HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-11 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Gawler Rally

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:24): Today, I would like to talk about a rally that was held in Gawler on Sunday. The rally was held at the Niina Marni Cafe for people who wanted to express their concerns about the Marshall Liberal government's agenda of cuts, closures and privatisation of public services. The rally was organised by me and a number of other people and it was in response to comments posted on social media by local residents concerned about the axing of learner driver testing in Gawler and the pending privatisation of train services and Service SA centres.

The rally was addressed by Gawler mayor, Karen Redman, who spoke about the negative impact that the axing of learner driver testing was having on local youth and their families. Mayor Redman said that, as a growing community, Gawler needed new and additional services, not the axing of existing public services. At the rally, a petition signed by 547 staff and students at Xavier College, Gawler, objecting to the Marshall Liberal government's closure of learner driver testing in Gawler was presented to me to table in state parliament. The petition demonstrates how upset local people are about the cuts to basic services in the area.

The axing of this service was made worse by the fact that the decision was made without any consultation with industry, parents or learner drivers. This decision means that it will cost young people and their families more to obtain their Ps, while driving instructors will incur more costs and a loss of income. I can tell you that small business people are not happy with this particular government and this decision. Unfortunately, this decision by the government to axe this particular service means that local people and small businesses are the losers.

I have been in parliament for some 13-odd years and it is the first time I have received a petition signed by parents, students and staff at a school. It is interesting to note that the whole school community has been outraged by the decision to axe this service, which is very important to young people, and it also goes against the mantra of this government about reducing costs and improving services. It is certainly not true in this case.

There has been a lot of disquiet in my community about the pending privatisation of our rail services. Darren Phillips, State Secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, who also spoke at the rally, warned about the pending cuts to services and security on trains and increasing fares once the trains are taken over by a private operator. He also highlighted the failure of train privatisations in Melbourne and London.

Mr Phillips highlighted those two because, interestingly, they were two examples that the Marshall Liberal government gave to justify privatising the services. A number of these services, both in London and in Melbourne, have again come into public hands because they could not run them without additional funding, or they have gone into private hands and then public hands again because they just could not operate the service.

The reality is that train services—public transport services—are a natural monopoly. Despite all the rhetoric, it is very hard to get competition into a market when you have only one operator. If there is one thing worse than a public monopoly, it is a private monopoly, because there is no capacity to control them through the political process.

The rally was also addressed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Peter Malinauskas, who spoke about the anger right across the metropolitan area from people who were expressing their concerns about the long-term damage the Marshall Liberal government's privatisation agenda is doing to the community and the economy.

At the rally, we also heard from a SA Pathology employee, who talked about the effect the current cuts to services are having on patient care and how the threat of privatisation was undermining a highly respected pathology service in this state. She warned about how a privatised pathology service could result in delays in obtaining test results, with samples likely to be sent interstate and overseas to cut costs and boost profits for the new private operator.

I will just mention a couple of things from her talk. She talked about how proud they are of the work they do and that the work they do is very manual work requiring staffing levels that have been cut at the moment, again threatening the quality of their work. She also talked about patients in the future having to wait longer periods to get the results of their tests. She finished off by saying that she does not actually believe this government cares about the patients and people of South Australia.

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