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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-27 Daily Xml
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Roxby Downs Anniversary

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:31): I rise today to talk about a number of issues. I would like to quickly reflect upon the fact that the parliamentary sitting calendar for next year has come out. I have to say well done to the government because for those of us with country seats the back-to-back fortnightly sittings have been absolutely terrible. It is especially terrible for those of us with big country electorates.

When people want a quick idea about my electorate, I usually tell them that in land mass it is bigger than Germany with a population of a relatively small German town. When parliament is sitting, those of us from the country cannot get back to our electorates at night; we are stuck here. The fact that there are not going to be fortnightly sittings next year I think is a very good thing, and I am sure that it will come as a relief to a number of the country members in the government as well. The opportunity that you get when you have some time to get out to the electorate and elsewhere is always well received.

This year has been a big year in my electorate, especially with the second largest community at Roxby Downs and the great Olympic Dam mine. They are celebrating their 30th anniversary. I have spoken about that just recently, so I am not going to go over it, but I will say that on Saturday, a week ago, was the big family day celebration at Roxby Downs to celebrate its 30th anniversary. There was a very big turnout, not just of local people but of people who have been involved with the mine and the community going back over many years.

To their credit, BHP put on a couple of extra planes to take people up to Roxby Downs to participate in the events of the day. Part of the day involved the opening of the Kalta sculpture. If you get an opportunity to go up to Roxby Downs and have a look at it, do so. It is a massive rendition of a sleepy lizard made in copper. It was done in consultation with the Kokatha people in the region because that particular animal is of very significant importance to them. It is a very impressive sculpture.

It is always great to be shown around the operations at Olympic Dam, and it takes me back to the days when I used to do a bit of work up there in a previous life. Chris Barnesby, the current general manager of surface operations, took us on a bit more of a detailed visit to the aboveground operations. Some people who had not seen it before were incredibly impressed because the resource processing that goes on in Roxby Downs is actually a very complex undertaking.

In addition to Roxby Downs, there was also an opportunity to go and visit the wonderful community of Quorn. I went there to talk to the HAC about some medical issues, especially the availability of doctors in smaller regional communities. For many years, Quorn has been very well served, but the doctor who is there at the moment will eventually be moving on after many years there and the community is trying to plan for that transition.

I know from other communities in my electorate, such as Kimba, but also communities outside my electorate, the challenge of getting GPs in this day and age. I am on the same page as the federal member in that we believe that the range of carrots that are available is no longer sufficient. There has to be some sort of approach that recognises the systemic issue that is being faced. We often talk about the potential to use the Medicare provider number, either on the basis of postcodes or population ratios, so that we do not have concentrations of GPs overservicing the metropolitan area and we get GPs out to where they are needed. On that note, I will finish.

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