyal friends in the sub-branches of Wright, Portland and Ripon, who have been with me for many years.

I acknowledged earlier some people who have been friends to me since moving to South Australia, and none more so than Nina and Gus Gerace. Nina took Cath and I under her wing and has always been there when we needed her. She is the closest thing we have to family here in Adelaide.

To my family, who have cheered me on from afar: my aunt Margaret Ingram, who has been teaching me about politics from the day I was born; my aunt Kate, who is just shy of 80 but who drove over from Portland and stood all day on polling booths to support me; and the whole Kleinitz clan, whom I love dearly. To my parents, who have never, not once, let me down. I know that having devoted their working lives to helping others they would tell me that all I have achieved to this point is an opportunity, an opportunity to help others who are less fortunate than me.

Finally, to my wife, Catherine Rose, whom I first met when I was 19 and who has been my partner for 17 years. Her belief in me regularly dwarfs my own, and without it I would be lost. I asked far more of Cath than was fair. With three kids under three and heading into a marginal seat campaign, it would not have been unreasonable for her to have resented me; instead, I got nothing but love, support and motivation.

I did not grow up in a religious household. I know that my mother, particularly, was cognisant of this and would sometimes lament not providing us with a guiding set of morals. Dad would ably fill this void. An avid reader and part-time poet, he often recited Shakespeare, Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Lewis Carroll and Robert Frost. However, there was a particular stanza by one bush balladeer that has followed me around.

In my first job working for the Australian Labor Party, I would walk past his statue on Spring Street every day, and on family trips to Mount Gambier we would read the obelisk at Blue Lake that told of his famous jump there on horseback. Now I find myself in the South Australian parliament where he served more than 150 years ago, so I give the last word to Adam Lindsay Gordon and the lines from his poem Ye Wearie Wayfarer that have served me so well for so long:

Question not, but live and labour

Till yon goal be won,

Helping every feeble neighbour,

Seeking help from none;

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone,

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I ask the minister to begin, I ask those people leaving the gallery to please do so quietly.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (17:18): It gives me great pleasure to be able to rise today to give, I guess, my first significant speech in my role as the state's Minister for Environment and Water and to do that through my response to the Governor's address to parliament here in South Australia a couple of weeks ago.

The Governor is someone I have the utmost respect for. He is a man who has given a significant amount of service to South Australia and he is someone I personally admire. It has been a great thing for me to see him flourish in his role as Governor. He was not the Governor when I was first elected to this place, but he has moved from Lieutenant Governor to the governorship of this state and he has done so with great flourish. To be able to work alongside him in service of the state is a great honour. I would like to pay tribute to our Governor and his wife, Mrs Le, and their continued service to the state. Whether that be long or short, I am sure that it will be of great calibre.

My re-election to this house is certainly not something that I will ever take or have ever taken for granted. I was unsure whether I would be re-elected on 17 March 2018. I was one of those people who had a very substantial change to the electoral boundaries of my seat following the last redistribution. I thank the member for Heysen for his involvement in that. It certainly went a long way to delivering government to the Liberal Party, but it made my life much harder in terms of my re-election, with a 40 per cent change to my seat, the abolition of the seat of Bright and its replacement with the new seat of Black—very much a seat cemented in the southern suburbs as opposed to the previous seat of Bright, which was more a south-western suburban seat.

That resulted in a dramatic demographic change and a winding back of the margin that I had in the seat of Bright of 3.3 per cent. My margin went back to 2.3 per cent on the 47 boundaries, but, of course, on a fifty-fifty boundary that seat was wound back to being a Labor seat by a handful of votes shifted to the Labor side of the pendulum. So I was given a significant challenge in winning the new seat of Black. While I embraced that challenge, and embraced it with the support of a band of volunteers locally, it was a challenge that I was not sure that I would necessarily be able to overcome.

The result, however, was substantially in my favour on election day, and I am incredibly grateful to the electors of the seat of Black for putting their faith in me for another four years. The result, a 6.2 per cent primary swing, was the largest to a Liberal candidate or member of parliament and it has been something that hugely humbled me. Becoming the state's Minister for Environment and Water, and seeing the Liberal Party form government for the first time in 16 years, was a great thing, but for me, personally, getting re-elected to the new seat of Black and having that overwhelming endorsement in the community that I have called home for the last 16 years actually surpasses becoming a minister or seeing the Liberal Party form government. It is with a sense of great humility and gratefulness that I take on the role as the member for Black.

The seat of Black stretches along Adelaide's coastline from the suburb of Seacliff in the north, through Kingston Park and Marino, through to Hallett Cove in the south. It then moves inland, covering the suburbs of Sheidow Park, Trott Park and O'Halloran Hill and then comes back down the hill through Darlington and across what I would describe as the escarpment suburbs, which are south of Seacombe Road, through Seacombe Heights, Seaview Downs and Seacliff Park.

The electorate is very much middle Australia, making up a community that would probably be described electorally as being comprised of Howard's battlers: people whose concentration and motivation is very much focused on paying off the mortgage, being able to afford the bills, trying to get kids through a decent school and, hopefully, having a bit of money left over to put some aside or have a holiday once a year. It is very much a suburban electorate and an aspirational electorate, comprised of people who are keen to get ahead and see their kids and grandkids get ahead, and who are loyal to South Australia and loyal to the concept of community and not wanting to worry about government.

Very few people in my electorate are passionate about politics or passionate about government. They are keen to be able to get on with their lives and let government get on with its work. I am hopeful that our government will create an environment that lets them do that, a no-nonsense government, a simplified government that gets out of the way of community, gets out of the way of individuals and lets them survive and thrive but provides a safety net to catch those who cannot catch themselves.

That is my political philosophy. That is the sort of government I want to be part of and that is the sort of government that I think the vast majority of people in my electorate want, no matter who they voted for on election day. That is the character of my electorate. I hope that I reflect that character, and I strongly believe that this government is the sort of government that can deliver that going forward.

In the state election, I was confronted with several opponents. My main opponent was a man called Randall Wilson. Today I want to pay tribute to Mr Wilson for executing his campaign with integrity and decency. Mr Wilson was largely unknown in the electorate but went about his work with a quiet resilience, and my interactions with him, though few and far between, were respectful and wholly decent.

I thank Mr Wilson for his contribution to the political process in putting his hand up for the candidacy of the new seat of Black. While the result did not go his way on election day, I congratulate him for taking part in the process. I think democracy is a great thing and the system of government that we have here in South Australia is one that is to be substantially envied, so I thank Mr Wilson.

I also thank my other opponents on election day: the Greens, the Dignity Party, the Australian Conservatives and the Independent candidate who stood. I was not someone who had a challenge from Nick Xenophon's party, SA-Best. Mine was one of only 11 seats that did not have that particular complication thrust upon them, and I congratulate the members in the 36 seats who had that challenge on their achievements, whatever side of the house they were on, in the midst of that added complexity.

It is a complexity which I do not think is particularly good for democracy. I think the populism that was being offered by Mr Xenophon and his candidates was not what we need in South Australia. I do not think it leads to good government, and I do not think that South Australia would have benefited from a government of either political persuasion where the balance of power was held by Mr Xenophon. It would have diminished good policy, it would have diminished reform in this state, and I think both major parties are better off with Mr Xenophon not holding the balance of power in the lower house.

Of course, he has two members of parliament in the Legislative Council. They join a quite significant crossbench of people who this government will respectfully work with, as well as working with the Independent members of the lower house as well, who have been rightfully elected and should be respected and worked alongside.

In reflecting on my local election, I want to pay tribute to a number of people who have helped and to put their names onto the record. I think this is an opportunity to celebrate their involvement. Some of them did so for political reasons, others were involved because of particular relationships they had with me and/or agreed with a particular stance that I was taking to the election.

I want to thank my booth captains, in particular Meg MacKenzie at Hallett Cove South Primary School. Meg, who works for me, managed to achieve our 10 per cent plus primary swing in Hallett Cove South, and that was a particular achievement that I am sure her team on the day contributed to. Brenda Calder at Hallett Cove central and Kaye Gaskin at Hallett Cove east both managed to muster swings above 9 per cent in the primary vote. Steve Minnikin and Eleisha Rogers, who came down from Queensland to participate in the election, looked after the Sheidow Park booth for me, and I thank them for their involvement.

Dee and James Brine looked after Sheidow Park South; Jody Rohrlach in Happy Valley; Raelene Zanetti and Zoe Baker in Seaview Downs; Kinda Tabaa Snyder in Seacliff; James March in Marino; and Mitchell Powell and Blake Derer in Seaview High School—all these people coming together to run those booths together on the day. Anyone who knows what it is like to run a campaign knows that those roles are absolutely critical. I want to thank those people in particular for getting up early, dressing the booths the night before and providing enthusiasm throughout the day of the election.

I also want to make mention of some notable people who particularly helped on election day through the hours that they put in and the enthusiasm that they delivered: Haidee Tucker, Thomas Ogley, Anthony Daly, Paul and Deana Shand, Brian and Mia Taylor, in particular. I also want to thank publicly again—as I did in my maiden speech in the last term—the role played by Fran Southern on my team. Fran is four years older now but no less significant in terms of her contribution to the local branch of the Liberal Party and in particular the Marino community where she lives. Fran is the matriarch of Marino. She is someone I look up to who provides immense support to me and who I would like to publicly thank for her contribution.

I also want to mention three people who helped in the lead-up to the election and who have sadly passed away since the election or in the months immediately prior to the election, being Ted and Ronnie Scov, a husband-and-wife team who passed away within weeks of each other, and Elizabeth Wesson, who passed away a fortnight ago. They were three Marino residents who were very significant supports to me and my team over an extended period of time. They will be greatly missed not only by me and the Liberal Party locally but also by the Marino and Kingston Park communities that they loyally served for many decades.

I would like to put on record my heartfelt thanks to my mum, who is no doubt my number one supporter. She is no fan of politics. She does not understand why I am doing this job, yet she turns up, she letterboxes when we need her, and she is a continual support to me. When we moved to Hallett Cove from rural Scotland in 2002, never did she think that her eldest son would end up representing the community that we moved to in state parliament a mere 11 years later. I have no doubt she is immensely proud but also immensely confused by how this has happened. Her support is endless, and it was great to be able to celebrate her on Sunday on Mother's Day. I am sure many of us had the opportunity to celebrate our mothers and the contribution that they make to our lives.

I would like to thank my staff for their role, in particular James March and Lauren Deed, for their contribution to my electorate office over recent years. I would also like to thank Ruth van den Brink for her historic support. She is now working for the Premier but previously worked in my office. Most importantly, I would like to thank Meg MacKenzie, who has been an absolute stalwart in my office, an anchor in the Bright community and now the Black community, and who kept on encouraging me to rock up on a Saturday afternoon and keep on doorknocking.

Meg is a country girl from Bordertown, and she exemplifies all the qualities that people who are from the country have. She drives up from Kanmantoo to Brighton every day, which is quite a drive, to keep on contributing to the electorate office in the new electorate of Black. I certainly would have been unable to achieve my election result on 17 March without Meg's tireless contribution to the cause.

Within the Liberal Party more generally, I want to thank Alex May and David Franchitto for their friendship. They are, in many ways, colleagues who have transitioned to friends and I greatly appreciate their support. It is David's birthday today so I would like to wish him a very happy birthday on the public record, which I am sure he will hate because he probably thinks that he is one of those staff members who should be seen and not heard. However, his contribution to keeping me sane, cheering me up and just being a sounding board has been particularly valuable to me over the last few years.

I would like to pay tribute to members who are no longer in this chamber who retired at the last election. At the close of the last parliament, I did not have an opportunity to specifically name them, but I want to pay tribute to Isobel Redmond, Michael Pengilly, Mitch Williams, Steven Griffiths, Duncan McFetridge and, in particular, Mark Goldsworthy for their contribution to the state. If you added up their combined service to this state—and I have not done that—I am sure it reaches close to 100 years, if not more, through their contribution through parliamentary service.

In particular, Mark Goldsworthy has been a mentor and friend of mine who has kept me going in very tough times. We have had lots of good chats and ridiculous conversations along the way. It was great to see Mark here today supporting the new member for Kavel. I will always be grateful for Mark's immense personal support for me.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank and welcome the new members of our parliament. We have a number of new members in this house on both sides of parliament and, in many cases, they are people with whom I have worked along the way. I have worked with some more than others, largely due to geography. In particular, I have worked very closely, in a geographical sense, with the member for Morphett and the member for Colton over the last few months since they became candidates. I also want to welcome and thank the members for Narungga, Heysen, Kavel, King, Newland, MacKillop, Finniss and Davenport for their contributions.

We are a diverse team on this side of the house. The maiden speeches have been an absolute joy to listen to, with the diversity of the various backgrounds and the various ways people have journeyed to this place. It is an exciting team to be part of. I think that immense diversity will sustain the energy and longevity of the new government. It has been fantastic to hear those maiden speeches in recent days.

I want to pay particular tribute though to the new member for Elder, who is one of my closest friends. We described ourselves as 'council besties' when we served on Marion council together. It has been very sad for me not to have her around for the last four years. We had to have a break, but we are reunited again. I am so excited by her contribution not only as the member for Elder in the southern suburbs but also as the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence. I think her contribution to this house will be immense.

I think what happened to her in the 2014 election is a stain on democracy in this state and a lasting stain on the Labor Party, which was found to be overtly racist. A deeply inappropriate and unjustified catalogue of disgraceful action was executed by the Labor Party during the 2014 election, and it was not just that single brochure that was dropped into that electorate as far more happened. The member for Elder was harassed on a regular basis by the previous member for Elder and her husband. It was a disgusting thing to watch. It should never be justified and it should go down in history as one of the great sins of this parliament. For the Labor Party to continually justify that and not take responsibility for that disgraceful behaviour is lamentable.

One of the greatest things about the member for Elder joining me, aside from renewing our friendship, is the removal of the previous member for Elder from this house. She was unworthy to be a member of this parliament. I do not mind saying that. I will say it loudly and I will say it proudly. Her behaviour over an extended period of time, executed with the falseness of an assassin's smile, was absolutely horrendous.

I have heard rumours that she may pop up and make an attempt to be the mayor of Holdfast Bay. I can tell you that I will be doing everything I can in my power to stop that from happening because that woman must never enter public life in South Australia again. I have seen firsthand the damage that she and her campaign did to someone for whom I have immense respect, and that must not occur. I am happy to say that and put that on the public record.

We have a great opportunity as members of parliament to shape this state's future from both sides of parliament and across the political spectrum. Since becoming the state's Minister for Environment, I have been overcome in many ways by the privilege that it is to serve and the influence that I have at my fingertips as a minister and as a local member well. I hope that in the coming months and years I can execute that responsibility respectfully and honourably. I hope that I can do it in a way that achieves consensus and brings people in my community and in the broader South Australian community along on the journey.

One of the great challenges of modern politics, with the 24-hour media cycle and the ever-present drive of social media, is that it can be very hard to bring people along on a journey of change without a sense of hysteria quickly being whipped up as we need to feed that 24-hour media cycle. I hope that I can work within those challenging boundaries to bring South Australians along on a journey of change.

The opportunity presented by being able to sit on this side of the house and to be a minister of the Crown is immense, but to whom much is given much is expected. I sincerely hope that through my own skills, the skills of my colleagues and the support that we have around us in terms of the broader Public Service and those who provide advice to us that we can deliver real reform in South Australia and that we can create a new chapter of our state's history that delivers growth, delivers prosperity, delivers sustainability and delivers social change and social justice in this state.

I closed my maiden speech in May 2014 with a very short quote from John Smith, the unifying Scottish Labour leader who led Labour at Westminster from 1992 to 1994. The night before he died of a heart attack at the age of 55 while still opposition leader—he was on a trajectory to be Britain's Prime Minister; he would have been but for his premature death—he spoke at a public meeting where he pitched to the audience that he was about service. He said to the audience: 'The opportunity to serve our country—that is all we ask'. I paraphrase, as I did in my maiden speech: the opportunity to serve our state is all I ask.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (17:44): Thank you, Deputy Speaker, and I congratulate you on your role. I also congratulate the Speaker, whilst he is not in the house, on his appointment to higher office. I know that he will do an outstanding job as Speaker of this place, and he did a marvellous job in winning his election and earning office. I also thank the Governor, the Hon. Hieu Van Le, for his speech and all the work that he does to make our state even better. He is a tireless worker for South Australia, a fantastic gentleman and a doyen of South Australia. Again, I thank him for the great work he does, and his wife, Mrs Le. They are two special people and South Australia is very lucky to have them.

In his speech, the Governor spoke about the number of new members in the 54th parliament, and I agree with his thoughts that this reflects an expression by the people of South Australia for a desire for real change. We took a strong plan to the election and South Australians overwhelmingly supported that plan. They support our Premier and our plans for more jobs, lower cost and better services.

On that note, I also congratulate the Premier, the member for Dunstan, on his fine efforts and his fine work. Ever since I came into this place, I have not met a more committed, more hardworking person, focused on delivering for South Australia—not on playing games, not on doing silly little things. He wants to deliver great outcomes for South Australia. He put a plan in place, our side of the house executed that plan, and we went to the people and engaged with them, and the Premier thoroughly deserves his position in that office. I know that he will be a great leader for South Australia. The victory of 17 March was extra sweet for him, I am sure, and he has been brilliant in the job so far and will continue to be great for South Australia.

I also congratulate all the new members from both sides of the house. It is a big feat to win your way into this place. To get the support of your local community takes a lot of hard work and I must commend anyone who does it, no matter what side of politics they are on. It takes a lot of work to get out there, to engage with your community, listen to your community and earn their respect and their vote to find yourself in this place.

In particular, I thank the people who supported me on my re-election. We have worked very hard and with a great team, and it is an honour to be elected as the very first member for Gibson. This is made more enjoyable for me because of the wonderful friendships I have forged, in particular with the member for Black who just spoke, who is the Minister for the Environment and also formerly the member for Bright. At the redrawing of the boundaries before the last election we had our electorates rubbed out and drawn again, if you like, and we crossed over and shared a lot of each other's patch. I picked up a lot of his, he picked up a lot of mine and we kept some as well. As such, we have continued to work very closely together. I want to thank him for his friendship and also for his collegial manner and the way in which he works.

It is also great to be joined by a couple of new neighbours in the member for Colton, the member for Morphett and the member for Elder. It has been wonderful working with them throughout the campaign and getting to know them and seeing how much they also care for their community. I want to commend them on their maiden speeches and the wonderful work they have done already in their community. It is delightful to see. Again, I have worked with all the other members along the way, and it has been very rewarding in this short space of time.

I also acknowledge the federal member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint, who has done a brilliant job in her time in federal parliament. Again, working with her in that collegial manner has been absolutely outstanding and we have managed to deliver some great things together for our community, as she has with other local state members. Having that wonderful relationship with the federal member has been very beneficial to all of our community.

I also thank a couple of people specifically. We know that working through campaigns you have to do a lot of time at shopping centres, listening posts, local sporting events and community meetings, and you cannot do that without having a really good team around you. I was lucky enough to have that. I thank Jack Newton, who was in the role of my campaign manager; John Wenzel; Bob Baker; and Paul and Kimberley Gesti, along with Maddie and now Georgie Gesti, who have been outstanding.

A few other names to mention: David Woodifield has been great; Dennis Lorenzin, Wayne Beaumont and Lauren Dimas, have all done a wonderful job; Rob and Mary Anne Harding have also been great; Chris Woodward, Nick Mebberson and Jody Koerner were outstanding, and I thank them for their help and support; and Peter Fowler, Ron Leak, Roberta Jarmyn, Bob Baker, Isaac Sandercock, and Andrew and Sarah Taylor, to name a few, were outstanding.

In fact, I had a lot of my volunteers in for a morning tea this morning to thank them. They love being engaged in and giving back to our community, which is really appreciated. To my staff in the electorate office, I thank them greatly. They do a wonderful power of work in engaging with the community. Mallory, Carly and Ali have been outstanding and it is great to have them in the team. I also want to thank my mother-in-law, Annabel, my mum and Len, my dad and my family, including my wife who is just absolutely wonderful and my kids, Amy, Tyson, Heath and Brooke. I thank them for all their support—I could not do it without them. Also, a special mention to the late Sharon Beaumont, who was there in spirit—we did her very proud.

In my maiden speech four years ago, I outlined my driving motivation to do this job and that was great people in our community. I know those on the other side like to play politics a lot, and they do it at every turn, but I think our community is over that. I think they want real people doing the work in their community, and that is how I put myself forward. I will do my utmost to stay focused on delivering for South Australia and, in particular, my local community. It is the people who I care about and who I will be working for in this place, and I make no apologies for that. That is what I am here for and that is what I stand for.

As I mentioned, I was first elected as the member for Mitchell, and I would like to thank all the people who gave me that opportunity. As I pointed out, prior to the recent election my seat was abolished and I ran in the new seat of Gibson that was created. I used to joke with the member for Black. As I said, we have shared our seats. Under the old boundaries, when he was the member for Bright and I was the member for Mitchell, I said he had all the beautiful coastline and I had all the beautiful people, but now, with the merger, we have the best of both worlds: we both have beautiful scenery and we both have beautiful people.

I would also like to thank the people of Reynella, Old Reynella, Sheidow Park, Trott Park, Seaview Downs, Seacombe Heights and Darlington. They are the suburbs that I lost in the redistribution. Luckily, most of them have gone across to the member for Black and, again, we will continue to work together. I am sure I will still see a lot of those people in our community. In my new seat, I have picked up the good people who live in the suburbs of Brighton, North Brighton, Hove, South Brighton, Marion and Somerton Park, and I now have all the people of Warradale and Oaklands Park, which is fantastic. I have retained the great people of Sturt, Dover Gardens and Seacombe Gardens, where I have built so many wonderful relationships across my time. I stress again that that is the key to doing this job.

Having grown up in the area, I have built great relationships in the community over the years, and I look forward to these relationships flourishing into the future. I have built relationships with all the primary schools to my old high school, now Brighton Secondary School, as well as Seaview High School, which is also nurturing outstanding young people, and the private schools. There are several Catholic primary schools in my area, which contribute so much to our local community, as well as Sunrise, Marymount College as part of Sacred Heart, and Westminster. They are all very impressive schools with great young people doing great things in our community, and I look forward to working with them in the years ahead. There are many sporting clubs and social groups—too many to name at the minute—and I look forward to continuing to work with them along the way.

We did make a number of commitments on a local front. The community that I live in worked incredibly hard on delivering the Oaklands crossing through the Fix Oaklands Crossing campaign. We picked this up before I actually got elected in 2014 and really ramped it up to make sure that the community was all together, all on board and all running this campaign to get this longstanding problem fixed. Again, it was fantastic to work with the federal member Nicolle Flint, who helped to deliver the lion's share of funding, to get a solution. I think work on that project starts as early as this Friday. We will continue to work with the community, keep them engaged with how this project is going and take them on that journey.

We committed to a couple of other smaller projects, which are fantastic and community focused, including the Hamilton Park Reserve upgrade in Warradale and the Crown Street Reserve upgrade in Dover Gardens. When you are out and about doing this job you hold listening posts, you listen to people and you hear what they have to say. To be able to act on that and help deliver for the community is great. We have a public toilet going in at Hamilton Park Reserve and a three-on-three basketball court at the Crown Street Reserve. I have already had conversations with Marion council and the CEO, Adrian Skull, about getting the ball rolling on those projects, so there are exciting times ahead.

We have committed to a community garden at Stella Maris Parish School. This is a great project. The school in Seacombe Gardens wants to reach out to the rest of the community to get this community garden going and get all the people who live locally involved and benefitting from the produce that has been grown. It will also allow the students to see how they can give back to the community. I commend the principal, Sean Hill, on that project. Again, we are working with them on that project.

Chris Parsons and the team do a great job at the Brighton Surf Life Saving Club. I know the member for Black is a member there. We have committed to putting lights out the front, which is a great initiative. This is one of the few surf lifesaving clubs in the country that has a road between the club and the beach, so we need to slow people down when the nippers are going to and from the beach. Having flashing pedestrian lights will also be beneficial for people in the local community using the park, and it is even better that the lights will be solar powered.

We made a commitment to ensure that Bowker Street Oval stays as open space and continues to be used by sporting clubs and families. This is a wonderful piece of open space. A number of years ago, there were threats to develop it for housing, and the local community were rightly up in arms. The deal that was put in place finishes very soon, so we got on the front foot and said that we are committing to this. We are going to make sure it is used as open space. It is currently owned by the Department for Education. I have already written to the education minister, getting the wheels in motion to make sure we can continue the deal with the Holdfast Bay council.

The groups who use it include the Southern Districts Little Athletics club, with president, Peter Hartley; the Southern Districts Junior Soccer Association, with Mick Hargreaves, who is a tireless worker and seems to have been there forever; the Coastal Districts Athletic Club, and Luke Hildyard, a name we know in this place, is involved there; and the Glenelg Cricket Club. So many groups use it, which is sensational. Local primary schools use it for sports days and other events like that. Paringa Park Primary School is one of the main tenants, given it is just up the road. A teddy bears' picnic was held at the oval a little earlier, which I attended, through the Brighton Kiwanis, which was great.

Of course, the other big project is the Brighton sports complex upgrade. This facility has been left to go to rack and ruin over many years. Quite shamefully, I often say to people that there are people at the football club who will not even use the urinals in the change rooms because they are so poorly maintained. It has been allowed to go to rack and ruin over a number of years. The commitment there will go towards the football club, with Kym Steer; the cricket club, with Scott Phillips; the lacrosse club, with Jason Webb; and the rugby club, with Wayne Londema. They now have the opportunity to go away and work with the council. We have committed $2 million and I think the council is putting in $4 million. The CEO, Justin Lynch, is working with them all to get their budgets so they can deliver new facilities, including women's sports facilities, because we know that women's sports are booming, particularly football, which is outstanding.

Coastal protection is something we have talked about a lot. I look forward to working with the Minister for Environment on delivering an upgrade, in this sense, along the coast from Brighton to North Brighton and Somerton Park, and even down to South Brighton, to make sure that we can replenish the sands and rejuvenate the coastline.

We have talked a lot about the Repat, which was a big commitment of ours, and we are already delivering on this front. It was great to see the Premier out on the weekend doing just that, and we will continue to talk more about that because that is something South Australia wanted. They spoke loud and clear, we listened and we delivered. The other project locally is Glenthorne National Park. Again, the member for Black and I have been working closely on this for a long time, and we look forward to delivering it.

I am not silly enough to believe that we are here because of too much I did: I know it is because of what our team did and what our party did. I have mentioned the Premier and his great work and effort. We put a very clear mandate to the people of South Australia about what we were going to deliver. While the other side wanted to play politics with a lot of this stuff, we just said, 'No, this is what we are delivering and this is how we are doing it,' and the people of South Australia have spoken.

We will talk more about this in our time in this place, but I want to mention a couple of our big-ticket items. The first is opportunities for young people. We are going to deliver 20,800 new apprenticeships and traineeships for South Australia, because we see too many young people not having opportunities here, so they leave South Australia and go interstate and overseas. We know what a great gift we have from the federal government with the shipbuilding and submarines, and there are great opportunities there to help train up our young people. In the innovation space, I know that the Minister for Skills is keen to develop the old RAH site to provide great opportunities for young people.

We will also put in place the removal of payroll tax for small businesses, and we will allow people to trade when they want to trade, which is exciting. When people go interstate and see the shops open when they want them open, they want to see the same thing here in South Australia, and we look forward to delivering that. Council rate capping is another promise, and I have already mentioned reviving the Repat. There will be open ICAC hearings off the back of the Oakden scandal, which I think people will remember and do remember, under the former Labor government. This is a really great opportunity. I thank the Speaker for the opportunity to give my Address in Reply.

Sitting suspended from 18:00 to 19:29.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Torrens.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (19:29): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I congratulate you on your elevation to Speaker of this house and also congratulate the Deputy Speaker on his ascendancy. My congratulations also to the new state government, the Premier, South Australia's first female appointed as Deputy Premier and Attorney-General, and all re-elected members and new members. In particular, I would like to make special mention of the new members for Badcoe, Wright and Playford and also of the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Croydon.

I speak today in reply to the address of His Excellency the Governor, the Hon. Hieu Van Le AC, at the opening of the 54th South Australian parliament. In doing so, I pay tribute to the role both His Excellency the Governor and his wife, Lan, play in the many different communities that make up our great state. The experiences of their life journey shines through with compassion and understanding, and I often refer to His Excellency's 'suitcase full of dreams' with which they arrived on our shores so many years ago.

I welcome the opportunity to also acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Kaurna people, and to pay my respects to their elders past and present as together we continue to walk along the path of reconciliation.

I reflect on that day in Canberra where, in my previous role as a senator, I was present when the former prime minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, made the apology to the stolen generations and on the emotion and the hope in the chamber and on the lawns outside parliament afterwards. While we have come some way, there is still so much more to be done for the First Peoples of our nation.

Another apology of significance was made by the then premier on 18 July 2012 in the South Australian parliament. It was an apology to the women and families affected by the forced adoptions. I have said before in this place that there is no greater gift a mother can give her child than her love and the knowledge of her love. Through years of forced adoption practices in Australia, there are women, some of whom have gone on to have other children, some of whom have never known the pleasures of raising their own child and some for whom the pain was so unbearable that they ended their own lives. South Australia became the second state to offer the apology. Eight months later, on 21 March 2013, the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, made an apology in the federal parliament.

The apologies by the former premier and prime minister were the result of recommendations from a Senate inquiry into forced adoptions that handed down its report in 2012. I am particularly pleased that in government—and that is why I raise it today—the Premier unveiled a memorial site of remembrance to parents, adoptees and families who suffered devastating loss. The Past Forced Adoptions Commemorative Public Artwork on the bank of the River Torrens near the Adelaide University footbridge, named The Space Between, consists of a large block of polished granite that has been separated, signifying the separation of one part from the other, and a nearby boulder, where people can sit, a reflective space for those who suffered and those who continue to suffer.

In 2014, I welcomed the opportunity to stand for the state seat of Torrens and become a member of the Weatherill Labor government. I want to take this opportunity to thank the electors of Torrens, who at the 2018 election put their faith in me to represent them for a second time. It is truly an honour.

The electorate of Torrens is a diverse one, with people of many cultural and ethnic backgrounds and new citizens regularly arriving from around the globe. It has a strong and vibrant community group sector and some of the most passionate sporting clubs, including the wonderful Gaza Sports and Community Club, the North Adelaide Rockets Basketball Club, the North Eastern MetroStars and the Adelaide City Football Club. In addition, it has many important social and learning hubs, including the North East Community House, the Wandana, Holden Hill and Hillcrest community centres, and the many schools and kindergartens. It is home to many dedicated community groups and clubs that I have got to know extremely well over the past four years: NORA, NECAP, TADSA; Klemzig, Dernancourt, Windsor Gardens and Walkerville Neighbourhood Watch; the Adelaide Warriors and We Breathe Cricket clubs; Hillcrest Scouts; the Enfield Horticultural Society; and Hillcrest Seniors, to name just a few.

To hold government is what we aspire to and work towards in the South Australian Labor Party, to deliver on our policies and to be able to facilitate fairness and equality of opportunity for all in our community. While today I stand on this side of the chamber, I am committed to working hard with the new government where it is in the best interests of my community and the state of South Australia and, when necessary, to hold the government to account for the decisions it makes or, perhaps in some instances, for those it does not make.

It is unfortunate that, in the many weeks following the March election, we were, in effect, without an active government, which has resulted in delays and some less than desirable outcomes, including the removal of pedestrian lights on Fosters Road near Hillcrest Primary School, without all affected individuals being notified and before alternative infrastructure was put in place for children, the elderly and those with a disability to be able to cross safely. I have notified the minister about this, and have received a response and look forward to working with him into the future to ensure these events are not repeated.

Much has been said about the electoral boundaries, both in this chamber and outside. The redistribution in the South Australian Electoral Boundaries Commission saw significant changes to many of our electorates. In my case, thousands of residents who reside in Northgate, Lightsview, Northfield and Hope Valley were lost to other electorates. So, too, was Northfield Primary School, and great community organisations, including Gepps Cross Rams Football Club and Northgate Community and Sports Club.

While I was very disappointed in losing these constituents and these clubs, I am one who always looks to find the silver lining. So, I am very pleased to now represent the residents of Vale Park and Manningham and the parts of Dernancourt, Klemzig and Gilles Plains that previously were not part of the Torrens electorate. I look forward to getting to know them better and knowing what is important to them and their families over the next four years and beyond. I will also continue to be involved with those communities that now reside on the other side of the Torrens boundary, as I have formed many friendships over the past four years.

I take this opportunity to place on record that I am extremely proud to have been a member of the Weatherill Labor government. The member for Cheltenham proved to be an excellent premier, who through his intelligent, considered and passionate approach commanded the respect and loyalty of the caucus, and while under his watch our government delivered much to South Australia.

While some projects and commitments we will not be able to see through from this side of the chamber, history, I am sure, will reflect well on what was achieved. It is the government that delivered the biggest ever investment in public transport, upgraded every major hospital and developed a state-of-the-art health and biomedical precinct with the iconic SAHMRI and world-class new Royal Adelaide Hospital at its centre—in fact, record investment in infrastructure all round.

We were a government that revitalised our CBD with the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval, the new Adelaide Botanic High School, the Riverbank Precinct, the Adelaide Convention Centre, Festival Plaza and laneways and small bars, a government under which crimes against persons and property halved, with more police on the beat than ever before.

On a local level, in the north-eastern suburbs, from March 2014 to March 2018 the Torrens community benefited from significant investment in our community, including:

the extension of the O-Bahn into the Adelaide CBD, improving travel times and reliability for thousands of public transport users and reducing traffic congestion for motorists;

the multimillion dollar Modbury Hospital and Lyell McEwin upgrades;

the installation of a koala crossing on Fosters Road near Cedar College;

the partnership with the Port Adelaide Enfield Council to deliver the Lights Community and Sports Centre on the former Ross Smith school site, a multi-use sports centre that will be the new home to the Rockets Basketball Club, with five courts making it international standard.

It also includes retractable and fixed seating, multipurpose community rooms and a cafe focusing on inclusion and access for all and is currently being built.. With the development in the local area, this is greatly needed and is a wonderful achievement for the local community. Other investments in our community included:

the synthetic soccer pitch and the lighting upgrade at Adelaide City Football Club and North Eastern MetroStars Football Club;

the new Oakden ambulance station, including a 24/7 emergency crew;

support for multicultural community events that help develop an understanding of the different cultures and are inclusive of all members of the community;

new STEM facilities for Hampstead Primary School, Hillcrest Primary School and Wandana Primary School;

ongoing government funding for our North East Community House and Community Centre;

major roadworks;

the installation of a pedestrian refuge on North East Road near Gaza Football Club to make it safer for children and adults to cross to and from the football oval and cricket pitch;

the jointly funded upgrade to the entrance of the Dernancourt Shopping Centre on Lower North East Road; and

along with many residents, I also look forward to the commencement of the infrastructure build of the 250 new car parks and upgrade of facilities at the Klemzig O-Bahn interchange.

I really want to make something very clear today: commitments for infrastructure projects and other community needs when in government were and continue to be areas of need for the local community. They were issues I had been working on as a state member, and the Labor government, of which I was a member, committed to delivering on them. Today, I am going to highlight a couple of those areas that I feel need to be addressed with some urgency. I have already raised some of these issues with the new government and have sought meetings with the relevant ministers to highlight their importance. Now I place them on the record in this place, and I will not let them go, because they are so important to the community.

Of great importance to the local community is the timely opening of Avenues College, the amalgamation of two schools: Windsor Gardens College and Gilles Plains Primary School. The timely opening should be at the beginning of the 2019 school year. Avenues College aims to motivate and guide young people as they follow their chosen education, training and employment pathways.

Some of the students at Avenues College are part of the Wiltja program in which young people come to study from schools in remote lands in the Aboriginal lands districts, Yalata and Oak Valley. I look forward to meeting with the Minister for Education to discuss Avenues College's infrastructure and to take him around the school to press home why his government needs to meet the $15 million commitment by the former Labor government to the growing Avenues College community. As a former teacher and a parent, I am passionate about education, and I will always stand up to support investment in our schools and the future of our children. The Avenues College investment will deliver:

a new preschool and children's centre, bringing together community services and allied health support;

new and upgraded learning areas to support 900 students from reception to year 12;

new outdoor learning spaces, including an all-weather sport zone;

acoustic upgrades to classrooms for hard-of-hearing students; and

refurbished classrooms across the school.

Another commitment by the former Labor government was to Vale Park Primary School. It included two transportable buildings to improve the accommodation options for the school's 519 and growing students. The growing numbers in the school have created the need for extra classroom space. They have already converted half of the library into a classroom and lost the computer suite to accommodate extra space. It is important that these buildings be delivered as soon as practicable.

I would also like to highlight both parties' commitment to the Paradise O-Bahn interchange on Darley Road that borders my electorate, and I look forward to hearing the government's plans moving forward for additional car parks and upgrades to that intersection. The decisions I make in this parliament will always be made in the best interests of the people in my electorate of Torrens and in South Australia. Along with my colleagues on this side, I am committed to returning a Labor government to South Australia.

It is a known fact that we do not make it to this place on our own. It is the work of many that has given me a voice in this parliament as a member of the Labor team, led by the new member for Croydon and the deputy leader, the member for Port Adelaide. I want to thank each and every one who played a role in my election campaign. Tonight, I thank the many volunteers who delivered countless bags of letterboxing, delivering Labor's message to thousands of homes across Torrens, in Gilles Plains, Oakden, Hillcrest, Greenacres, Windsor Gardens, Holden Hill, Klemzig, Hampstead Gardens, Vale Park and Dernancourt.

A special thanks to my dear friend Monika Kumar, who continues to volunteer as language interpreter and cultural ambassador for the many different communities in our electorate. She is fielding phone calls way after the sun has gone down, always helping and working to bring communities together. Also thanks to her wonderful husband, Raj, and children, Dhruv and Tarini.

My thanks to the many Torrens sub-branch members, including Harold, Bob, John and Maria, who must now know every letterbox in Gilles Plains, Holden Hill, Oakden, Windsor Gardens and Dernancourt. I thank Saurin and Chetan and members of the Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Pakistani communities. There is Bharat and Monika, Lily and Ben, Margaret, Aramis, Joy, John, Bradley, Alex, Trevor, Matt, Peter, Trudee and Kevin, Matthew, Brendan, Joshua, Ollie, Isabel and Shaylee, Kevin and Cecilia, Connor, Jodie, Troy, David, Amy, Emmanual and Cam, Paul and Scott, and in the ALP office, there is Reggie and Aemon.

My thanks also to Matt for always being positive and energetic; Gerry Kandelaars; Megan, who gave up time with her two little girls and husband to doorknock with me; Rosemary and Tony for the many hours spent letterboxing and putting up posters; Tracey and Georgia for their valuable contribution; and all who paid a part along the campaign trail.

I thank Hannah, my amazing campaign manager, who worked tirelessly. Day or night, there was no difference to Hannah. When it was 3 o'clock in the morning, if there was work to be done, she would be doing it. Designing, doorknocking, organising, always knowing the right words to say and the right things to do. Hannah, I truly appreciate your dedication and your insight and commitment from day one through to election day.

Thank you to my nephew Cale for the many hours you put in letterboxing, putting up and taking down posters, and the many hours both you and Ché spent preparing the corflutes. My thanks to Russell, for your many hours pounding the pavement, your enthusiasm, great organising skills, experience and for your love and support.

My thanks to our son, Ché, again for your support and enthusiasm, endless hours of letterboxing, enveloping, keeping up-to-date with the 24-hour news cycle, for putting up and taking down corflutes while all the while working on university assignments, and for your very honest and valuable opinion on everything.

In this 54th parliament, we on this side will be working hard to ensure that we will not be spending any longer than the one term here in opposition. I am committed to my electorate of Torrens and to the state of South Australia, and be assured I will always stand up for what is in the best interests of the residents I represent and the people of our great state.

The SPEAKER: The member for Frome.

Mr BROCK (Frome) (19:48): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and congratulations on your appointment as the Speaker. I would also like to congratulate the other new members on their maiden speeches. Even though I have not been in the chamber, I have been listening to them in my office and they were very heartwarming and genuine.

I also rise to speak in response to the speech by His Excellency Hieu Van Le AC, the Governor of South Australia. Our state is very lucky and privileged to have a warm and caring Governor, along with his wife, Mrs Van Le, who not only are very welcoming but always recognise people across the state wherever they visit.

I would like to start by thanking the people of Frome again for their confidence and trust in me to be their state representative for another term. Since being elected in 2009, the electorate of Frome has had boundary changes in 2014 with the inclusion of Balaklava. Then again in 2018 we had a major redistribution with the loss of locations such as Port Broughton, Mundoora, Bute, Alford, Tickera, Lochiel, Snowtown and Gladstone. I then gained Hamley Bridge and Owen; both were in the previous electorate of Goyder.

Even with this very large redistribution, I was very fortunate that my two-party preferred vote dropped slightly, from 58.8 per cent to 58.2 per cent, and this was very gratifying. In some polling booths in some areas in other electorates, my two-party preferred vote was in the high 70s to low 80s. It is not only an honour to serve the people of Frome but it is also a great privilege to be able to endeavour to do my best to assist them with their various issues. I am again giving my total commitment to the people living in this great electorate of Frome to work with them and for them and to work very closely with industry, local government and also the state government to try to achieve the great outcomes that I see on the horizon for our great region.

My life has been an extraordinary one, having had the great privilege to serve as a local government councillor, as mayor of Port Pirie Regional Council, as the Independent member for Frome, as minister for regional development and minister for local government, and now again as the Independent member for Frome. My only regret is that my late wife, Arlene, and both my parents could not see this remarkable journey. However, my family, including my partner, Lyn, have been a great inspiration for my journey since that day.

As candidates in this house running for any office, it takes a lot of commitment, especially from our families. In this regard, I sincerely thank my family: my partner, Lyn Akker; my daughters, Hayley and Marisa; and my stepchildren, Addy, Nick and Jackie. Special thanks also go to our 12 grandchildren, who are aged between five and 18 years old. It is these great people who get the rough end of the stick. I do not see every part of their growing up, and at times this can be very unsettling. However, in this regard I have the comfort of knowing that Lyn is at home, being there when they require the support of a grandparent or, more specifically, a parent's love.

Leading up to an election, each candidate knows that they cannot do it alone, and that has been mentioned by many others in this house today. They need a committee, and I have been very honoured to have had a small group of six people who have ventured on our way throughout the whole system. My brother-in-law, Graham Nichols, has been my campaign manager since 2009 and, along with the others—Tory Annese, Rex Lang, Mark Turner, Stax Kerr, Mary Nichols, Sav Degilio, Dino Gadaletta, plus my partner, Lyn—has advised me on issues, assisted with posters, etc., at the same time learning more about ourselves as we ventured on the great journey.

It was very interesting first up. Here was a group of people getting together to formulate a strategy for election with not one of them knowing what to do or how to go about it. However, we had a great time and learnt a lot as we went along. In 2009, we were only able to hand out how-to-vote cards at seven of the 23 polling booths, to the degree that in the following elections, in 2010, 2014 and 2018, I was able to have the assistance of over 100 volunteers and have volunteers at every polling booth across the electorate.

At the last election, I greatly appreciated the help of my great volunteers, with the youngest being 18 years old and the oldest being 92 years old. Without the support of these people, we as candidates would not be able to do what we do. With this in mind, I need to mention that, no matter who we are or who we represent, our volunteers are not the people being elected. I must point out that during the last election at a couple of polling booths there were some very arrogant people abusing the volunteers who were just doing their friends a favour by handing out their how-to-vote cards.

Our society is a free society, and every person deserves to be treated with respect. However, during the last election there were occasions when the boundaries of behaviour were being very tested. However, having said that, my team and I are looking forward in a positive manner to endeavour to provide the best opportunity for our future generations. We can do this by working collaboratively, honestly and positively to get the best results.

During my previous four years serving the state both as local member and also as minister for regional development and minister for local government, I learnt a tremendous amount not only about how government works but also about the wider areas of our great state—that is, across all regional South Australia. I also learnt a lot more about myself, about the challenges and the frustrations but, more importantly, I learnt to appreciate far more the challenges that we all face.

Over the last four years, I travelled extensively across all regional South Australia, hearing people's ambitions, their frustrations and, more importantly, their desire just to get on with it. That was a clear message I took away and brought back to cabinet. These people in regional South Australia had felt left out and not listened to for many years by both sides of politics. They found it very refreshing to see the minister actually drive in, not fly in, and partake in social events, stay the night and mix with communities.

On a personal note, after the 2014 election night my life and that of my family was turned around in a way that we were not expecting. My greatest fear, prior to that election, was for the transformation of the Port Pirie Nyrstar smelter, which was nearing a critical point with the owners in Zurich. The plant needed to be completely modernised and transformed not only to meet the strict environmental conditions but also for the financial viability of the plant to continue and the survival of the community of Port Pirie and the surrounding communities. If the transformation did not eventuate, Port Pirie would have been greatly decimated, with the risk of some 2,000 direct and indirect workers being involved.

I thank the previous premier, who, as leader of the Labor Party, committed to a guarantee to allow for the transformation of this plant to occur. Until this point, there was a great sense of uncertainty, a loss of confidence within the community and fears for our community and our future. There were also many late-night calls from Nyrstar in Zurich, asking if there was any commitment to the project. These were some very unsettling times, not only for me but also for the many people involved, specifically in Port Pirie. Port Pirie and all its residents, my family and I will be eternally grateful for this contribution.

I thank my family for their great support throughout a very trying period. I recall that our youngest grandson, Jax, just 10 months old at the time, seeing me on TV, started kissing the TV screen. The member for Badcoe, who was a journalist for a TV station, can remember that, as she put that on the TV. Jax was missing me greatly. That certainly brought me back to reality, and it just goes to show that sometimes we can lose all sense of reality. Both my children and all our grandchildren have been part of my journey in politics, whether local government or state, and it has been part of their lives ever since they have been with us.

During my ministerial duties, I travelled nearly 700,000 kilometres across the state and flew to Mount Gambier, Kangaroo Island, the APY lands, Ceduna and Port Lincoln to see firsthand the environment in these locations. I was also able to travel in excess of 150,000 kilometres across my electorate to see my people during this period of time. I also had the opportunity to accompany various state government ministers, government agencies, local government people and business people to China. This contingent was in excess of 300 people. There were great opportunities achieved during this visit, with many contracts and MOUs being signed.

I also had a great opportunity to travel to Zurich to meet firsthand with the Nyrstar board about the future and other associated opportunities for the Port Pirie smelter, and to visit numerous renewable energy companies promoting the great advantage that South Australia has, particularly Upper Spencer Gulf, with the state leading the renewable technology field.

We were able to improve local government operations in various ways; however, the Local Government Act still needs to be completely reviewed. This is an area that frustrates me, and we did not complete this area. I hope that the new government will look at the act in its current form and revise it to be more friendly and sustainable.

Although we were able to have a review of the education department bus policy, another great issue for many years has been access to regional bus services for schoolchildren. Irrespective of whether they attend government or non-government schools, they need to be able to get to the relevant schools. This is an issue I am talking to the current Minister for Education about, and I hope that we can get it completely resolved. It is an issue that will again be taken up through the parliament, and I like to hope that, in the near future, we will be able to address this anomaly.

Some years ago, centralisation was undertaken for various government agencies, which, in turn, has hurt our original communities. I will be endeavouring to have this government realise that this move is not in the best interests of our regional youth, and we will seek to have this matter further investigated. It is with this in mind that I urge the new government to work with the commonwealth immigration minister to ensure the system for skilled migration allows for more eligible points to be earned if they reside in a regional location in South Australia.

Some years ago, while I was mayor of the Port Pirie Regional Council, I spoke at a large forum on multiculturalism about the issue of skilled migrants being lured to South Australia and additional points being allocated if those skilled people resided in regional locations. This was adopted by the federal government; however, Adelaide became eligible for regional status, allowing for extra points towards their settlement. I urge the state government to look very closely at the current system and to converse with the federal minister about allowing extra points if these skilled workers and their families reside in regional South Australia, not regional Adelaide, which means they get to Adelaide but do not venture farther out into our regions.

I may not have mentioned this earlier, but I sincerely congratulate the new government and give my support to get the best opportunities for my electorate and for the state. Before I close, I would like to reinforce that in the past four years there have been many more opportunities, especially in the renewable energy field and, in particular, the resources sector. With this in mind, I see the Upper Spencer Gulf region, in particular, becoming the renewable capital of Australia and perhaps the world. Professor Ross Garnaut said recently, at a forum in Port Augusta, that the Upper Spencer Gulf region was the best place in the world for renewables, whether it be solar PV, solar thermal or pumped hydro, all with battery storage, and that in the very near future this area would have an abundance of cheap electricity and it would be foolish if manufacturing did not look at establishing something in our region.

With those remarks I will close, but I reinforce my dedication to my electorate over the next four years. I am very positive that our regions will flourish providing we all look after them. Again, I congratulate all the new members here, and my commiserations to the members who were here before and but who did not make it back. I look forward to working with this government and with this parliament to get the best opportunities for my electorate of Frome.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (20:01): In speaking to the motion, and in my first speech to the house as the member for Hartley following the state election, I also want to begin by congratulating each and every one of the members, especially the new members, who have been elected. It has been a real pleasure to listen to many of the maiden speeches and to understand what motivates members to run for this place. I have been absolutely inspired, and it has been fantastic to hear the various stories. I am sure that the house as a whole is much richer for having the new members here.

I look forward to the next four years, working alongside members here and in the other place to make a positive difference to the people of Hartley and also to the people of South Australia. I would also like to thank His Excellency the Governor for his continued work for this great state. He is someone I sincerely and truly respect. I have had the pleasure of knowing him for many years, and I still remember the day he actually came to the Campbelltown Rotary Club to speak as a special guest before he became Governor. He is a fantastic South Australian and, as a state, we are much enriched by having him as our Governor.

I also join the large chorus of other members in congratulating you, Acting Speaker, as well as the Deputy Speaker, on your appointments to your important roles. As I said, I also extend my congratulations to all the new and returned members of parliament on their successful election to this place. I have certainly enjoyed the maiden speeches that have thus far transpired, hearing about the unique road that each member has taken to get here and the driving forces behind the passion that motivates each of us to put up our hands to serve and get involved in this great democracy.

I am also reminded about delivering my own maiden speech. It has already been four years and one week since I made my first speech in this place. I do not think anyone could have envisaged the four years and especially the events of the last seven months and how they would unfold, particularly with regard to the rather different but exciting election that has just taken place with the addition of a third political force—albeit less of a force than I and many others anticipated.

Needless to say, I have enjoyed every step of the way—literally. With every single door that I have knocked on in the last six years, from being the candidate and then the member, and then being re-elected as the member, I have had the huge privilege of meeting so many unique and diverse individuals who make up the seat of Hartley and getting to know the fantastic and strong community within it. I will return to the subject of the previous election, but I wish to draw the house's attention to the great community of Hartley, its people and its configuration.

My local community is truly filled with many great, inspirational and very active social and sporting groups. Just the other day I noticed that the Ripples Community Arts group in Campbelltown were out installing their nineteenth mosaic in Lochiel Park. The mosaic is named Curves in this Place and is designed by Alan Perkins. The Ripples Community Arts group is an incredibly active group and they create high quality and meaningful art for all of us in the community to enjoy. All members of the group enjoy what they do. They love their community, which is something I can truly relate to. I always enjoy my time in Lochiel Park, as an example, and look forward to seeing what Ripples produce next.

Members should also take the time to head out to the Campbelltown Arthouse for the Campbelltown celebration of the arts, which is currently being held throughout the month of May. Anyone who comes to Hartley will realise in a short time that they are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to food and coffee. Acting Speaker, you are always welcome to come to my electorate, as you know. Indeed, Hartley is home to so many great businesses, not just dedicated to fine foods and coffee, but businesses that I expect to continue to thrive, more so as a result of this government's positive agenda for the small business area.

Whilst the redistribution meant that I farewelled the wonderful people of Kensington Gardens, Rosslyn Park and Auldana to what I call beautiful Bragg, and also Payneham, Glynde and Felixstow to the member for Dunstan's constituency, I certainly welcomed more of the great people of Paradise and the residents of Newton with open arms. We all know that to be an effective member of parliament it takes a lot of hard work, but first it takes a lot of listening, which is essential—at the doorstep; at the shopping centres; at the street corners; on the phones; via social media, email or even the odd fax, if you are lucky; the letters to the editor; the petitions; the commuter stations; the letters; and even the odd shout out from a distance at the footy. Being accessible and being present in the community is certainly an imperative.

Being embedded in my community is something I really pride myself on, because I take a lot of pride in my community. I love my community and I love that I get the next four years to continue to advocate and deliver for them. Speaking of delivering, it was just a few short weeks ago that I delivered a birthday card to young Dita in Paradise, who turned 103 years old. Today, we also arranged flowers for a resident in the community who turned 102. I asked this particular resident, who is 103, what the secret to keeping so young was and she told me that she has a glass of champagne every day. We must remember that, Acting Speaker.

Since the election, I was also fortunate to take out to lunch Mr Peter Allen, the 2018 Campbelltown Citizen of the Year. There are many people like Peter in our community. We are so blessed to have these pillars of strength in our community. As new members will soon realise, you certainly enjoy these moments, whether it is delivering birthday cards, meeting new citizens and new migrants or taking our future generations for things like school tours. I had the students of Rostrevor College in here today. I have also been fortunate enough to host students of East Torrens Primary School and to present times tables to the students at St Francis of Assisi School, all within the first weeks of being elected.

I imagine that it would be a unique experience for students coming here for the first time. Who knows, one day one of them might actually be in this place. I remember when the Hon. Joan Hall, the former member for Coles, gave me a school tour right here in this place, so it all happens very fast. I say to these students that they are always welcome to run for parliament—just not against me. Whilst I would love to talk into the night about what makes Hartley so great, I will leave that for another time when I continue my remarks. I will take time now to reflect on the state election.

What I have learnt is that sometimes what stands in the way actually becomes the way. Whilst the election brought with it some familiar faces (a former member for Hartley and also some high-profile competition), the people of Hartley were truly, I think in hindsight, the beneficiaries of a tough-fought election. I wish my competitors all the best for the future. I also credit the entire Liberal team for the hard work they did in securing the victory. We certainly had a great leader, a strong plan and a positive result for the state. Of course not everyone might have predicted the outcome of the election, particularly in Hartley.

I recall when one of the new candidates made the announcement to run for the seat of Hartley on 6 October. I remember that day. As they say, 'The impediment to action advances action,' and that was certainly the case. It was not long before there were all kinds of election gurus predicting the result of what was to come in the future. One of them would state on air, when asked what they thought of the new candidate's chances of picking the seat of Hartley, that for this particular candidate the chances of success would be very strong. A week on from that announcement and a certain newspaper was referring to that new candidate as 'the likely new MP for Hartley' and 'possibly South Australia's next premier'.

The bookies certainly did not favour my chances, and anyone who likes a bet knew that you could get me at about 10 to one about a month out from the election—10 bucks. To those who did back me in with more than just their vote, 'You're welcome.' One of the first polls delivered in the seat on 11 October gave this new candidate in Hartley a 53-47 lead and later in November the polls still had me behind at 53-47, according to another certain pollster. Then, according to a poll conducted between 11 and 14 January, as reported by a television channel on 29 January, I was trailing 57-43. However, as the ancient Latin proverb goes, 'Humility conquers pride.'

I certainly never felt that those numbers reflected the reception that I received on the doorstep and, despite what anyone had to say during the election, our path was certainly clear. I was going to get on with the job, and that was to work as hard as I could, as tirelessly as I could with full dedication for my electorate. That is what I will continue to do: work hard for my community. That is exactly what I intend to do. That is why I am continuing to get on with the job with hard work and dedication to my local community.

For example, I look forward to getting on with delivering the much-needed additional car parking infrastructure at the Paradise Interchange. I also look forward to improving the community sporting facilities at the Athelstone Football Club, the Campbelltown City Council Soccer Club and the Hectorville Sports and Community Club. Furthermore, I look forward to improving the intersection of Graves Street and Newton Road and also the Silkes Road and Gorge Road intersection. There is certainly much work to be done and much to look forward to in the seat of Hartley.

It has been a genuine privilege to be elected to serve the people of Hartley for another term. The message I have received is clear: people do not want spin or stunts; they want a hardworking, accessible member of parliament who will be in the electorate and deliver for them. I look forward to playing my role in the new government to deliver for the people of South Australia. I love the Hartley community and I will continue to help make it the best that it can be for our local residents.

I would also like to thank all those who have helped get me to this point, beginning with my fiancée, Charissa, my parents, our families and my campaign team, including the young Hartley hit squad—they know who they are. They worked tirelessly for months and months and I cannot thank them enough. I thank my EO staff, our volunteers and our backers for sticking with me, and I certainly will not let the people of Hartley down.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (20:13): First of all, I would like to say that it was quite a privilege to be sitting very close to the Governor as he gave his speech, which really outlined what South Australia could look forward to doing over the next four years. It was a very strong, detailed and matter of fact speech, in my view, and one that delivered a very clear set of policy achievements that this new government is seeking to achieve.

I was sitting there watching the Governor undertake his task, a task that he executes with a great degree of humility but also with an understanding of the importance of his role in that institution. We were lucky enough to catch up with him later that evening to have a more fulsome discussion about that. What struck me about this man and why he is so perfect for the job he is in, is that he genuinely respects the institution that he holds.

As a new cabinet with a new Premier, we are also very keen to uphold respect for the institution. It is something that the new Premier has, dare I say, drilled into the new cabinet, to ensure that we hold for this man the greatest of respect, not that we need that prompting because he is a man of such great stature. His personal experience leads him to appreciate the role that he now has, that in our democratic institution he has the opportunity to provide the great balancing power that is given to our head of state.

In fact, one of the most beautiful things about the constitutional monarchy that we exist in is this idea that there is a day-to-day government that deals with the business of changing laws and helping to improve people's lives. As a counterbalance to that, you have a Governor who wields this massive stick, and that massive stick is that he can, on authority from the Queen, sack the government of the day. However, it is a power that he never uses. In the history of Australia, it has only been used once. Interestingly, it helps to provide that beautiful balance.

I know that there will be a debate about whether or not Australia should become a republic. The most difficult thing that I grasp and the most dangerous thing that I think would result from a change of our head of state would be the fundamental change in the way this power balance exists. Some may deride our monarch; I am not one of those. I am not a royalist, but I like the fact that there is somebody who is outside of the party political sphere and who takes very seriously her job as the head of state for the entire commonwealth, someone who again holds massive power but is deferential and humble enough and takes seriously her responsibility to the entire commonwealth.

Therein lies a beautiful balance of power, a shared power that does not exist under more aggressive republican models. In fact, what scares me most about those who seek to push a republic agenda is that we would invest what we now have a shared power in a much more individualised power in a head of state. I think that is extremely dangerous and one of the main reasons that we need to stick with the system that we have, because it delivers to us beautiful people like Governor Hieu Van Le, with his ability to embody the position that he holds and provide that great counterbalance to what I am beginning to understand is a serious and awesome power that ministers in cabinet hold.

I would like to break up my speech tonight into a couple of parts, one to deal with the election, both at a state and local level, and also to understand the first couple of months of being a minister of the Crown in Her Majesty's government. It is an awesome honour and one that I will touch on.

I must admit that the 2014 election for me was quite different. I was off on my own trying to retain what is otherwise a beautiful, conservative seat, really detached from the rest of the state campaign, whereas this time round it was completely different. What stuck with me and stood out for me most through the campaign, including the pundits and the hurly-burly of the day-to-day politicking and also the doubt that I am sure every MP and wannabe MP has, was the confidence of the new Premier.

It continually amazed me, in the number of conversations I had with him over the journey, that he was resolute and understood that we were going to win this election. He had a confidence that I think is one of the main reasons we won the election. It showed clearly that he was ready at this time and in this place to come into this position. It was brilliant to watch, and it is even more exciting now to follow him and to be part of his cabinet.

Something that I do not think has been fully appreciated is the journey of the last 16 years. We have seen a number of members retire at this election—Isobel Redmond, Steven Griffiths, Michael Pengilly and Mark Goldsworthy—MPs who spent their entire career in opposition. It was a long, torturous and difficult opposition time for this Liberal Party. We stood here after 16 years on the precipice needing to decide whether we were a party of government or whether we were not.

We cannot, as a party, underestimate the fact that it was our leader, Steven Marshall, who brought us out of the wilderness. He is a man who was able to unite the party and bring discipline to the party. As somebody who served in his shadow cabinet, that discipline was unrelenting and complete. He had everybody focused on heading in the same direction, bringing together the lay party and the party organisation, together with the parliamentary team, in a way that I do not think has existed over the past 16 years. He is the man who genuinely put the South Australian Liberal Party back as the natural party of government, and he is the man who has helped to bring about, as he says, a new dawn for this state.

For all those doubters—and I know there were, of course, many—I used the phrase before the election quite often that you are a bunch of losers until you stop losing, and we did not lose. We won and that completely changes the tenor of our party going forward. The shared joy that this party room feels is something that we need to hold onto for as long as we can, and I am certainly going to do my part to ensure that that is what happens.

We all did our part, and there were many people across the spectrum of the party who played their part, but in the end we ran presidential-style campaigns and our leader put paid to any suggestion that this Liberal Party was anything other than ready to help turn our state around. We did that by embracing new technology, which there has been much talk about, including on Sunday from Christian Brothers College's other recent notable graduate, Mr Matt Abraham. He suggested that somehow we stole an election through big data. It is borderline offensive but, more than that, it is wrong.

It is interesting. You can have all the best technology in the world. You can have the most sophisticated systems in the world. You can find out and get to the heart of what people are thinking, or at least what we think they are thinking, but, at the end of the day, all of that does not matter unless you pick up the phone and call them or go and knock on their door. All that technology does is to make sure you know who the right people to talk to are, but you still have to go and talk to them. That is where I think people fundamentally misunderstand how far this Liberal Party has come.

We did not steal an election. We did not hoodwink an election. All we did was listen and use technology to be able to listen in a broader meta concept. We then helped to reflect back to people the type of government that they wanted us to be, and then we delivered. It was exciting to watch because we have brought ourselves and our party into the 21st century.

I saw candidates campaign with a discipline and a focus that certainly technology helped to aid, but at the end of the day I would hazard a guess that we doorknocked double the number of doors we did in the previous election. In fact, by my very rough calculations, I think about a third of the electorate across the state was touched personally by members of the Liberal Party over the course of this campaign.

I would like to acknowledge the new members in this place. I think we have begun a level of rejuvenation that is exciting to see. The election of 2010 brought with it a great crop, 2014 also brought with it a great crop, if we do say so ourselves, but 2018 has done so again. It is really exciting to see that rejuvenation and new talent, listening to the maiden speeches.

Through the course of the campaign, I have been out with most of the candidates and doorknocked and gone to community events. You get to know them piece by piece, but we are all off in our little worlds trying to fight our own little battles within our electorates. To hear the maiden speeches and really delve deep into the psyche and histories of our new members of parliament has been quite exciting. It is interesting because, having spoken to the member for Port Adelaide before the election, the Labor Party is quite different. They grow up knowing each other. They grow up in factions fighting each other and, as the member for West Torrens said, fighting the left is much easier than fighting the Liberal Party.

But on our side of the house is a grassroots decentralised party, and many of the people who come before us are not hacks or stalwarts. They are new fresh blood that has come into our team and that makes it even more exciting. We have new members for Davenport, Narungga, Kavel, MacKillop, Heysen, Morphett, Elder, Newland, Colton, King and Waite, although we will put an asterisk next to that one. This new talent, this new team that has come through, is really going to underpin the longevity of this government.

I have often boasted in speeches to the public about the broad depth of small business experience on our front bench. Whether they be former irrigators, former outback roadhouse operators, physiotherapists, modelling agency owners, furniture manufacturers or humble sausage makers, we have an eclectic mix that brings a very different set of skills to our parliament.

We have now been joined by the greatest ever Paralympian that Australia has ever had, a microbiologist whom you cannot argue the science with because he knows it, and a former AFL player who still barracks for the wrong team, but all can be forgiven in the broad church that is the Liberal Party, through to a couple more lawyers—unfortunately, we do need a few of them—and a whole host of people who bring different experiences.

What excited me about listening to these maiden speeches was that these people are not of government. They are not within government. They are people with broad real-life experience, some younger, some older, some from the city, some from the country. It really does help us to be in touch with the people. I would hate to be part of a party that is so monocultural that there is a tried and tested path from union official and staffer through to the parliamentary ranks, because I think you do lose touch with what broader society means and the constructs that exist within broader society.

I would also like to make mention very specifically of two members who are not in this place, who gave their all and whom I hope will join us in the parliamentary team at the earliest available opportunity. One is a man called Steven Rypp, who I am sure everybody was trying to chase when it came to KPIs. Everybody in the Liberal team understands that our Premier measures everything and we are judged against our performance. On those metrics, Steven Rypp should be sitting amongst us as much as anyone else. I applaud him for his effort. As a Liberal Party, we are, I think, getting a lot better at thanking those who did not make it, as well as thanking those who did.

The other one is Kendall Jackson, who for a second time had a crack at becoming the member for Frome, who has grown and learnt and is somebody who still has not given up. That is something I applaud because I know that these campaigns take it out of people. For those two, as well as the many others who did not get there, I say thank you very much on behalf of myself for the great work that you have done and the pleasure it was to go out and knock on those doors with you.

Then we won the election. I was expecting it to be a long night in front of a computer. For a nerd who likes his numbers, the election was rather boring because it was all over by 9.30, so there was nothing left to do but go to the pub. It heralded with it, as the Premier said, a new dawn for South Australia, and little did I know how bright that sunrise was going to be. On the Wednesday afterwards, I got a very curt phone call from the Premier's office saying, 'The Premier would like to meet with you at 3 o'clock this afternoon.' I thought, 'Well, that's my afternoon done.' I was thinking slightly more executory, but that is not the way it turned out.

The Premier said, 'Stephan, I need you to do this job,' and he listed off the portfolio responsibilities, each one seemingly weighing heavier on my shoulders than the last. He said, 'Your wife is going to hate me, but that is the job I want you to do.' When the Premier says 'Jump,' you say 'How high?' It is an awesome honour and one that I will never forget, and my colleagues will not allow me to forget, especially in relation to the many hundreds of election commitments that we have made.

What I have come to learn over the last eight weeks is that we members of the cabinet are the synthesis between the public who know what they want and a Public Service who know what they want. It really is the job of the minister, as I understand it, to provide that balance between the two. We hire experts—public servants with long-term experience who have become experts and professionals in their field—who provide this expert advice to government, advice that the vast majority of the time we should heed. But on this other side we have an electorate who said, 'No, hang on. We voted for you, and we voted for you to do these things.' In business I learnt very early on that the customer is always right. When it comes to democracy, the voters are always right.

The role of minister is really where we have a job to deliver what the people want whilst also heeding the advice of the department. In fact, as I am given to understand, my office is going to deal with 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of correspondence over the next 12 months. I say to the public, now sitting on this side of the aisle, the amount of time and effort that goes into ensuring that the public understands what its Public Service is doing, I think, is awesome.

To understand that process of a ministerial office delving deep into a department for a response to a sometimes obscure question, and the seriousness and respect with which they are treated is something I am in awe of and something that I think the voting public, if they understood, would be in awe of. We do not always get it right and already I have signed off on letters that do not give people what they want, but still the government should be there. It should be open and transparent, and it should be accountable.

I have also, in my very short time, been exposed to some very good people both within the department but also as we build our ministerial office. I want to say an introductory thankyou but also a prospective thankyou to those members who have already joined the ministerial office in Sarah Taylor and Courtney Nourse. There is going to be a lot of work for you to do but please know that we are going to be doing it in service of the beautiful people of South Australia.

The only way that I have been allowed to be a minister of the Crown is by the express consent of the people of Schubert. They are some of the most beautiful people that anyone would meet. I am not going to brag about this being the best electorate in the country, but it was said by the former member for Schubert quite often that this was the best electorate in the country. I thought he was talking about the fact that these people are loyal to the Liberal Party. I thought then that maybe he was talking about the fact that the Barossa makes a better glass of red wine than anywhere else in the world. But he was actually talking about the people.

I noted earlier that the member for Kavel in his maiden speech talked about community spirit, and the Barossa is certainly full of that, and the broader Schubert electorate is certainly full of that. I am so proud that they have given me the opportunity to continue to be their local MP and hopefully, more than hopefully, this new Liberal government is going to deliver what it said it would deliver. Interestingly, most of the things that we need to deliver are in my portfolio, so that might make things a little bit easier.

I want to go through those commitments because I think it is very important to put on the record so that the electorate can have comfort that we have not forgotten, as the cynics within the voting public might think that post election suddenly these promises vanish. I can tell you very clearly that they do not and I know that each member of parliament on both sides of the aisle is going to make sure that they do not.

We, and the Barossa, committed to a number of things. The first of those is around sealing the Lyndoch Road, which is a $500,000 commitment by the new Liberal government towards the sealing of a seven-kilometre stretch of road. It might not sound like much and it might seem strange that we picked this one road out of thin air, but it is a road that holds strategic importance for the thousands of people who live in the southern Barossa who have seen the northern ends of the valley kick along in leaps and bounds with tourism increasing and cellar door numbers swelling and who feel that they need a piece of the pie.

The answer is genuinely that people do not drive their way anymore. The sealing of this road will unlock millions and millions of dollars worth of investment at the southern end of the valley and open up some of the most beautiful and picturesque parts of the Barossa again to the tourist trade. It is something I am extremely proud and eager to see delivered as soon as possible in conjunction with the Light Regional Council.

We then have the perennial issue of the Barossa hospital, and it was interesting that the local newspapers did not even wait because in the edition immediately following the election the headline on the front page read, 'It's time to deliver,' and I am under no illusion that my electorate expects anything less, as do all our electorates. But the business case study into the Barossa hospital is one that I am going to be watching with extremely close interest.

I must admit that I have not bothered the new health minister as yet, since his brow has become more and more furrowed as he has learnt of some of the difficulties within his portfolio, not the least of which was a budget overrun to end all budget overruns in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network.

The other local commitment we had was in relation to dog parks, an issue that started because a local young woman called Kelly Adams came to my office and said, 'Stephan, this is an issue.' It is an issue I had read about on Facebook community chat groups around the place and heard people talk about, but I had never been able to pin down somebody who would help me in a campaign to deliver this. Kelly did just that, and we had a petition signed by over 800 people.

We had numerous meetings at dog parks and meetings with council and, after fighting for about three months, the Liberal Party came on board and delivered $100,000 to establish two dog parks in the Barossa. Excitingly, work has already begun with the council to identify where those dog parks are going to be delivered, and I look forward to taking my little spoodle, Molly, down there for a walk. Molly will not enjoy her time at the dog park. This will be the first time she has been taken for a walk in a long time. That said, she needs to understand how I have helped deliver her a better future.

We then have the broader issues that I think we need to deliver for our region. I am taking a bit of licence here, but the two biggest issues that regional MPs will bring to this place are roads and mobile phone blackspots. In the absence of public transport, in the absence of other forms of self-motored transport, whether they be bikes or walking, you need a car to live in the country. When you rely on that as the only mode of transport to get around, you pay a little bit more attention to what your roads look like. There is a vast network of roads across country South Australia and it needs a lot of help.

As the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, I know very clearly that it is my job to deliver. That is why I am extremely proud of our Royalties for Regions scheme and our regional road and infrastructures fund as ways to deliver that. It is not going to be quick and it is not going to be easy. A local MP came to me the other day and said, 'Steph, I just need you to shoulder seal 200 kilometres of this road and then I'll be happy.' He was deadly serious. He is right, but he is not the only one, and the enormity of the task ahead of us sits very heavily on my shoulders. But all regional South Australia needs us to deliver, and that is why this regional road and infrastructure fund is so important to be able to do just that.

We also need to deal with mobile phone blackspots. Again, this is an issue that really hurts regional South Australia. If you really want to help unlock the potential and the small business potential of regional South Australia, mobile phone data and telecommunication services are key. In this world where internet start-up businesses can happen from someone's bedroom, there is no reason that that bedroom cannot be in regional South Australia. That is why I am so proud that, together with my colleagues, including the member for Mount Gambier, we have been able to help get a $10 million commitment to deliver this. I look forward to working with the telecommunications companies, which I understand have been supportive at this very early stage, but the federal government also needs to come on board.

I could use this as an opportunity to belt the former Labor government for being so pathetically recalcitrant that they ignored regional South Australia, but I will not. But there is work that needs to be done and these measly sums of money are going to deliver product benefits that will far outweigh their cost. If we want regional South Australia to thrive and grow, then this is the way to do it to give hope to a young generation that they can actually start and grow businesses and have a broader range of professions they can tap into in regional South Australia.

I always give this one experience as an example. I was lucky enough to fly on a small charter plane with the member for Stuart, who took us around his electorate. It is the only other time that my steel-capped boots have seen any use, other than at my Northern Connector visit the other week. We went across to a station, the name of which escapes me right at this second. The member for Stuart will be able to tell me what it was.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: Which trip was this?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: 2015.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: We went to a few. We went to Cowarie Station.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Cowarie Station.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: Yes. The Oldfields, Sharon Oldfield.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We met the Oldfields out there. Sharon's daughter was taking us through how she learns, how she studies—

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: Ashlee.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —Ashlee—and how she interacts with her friends. She was dead keen to show us this four-minute video that some mates from the region had put together as they were drafting sheep. There were dirt bikes, and all sorts of stuff was happening in the video. I think the nearest house was 50 kilometres away—

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: 50 to Mungeranie.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —yes, 50 kilometres away, and here she was connected to her friends via the internet. It really shows that this is a way to unlock regional South Australia, help it to be connected to the rest of the world and, in doing so, provide opportunities that will really help our state reach its full potential.

Lastly, I would like to go to a few thankyous, if I can, Mr Deputy Speaker. From a local electorate point of view, I would like to thank the other candidates who ran in the race out in the Barossa. Certainly, Paul Brown from the Nick Xenophon team had a tough time of it, as did David Haebich, the Labor candidate. Both were earnest and good fun to have on the campaign trail, as was Rikki Lambert from the Family First Party. Unfortunately, Mr Irving from the Greens was nowhere to be seen. I enjoyed that there was actually a contest out in Schubert, and I think the electorate is all the better for it.

There are two people I would like to thank. The first of those is a man called Steve Balch. Steve is a new man to the Barossa Valley, but he has taken to the local community with gusto, especially in Lyndoch. He is a former MP from Darwin and brings with him a wealth of experience. He is a beautiful man, and I really appreciate the help he has given me. The second person I would like to thank is a girl called Courtney Nourse, who has been working with me for the past four years. She is in the gallery, hiding out the back; I think she is expecting a mention. Courtney worked day and night with me during this election campaign. She ran the office during the day and then at night and on weekends was out with me campaigning.

I made a remark that, for the last couple of months leading up to the election, I saw more of her than I did my family, and I think both of us were very keen to spend some time apart. Courtney is a committed Liberal who shows a dedication to this party well beyond her years. She is someone who, unfortunately, is going to be working with me for a while, I think, for better or worse for both of us. I could not have done it without her. Really, it was the two of us taking on the rest of the world. To everyone else who helped during the election campaign, I would like to say thank you. Many volunteers helped out on election day, including members of the Knoll family and the Heysen family—many under duress but, nevertheless, thank you.

With the last 60 seconds, I would like to say thank you to Amy and the two girls. I think that Amy is a bit conflicted in the sense that she really wanted me to win and she really wanted the Liberal Party to win, but she knew the sacrifices that she was going to be asked to make. Those sacrifices are now coming into play, and we sit here tonight in this chamber debating the Address in Reply being away from our families. This is going to happen. We have 17 sitting weeks between here and the end of the year, and we are going to do the good work for the people of South Australia but, as we all know, it is our families at home who pay the price. To my girls, can I say that I will not waste my time away. I will get home as soon as I can, and I really thank you for all the support you have shown over the last four years.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (20:43): I rise, as have many others in the last couple of weeks, to contribute to the Address in Reply. I will not go into too many details, but let me say that, like everybody else, I have enormous respect for the Governor and his wife and for the work they do. Many people have gone into far more depth than that, and I will not repeat their words, but we are incredibly fortunate to have the Hon. Hieu Van Le as our Governor, so ably supported by his wife, Lan. I personally thank them for their work. As with most good people, you get good people into a job to do it the best they can and they deliver way more than they need to, and I thank them for that.

Of course, it is a great pleasure for me and for my colleagues to be in government. It would be unbelievable if I were to pretend any differently. We do not take it for granted. We were in opposition for a very long time. I played that role for eight years and for some others it was 16 years. Some were very fortunate to be elected into government immediately. However, the members of the Liberal Party, from the President and the Premier all the way through to an occasional volunteer—none of us takes this for granted. None of us found it easy to get here. None of us underestimates the responsibility that we have as a parliamentary team and as a party more broadly to deliver for the people of South Australia, and none of us will do anything other than our very, very best on behalf of the people of South Australia who have trusted us with this opportunity.

Politics is a funny game; it is a funny business. It can be quite fortunate at times; it can be unfortunate at times. It can be kind and cruel. The reality is that, as with most things, if you put the work in you get the results. Let me say of the former government that, while of course we have many disagreements and of course there is a very long list of things that we have different views about, some stridently so and some only slightly different, I am sure that the vast majority of people in the former government were doing their best at the time in their way. We will do our best in our time in our way.

In Australia, whether at the state or federal level, I really believe that in most instances most members of parliament and most political parties want the same result. For example, in energy it would be silly to think that anybody does not want affordable, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity, but we do have very different paths that we believe are the right ones to get to that end result.

I use that as an example of how fortunate we are in South Australia, in other states and in Australia nationally, and in many other countries, too, compared with other places in the world where it does not work that way. So we will have disagreements and we will fight hard against each other, but let us recognise that we are very fortunate here in this chamber that, overwhelmingly, we have good people trying to do the right thing.

In terms of the electorate of Stuart, much has been said by many, particularly on our side of the chamber, about how incredibly wonderful their electorates are. I was overwhelmed to hear a couple of my colleagues talk about their vast 1,000 square kilometres of electorate. I was overwhelmed to hear from some of my colleagues about the two or three industries that they have in their electorates. I was overwhelmed to hear about the hospital or two that they might have, the school or two that they might have or, in some cases, the hundreds of kilometres of roads.

Let me tell you, Deputy Speaker, as you well know as the member for Flinders, there is absolutely nothing better than representing a large country and outback electorate. The electorate of Stuart has an area of 372,000 square kilometres and 30 different communities. It is an amazing electorate with a wide range of diverse views and diverse industries.

I said once in this chamber that there is absolutely nothing that happens anywhere in the state of South Australia that does not happen somewhere in the electorate of Stuart, but I was pulled up I think by the member for Florey, who said, 'What about lobster?' Actually, no, we do not have a lobster fishery in the electorate of Stuart but, apart from that, I think we have all the bases covered. I am incredibly fortunate to represent the electorate of Stuart. Let me say that there is never ever a day that goes by that I do not know that, and I am sure that is true for almost all MPs here.

I never expected to be a member of parliament. It was not in my plan, in my background or in my expectations at all. I have worked incredibly hard to get preselected, I worked incredibly hard to get elected and now, as a minister, I work incredibly hard on behalf of my electorate and the people of South Australia. I thank the people of my electorate and the people of South Australia for that incredible opportunity.

Of course, it makes it harder representing a country and outback electorate and being a minister at the same time. The Premier has been incredibly kind to me with regard to the portfolio I have of energy and mining. There are huge synergies in the electorate of Stuart with energy and mining, and that is no accident, and I thank him for that. I also thank him for the fact that the energy and mining portfolio, while there is a very wide range of responsibilities captured in that, does have some very clear and measurable outcomes.

We have heard many of my colleagues talk about delivering on our election commitments. The Premier has been incredibly clear from probably two years before the election, when we were starting really to get serious about articulating our election commitments, because we had spent a lot of time before that developing them, to say that we need to describe them, we need to plan them, we need to organise them and we need to develop them properly, because if we are elected we will deliver them properly. That has been a common theme between speakers—brand-new speakers and returning MPs as well—on our side of the chamber: we are going to deliver our election commitments properly.

In my ministerial area of responsibility, there are some very clear deliverables. I know that if electricity prices become more affordable and electricity supply becomes more reliable I will be considered a person who did my job properly, with enormous support from my office, the department and many others. If that does not happen, I will be considered a person who did not do his job properly, and I accept that responsibility. I am very comfortable having things outlined that way, and I will do my best.

I say again that I will not be doing it on my own. There is a ministerial office that is nearly at completion. We have some amazing, wonderful people who have come into this office, and the whole department, approximately 330 people who, I have to say, have been invigorated for a few reasons: I am sure that, partly through a change of government—and that is not to say that they are Liberal voters, as I know for a fact that there are strong Labor people in that group; that is not what I am talking about—I think a change has invigorated them.

Another very sensible decision the Premier made well before the election was that he wanted to set up a government with, essentially, one minister, one CEO and one department wherever possible. What will officially on 1 July make up the department for energy and mining was a section of State Development previously, and then, when electricity got very difficult for the government, became a section of the Premier and Cabinet.

I am very fortunate to have officially, currently, deputy CE Paul Heithersay, who has been in charge of many things, but broadly this energy and mining area, and who will continue on as the CE for the department of energy and mining. He is an outstanding person with an outstanding leadership team reporting through to him. I am very fortunate to have him, so we will have a minister, a CE and a department to focus on energy and mining.

I say again that the people I have met in that department—and it is not nearly all of them but many, many of them—are reinvigorated. They are very keen to get on with the job, and I pay tribute to them because these are the people who were doing the very best they could to deliver on the previous government's energy policy. We have sat and we have talked about it and I said, 'Well, the reality is that I was in opposition, I was the shadow minister, I was the one saying that the previous government was not doing a good job and you were the ones helping the previous government do that. Do you want to get on board with the new government? Do you want to get on board with our policies?' Unreservedly, they do, and I thank them and congratulate them on that.

They are high-quality public servants, regardless of their personal political preference, which of course is varied in the department just as it would be out in the real world. They want to get on with the job, they are keen to get on with the job and I, as a person who had never come into the role of minister before, was extremely pleased to see the work they had done during the caretaker period to put together, to the best of their ability at the time, the best way for a new energy and mining department to deliver the new Liberal government's energy and mining policies. I thank them for that. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us and we will do it together. They are outstanding people and outstanding public servants doing the very best they can to deliver for the people of South Australia on behalf of and with the new government, and I think that is absolutely tremendous.

None of us here will ever get elected on our own—never have, never will. All speakers who have contributed to this debate have talked about a different range of people. It is not possible for all of us to name everybody, but let me start with my electoral staff. I have extraordinary electoral staff in Kapunda, in Port Augusta and, until very recently, in Parliament House as well—people who have done their jobs amazingly: Tracey Freeman and Sandra Spaeth from Port Augusta, as well as a series of very good trainees along the way, including Cassandra Delaney currently.

Stacey in Kapunda does an amazing job. Stacey is extraordinary in the sense that she comes from a station in the Far North, Farina Station, and adores family. She has worked as a journalist and editor for a range of country newspapers and now, as Stacey Davidson, has moved to Kapunda with her husband and family—closer to her in-laws. There is just an example of an incredibly broad range of experience, background and local connection which spreads across most of our vast electorate, and I could go into that sort of detail for any one of our staff.

I also want to mention Mr Chris Hanna, who most people in this chamber are aware of. He was previously a very highly regarded electorate officer and is now a ministerial adviser in energy. Chris has been my longest serving staff member. He started with me a month or so after the 2010 election and I thank him enormously for working side by side with me for eight years in opposition and for wanting to continue side by side with me into government. Again, I could go into details of the others as well, but they already know how highly I think of them and for what reasons.

Of course, I am in many ways incredibly fortunate and perhaps spoilt to be moving into a new ministerial office with staff. The people who have come out of the department, or in fact other departments, to support our ministerial office are off to a great start. I am incredibly fortunate to have Mr Dominic Kelly as my Chief of Staff, who committed, subject to our success at the election, to shift here from Sydney. He tells me that he only came because of the wine in South Australia, but I suspect that he is actually very keen to get on and do the job, too. He is a very highly qualified person, and there will be others who join our team as well.

It is with people at every level—in the electorate offices, in the ministerial office, in the department, in this chamber—that we will get great results. It is great people, working very hard, with skill, with ability, with intent, with character—that is how we will get results for the people of South Australia. You cannot do it on your own; you should not do it on your own. You would fool yourself if you thought you could do it on your own. Let me say in my first significant contribution in this chamber as a minister that I know that every single thing that I may be able to achieve on behalf of the people of South Australia in this chamber will be with the support and because of the support of very, very good people who surround me.

I move on to the absolutely most important person in my life, my wife, Rebecca, who like most, is a spouse who supports their husband or wife as a member of parliament. I often joke, but it is true that one of the most important things about my wife, Rebecca, when it comes to supporting my role in parliament and politics is that she is actually not very interested in politics. Do you know what? That is absolutely perfect. She cares about me, she cares about the community and she cares about people anywhere; she cares about the nuts and bolts of real people in the real world, and that is where her passion is.

She wants to support me to help them and she also does a lot herself to support them directly. For that, to the love of my life, I could never be thankful enough. I would never have been preselected without Rebecca's support, I would never have been elected without her support and I would never be standing here now as a minister without her support. I am sure that most people here would feel the same way about their spouse.

Just to get to a few more nuts and bolts things, consistently in the electorate of Stuart in the country areas—so if you look at the freehold land, the non-pastoral zone from, say, Port Augusta down to Truro and Kapunda—overwhelmingly the top two issues that people are concerned about are health and roads. In the northern part of the electorate, broadly defined by north of Port Augusta and in the pastoral zone, people are concerned by roads and communications. They have a lot of other concerns of course—education being one of them, access to a wide range of services being another, feeling left out and disconnected and forgotten in many ways and not being able to access things—but largely and consistently those are the two key things.

I became a candidate for Stuart back in May 2008 when the former government announced its country health plan, which, Mr Speaker, you will remember and other members will remember was roundly rejected by people all over the state. I was a brand-new candidate trying to learn how things worked, never having had a connection to a political party or politics in any way, but I can tell you it took about three seconds for me to realise that country health and country hospitals are incredibly highly valued, incredibly important for people in country areas, in our electorate particularly.

The electorate of Stuart has nine hospitals inside its boundary. It also has another eight hospitals just outside the electorate boundary, which are the closest hospitals for some people who live inside the electorate. So there are 17 hospitals in South Australia, each of which is the closest hospital to some people in our electorate—17 hospitals; incredibly important.

I and my colleagues hold the delivery of health services to country South Australia as a sacred obligation. There are other incredibly high priorities, but the delivery of health services to people in country and outback areas is a sacred obligation of a government. We so strongly believe in that. Of course, it is important to say that the delivery of the health service is not just about hospitals, but the majority of those hospitals—even, very often, GP clinics—are connected physically and in many other ways with country hospitals as well.

The delivery of roads is incredibly important. It is no accident that the Premier and our team have delivered a commitment before the election and will deliver in reality 30 per cent of all mining royalties going to transport and infrastructure projects in regional South Australia. That is about delivering services that should be there, that should have been there, and also about delivering growth opportunities.

We know that country South Australia deserves extraordinary support and attention because country and outback South Australia deliver for metropolitan South Australia enormously. Mr Deputy Speaker, as the member for Flinders you know that, as do many of our colleagues on this side. The Labor Party is incredibly unfortunate to only have one non-metropolitan member. It is a great shame for the Labor Party. They do not get the importance of regional communities, and perhaps it is not their fault because it is not part of who they are or what they do. The electorate of Giles is a Labor-held seat. Beyond that there is not one, and I think that does that party a great disservice.

The reality is that the metropolitan area of Adelaide is growing and growing. In the views of many people, it goes quite far down the Fleurieu Peninsula and north of Gawler these days. The seats that include the Fleurieu Peninsula and the fringes of Adelaide, and the seats that include Gawler and the northern fringes of Adelaide, are not country seats. They might have some parts of them that are considered country, and those parts are incredibly important but, overwhelmingly, the vast majority of electors, constituents in those seats, would be considered greater metropolitan people. So good luck to those Labor MPs who have some country in their electorates—that is fantastic—but they are not country electorates.

There is another issue I would like to just touch on very quickly, and that is the issue of wild dogs. It sounds like a great topic. Who knows if that is the name of a movie or the latest, greatest TV show? The reality is that it is a very serious and very unfortunate topic. I raise this topic because it affects my electors very seriously, and it is starting to affect other electors and will continue to affect other electors if we do not get on top of it.

Wild dogs—essentially dingoes—once roamed free all over Australia and then were largely only above the dog fence, but in the last few decades have started to come further south below the dog fence for a wide range of reasons that I have enumerated in this place many times, and I am sure I will again. I will not go into that, but the reality is that if we do not get on top of this problem, our grazing industry hundreds of kilometres south of the dog fence is going to face even more challenges.

A dog was shot at Caltowie a week and a half ago. I have not done the sums, but Caltowie has to be 400 kilometres or thereabouts below the dog fence. The week before that, there was one at Laura. This is a reasonably close country area. There was one at Port Neill and one at Waikerie. This is an issue that, if it is allowed to get further out of hand, will cause enormous grief for our grazing industry.

We went to the election with a commitment to deliver funding towards two full-time trappers. Shooting, baiting, fences and a range of other things go to address wild dogs. Trapping is the big piece that is missing at the moment, and we will deliver on that program because that is the way, the experts tell me—and I do not pretend to be an expert—that you can get the smart dogs that do not get shot, do not take bait and have managed to get their way through the fence and, in many cases, to live and breed south of the dog fence for many years. They are the ones that will not be taken any other way. That is a very important issue.

I would like to finish with two things; one is with regard to Aboriginal heritage and Aboriginal people. Port Augusta, as you know, is the heart, population-wise, of the electorate I represent, and it has an Aboriginal population of approximately 20 per cent. Let me say very clearly that it would not matter if there were one Aboriginal person living in Port Augusta or if it were 90 per cent Aboriginal—every single person in this electorate gets represented. Young or old, male or female, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, rich or poor, farmer, town dweller or factory worker, it does not matter. Every single person in the electorate of Stuart gets represented.

Every single person knows that they can come to me with an issue and that they will be represented. Aboriginal people, multigenerational Anglo-Saxons, recent migrants, migrants who have been here for a few generations—every single person in our electorate is important. It does not matter what they do or where they come from, or whether their family has been in Australia for tens of thousands of years or if they came just recently. If they came legally, with the right attitude and the right approach, and they want to contribute to our community, they get represented.

The last thing I would like to say is that one of the key directives that our leader, the Premier of South Australia, has given our members—whether they be ministers or the broader team in which we all serve—is that our government will act with humility, accountability and delivery in our minds every single day. Humility, accountability and delivery: everyone on our team is committed to that. We are very pleased to be in government. We are very pleased, but we are not going nuts, we are not going crazy and we are not saying, 'How good are we?' We are very pleased because now we can get on with the job. We are all accountable.

We know that we are accountable to our electorates. We know that every single one of us is accountable to deliver our previously opposition but now Liberal government's election commitments. We will do that with humility, accountability and delivery. They will be the hallmarks of the Marshall Liberal government, and every single person on our team, including those in the other place, is fully committed to doing that on behalf of our electorates and on behalf of South Australia. We will do that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (21:13): I am very pleased to be able to speak in reply to His Excellency's outstanding speech. I commend the Governor for his speech and his delivery and for his service to South Australia in so many ways. Other members have reflected on that outstanding contribution, and I echo their words without repeating them. Mr Deputy Speaker, I congratulate you on your service in this role, as I congratulate the Speaker, as others have done. I know that this chamber will benefit from yours and the Speaker's fine wisdom, gravitas and deliberations. The dignity that we hope this parliament will maintain is in good hands under you and the Speaker.

I offer my congratulations to the Premier. Earlier this evening, the member for Schubert spent some time talking about the contribution the Premier made to ensuring that the Liberal Party was in the best possible position to form government at the last election and, having been elected, to govern well. The Premier's contribution to the Liberal Party will not soon be forgotten, and that will not just be as a function of the strong government he leads and will continue to lead for some time but because of the work he did over five years as then leader of the opposition.

The Premier is one of the longest serving leaders in the history of the South Australian Liberal Party. As others have identified, he has brought the Liberal Party together over his time as leader and encouraged all of us to identify each other's strengths and support each other as colleagues, and to work as a team, first in the long dreary days of opposition—which those opposite are now starting to familiarise themselves with—and then through two elections.

As others have pointed out, this was at a time when many people found it easy to criticise the leader of the opposition, as he was then—this despite the fact that he won 53 per cent of the popular vote at the only election he had ever gone to—mainly, it struck me, for the sin that we had not yet knocked off the government. For many years, that was something he had to deal with, but he never complained about it.

All he did was to identify the challenges that people felt in their lives that were imposed by the government, which we could somehow fix. Of course, these were the reasons people were anxious that we had not won the previous election. He channelled all those anxieties of the people who complained into talking about how we could better deliver for the people of South Australia. That is the challenge he has called on all of us to address.

He brought the entire Liberal parliamentary team with him in that effort. He gave all of us the opportunity to have input into every policy decision that was made and he gave the Liberal parliamentary team the opportunity to deal with the tactical approach that we made. When I was manager of opposition business we ensured that we had a set of tactics that the Liberal parliamentary team had the opportunity to buy into, and we benefited extremely strongly from that unanimity of purpose. We all got to know each other extremely well in those days of opposition and we knew that we could rely on each other to that end.

There are a number of members who were with us through that journey, who contributed to that unanimity of purpose, who contributed to the body of work that was done on developing, first, a foundation or platform document in '2036', then the policies that were built on top of that foundation, and the election policies and election campaigns that sat on top of that. They are, of course, Isobel Redmond, Mitch Williams, Michael Pengilly, Steven Griffiths and Mark Goldsworthy. I thank them for the work they did; it was quite extraordinary.

As others have done, I commend the new members who have been elected to this house in their place, and I note that some of them have acknowledged them in their maiden speeches. However, as I think the member for Schubert said in his speech, many of us who now have the absolute privilege of being able to serve as ministers in this government doorknocked, phone canvassed or participated in community meetings right across this state over the course of our time in opposition, not just in the lead-up to the election campaign.

Many of us had the opportunity to help some of those new members in their campaigns and in their races, but those retiring members—despite the fact they knew that, were we to win government, they would not have the opportunity to serve as ministers or to have other roles in the government—worked just as hard as so many of the people in this place did to help there be a change of government. For that I commend and thank them.

I do not propose to single out the other people who worked so hard on our election campaign, save for two exceptions, they being the Premier's Chief of Staff, James Stevens, and the State Director of the Liberal Party, Sascha Meldrum. They did an extraordinary job. They spent a lot of their own time and money and their own holidays to develop their skills and their understanding of campaigns elsewhere in the country and around the world, and I commend them for that. The effort, the single-minded determination that they would lead that campaign in a strong way to make sure the administration and the running of the campaign was done well was tremendous—James Stevens in the sense of leading the parliamentary team's administration and Sascha Meldrum in the campaign itself.

In the 2014 election, the Liberal Party succeeded in securing 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. In the election prior to that, when Isobel Redmond was the leader, the Liberal Party succeeded in achieving more than 50 per cent of the vote. Other members have pointed out that—and I have almost lost count: six out of seven, seven out of eight or maybe even eight out of nine—in every election since 1985 in fact, save for the 2006 election, the people of South Australia have preferred, through the expression in the ballot box, the Liberal Party to the Labor Party to form government.

The fact that this is only the third time the Liberal Party has formed government has been put down to a number of things over the years. The shadow treasurer says incompetent campaigning and that is a point that the former treasurer has suggested before. I see the Opposition Whip is gesticulating and I recall some of his efforts to bring around Labor Party victories in seats like Mawson and Morialta with the 'put your family first' campaign in 2010, which he authorised. These are the ways that the Labor Party has claimed credit for securing victories.

The thing that really interests me in the opportunity to provide an Address in Reply—I think it was after the last election, after the last Governor's speech—is that the former treasurer said that if the Labor Party had had different boundaries then they would have campaigned in other places. I commend the member for Mawson on his victory, where he campaigned, obviously, fairly effectively in places the Labor Party had not necessarily spent much time on before. The former treasurer suggested that the Labor Party was such a good operator that they could, with less than 50 per cent of the vote, win an election and that was something to be applauded.

On that basis, I say the fact that the Liberal Party has significantly increased its vote on boundaries which the Labor Party had as much time to campaign in as anyone else, and that the Liberal Party has significantly won seats off the Labor Party and off at least one Independent, off two Independents, goes to the credit of the campaign run by the Liberal Party at this election.

My view is that the people's will in South Australia is best served when a government is put into power that reflects the will of the people. The majority of people having voted for the Liberal Party, South Australia would have been better served by a Liberal government on all those occasions. But this is an election where the Labor Party, by its own criteria, campaigned more poorly than the Liberal Party. They had less to offer than the Liberal Party. They received fewer votes than the Liberal Party. They received fewer of the two-party preferred votes than the Liberal Party.

Despite the bragging that we heard from so many Labor members in recent months leading up to the election—the Nick Xenophon force was going to attack the Liberal Party in its heartland and the Labor Party would cruise through with the deal that they were no doubt going to do with Nick Xenophon—what we actually saw on election night was 25 on the night and the Liberal Party returned to government after a very long time in opposition with a clear majority that was well known, as others have pointed out, not that long into election night.

That was the result of an outstanding campaign, an outstanding policy platform and an outstanding set of candidates. I include, as others have done, some of those candidates who fell short: Steven Rypp and Therese Kenny, the candidates for Lee and Torrens; the candidate for Wright, Luigi Mesisca; and the Liberal candidate for Mawson, Andy Gilfillan, are four who have often been mentioned. I am sure there were others I should be mentioning. Kendall Jackson in Frome did an outstanding job time and time again knocking on the doors, as did so many candidates. Lachlan Clyne in Badcoe was relentless and tireless in his efforts.

I am certain that the Labor Party spent enormous amounts of energy in the end, not just defending seats like Taylor from the Nick Xenophon threat but, indeed, defending seats that they expected to win in a canter from Liberal Party candidates who were unsuccessful in obtaining election to the parliament, but who were successful in ensuring that the Labor Party put significant resources into their seats and potentially less into others.

That is not to diminish the extraordinary achievements of the member for King, the member for Adelaide, the member for Newland, the member for Elder, and the member for Colton. People forget that Colton used to be a Labor seat and it is now nearly 10 per cent Liberal. I commend the new members for all of those seats for their extraordinary efforts in either holding or winning those seats for the Liberal Party.

The member for Waite overcame a significant challenge, and a former member who was very confident at one stage that he was going to retain the seat ultimately decided not to run for one reason or another. So those campaigns were strong and exceptional. The Labor Party worked very hard in King. The Labor Party worked very hard in Newland. The Labor Party worked very hard in Colton and certainly in Adelaide and Elder.

The Labor Party did not give up on those seats, but they were defeated because those communities saw a couple of things. They saw Liberal candidates with exceptional futures ahead of them and an exceptional capacity to serve their electorates, and they saw the opportunity under a Liberal government to deliver a better future for their children and a better future for their community. All of this, of course, leads to the work of the leader of the opposition, as he was then and the Premier as he is now, and his achievement in winning government having formed that policy platform. His achievements already early in government are to be absolutely commended, and I do so now.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about the electorate of Morialta. During the Address in Reply a number of members have identified their electorates as the best electorates in South Australia. That reflects on something that I have said in previous elections: the seat of Morialta has, of course, been significantly redrawn. When I was chosen as the Liberal candidate for Morialta, 10 years ago almost to the day, give or take a week, to take on my predecessor Lindsay Simmons in what was a well-spirited campaign, the seat of Morialta included parts of the Burnside council that have long since departed and it included Newton and Paradise (which were removed at the last election) and it included some of Magill which has since been hived off into Hartley. It went up into the hills as far as Norton Summit and Cherryville. It was about 95 per cent metropolitan and most of that was the Campbelltown council.

The last redistribution was quite profound in Morialta and changed the character of the electorate significantly, certainly in terms of the communities of interest that were involved. Some 50 per cent of Morialta remains in the Campbelltown council, the suburbs of Rostrevor and Athelstone. They are the suburbs where I live and where I grew up. I grew up in Rostrevor and I live in Athelstone, and I imagine that I will live there for a very long time. It is an extraordinary part of the world.

Across the river, we lost Dernancourt, the half of Dernancourt that we had at this election, to the seat of Torrens, and gained the half of Highbury that we did not previously have. So, we have in the City of Tea Tree Gully about 20 per cent of our electors. It is a wonderful part of the world. It is an extraordinarily diverse group of people, but diverse in a different way from Campbelltown. In Campbelltown, there is an extraordinarily rich Italian-Australian heritage and a growing migrant population in many ways. Highbury has a slightly different demographic makeup but is nonetheless a wonderful part of the world.

We have now gone from about 5 per cent Adelaide Hills to about 30 per cent Adelaide Hills. We have picked up townships with different communities of interest and different expectations of their local MP, and they have different issues that drive their particular concerns on a day-to-day basis than many people in the metropolitan area.

I should say electricity, the price of water, the cost of living and the hope for jobs for their kids are, of course, common issues everywhere, as are concerns about health and education. However, different schools and different hospitals are providing the services in these areas and, of course, different industries drive that job growth and face different pressures in relation to costs.

Morialta is now a wonderfully situated electorate, including townships such as Gumeracha, Birdwood, Lobethal, Mount Torrens, Summertown, Uraidla, Kenton Valley and a range of other areas that are new to the electorate—Lenswood and Forest Range in particular. Of course, we lost Paracombe to the member for Newland in the redistribution. Paracombe is known for many things: the Highercombe golf club, the Paracombe Primary School, which led the year 5 NAPLAN results two years in a row during my tenure as the member for Morialta, and we expect high things of the new local member in that field.

Paracombe winery now has the honourable member behind me as its new local member, and I am very sad to have lost it. However, the new parts of Morialta have brought with them their own wonderful wineries, cherry farms, apples and pears. I have had cherry farms ever since the beginning, of course, Norton Summit and Montacute being significant cherry producing areas. We now have about 80 per cent of Adelaide Hills as cherries in the seat of Morialta.

I was very privileged late last year to be appointed cherries ambassador by Cherries SA. Those who have been in the house for a little while, who listened to grieves in December, will be familiar with the very important work there. The Morialta electorate now therefore fulfils the promise claimed of it for the last two elections—spuriously claimed by so many other members—of being the best and most beautiful electorate in the whole of South Australia.

The Morialta election campaign was spirited and fought almost entirely in a very positive context. I congratulate the other candidates. Peter Field was the Labor Party's candidate. When James Sadler was announced as the Xenophon party's candidate, many commentators suggested that Peter Field would run a distant third. I commend him for the work he does as a Tea Tree Gully councillor and the hard work he did on the election trail.

He did not seem to get a lot of support from Labor Party head office, but I know from people in the community who were doorknocked by him that he was relentless in his doorknocking, and I commend him for that work. His campaign was largely built around his own personal work in the community. I have good regard for him. I think he served his party well, and I believe James Sadler did as well.

Although James succumbed to the late drop in Xenophon votes that we saw across South Australia, I think that he did not have as much time as Peter Field to establish himself in the community and to become known for his own achievements in the community, and I think that helped Peter overtake him to come second in the end. I do not say that to grandstand in any way.

As I said to them at the declaration of the polls—and I am grateful they both came along—I think they did their parties proud. They did their parties proud in the way they expressed themselves. As I said to them both, I am sure they would do a better job than some members of parliament who serve in their parties had they been elected instead—just not in the seat of Morialta, where the people were kind enough to choose me instead.

I also acknowledge the significant work undertaken on the campaign trail by Peter Smythe, an Independent candidate endorsed by the Australian Democrats. Peter worked very hard. He did a lot of doorknocking. His campaign was not as strongly resourced in terms of financial support, but he had an active campaign. He spoke to a lot of people. Since the election, I have spoken to Peter about a number of issues that he encountered on the campaign trail, and he is aware that I have taken up those issues. I appreciate the work that he did for his community.

I encountered Simon Roberts-Thompson, the Greens candidate, a couple of times. He also put himself forward very well. I did not have the opportunity to meet Matt Smith from the Conservatives and Tim Farrow from the Dignity Party, but from the reports of their volunteers, and certainly in their public presence, they conducted themselves with dignity. I appreciate the work of all the candidates who gave the people of Morialta a significant range of choice in the election. To the people of Morialta, including all those from new areas, I am very grateful for their support.

In those two areas, those Hills townships in particular, with which I had not necessarily had as much to do in the past, I had so much fun. My wife, Trudy, and I had so much fun over the last 18 months, becoming so intimately involved with all those communities. I noticed one thing upon my election to parliament. I was baptised a Lutheran when I was at university, having had a range of experiences that led me to the Lutheran Church. Having been elected as the member for Morialta, where 45 per cent of my constituency in the 2010 to 2014 period were Italian Catholic, my Lutheran heritage did not necessarily give me the opportunity to go to church much in my electorate. In fact, there was not a Lutheran church in the Morialta electorate for the first eight years that I was here.

My local church in Magill is in Hartley, and I still appreciate being a member there. The redistribution of the boundaries gave me three Lutheran churches, which I particularly enjoyed getting to know very well. It was wonderful that on the quincentenary (500 years) of the Reformation, when Luther nailed the theses on the gate of the church at Wittenberg, we were able to celebrate at the Lobethal Lutheran church with an extraordinary congregation from around the Hills coming to join in.

I stand in front of a portrait of Tom Playford. His son, who was a pastor, of course, in the new parts of the Morialta electorate, supported a different candidate from me. I acknowledge that he was probably worth a few votes for my opponent, but he was a wonderful town crier. That beautiful sense of community that was shown in Lobethal could have been replayed in any number of communities around the world. I appreciate all the churches throughout the Hills that took me in as a congregant and as someone who was able to participate.

I also thank all the community groups. I have become a sponsor of a lot of football clubs and bowls clubs in the Hills. I think that there are still some more that have escaped our grasp, and I am looking forward to becoming a sponsor and sometime patron. That is going to be a tremendous opportunity. With the challenges and issues faced by people in those new parts of the electorate, I have been privileged to be taken into people's lives and trust to share in their hopes for a better community and a better economy going forward. I am hoping very much, and I am confident indeed, that this government will be able to deliver on the promise they have hoped for.

I thank, in particular, Mark Goldsworthy, the former member for Kavel, who was the local member for much of that area, and the member for Bragg, who serviced Summertown and Uraidla and some parts of Basket Range and Ashton that have also come into Morialta for much of the last eight years. They worked very hard to ensure that I was able to be included in that community, and I appreciate that. I also appreciate the current member for Kavel, who made a few friends in the Lobethal-Lenswood area in the last few years. He was then very kind and helped them to become my friends, too, in the last 18 months.

I want to pay particular tribute to one of those people. Her name was Val Hall and she is, sadly, no longer with us. Val was a councillor for the Adelaide Hills Council and the Gumeracha council before it. Val served her community with distinction, with honour, with grace and with dignity for decades. During the campaign, it was no small thing that the Gumeracha Town Hall, where her funeral service was held, was packed and standing room only.

We had a number of members of parliament and former members of parliament at the service: Stan Evans, Isobel Redmond, the member for Kavel and a range of others. I do a disservice. There were about three or four who currently slip my mind who were in attendance. Ivan Venning, the member for Schubert, was also there to pay tribute to her, along with hundreds of people from entirely different political backgrounds.

We heard stories about Val's life and the trailblazing path that she set for women in so many ways in her fields and in the service she provided through service clubs and supporting schools and hospitals, and her work in local government. The hundreds, or probably thousands, of people whose lives she touched was extraordinary. Nothing was more extraordinary, though, than the pathos of John, her grieving husband, singing an extraordinary Frank Sinatra song to her at the end of his eulogy. I do not think anybody who was in that room is going to forget that at any time in their life.

Val's life's work cannot easily be summarised in three or four minutes, but I note that in the years ahead there will be many opportunities for the community to express their appreciation of Val Hall. In August, I believe, the local community will erect a seat in her honour in Gumeracha's Federation Park, and I look forward to hopefully having the opportunity to participate in unveiling it. It is a wonderful tribute to her and absolutely well deserved. She did so much to help me become a local in the new areas of my electorate and I am going to be forever grateful for that and for her friendship and support. I miss her very much, as I know the whole community does.

I want to take the opportunity to thank a number of the people who helped on my campaign, including my staff, in particular those who were with me before the election: Sarah, Kahlia, Louise, Bailey, our volunteer Di (whom I am very pleased has joined my staff two days a week in the electorate office) and, until recently, Luke. They had an enormous amount of emotion going into the campaign as well. Their jobs were on the line as much as mine was. They toiled in their work hours and they volunteered in their private time to help deliver what we believed was an excellent set of opportunities for the people of Morialta through a new government and through the local commitments that we had.

I thank my SEC president, George Hallwood, who was also my SEC president in my first election campaign in 2010. He took over from me 10 years ago as the SEC president when I became a candidate. George did a body of work, as did my local branch presidents and their teams: Jan Barry in the Torrens Valley branch, Reeva Brice in the Morialta central branch and Irene Filsell in the Lobethal branch, all of whom are stalwart Liberals.

In particular, I want to pay tribute to my wife, Trudi, who is, along with me, expecting a beautiful baby daughter soon, God willing. A couple of other members have mentioned their spouses. Trudi has not come from a political background. Her interest in politics, I regret, has not grown as much as I might have hoped in the last three years. However, she has enjoyed the community aspects of the role, particularly as we have visited the new parts of the electorate and as I have introduced her to the parts of the electorate that I have lived in for my entire life. This is particularly so with my former portfolio roles in multicultural affairs and, to a lesser extent, the arts. Trudi has thrown herself into the community aspects of the role, of being part of a team working in politics, and she has been taken to heart by so many people in the community. It is a strange life sometimes, but one that she has put up with and indeed embraced, and I appreciate her support and love so much.

I will share one story with the house, which I did receive permission to tell. The Lights of Lobethal committee was kind enough to have me as their guest speaker at this year's AGM and to present some of the awards for the Lights of Lobethal. When we were going to the Lights of Lobethal AGM, Trudi did not realise that by the end of the night she would have committed to having our child serve as baby Jesus in the living Nativity of the Lights of Lobethal at the end of the year, yet that is what happened, and now she is looking forward to that.

What she had not realised was that, in addition to that, apparently Jesus' mother gets to play Mary in the living Nativity. That was something that Trudi also had not expected to be doing at the beginning of the night, and now she is looking forward to it, although she has asked if the father can serve as a wise man rather than mum having to play Mary. My feeling is that maybe we will both get a go. Either way, I am looking forward to it, as I am looking forward—

Mr Koutsantonis: You could be the Holy Spirit.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —thank you—to every single aspect of the opportunity to serve as a minister. It is an honour. I thank the Premier for that honour, and I commit to my electorate and the people of South Australia that I will work every day I am given towards their betterment and their benefit as we take on the tasks ahead.

Motion carried.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT