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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Southern Expressway

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Police. Given that there have now been 11 reported incidents of rock throwing along the—

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! I will listen to the entire question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right will not interject. I will listen to the question. If there are background facts and those facts need to be validated, I will hear that, but members will not interject before the entirety of the question. The leader.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Will the minister now take immediate action and declare the expressway a protected area under the Protective Security Act?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:27): I thank the leader for the question. As you know, this is not a new problem. It's a problem that has been in our society for years now, and I back our police. Those on the other side might not, but I back our police.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Attorney is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Those on this side back our police. What we need to acknowledge here is this is a problem that was created under their watch. It was created under their watch, and we are dealing with the problem.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! Minister, do not provoke the opposition. Please, just stick to the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I do note from their press release policy that they are operating now from opposition, after 16 years of government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —that they claim that if the government won't act the opposition will.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The minister will be seated for one moment, please. Member for West Torrens on a point of order.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: The minister was quoting an opposition press release. He is not responsible for policies of the opposition, but he should be answering the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: I have heard the point of order, and I will say the following—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. Knoll: You asked the question in relation to this.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport is called to order. Points of order are not able to be used solely to disrupt a minister's answer, but the minister is talking about background information that I think is relevant to the answer. Minister, please return to the substance of the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I do return to the substance of the question, and that is that I back police. Their trigger response has been outstanding. They have increased their presence in the area. They have increased foot patrols, increased mounted police, bicycle police and motorcycle police in that area, so police are doing an outstanding job. They are doing everything in their powers to be in the location, in the area, dealing with this issue. I note those on the other side—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —after 16 years of delivering nothing, absolutely nothing, claim that they want to—

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: the minister is debating the question again, talking about the opposition, sir. Relevance, sir.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for relevance. Minister, please stick to the substance of the question. When the minister talks about opposition policy, that is strictly not directly relevant to the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Again, I back police. That is the point I cannot stress enough here. They are doing an outstanding job.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Suggestions of increased lighting when, after 16 years, you didn't increase lighting—if it was so important 16 years ago, why didn't the opposition increase lighting? If it was important for security, they should have done it. If reducing vegetation—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and trimming trees was that important a few months ago, why wasn't it done? Why wasn't it done? This is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will be heard in silence. He is attempting to answer the substance of the question. Minister.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: This has been an ongoing problem. This has not been an overnight problem: it is an ongoing problem. We back police. They are dealing with it. Those on the other side had 16 years to give an answer and they gave nothing, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, minister. Is there a supplementary question?

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