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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-15 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Public Transport

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:06): I rise to speak about the cruel, money-grabbing plans of those opposite to privatise public transport, to sell off our trains and trams—trains and trams that South Australians rely on day in, day out. That privatisation will absolutely lead to higher ticket costs, fewer reliable services and chaos for the people of South Australia.

Higher costs and poorer services are outcomes that utterly fly in the face of their oh so big pre-election promises of lower costs and better services—pre-election promises that, funnily enough, did not outline the particular new horror that this government is about to unleash on South Australians, a horror that also comes on the back of the ever so flippant and careless Minister for Transport and Infrastructure's $46 million in cuts to public transport, cuts that hurt people, cuts that mean it is harder for people to get to work, to get to study, to visit friends and to get to appointments. They are cuts that hit those who most rely on public transport and cuts that devastate those without the luxury of other transport options.

These cuts and privatisation speak to what this government is about, which is not what the glib little election slogans promised but, rather, an agenda that is all about making a buck on the backs of people they should support. These cuts and privatisation also speak to what their Liberal mates in Canberra are about; what they are about, who they are focused on and who they care about certainly does not include the people of Boothby who rely on public transport.

Those good, hardworking South Australians who use the Seaford, Belair or Tonsley lines or the tram, who live in Boothby, who take millions of trips on these lines each year to go out about their business, to go to work—without penalty rates, if the Liberals have their way—have been burdened with the Liberal member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint, who is a champion of privatisation.

In federal parliament, just last year Nicolle Flint said that when governments participate in markets, they crowd out private sector businesses. She said that individuals and companies, not government, are best placed to deliver goods and products. Wow! Well, thank you, Nicolle, for letting the people of Boothby know that you will put the interests of the big end of town—big businesses—ahead of the people of Boothby.

The interests of people, Nicolle, should always come before private profit making. But did we expect anything more from the woman who has voted multiple times against the interests of the people of Boothby, eight times against penalty rates and 20 times against the banking royal commission? No wonder we saw Nicolle sprint from the media yesterday. There are so many questions that she does not want to answer and so much damning evidence of her disregard for the people of Boothby and their interests.

When Nicolle Flint should have been thinking about what her vote against restoring penalty rates would mean for the many hospitality and retail workers in Boothby serving her coffee and helping her to shop, she was thinking about her mates and plotting to bring down her leader. We have seen Nicolle Flint sprint before yesterday's dash away from the media. Just a few short months ago, she ran to sign a petition to bring down her leader and install her ultraconservative mate Dutton in the top job. Nicolle fights for Dutton and Dutton absolutely loves cutting jobs in Home Affairs and whatever else he can get his hands on.

Nicolle Flint has some questions to answer before Saturday's election that she really should not run away from. Given her stance as a privatisation champion, I think we can suspect what the answers will be, but Nicolle really should let the people of Boothby know whether she supports this government's plans to sell off the trains and trams used by hardworking Boothby people. Given her passion for privatisation, she might like to answer some other questions before Saturday about what else in Boothby she wants privatised.

Do the people of Boothby need to bolt down the Flinders Medical Centre, Belair National Park, Warradale Barracks or Centrelink and Medicare facilities at Marion before Nicolle Flint slams up—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms HILDYARD: —a For Sale sign or, as—

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite, be quiet.

Ms HILDYARD: —she says in her own words—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms HILDYARD: —acts to get those public assets into the hands of the companies that she says are so much better at service delivery. You can run, Nicolle, but your ultraconservative passion for cuts and privatisation will catch up with you.

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