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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-15 Daily Xml
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Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Adjourned debate on motion for adoption (resumed on motion).

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:38): I talked about StudyAdelaide and its student engagement program ensuring that international students have a rewarding experience when they are here in Adelaide. They talk to them about the practical information about studying, living and working in Adelaide and host organised events, such as a welcome on arrival, and wideranging social and cultural activities.

The student ambassador program also provides opportunities for international students to experience studying in Adelaide for a limited period. During my time as minister for multicultural affairs, I met many people who started their time here in South Australia as an international student, loved living here and continued to stay. Many met their future partners while they were studying at the universities. We have a very diverse network of people and a diverse network of countries that people come from. Of course, our Chinese student population is the most significant, followed by most of the other South-East Asian regions.

I want to touch on the industry capability network in South Australia that provides a pivotal connection between major projects and South Australia's best suppliers. It fosters opportunities for local businesses to capitalise on the dollars in major projects underway and the incoming pipeline of work. It has powerful tools, like the ICN Gateway, a database containing more than 65,000 supplier records. It has contributed to contracts, valued at more than $2 billion, being awarded to South Australian companies and the creation of more than 28,000 jobs. This list of local businesses with demonstrated capacity to meet the requirements of major international, national and local developers matches the businesses, their skills and their expertise with projects and developers.

What does the Marshall Liberal government propose? In this area, it is proposing new trade offices in Japan, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the US and Shanghai and an additional embedded office in Guangzhou for an export-led recovery.

Time expired.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for King, I remind members that this is the member's first speech, and accordingly I ask members to please extend the traditional courtesies to the member.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:40): I would like to thank His Excellency the Governor for his excellent speech. Thank you. It was heartening to hear that you have such confidence in our new government and heartening to hear you restate the priorities of this new Liberal government: more jobs, lower costs and better government services for South Australians. Mr Speaker, warm congratulations on your election to the Chair. You clearly demonstrate a deep community contribution and I am certain, Mr Speaker, that you will keep the members of this house focused on the best interests of South Australians.

To our new ministers, parliamentary colleagues and my friends and family in the gallery, I am grateful to be elected as a servant and voice for my local community. I congratulate all new members and all re-elected members. It is evident to me that the recent election was won through hard work by the Liberal Party candidates and staff and by the candidates' commitment to engage and listen to the people of South Australia. In King, my campaign strategy was simple: to knock on doors personally to ask my constituents what was most important to them, and then at night I telephoned those people I could not catch at home.

Knowing what matters most to my community is most important to me. I am proud of Premier Steven Marshall and the Liberal members for demonstrating to South Australians that we care deeply about people and about a much better future for South Australians. It is such a great honour and privilege to stand here today as the first member for the new northern suburbs electorate of King. I pledge my commitment to my community to serve tirelessly and be a strong advocate for the people who live in King, no matter how they cast their vote in the March 2018 election.

Parliamentary colleagues, listening to your Address in Reply speeches, I have been so thankful to learn more about your electorates and to hear about your journey to parliament. Our journeys to this house have certainly been very different, and that will be our strength, as it will help us to better represent the diverse communities that we serve. My community told me that they want us to be respectful leaders in our community, and in this house they want us to find common ground and keep focused on what is good for South Australia. This is real leadership.

I would like to take the opportunity to inform my colleagues and the electors of King who may read or listen to my speech about what I have learnt about the electorate of King. King is a new seat created by the redistribution in 2016 and was contested for the first time at the 2018 state election. King has over 27,000 electors. Many times during my doorknocking, people looked surprised when I said that I was the Liberal candidate for King. Many people had not heard that they were living in King. I will be mindful in the future of the importance of communicating any electoral boundary changes to those impacted in my community.

Many, many times during the 10 months of doorknocking, I repeated the suburbs of the electorate of King and restated my view that King is the most beautiful electorate. King spreads north across a very large geographic area in the north-eastern and northern suburbs. King suburbs include Golden Grove, which for those of us who have lived locally for over 20 years proudly remember was once named the world's best suburb. Golden Grove is where our new King electorate office is now located. Also, King includes Greenwith, Salisbury Heights, part of Salisbury East, Salisbury Park, Hillbank, One Tree Hill, Uleybury, Yattalunga, Bibaringa, Gould Creek and part of Surrey Downs.

King has a wonderful mixture of metro and rural living. When my husband, son and I first started letterboxing in rural King, my husband and son were so taken by the rural countryside and the paddocks full of sheep and kangaroos that they soon started talking of moving to the country, which is actually only 15 minutes' drive from our house in Golden Grove. In autumn, many streets in King have stunning green, red and golden leaves on the beautiful tree-lined streets.

King has oodles of natural habitats, such as Cobbler Creek Recreation Park, Para Wirra Conservation Park and the Little Para Reservoir. King also has sensational wineries, rambling creeks and rolling hills. We are lucky to have many large popular recreational grounds such as the Carisbrooke Park at Salisbury Park, the Kites and Kestrels adventure playground at Salisbury East, Jo Gapper Park at Hillbank, Tilley Reserve at Surrey Downs and Goldenfields at Golden Grove.

King also has the most welcoming community. For example, while campaigning, I was invited by a lovely group of ladies that I met at the Old Spot farmers markets to join a walking group called the Walkie Talkies. These locals from across King meet each Sunday morning at the One Tree Hill General Diner at 8am and set off around different parts of the beautiful landscape of King. When we return, we have a coffee, we say hello to the locals who are heading into the diner to pick up their Sunday papers and grab a bag of the most delicious freshly baked rolls you will ever try.

There are so many wonderful community volunteers and volunteer groups in King. I am a member of the Golden Grove Lions Club, whose ethics I appreciate, as they very much match my own values. At each meeting we read out and remind members of the ethics. An excerpt that particularly resonates with me is:

Always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state, and my community, and…

To aid others by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.

To be careful with my criticism and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.

In addition, I attend the Para District Zonta events, where a small but passionate group of women dedicate their time and resources to the advancement of women. At their recent handover meeting, an example of their good work was when they handed over 29 handmade quilts to the northern domestic violence centre. I am a member of the Friends of Cobbler Creek, who volunteer their time to preserve the Cobbler Creek Park for future generations to enjoy.

We have so many community-focused individuals and groups who invest their time in our community. The most remarkable show of community spirit I have seen was during the Sampson Flat bushfires. When my family were evacuated and safe at my parents' house, I went back to the evacuation centre. I commend all community members who worked together to help fight the fire, to save people, houses, animals and habitat. I thank the local community and businesses for their generosity, and I thank everyone who has helped in the recovery efforts.

King has many thriving community sporting clubs across all sports, including the Golden Grove Football Club, with Australia's biggest junior membership. Each club president I have met talks about their club's role in connecting our community members together, and they see their role as a community service.

On Friday nights after my son's games at the Golden Grove Central Districts Baseball Club, we certainly enjoy hanging with the other families to chat amongst ourselves in the clubrooms after the games. Not all clubs in King have these facilities today to bring people together, and this is certainly an opportunity for us to help connect more community members and enhance our sense of community.

King has an abundance of fascinating history, including many early settlers' ruins. I would like to see us find ways to signpost and communicate this history so that everyone knows about it and it cannot be forgotten. King is a stunningly, naturally beautiful electorate and I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

During my time as a City of Tea Tree Gully councillor and during the state campaign, I found the people of King to be thoroughly decent, caring, compassionate and hardworking community members. Additionally, we have many capable industrious business owners. While campaigning, I spoke to residents and businesses and said, 'I want to understand what is most important to you,' and I was moved by the vast number of people who talked to me with compassion about the hopes and aspirations, not only for themselves but for the broader South Australian community.

So many people told me what they most wanted to see was more jobs for young people in South Australia. So many people told me they wanted a government that really listened and would truly care for and protect our most vulnerable community members. So many people told me they wanted a fairer and tougher justice system and penalties, and many people asked that we find more ways to help our younger generation to attain home ownership.

Caring health professionals living in King invited me into their homes and spent considerable time explaining the vast challenges of our current health system. These health professionals told me their ideas to improve our SA health services at our local Lyell McEwin and Modbury hospitals. I recorded these ideas and I have passed on these ideas and their experiences to our health minister.

Likewise, people waiting for elective surgery expressed to me their frustration about how long they have been waiting. A man at Hillbank told me that he has been waiting six years for an eye operation and another lady five years for a hip operation. These pensioners cannot afford private health care to speed up their operations. These waits are preventing these community members from living their best life possible.

An elderly couple from Greenwith told me their recent story of how they had to rush to the hospital at 4.30 in the morning when the 94-year old husband was in immense pain. Then they waited for six hours at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. His wife told me that she was petrified the whole six hours because they were seated right next to a man in handcuffs who was under police arrest during the entire visit. My elderly resident was frightened that this man was going to jump up and put his handcuffs around her neck. Sadly, they left the hospital in despair and went to see the doctor as they were still fourth in line to be seen after six hours. This is shameful.

I am grateful that the people in King were open and honest with me about their frustrations, often starting a conversation with, 'Oh, you don't want to hear what I have to say', and I said, 'Yes I do. That's exactly why I'm here.' People told me they wanted the South Australian government to stop wasting public funds. They wanted greater transparency and increased accountability from our government. They told me they wanted a government that would prioritise jobs and growth and support, especially in the northern suburbs.

Everybody raised skyrocketing and unaffordable electricity bills, rising council rates and cost of living as key concerns. Many people were so angry at rising council rates, questioning where councils are spending their money and questioning why their rate money was not being spent on footpaths, fixing broken kerbs, cutting verges or surfacing roads. Pensioners described how they were battling to pay their electricity bills.

While doorknocking one day on a 43° day, I met an elderly lady in Golden Grove who was absolutely petrified of putting a fan on in her sweltering home because she just could not afford the electricity bill. Her hands were red and swollen from the heat. I recognised the swelling as I had taken my son to the doctor the day before for the same reason. She also had no telephone because she could not afford one. I visited her last week to check on her and she now has no TV as it has blown up. She was not complaining. She is accepting of her situation. I think a person who has contributed so much to our community and raised a family in South Australia deserves much better.

I also met couples in their 30s and 40s who told me that they have good jobs but are still struggling to pay their bills. A school principal of an independent school told me that they are having more parents withdraw students and more parents asking for fee repayment plans because of the struggling cost of living. Cost-of-living pressures in SA are impacting parents' choice of education for their children. Furthermore, the shift of students from independent schools to public schools could impact the capacity and effectiveness of our public schools. As a governing council member of the Golden Grove Primary School, I have witnessed this shift year on year in the past three years.

Sadly, I met local King residents who had also sold their home because they had to move interstate to find jobs. I have a friend in King who has moved interstate to get work and she has had to leave her teenage children behind with their father so as not to disrupt their lives. People told me that crime was an issue. I met people who had sold their homes because of recurring episodes of break-ins in their street. I gave out lots of Neighbourhood Watch bin stickers and I have just received another box for my electorate office to give out to anxious residents. I regularly attend Neighbourhood Watch meetings.

I have monitored and communicated my concern over diminishing hours at police stations across the northern suburbs, whilst observing worrying trends in crime in my local area. I met countless small business owners who shared their frustration at rising costs, outdated regulation and unnecessary red tape. Business owners asked for lower costs, modern solutions and support. Parents of children with disabilities asked for more support so that their children can also live the best life possible in the future.

Sadly, I came across people living in fear in our community. One day while doorknocking, I approached a middle-aged woman in King in her very neat front garden. She was under a beautiful tree pruning when I introduced myself, and she said to me, 'My husband thinks he controls me. He doesn't really, does he? We women do matter, don't we?' I said to her, 'You matter very much to me.' I asked what her husband did and she said he was a police officer. I gave her my card and told her I was running for this election because I wanted to help her and I offered my support to her.

I was speaking to another woman at her front door when a male voice aggressively yelled out from inside the house, 'She doesn't want to talk to you.' The door slammed so loudly and violently shut that it shook the porch.

In the past 12 months, I have met three different parents who told me that their children had been sexually abused by other children while attending my local schools. Each of these parents felt that their child's school had not adequately handled the incident. I gave each of these parents the Department for Education policy document for 'Managing allegations of sexual misconduct in SA education and care settings'. I wanted to ensure that these parents were empowered with the information on the support they should be given and the process the department should follow in these heartbreaking situations.

In another lovely street of well-kept gardens with rows of bright colourful roses, I met a young mother who told me that two of her four children were fathered by her brother. She told me how her parents had covered up the abuse. She told me that her brother is now a married man, a father and a community leader. Another young father in his garden told me that he wanted tougher penalties for child sexual abuse and then confided in me that he, too, is an adult survivor of child sexual abuse.

A severe lack of mental health services and support was also raised many times. I met parents, police officers and nurses who all told me we desperately need more mental health service support in the northern suburbs. A nurse told me mental health patients have hanged themselves in one of our local hospitals while waiting for help. One mother told me her family is on constant watch to stop their daughter committing suicide, and she is mortified that there is not adequate service support for struggling 16 year olds in our community today. This mum needs to take all sharp instruments from the house to work every day. Her daughter is receiving texts from peers, telling her to kill herself, and she is not going to school.

Last week, a mother of a 15 year old who had been raped at a party told me how hard they had struggled to find her daughter appropriate counselling and care because she was under 16. On a couple of other occasions, after listening to these upsetting stories from my constituents, I cried when I left their home and I was just unable to knock on the next door. On these occasions, when I sat in my car collecting myself, I thanked my husband for taking my call and listening and reminding me that these stories were the reason we were fighting for a change of local representation and state government.

As Liberals, we believe good governments care for and support those who need help to get back on their feet and live the best life possible. I will work tirelessly with my colleagues to improve services for our community. I thank people in King for these open, honest discussions and for speaking up to me. I am inspired by your strength, bravery and hope for a better and safer South Australia. I have been thankful that so many King residents are coming to see me for help since the election. Every time someone asks for help, this warms my heart with the opportunity to help people living in King.

So, how did I end up here in the House of Assembly? I was born in Australia and I grew up in the northern suburbs and I attended great public schools. My late grandparents worked on wharves and in factories. My mum and dad are in the gallery today and they are extremely hardworking. My dad is a skilled fitter and turner and a workaholic who finished up recently at Holden's, and even though he is 69, he has no plans to retire. Likewise I do not remember a time when my mum was not working throughout my childhood. She only recently retired from the South Australian police force.

Working hard and providing for our families is in our DNA. My mum has always spoken her mind, a trait that I think has rubbed off on me. My mum and dad have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and I thank the member for Port Adelaide for sending them her congratulations. Throughout my childhood, my parents always worked hard, gave generously and volunteered to several sporting organisations for which they are now lifetime members.

Growing up, my parents took my friends into our home when, for various reasons, they had no place to go. My childhood memories include being given all the toys I asked for as a child. I was adventurous. I raced go-karts. I owned three trail bikes which I used to ride around the fields in Golden Grove before the development.

The next part of my childhood I will share is not as pleasant for you or my family to hear, but it is so common in our community that I believe it is important to share. It is also one of the key reasons I have chosen this path and have a fire in my belly for change. I am cautious and mindful as I share this with you, as I know it is not the done thing for any family to air their dirty laundry. I mean no disrespect to my parents who I love so dearly. I am choosing to speak up and share a glimpse of other memories because I believe these experiences are still commonplace. I want to prevent these experiences from being passed on to our children.

There was violence in our home. I have vivid memories of hugging my little brother in the bathroom as my parents fought. My memories include relatives drinking too much and fighting at family gatherings. I remember having to run next door to get our neighbours to stop violence in our home, and I remember being sexually abused as a small girl by a close relative. I apologise for making you feel uncomfortable but, for you, this discomfort may only be for a moment. For me, and many abused children and children growing up in violence, we will probably feel uncomfortable forever. I startle easily and often jump as people approach. In professional settings, you may notice me trying to laugh this off.

Notwithstanding these childhood experiences, today I could not love my parents more. My mum is my best friend and my confidante. My mum and dad have always provided for us, and my parents are my biggest helpers and supporters. My son loves staying at their house. On 18 March, while my husband and I drove out to the far southern suburbs to pick up my son from relatives who looked after him during the final frenetic stage of the state campaign, my parents were out all day taking down my posters. I believe my parents did the best they could with the skills they had at that point in time.

We have in our community cycles of abuse. I am telling my story today because I wish to be part of a change that creates cycles of opportunity. I am thankful for my struggle because without it I would not have found my purpose and my strength. I am an advocate for children achieving success because of a safe, healthy childhood. Because my parents have always worked so hard, I followed in their footsteps and studied extremely hard at school and university. I completed two university degrees, a diploma in marketing and international accreditation in change management, and I forged a successful career in banking and energy industries and served on boards, all while raising a family.

I commenced my career in accounting and then commercial banking, and I moved on to business re-engineering projects focused on delivering large-scale efficiency outcomes. I proactively sought out mentors and said yes to all new opportunities, which grew my skills and experience. I led and delivered change that was customer and people-centric. After years of establishing new organisational capability, I was given the role of leading change in communication for the BT Financial Group.

Simultaneously, at Westpac, which is a leader in diversity initiatives, I became passionate about initiatives focused on advancing workplace outcomes for all employees, particularly for women and employees with carer obligations. I put up my hand for the opportunity to chair an employee action group, whose goal was to mainstream workplace flexibility initiatives across the Westpac Group for over 36,000 employees. I chaired this group while doing my day job, leading change nationally. We made great progress in listening to employees, leading cultural change and negotiating solutions that work both for the business and the employees.

Personally, I believe that there is more we must do to support men and women to work flexibly. Our family's experience has been that it can be difficult for men to access flexibility in the workplace so they can play a partnership role in raising their family if they choose to. My husband chose to resign from his full-time job last week so that he could be available for the drop-off and pick-up of our son from school while I am in parliament. I thank him for his dedication and tremendous support of me and his shared ambition to create a safer community.

In my 40s, my career at Westpac took a powerful and purposeful change in direction following an executive coaching session with a man called Kamal Sarma. He insistently asked me what I wanted to do next in Westpac, and I repeatedly answered, 'I just want to help people.' He then asked me what really Ps me off—using a less polite term—and I surprised myself by answering, 'Children being hurt.' In my forties, my more unsettling childhood memories had begun to bubble to the surface. Weirdly enough, at the same time my mum found my childhood diaries and, when I read through these, my mind brought back memories I had forgotten for a very long time. In my mid-forties, I said, 'Me, too.'

While still working hard in banking, I completed my own research into the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in Australia. I became absolutely outraged by South Australia's child protection failures, with report after report and inquiry after inquiry and little action implemented. To create awareness of the risk to children in our community, I designed a 'Keeping children safe' wellbeing presentation for the Westpac employees and delivered this across Adelaide and Sydney with the help of an organisation called Child Wise.

I reached out to learn from and collaborate with child protection professionals and advocates across Australia, and I consulted a counsellor specialising in child sexual abuse to better understand the impacts of my own childhood abuse. One of those impacts was working so hard that I had little time to feel and think about what could be troubling me inside. Shutting off your own feelings also means you close yourself off to others. I feel so much more now since the counselling. The counselling service provider, Uniting Communities, then invited me to tell my story at a launch of a handbook for survivors of child sexual abuse. I have told my story many times now and, every time I tell my story about child sexual abuse, people come up to me afterwards and say, 'Me, too.'

Importantly, in 2013 I chose to dedicate the next stage of my career to serving the South Australian community and finding a way to help make South Australia the safest place for children to be raised. I sought out a meeting with shadow minister David Pisoni before the 2014 election and asked him what he would do to make South Australia safer. He said to me, 'What will you do?' and here I am, with the blessing and support of the party, its members, my family and my community. Thank you to David for your question that day and for your ongoing counsel ever since.

Family, domestic and sexual violence is a major health and welfare issue. It occurs across all ages, and all socio-economic and demographic groups. Violence costs our community billions of dollars and it may just rob people of the chance to live their best life possible. The statistics for domestic violence are alarming. One in four women and one in six men report emotional abuse by a partner. One in six women and one in 17 men have experienced physical violence by a partner. In 2018, ANROWS reported that women who, as children, witness partner violence against their parent were more than twice as likely to be subjected to partner violence themselves. In Australia, White Ribbon tell us, one in four children are exposed to domestic violence—one in four.

I am passionate about, firstly, South Australia implementing early years interventions to break the cycles of abuse and, secondly, children being heard in matters where their safety is in question. I believe this is essential to help us achieve a substantial and sustained reduction in child abuse and neglect in South Australia. It is absolutely outrageous that in 2017, in South Australia, more than 14,000 calls to the child abuse hotline went unanswered. It is outrageous that the statistic for child sexual abuse in Australia is one in five children.

Mr Speaker, imagine attending a full school assembly in your electorate. You are looking out over a large group of 500 innocent primary school students seated for the assembly. Now think that 100 of those vulnerable young children are being sexually abused, most by someone they know and trust. How can we expect these children to learn each day and reach their full potential when they are experiencing abuse?

One man told me that his abuse only stopped when he was old enough to push his toybox against his door each night. We must give children a voice. When a community is silent about the sexual abuse of children, it gives sexual perpetrators permission and access to our children. Together, we can break the silence. As the member for Davenport said in his speech: if not us then who? If not now then when?

I am so proud to be part of this caring Liberal government and extremely heartened by our Premier's commitment to child protection and the appointment of our hardworking Minister for Child Protection, Rachel Sanderson. I am heartened by our new Premier's decision to appoint a caring and committed Assistant Minister for Domestic Violence, Carolyn Habib. I look forward to working with these ministers and my new colleagues on both sides of the house who have expressed their commitment to a safer and more respectful community.

When I was a little girl, I did not know that it was inappropriate for a family member to touch my private parts. I did not have the knowledge, the language or the opportunity to speak up. Today, I am speaking up for all children in our community who are victims of abuse. I am asking this parliament to find a way to give them the knowledge and a voice as early as possible in their childhood—and I am speaking up for everyone experiencing abuse today.

Today, our most up-to-date research is still telling us that most people do not contact the police after partner violence, yet the South Australian police are still responding to almost 30,000 domestic violence incidents, and one in four children is watching and listening to this violence. Real change is needed to break the cycles of abuse. This parliament can work together to take us to a time when nobody must say, 'Me, too.' There is so much we can do.

As an employee of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, I joined the White Ribbon steering committee to work with colleagues across agencies to embed White Ribbon workplace policies and procedures. When we communicated to our staff that we wanted to help victims to speak up, people began to ask for help.

At Service SA, I asked for and gained a budget and support to put the Domestic Violence Safety Cards in every Service SA Centre across South Australia. The cost was less than $700—a very small price to pay to raise awareness and offer support across the state. Now my new electorate office in the seat of King has Domestic Violence Safety Cards on the front counter, and our King office telephone will always be available for any community member who safely needs to make calls for help. We can all do this in our electorates. The future is bright. There is so much that we can do together. Having heard your speeches in parliament, I believe that we are the change that the community has been waiting for. The time is now. I now touch on the many thanks that I have to convey.

My election to parliament was made possible by the efforts of many people who stood with me to advocate for a better, safer future. I would like to thank my wonderful family: my dad, Ken Hannam, my mum, Maria Hannam, and my husband, Ian Soper. My husband is just as passionate as I am about a better future for our children in South Australia. He worked extremely hard to support the campaign and helped me earn the trust of King electors. I thank my beautiful, smart and hardworking 22-year-old daughter, Brooke Luethen, who is currently in her last year of uni. I hope that the good work of this government will create so many new jobs in South Australia that she has the choice to stay here with us.

I thank my eight-year-old son, Max Soper. He has given up so much of his mum's time so that we can do this fight to make the community better for many. On his last report card, his teacher wrote, 'He is one of the most caring children in his class.' I tell him that this is one of the most important values, to care deeply for other people, and it seems to be rubbing off. Thank you to my brother Bryan; thank you for helping us on polling day.

During the campaign, we were fortunate to attract many new friends, all so passionate about South Australia's future. These friends helped me to letterbox the electorate many times over, waved with me, introduced me to their friends, made my family meals as it was so crazy, watched over my son, put up and took down so many posters, provided moral support and supported me in just every way possible. I am grateful to many people, and I am grateful especially to a small group whose efforts went above and beyond and who were generous and a constant support.

Thank you to minister David Pisoni, Elyse Falkenmire, Paul Barbaro, Danyse Soester, Adrienne Williams, Ellen Gillespie, Silvia Rulla, Gavin Denton, Mick Cearns, Amit and Neelam Katiyar, Liam Goodrich, Lyn Petrie, Grace Paterson, Bernadette Tutor Tabayan, Patricia St Clair Dixon, Domenica and Michael Ferraro, Margaret and Peter Watson, Mary and Mick Coric, Sandra Davies, Belinda Valentine, Cristina Magnante Marello and Steven Rypp. Thank you all so much.

Furthermore, I wish to thank the Liberal Party. As members of the King community presented to me their concerns and aspirations, you made it so easy for me to offer our well-considered policies and plans to demonstrate we were listening, ready to govern and ready to deliver real change. Thank you to the Premier, Steven Marshall. Your hard work, focus and discipline are a constant source of inspiration. Thank you to the honourable federal minister Christopher Pyne, Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman, minister David Pisoni, minister David Ridgway, minister David Speirs and minister Stephen Wade for your visits to King and for doorknocking with me to meet community members in the King electorate.

Thank you to my co-councillor Bernie Keane in the Pedare Ward, City of Tea Tree Gully, for his support and mentoring along the way. Thank you to the staff at the City of Salisbury, the City of Tea Tree Gully and the City of Playford who actioned so many council requests for me as I worked my way around the electorate. My biggest thanks and heartfelt gratitude goes to every person and business owner who opened their door, took my calls, waved, honked, signed a petition and, finally, voted for me to be standing here today. Thank you.

To those people in King, I reiterate that I have listened to and recorded your priorities that you communicated to me during the campaign. These include delivering more jobs, better services and lower costs of living, and, in addition, more locally, finally fixing Golden Grove Road. Locals raised this with me when I first doorknocked for council, and it took me three years of lobbying and petitioning to gain the commitment from government to fix this road. Thank you to everyone who signed and honked for this change. We also promised to add a slip lane into Skyline Drive. Thank you to Hillbank residents for signing the petition. We are committed to fixing SADNA car park parking, which will benefit so many people who visit the South Australian Districts Netball Association courts at Golden Grove and the residents who live around it.

We will be investing in Modbury Hospital, which will provide better services for every resident of King and take the pressure off Lyell McEwin. Finally, we will deliver more car parks at Golden Grove park-and-ride so that more people can easily use public transport. We will deliver for the people of King. As a Liberal, I am committed to building the capacity of the South Australian community. I am committed to a South Australia where every individual can live their best life possible. I am here to help you, your family and your business. I am your servant. Your challenges and your aspirations are my priority.

Lastly, I wish to touch on one last opportunity for our community. I ask for colleagues, and anyone listening to my speech, to reflect on the aim that our House of Assembly is meant to be a representative body for our South Australian community. The government's decisions and policies shape the quality of lives in our community. I argue that since women know their situation best, they should participate equally to have their perspective and life experience incorporated. It seems intuitive that there are just some issues that are more important to women and affect them more. I believe women's collective life experience as women is very important.

Women were granted the right to stand for parliament in South Australia in 1894. It took another 65 years, until 1959, for Joyce Steele to be elected to the South Australian House of Assembly. On 18 December 2019, South Australia will celebrate 125 years since the passage of a bill granting women the right to vote and to stand for parliament. The campaign to gain public support for women's suffrage was a collective effort. With the local government elections coming up later this year, I urge women to consider running for council. I ask our community to consider who they vote for in the elections and if this will help elect a representative body.

When I was elected to local government in 2014, I said to another elected member, who had been there for a very long time, that I thought the 15 per cent female representation at our council was too low. I said that I would like to encourage more women to run in 2018 and the elected member replied to me, 'Don't let the boys know you're trying to take their jobs away.' 'Deeds not words,' said Emmeline Pankhurst. It is my position; it is time for change.

Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to speak, and thank you to the people of King for the opportunity to serve.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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