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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
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Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:02): I move:

That the following Address in Reply to His Excellency's opening speech be adopted:

To His Excellency the Hon. Hieu Van Le, Companion of the Order of Australia, Governor in and over the State of South Australia and its dependencies in the Commonwealth of Australia:

May it please Your Excellency—

1. We, the members of the House of Assembly, express our thanks for the speech with which Your Excellency was pleased to open parliament.

2. We assure Your Excellency that we will give our best attention to the matters placed before us.

3. We earnestly join in Your Excellency’s desire for our deliberations to serve the advancement of the welfare of South Australia and all its people.

As members know, Christmas was a time of loss in my community and in communities across the state. Although we have started out on the process of recovery, there will be many hard days. We also need to ask hard questions, including how we can better mitigate the effects of climate change and prepare for the future. In the time I have before the house, I want to record what is now well known about the Cudlee Creek fire, to acknowledge the work that has been done and to extend my deep gratitude to my community and to communities, as I have earlier remarked, right across the state affected by fire for working so closely together when it was most needed.

On 20 December at Hollands Creek Road, six kilometres south-west of Gumeracha in the member for Morialta's electorate, a tree brought down powerlines and ignited a blaze. The morning was hot and dry. It reached well over 40° by midday. The air was thick with grit and dust haze. The fire burned through Cudlee Creek, Lenswood, Lobethal, Woodside, Charleston, Kenton Valley, Mount Torrens, Birdwood, Brukunga, Harrogate in the member for Hammond's electorate, and much of the country between those townships.

About 11 days later, the fire was contained. Eighty-four homes had been destroyed, many others had major damage, 493 other structures were lost and 292 vehicles were destroyed or damaged. Thousands of animals were dead or dying. The blaze had scorched over 23,000 hectares and much, much more had been lost on Kangaroo Island, which was rightly acknowledged first yesterday. Thousands of tonnes of fodder had been destroyed at a time it was most needed.

In Charleston, within my community, a life was lost. Throughout the Hills, many people were seriously injured and, of course, also on Kangaroo Island. On Kangaroo Island, two more lives were lost, Dick and Clayton Lang, who were remembered to us by the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Mawson yesterday. Our hearts are in this way scarred. There is an abiding sadness and, for the families of those who have died or been very seriously injured, unfathomable grief.

I wish to record in this place that our community also deeply respected Mr Ron Selth, who died, as the Premier remarked, at his home in Charleston. Mr Selth was a talented civil engineer and passionate farmer. Many buildings and structures in the Hills benefited from his technical expertise and commitment. He delighted in frugality and simplicity and loved and encouraged his family and all in our community. Life was precious to him. Mr Selth leaves behind his partner, Suzy; his children Johanna, Luke and Jasmine; their partners Lachlan, Jo and Scott; and six grandchildren.

Mr John Glatz is in hospital with serious burns. John is deeply respected and admired. He has worked for our community his whole life, including as chair of the Oakbank Racing Club. The Premier recorded yesterday the circumstances in which Mr Glatz was injured and the great bravery displayed by those who immediately, and without thought for their safety, assisted him when he needed it most.

Members, you will know that when Mr Glatz woke from a coma he was offered a glass of water, and he said that he would rather a beer. Knowing this, I will tell you that a small case has been sent to Mr Glatz containing two beers. The note within reads, 'With every good wish and prayer, from all in the Hills.' John, we think of you and all others who have been injured. In some ways, you represent them all. We are looking forward to the day you return to our community, as other communities look forward to the day they receive back those who have been injured, remembering those who will not return.

It is essential that I record my gratitude and the gratitude of our whole community for the work of the CFS and all emergency services. Their work saved many lives. Within the gallery today is Mr Nick Brockhoff, an experienced ambulance officer in my community and also an experienced CFS officer, who served as divisional commander in the Cudlee Creek fire and on Kangaroo Island three times. As I earlier remarked, the service of these emergency service workers saved lives and protected many properties.

I want to share one story representative of many. Mr Simon Prosser defended his own property at Brukunga. When the heat of the fire became too great, he dived into his pool. Whenever he came up for a breath, he burnt the skin on his head. The air was many hundreds of degrees. One of his cattle dogs died and the other survived. I met Mr Prosser at the gate of his property days after the fire. It was an emotional meeting for me. With his neighbour, Mr Prosser drove in unimaginable conditions along Pyrites Road, which was a tunnel of flames and heat. At Brukunga, where the CFS station was itself defended, Mr Prosser and his neighbour crossed the line of CFS firefighters defending the township.

Local residents used a garden hose to cool Mr Prosser's skin while the firestorm beat down on the town. Embers, ash and debris made the air hard to breathe. All emergency services helped Mr Prosser and Brukunga that day and thousands of others across the Hills. Many were volunteers who used the lessons they had practised at small CFS training nights over decades. We were on 20 December and on the days that followed all the beneficiaries of that generosity and that commitment.

It is also right for me to acknowledge CFS group officers: Heysen Group Officer Nathan Watts, Onkaparinga Group Officer Peter Wicks AFSM, Gumeracha Group Officer Rick Drury, and all the CFS brigades and captains within Kavel, Morialta, Heysen, Newland, Hammond and throughout the Hills, and the many CFS brigades that arrived from across the state. I remember pulling over in the car and seeing the names of small towns on the sides of passing trucks, the soot on the face of exhausted firefighters. They were beyond fatigue.

I will not easily forget the tragedy of speaking to a vet who had put down many tens of horses that same day, or the wife of a man who had seriously burned his hands and arms, or the livestock owner who broke down telling me he had shot his best cattle. The sheep and cattle did not even move as he came to each one. This is a family's life work, animals that have sustained them for many years. All of this leaves a deep scar, a deep and painful scar. Livestock have been incinerated, killed before they could even get up off their haunches. Their bodies are mounds of ash in burnt paddocks and beside fence lines, and it is hard to stay composed when you drive past knowing what it is you see.

The task of containing the fire was immense and sometimes impossible. Fallback lines were drawn. They circled the fire to the south, east and the west over a vast tract of the Hills. On Kangaroo Island, the task was even more difficult. Planes landing that night over the Hills and later over Kangaroo Island described looking down at a landscape so broken by fire that it looked as if it had been firebombed.

On the evening of 20 December at 6pm, with a thick smoke haze in the air, agency support arrived at Highbury and Mount Barker. I attended at Mount Barker High School to await the arrival of the emergency relief team. All around the high school, in the showgrounds, and at Keith Stephenson Park people had brought horses, livestock and their families. It was a makeshift place of safety and importantly there was water. The Mount Barker Football Club and the cricket club led by Scott Filmer, Alex Dunbar, Wayne Buckland and Jason Webb—Jason also serves as a district officer for Meals on Wheels—opened up their clubrooms for hot showers and stock water.

The Salvation Army, led by local pastors Jordan and Sarah Innes, arrived with food. The local council provided practical, immediate and valuable assistance including to the many animals who had made Mount Barker home. At Wallis Cinema, staff had closed cinema 4 and made it available for people with animals of all kinds. Mount Barker Shopping Centre opened its doors to animals and residents seeking refuge. Local churches including Paster Leigh Philp's Baptist Church on Victoria Road, nearby my own home, opened their doors to take in people and animals.

Even as the fires continued to burn for more than about 11 days, my community rallied. Where there was a need, people worked to meet it. In Lobethal, within the member for Morialta's electorate, and a town encircled by fire, Adam Wienert, Jodie Turpin and Kelly Lewis set up a local recovery centre. Adam had received his training in the Army as an officer and is also a local fuel distributor. Jodie is a longstanding community worker and Kelly is an emergency nurse at Flinders hospital. It is not possible to adequately express our gratitude for their work and the value of their skills when combined in this way. They were of course assisted by many but their names represent the work of many.

In Nairne, Jade Brook and Kirsten Wynn established Nairne Fire Support. They stocked the Nairne family church with every practical item. They provided ongoing outreach for many weeks. Lobethal Bushfire Recovery and Nairne Fire Support continue to meet a very real need in our community, including for the love and friendship that comes from an outreach visit when you have been trying all day to clean up your property, you are covered in soot and sweat, and you just want to talk about something else other than what you have done and seen that day, and done and seen for so many days.

I also acknowledge the Hills Football League fire support group. I note that Don Cranwell, their president, is here with us today. Hills football is essential to our community. It is so essential that we look to the league as an environment in which we can come together over winter as a community. Preseason training is underway. The HFL, using the horsepower of their teams, have been out assisting property owners. I know our whole community is grateful for that, and I acknowledge in particular Katie Sewell who has led the women's teams to provide assistance to a number of vineyards. I acknowledge, too, briefly but as representative of many clubs, the Onkaparinga Valley Football Club, whose men's teams have been out assisting property owners as well, including Craig Paschke, who owns and operates a vineyard at Woodside.

In Woodside, the Lutheran parish, with help including from Fay and David Pfeiffer, Bronwyn Norsworthy, Kelly Johnston, Tania Schoell and others, immediately provided meals and practical aid for those who had lost their homes. The Lutheran community also sent fodder from the Mid North to the Hills. They need it themselves in the Mid North, but they decided we needed it more. It was an act of profound generosity.

In Mount Barker, Father Thomas and his congregation established a makeshift supermarket. The member for Heysen was present to assist also with that task. Donated items were arranged in a way that they could be best and easily accessed, and these items were then supplied to the northern and southern fire grounds, and they included water, food, sanitary products, burn cream for people and animals, and any other required goods. Father Thomas worked with many others in our community, including Sally Harding, whose extraordinary photographs document communities deeply impacted by fire. Those photographs have also affected me greatly.

Local businesses, including Lobethal Bakery, Cafe Aqua, Mount Barker Corner Takeaway, Woodside Takeaway, Nairne Corner Takeaway, Quarter Mile Cafe, Pallet Cafe Nairne, Brother Bear and The Painted Poodle, all provided meals to emergency services workers. I am sure that I have omitted some if only by mistake; there are many others. It was hard to pay for a meal. At Woodside, the CFS needed a constant supply of hot food. Woodside Takeaway and Pizza refused to accept payment. The CFS, to their enduring credit, did their very best to settle up.

The Oakbank Racing Club worked with Livestock SA to establish a fodder exchange. Hay was donated from the South-East and the Fleurieu Peninsula. After a call by radio for assistance, more than 100 tonnes arrived at Oakbank by 10pm that same day. In subsequent days, 1,000 tonnes was committed, and even more came after that. Thank you to the farmers of the South-East and the member for MacKillop, the member for Mount Gambier and also the member for Hammond, whose community equally supplied a great deal of fodder to ours. As I mentioned earlier, the member for Hammond takes in the community of Harrogate.

We will not forget SAVEM, the RSPCA, Habitat for Humanity or the Red Cross. We will not forget Garry and Rachel Barlow at Stroud Homes, who took in and managed thousands of donations of food and other items. They were assisted by religious groups, including the Muslim community. Garry and Rachel, you are heroes too.

We will not forget the Australian Defence Force, who arrived when fatigue was setting in. Initially, 90 soldiers assisted our community. That force has grown to over 300 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Mark Mankowski, who is based at Woodside Barracks. I acknowledge, too, the many soldiers who are stationed on Kangaroo Island, some under the command of Major Trent Harron, who was mentioned by the Premier yesterday, and Warrant Officer Darren Wasley from Nairne in my community. Darren owns a small business within Kavel.

I also acknowledge Corporal James Findlay of Cudlee Creek from the member for Morialta's electorate. Alex Zimmerman, our disaster recovery coordinator, continues to work extremely long hours. His diligence and belief in our community is respected. Members will know that Mr Zimmerman was also recovery coordinator after the Pinery fires. He brings valuable experience, commitment and a determination to help our community as if it were his own. I understand that he was in fact born at Woodside, in our community. We also recognise and deeply value the efforts of Ann Paschke, Leanne Trotman and many other volunteers who have worked to care for injured native wildlife.

Service clubs, including Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary, have offered extraordinary assistance. Kiwanis, led by Charles Sheldrake and Geoff Johnston, donated $1,000 in Bunnings vouchers. Lions members, including Kingsley Blenkiron, whose house was lost at Woodside, have worked to provide meals to BlazeAid volunteers. The RSL and Mount Barker Lions cooked barbecue meals for those at the emergency relief centre in Mount Barker. I should add that it was a very moving thing to see Kingsley, only days after losing his house, preparing meals for BlazeAid volunteers. His first instinct, his very first instinct, was to provide service to his community, even in the very difficult personal circumstances that he and his family faced.

BlazeAid has brought hope to weary farmers. I joined a BlazeAid team for a day. I know that the member for Hammond, too, has been working closely with BlazeAid. I was taking down fences—I think if I were building them up they probably would not last until winter, so it is well that I was placed on that task. I want to thank and acknowledge in this place Kevin Butler for having the foresight to commit BlazeAid to our district. Volunteers have come from overseas, from all around the state and from around the country to assist. We will not easily forget them.

I earlier mentioned local councils. Mayor Ann and Mayor Jan-Claire have been exceptional, and their councillors and staff have worked every day since the fire to help in so many practical ways that cannot be adequately enumerated by me in the house today. Instead, it is right to say that their leadership under immense pressure has been remarkable. I will always remember what they have done for our community. Mayor Ann, who is originally a native islander, has also assisted Kangaroo Island with her love and generosity. She has also prepared many Anzac biscuits, which I think have become a staple part of the diet of many volunteers.

I thank and acknowledge the member for Morialta, the member for Heysen and the member for Hammond, with whom I have worked extremely closely over these many weeks. The member for Heysen, and the member for Davenport, too, helped run our electorate office in the first urgent days and when it was necessary for me to travel extensively in the fireground. The member for Hammond has deep experience in fighting fires on his own property and throughout the district, and that experience is very valuable to us.

I also want to send a special and heartfelt message to Rebekha Sharkie. Rebekha and I travelled together in each other's cars, sharing the load, one of us at the wheel and the other making calls. To reflect on remarks so generously made by Rebekha, this is as it should be. I also acknowledge and thank Rebekha's staff, who have worked so closely with our own. They have been outstanding.

I also thank members of the opposition who contacted me or my office and expressed their deep concern for our community. It is sincerely appreciated. The truth is that the care, planning and good decisions of so many people, especially the CFS and police and ambulance officers, saved many lives. In a crisis of this type, there is a focus on the scale of destruction. What must be remembered, too, are the many efforts made by farm firefighting units, farmers, property owners and others working with the CFS and our whole community to save lives. Many lives were saved, many dwellings were saved and many businesses were protected.

However, as the Deputy Premier observed, the economy in my community and on Kangaroo Island is made up of small businesses. People employ themselves and, if they are able, several others, often young people starting out in life. Many of the over 60 vineyards within the fire scar have suffered very significant losses. I have seen those losses firsthand. Horticultural businesses have massive losses: cherries alone were losing $1 million for every day they could not be picked. I believe those losses will be much greater. Other horticultural businesses have also suffered greatly, including apples.

As their respective industry bodies have made plain, growers are now faced with having to make decisions about the future viability of their businesses. The state government has also worked to provide immediate and ongoing assistance. More than 2,000 personal hardship grants have been made in the Hills, 412 on Kangaroo Island and more than 2,700 in the state overall. This type of fire is a monster. It is capricious. It spares some dwellings and burns others. It runs up a gully and then across a ridge line. Embers fall ahead of the fire front and the sky is dark.

Inside the fire it is more than 600º. This is known because we have seen many aluminium posts and fittings that have simply melted away—and they dissolve at temperatures above 660º. By the end of the day, with the fire running hot and fast, trees were exploding along the Harrogate ridge line. That is where vital and much-needed communications infrastructure in our community was also destroyed. In the face of the power of this force, our community took shelter, fought the fire when it could be fought and rendered assistance to those who needed it.

Gratitude is a bridge to the heart, and I am grateful for the many small but profoundly generous things that have been done to help. Those acts will never be recognised, though it is not recognition that is sought, just private knowledge that one person was able to help another. This has long been our tradition in our community and in communities across South Australia.

Importantly, disaster recovery psychologist Dr Rob Gordon has provided our community with practical lessons. This fire has taken a very substantial mental toll. There are spare and unrehearsed stories of grief that will linger with all of us, and I say to my community, 'Please seek help if you need it. It is available. We live in a modern community. You can ask for it. Nobody will think less of you.' I have had my own moments, and I freely admit to that. From the outset, Disaster Recovery Ministries and the Red Cross provided immediate comfort in the Hills, and for that, too, our community is grateful.

To his Excellency the Governor and to the Premier, thank you for being so immediately present in my community and grieving with us. To the many people from around the state, from Australia and overseas, thank you for your donations, for providing labour and for providing immediate care and assistance. We know that you will be with us on this road to recovery.

To communities right around the country—after all, this is a national crisis—we know and understand what it is that you face, and we will, I am sure, at times be able to supply you with volunteers in the same way and for the same reasons that you have supplied volunteers to us. That will never be forgotten. If I go on, I am sure that emotions will very soon overcome me and that will be embarrassing.

I will draw my remarks to a close where they are, recognising the vast task that lies ahead of us, the commitment to thoroughly examine what has occurred in our communities and the very real and valuable energy, the wholehearted energy, that reflects our government’s commitment to South Australia’s precious and fragile natural environment. His Excellency the Governor detailed many of the commitments that our government has made to ensure that a substantial program to address climate change will be brought forward.

Our government has made many and very courageous decisions, including instituting the largest home battery rollout per capita of its type in the world. That is a substantial commitment. In acting now to mitigate climate risk, South Australia can be an international leader in successfully harnessing current and emerging opportunities, including hydrogen and biofuels, the transition to electric vehicles and lower emission transport, climate resilient agriculture, and innovations in waste and recycling. Members will know that our government has detailed a plan to ensure that single-use plastics can be eliminated from our community and, most importantly, from the environment.

These are some of many commitments—His Excellency detailed others—and in coming days the government will continue that program. This is what my community expects. It is what other communities expect. As the Governor has detailed, it is also what we will do now after the fires.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:29): I would like to acknowledge the contribution by the member for Kavel in the Address in Reply and not just his contribution here today but the contribution he made alongside people in his electorate and from outside of the electorate who assisted during the fire and with the aftermath, especially the Cudlee Creek fire, and also the many people who assisted with the fires right across this state.

I want to reflect on the Keilira and Bunbury fires in the South-East, which I think were about 150,000 acres between them; the Yorketown fire and Kangaroo Island fires, which were well over 500,000 acres; and, obviously, the Cudlee Creek fire, with thousands of hectares from across Morialta, Kavel and Hammond, which created devastation across the landscape. I want to acknowledge some of the earliest comments in His Excellency the Governor, Hieu Van Le's speech acknowledging the impact of the fires. To quote his words:

We think particularly of those who have lost their lives, including those who came from overseas to help us.

We acknowledge Ron Selth and Dick and Clayton Lang. Ron was from the Hills and, sadly, Dick and Clayton lost their lives on Kangaroo Island. We also want to acknowledge volunteer firefighters and others from right around the country who lost their lives in the face of this fury. It is too difficult to comprehend how big this fireground is not just in this state but around the country as well. I wish John Glatz a very speedy recovery from his severe burns. Those are just a few names of locals who have been mentioned, but I also want to acknowledge the assistance we had from the United States pilots who came out here.

Sadly, three aircrew from the United States lost their lives. They came out to Australia because they recognised the contribution that Australian firefighters have made in their country over time. It also reflects on the interaction between our interstate fire services and volunteer fire services, whether it is the Rural Fire Service in New South Wales, the Country Fire Authority in Victoria or the Country Fire Service here in South Australia. I acknowledge that at times, even though New South Wales had massive fires, here in South Australia we were able to access a 737 tanker, the big air attack plane. There has been a great sense of cooperation across the services.

I would also like to acknowledge all the people right across the state—and the nation, to be frank—with farm fire units. Farm fire units do a great deal working alongside the official fire services, the Country Fire Service and the Metropolitan Fire Service, which I will reflect on a bit more later on in my contribution.

Another fire I should have mentioned in my list was the Carcuma fire, at the back of Geranium and Coonalpyn, which is almost a forgotten fire, and there was another one just out the back of Coonalpyn. There have been a few questions on how it started, but we will let people come up with that later on. It did get into some hay sheds and local properties.

My brother lives at Coonalpyn on a property working for the Ashby family. He had 800 young ram lambs to make sure he got through, and he did. I had a chat with him after they had been fighting this fire alongside the CFS down the back of Carcuma for about five days, and I said, 'Look, I'll come down and give a hand.' So I grabbed my other brother and we went down with our private unit, working alongside other private units and Country Fire Service units locally as well as from Glossop, from the Riverland, who were also there.

It was mainly in heritage scrub and some parkland. I will talk about this further in the bushfire motion, but we really need to make some real changes in how we manage our parks and our heritage scrub into the future, as well as native vegetation along roadsides. It will not be impossible to stop fires but it might help with more burn-offs, more cold burns.

I would like to salute everyone involved. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to serve alongside other Country Fire Service members on Kangaroo Island in a five-day swing in mid-January. Doing that, you witness all the agencies, not just, obviously, the Country Fire Service. The Metropolitan Fire Service was there in many numbers, farmers were out doing their bit with their farm fire units, and then there were all the agencies underneath it. The State Emergency Service and the Salvation Army were there. They were telling me they would rise at 5am and not go to bed until midnight. They kept everyone fed and watered.

I witnessed the contribution of our military forces, mainly Army, on the island. There were hundreds of reservists, but I was talking to a regular soldier in Parndana one day—300 regulars had come down from Darwin to assist with fighting the fires and with the recovery—and it was a very interesting conversation I had with this gentleman. He said, 'You know, before we pack up at Christmas we set kits aside for flood or cyclone, but we've never done it for fire before. We might have a rethink into the future.'

There are many other services I have probably missed but, to everyone who has rotated, whether it be in the Cudlee Creek fire, the fires in the South-East or the fires on Yorke Peninsula, the best thing we can say is just, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.' Sometimes in these situations you see a lot of bureaucracy, but I did not witness that this time on Kangaroo Island. People could go out and keep operating.

Essentially, we were in mop-up phase by then, but things did keep flaring up. I note that in this instance the Salvos served 460 meals in one night, and that just goes to show the amount of work that went on. They were working alongside Army cooks to supply all that food and drink to keep everyone going in the field.

There were a whole lot of things done around the place. There were professional people assisting in the Hills getting rid of trees that had fallen down or that were at risk of falling down. I witnessed at Vivonne Bay on Kangaroo Island—and you do not see this very often, for obvious reasons, because it is illegal to do it anymore—that a whole roadside had been chained down with scrub chains and dozers as a firebreak, just to try to take the cap out of the fire if it got that far.

When you think about it, 210,000 hectares or over 500,000 acres is huge. In fact, I took some people up through the Cudlee Creek fire area when we went to the Harrogate recovery meeting to talk to the locals and work with Alex Zimmerman and the member for Kavel and others on getting the message on recovery out. I said, 'Look, the Cudlee Creek fire is big, but it pales into insignificance alongside what has happened on Kangaroo Island.' That is only as far as size goes; obviously there was a lot of loss in the Cudlee Creek fire.

Many houses were lost. People on the fireground that day were trying to get in front of the fire on The Glen Road at Harrogate and they said, 'We had to bypass places because there was no point pulling up because the fire was racing us.' They did all they could to save what buildings they could. It was just amazing to see how many houses, mainly, were saved. A lot of sheds were saved, but I know that a lot of houses and sheds were lost. If no-one has been to the town of Harrogate, it is well worth a look because it is close to a miracle that the actual town was saved. It is black right around the perimeter—totally burnt, despite the efforts of the CFS. A lot of the CFS personnel that day were from my electorate—not that it matters, but I just make that point.

What a fantastic effort by all the volunteers, whether they were Country Fire Service, the State Emergency Service, the Salvos or myriad others, in assisting and still assisting, whether it is cooking a few meals, baking a few cakes or whatever it is. It makes you really proud to be an Australian and a South Australian, obviously in this state, to see what has gone on, and we must also recognise the assistance that has gone on around the country.

Thankfully, we have had some rain, but we are a long way from recovery, as the member for Kavel has indicated. There are supports in place from the government, but that does not take away the shock of losing all your possessions or shooting thousands of stock. I want to acknowledge PIRSA for getting right on board in supporting us. Shooting stock is just the reality. I know one property owner on Kangaroo Island had to shoot 8,000 sheep. To PIRSA's credit—and I do not want this to sound macabre—they supplied a lot of ammunition, because it is necessary in these times.

I also want to acknowledge vets and others who have had to do this terrible work, especially those putting down their own stock; there is no joy in it. But when animals are burnt beyond repair you do have to get on board. I wish everyone a very speedy recovery—as speedy as it can be. I know the government, through a whole range of agencies—whether it be through Housing, Primary Industries or emergency services—are there working alongside everyone to get people back on their feet as soon as possible.

I want to reflect on some other items in the Governor's speech and talk about what our government is doing and what we are looking forward to doing into the future. The cost to families and businesses is being lowered, more jobs are being created and there is a continuing focus on providing better services. We are going to look at reintroducing legislation around extending shop trading hours in the Greater Adelaide shopping district and proclaimed shopping districts. We are still looking at capping local government council rates and permanently lifting the prohibition on growing genetically modified crops in all areas of the state except Kangaroo Island.

I know some people in this house do not agree with the lifting of the ban on growing genetically modified crops, but I know that a lot of people in this house do support it. From our side of the house, all we are saying is: give people the choice. They do not have to grow, and Kangaroo Island will be exempt anyway.

Other things that are being done include a fully funded pipeline of infrastructure works worth $12.9 billion over four years. Many hundreds of millions, in fact, billions of dollars are being spent on the north-south connector, but we are also putting much-needed funding into regional roads—over 1,000 kilometres of roads to get them up to speed. We have eight roads on our list to get back up to a 110 km/h speed limit. Some of those roads require tens of millions of dollars, including the Browns Well Highway between Pinnaroo and Loxton, and the Ngarkat Highway, which stretches into the member for MacKillop's electorate between Pinnaroo and Bordertown, apart from others around the state.

Some people argue that only a few hundred vehicles a day travel on some of these roads, but they are valuable connectors for industry in our electorates, especially in the agriculture sector. I note that 80 per cent of the country's potatoes, apart from other horticulture, are grown in my electorate, and these connections and vital outlets are needed right around the country. Some of the things that this Marshall Liberal government has achieved in the first couple of years include:

payroll tax to small businesses has been abolished;

emergency services levy bills have been significantly reduced;

lower water costs from July; and

land tax reforms will benefit 92 per cent of smaller investors and 75 per cent of company groups.

We are also looking at further cost relief, including:

electricity bills for households;

reductions in compulsory third party insurance premiums;

doubling the value of sports vouchers for primary school-age children; and

free screening checks for volunteers.

Certainly one of the major projects that I believe is absolutely vital in this state and that we are promoting heavily on this side of the house—and I know the other side used to promote it until they decided to have a change of heart—is the interconnector to New South Wales. There is no more serious time to get that interconnector into gear, that multibillion dollar project, so that we can connect to power stations in New South Wales. Obviously, some of that will be coal fired, but we can also use our solar and wind generation.

When the sun is up and the wind is blowing and we have plenty of power, we can transmit that power and export it to New South Wales. As I said, it is important at the moment because of issues with the Heywood interconnector, the main interconnector for South Australia through to Victoria—there is another smaller interconnector through the Riverland—and it just goes to show that we cannot be isolated. I applaud this project and may we soon get on board and get going.

The Liberal government are promoting a growth state. We have opportunities in defence, space, energy and minerals, food, wine and agribusiness, international education—which is a huge one in this state—tourism, high tech, health and medical industries, and creative industries. There is so much that this state has to offer.

I want to reiterate some of the other commentaries around the speech and some of the assistance that is given to families, especially in light of these fires. I mentioned briefly earlier about providing tax relief by waiving fees and charges and by the commonwealth allocating funding to support recovery and rebuilding. Some of these are grants of $10,000 to individuals or up to $75,000 to farmers. Alongside this, and prior to the fires, assisting farmers and families suffering from drought and other challenges, is a dedicated drought support program with the injection of $21 million. Also in the agriculture sector, we have put $7.5 million aside to promote and do work around the red meat and wool sectors.

The government has fired up the Adelaide Desalination Plant to capacity, probably a temporary measure, I believe, to offset some of the angst around what has happened in the drought. There has been some really poor discussion from some areas in regard to what should or should not be done with the River Murray, but I note our commitment to the basin plan and also the commitment that is shared by both sides in this house not to build a weir at Wellington. I would like to have hoped that that discussion had been killed off between 2006 and 2010, but some people think they will raise that.

A river dies from the bottom up, and I have said that multiple times in this place. If that is what people think they can do, they will just keep putting in the north wall further up the river. It is interesting with river communities that you find some people complain about people taking river, generally north of them. Anything that goes past their gate is wasted in their summation, but that is not the case. You need to have a healthy, flowing river and I am so pleased that our government is playing an active role in getting water into the system and supporting the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

I note as part of the legislative framework for our government that the state's pastoral land laws will be repealed and rewritten to support the production of livestock and the growth of the pastoral industry, which is absolutely vital for this state, and to complete the legislation around increasing penalties for those trespassing on agricultural land with the intention of interfering and disrupting the normal activities of our farmers and food processers. That legislation will be completed in this parliament so that we can give more protection to our farmers against people who I think, quite frankly, are ill informed and would be better off spending their time seeing how well the technology that farmers are using these days produces that valuable food and fibre that we need to assist our state and our country.

I also recognise the rebuilding of 1,600 kilometres of the dog fence with the $25 million plan, working alongside the federal government, state government and funds levied from sheep. This is absolutely vital to protect not just our pastoral lands but the lands further south. You only need to talk to people who have wild dog sightings as close as the Riverland and sometimes in the lower north to know that these fence repairs are absolutely vital for the whole livestock industry. Obviously, this is a major rebuild for most of the fence on the South Australian side.

I have already talked about the fast-tracked establishment of the electricity interconnector and that it is absolutely vital for our surety of electricity generation into the future. Seven reservoirs will be opened up to provide further recreation opportunities and to deliver economic benefits for local communities and our regions. I think that is a great initiative, and I saw all the media event around opening up the Warren Reservoir on the way to Gawler. That was well done, with a heap of people in kayaks and minister Speirs up there launching it.

A massive piece of legislation we passed in the last session was the Landscape South Australia Act. This just shows our priority as a government for the management of natural resources and how that will be decentralised decision-making and back-to-basics land management. I know that some people do not like the criticism, but natural resources management turned into quite a bureaucratic nightmare and seemed to have lost its way.

It would not matter which government was in place, as I think that, sadly, it is just the nature of the beast and the nature of the legislation that was passed in 2004. I can say this with, I hope, a little bit of credibility, because my wife is an environmental scientist and used to work in this field. So many times they had to do reviews and reviews—three-year reviews, five-year reviews. It seemed that so much work was done on doing reviews. Let us hope that more time can be spent now getting better outcomes on the ground.

I also want to note that for more than 40 years we have been recognised in this state as our nation's leader in waste management and resource recovery. The container deposit scheme is a fantastic initiative which I believe is rolling out right across—I think Victoria made an announcement only the other day of it coming in there fairly soon, if it has not already. It has been rolled out over much of this country. I noted, when we raised it from 5¢ a container to 10¢, all my bales and drums of bottles doubled overnight in value, which was fantastic—

Mr McBride interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: A big windfall. It takes a long time to fill them up, member for MacKillop; it takes many years. I think it does help to keep the litter stream to a minimum. You have seen over the years, when you travel interstate, the difference in the roadside with litter, etc. During this session, we will introduce comprehensive legislation to reform our local government sector, to help reduce red tape costs and to improve member conduct and public confidence in our councils.

I just want to reflect very briefly on the Coorong council and my good friend, the new mayor, Paul Simmons. There had been some issues there. I met the new chief executive officer the other day, and I was impressed with her within about 30 seconds. They say first impressions count, and first impressions certainly counted there. There is a bit of tidying up to do, but Paul and Bridget will be the people to do the job.

Also with this government we are looking at a new planning system—and I note that some of that work came before me when I was on the Environment, Resources and Development Committee—to try to streamline planning issues across the state.

As announced in the Governor's speech we are completing the regulations required to support implementation of the legislation passed last year to modernise our mining laws. I certainly believe that we did make some very good progress in relation to mining laws and the relation to land access. Not everyone will agree, but that is up to them, but it certainly was an improvement from decades-old legislation in how we go about accessing those minerals, which do make up, as does agriculture, a vital part of our income for this state.

Also, in relation to education, by mid-2020 our schools will have the best internet connection in the nation when our government completes its partnership with Telstra to deliver internet infrastructure. Another item which was put in the Governor's speech and which I think is a fantastic thing moving forward, because it has taken a long time to get some recognition is medicinal cannabis. I think we have been a bit slow off the mark here. Yes, we have legislation on how people can access it, but it is difficult. A pilot program will be put in place to assist the treatment of epilepsy in children, and that will be established to trial medicinal cannabis. From everything I have heard anecdotally, I think that will be a fantastic initiative.

Sports change rooms, family—friendly facilities, catering for both male and female teams, will be built and expanded. Also noting that there have been many of these lost around the state, clubs whose facilities have been damaged by the recent bushfires will receive grants to kickstart the rebuilding process.

I also want to acknowledge that we appointed our state's first Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Prevention, the member for Elder, Carolyn Power, working alongside the Hon. Michelle Lensink in this vital work in our state, delivering a strong focus on delivering a range of policy initiatives, with Murray Bridge being one of the regional safety hubs.

I commend the Governor for his speech. I again want to acknowledge everyone, and those from the Metropolitan Fire Service as well, who assisted the many thousands of volunteers who have rotated right across this state to protect our loved ones and our infrastructure and who are assisting in the recovery process into the future.

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (12:00): I rise to make a contribution to the Address in Reply. I indicate that I am not the lead speaker for the opposition, but I am very happy to kick this off and be the first speaker for the opposition on the Address in Reply. Hopefully, my two new knees that I received over summer will not give way. I may sit down early, but I would prefer to stand. I will indicate if I am required to finish speaking from a seated position.

The government's speech, written for His Excellency, yesterday told us that after two years there was no new vision from the government to contribute to the state. This new radical legislative agenda gave us nothing new, and certainly nothing radical. To my mind radical, by definition, refers to complete and total social or political change and also is commonly linked to a very progressive agenda. I do not believe that that is actually what occurred yesterday. I heard a summary of delivered programs and some continuance of the previous parliamentary agenda but certainly nothing new to solve the so-called headwinds and the problems in this state. I most definitely heard nothing new or nothing visionary to support the vulnerable people in our community. In fact, not surprisingly, they barely rated a mention.

In terms of something that has been discussed, employment, I would like to talk specifically about youth unemployment. The government purports to have maintained a solid growth in employment in this state. While we hear that the numbers indicate a solid and steady rise in unemployment, we do not hear youth unemployment being talked about very much, the young people in South Australia who are facing terrible barriers to employment. Over the past two years, the fact is that since this government came to office youth unemployment has increased to 14.3 per cent. That is up from 11.5 per cent in March 2018 when the Liberals came to office. I do not think that is any kind of figure that you can hang your hat on.

We have seen many cuts to job programs, specifically youth programs. In terms of apprenticeships, which is one of the main visions spelt out by this government, they say that it is much easier to get apprenticeships, that we are growing apprenticeships. But I can tell you that just saying something does not actually mean it is true. In fact, my son is one family member who has struggled to attain and secure an apprenticeship. The increasing numbers in the tens of thousands is certainly not something we are seeing and not something that we see benefiting our young people.

Many people come into my office, and the young people I hear from are facing the usual let-downs, the usual disappointments. They may be offered trials, they may be offered a go at an entry position in a company, but often their employers are not able to keep them on or suddenly give them any long-term commitment. Part of this may also be due to the housing and building industry struggling significantly at the moment. Sadly, it seems to have all but ground to a halt in the last two years since the Liberal government came to power.

Around a dozen builders have gone belly up and out of business in the last couple of years. I think that is pretty disappointing. That is under this Premier's watch. I think it is shameful and that more needs to be done about this. The building industry, rightly, is worried and concerned about the future, and that flows on to young people trying to get apprenticeships. People in the public—parents, family members—are not buying that rhetoric either. I think more needs to be done about this. All we are hearing is the good news and not the reality underneath it.

Today, in The Advertiser I saw that there are more cuts to TAFE programs. That is a worry. We have seen many skilled teachers leave TAFE. I have been approached by a number of them who have said that their programs have been cut, and they are very worried about the future of young people being able to access the nurturing and supportive wraparound services that are provided by TAFE.

What does that mean for the future skilling of South Australians? I do not think it is something that we can be confident about. I think more needs to be done to invest in TAFE. The Liberal government can use whatever language they like in speeches, but TAFE needs a true and new action plan; it needs real investment. That will give us more confidence for the future. We heard a statement in the speech that young people are not moving out of the state anymore.

The Hon. S.K. Knoll interjecting:

Ms COOK: The statement was there: prove that. I am still hearing from parents and families that young people are leaving to seek employment. Quite honestly, this has happened for many years and it will continue to happen, in order to access industries and jobs that are present in the Eastern States, where there is a bigger population and a bigger economy of scale in terms of providing these starting point jobs in many industries.

I do not think that is a bad thing, in order for people to gain experience in some of these sectors in starting point jobs, as long as we can entice them back. Let's make sure they do not stay there. Let's make sure that people know that South Australia is the place to raise families, it is the place for you to bring your children up. Bring those young people back to South Australia. That is what is really important. Also, do not just make this blanket statement that 'in two years, we have done this', and not back it up with anything. Where are the facts? We want to hear what is really truly happening.

The Hon. S.K. Knoll interjecting:

Ms COOK: The minister over on the other side cannot keep quiet as usual. The businesses that we need to attract these young people to stay, and that we need to develop, are the ones that the Labor government actually started developing: the high-tech industries, the medical devices sectors, the growth, the innovation, the entrepreneurship. This is not a new thing that is happening. This was started at Tonsley.

I was watching and learning and being part of the evolution of that with NVI Flinders, with a whole range of other companies that were start-ups at Tonsley and saw that development. Yes, that has flowed on now, and we hear about Lot Fourteen being another new space to do that. That is great; these places do work. We started that and you are continuing it; that is great. This is nothing new. Just because you say it is does not mean it is true.

One of the things that really does concern me as well regarding employment, obviously, is the capacity for people with disability to participate in the workforce. We know that there is an extremely low level of participation for people with disabilities. People with disabilities cannot always work a full day, and there are many challenges and barriers to this. The government needs to be the gold standard and set the benchmark in terms of providing the capacity for people with a disability, or people living with disability, to participate in the workforce.

I was really pleased to hear, again, the comment that the Aboriginal participation level in the workforce has increased. I missed hearing actually what the data was around that. I do not know whether that was said. It possibly was not, but I will be keen to look that up. If it has increased, that is fantastic. What we also need to see now is people with a disability improving and increasing their capacity to participate. If they can only work several hours a week, then what we need to do is increase the ways that we can contribute towards job sharing programs, the ways that we can provide smaller periods for people to participate in the workforce.

It not only creates that level of confidence and assurity that you get from having a job, but it also develops a whole range of additional social connections that, as we know, are the number one way that you can increase your life expectancy, and that is through social connection and friendship. You can do that most definitely through the workplace. I did not hear anything about disability employment support in yesterday's speech. There was not much at all about people living with disability. There was a small amount in respect of housing, I believe; there was something stated. But I certainly did not hear a plan.

As we know, we have been through what is being touted as Black Summer. I do not think it has finished. I am certainly expecting that we will have more terrible incidents of bushfires. My heart goes out to them and my sympathies are with people, but I will speak more to the bushfires given the opportunity through another motion.

I want to thank all the volunteers and workers at the coalface, on the ground and behind the scenes who have already been mentioned in the past couple of days by members in this place and in the media. I also pay particular thanks to the public sector employees, through the Department of Human Services, who have at the last minute dropped everything and gone to the fire front and set up relief centres. They have been available to provide support, to help navigate bureaucracy, to try to access what is available for relief and support.

I think we need to think about those people as well because we think about the people on the fireground who have seen things you would never want to see, and I think some of the members have described that to us incredibly. These people have to listen to these stories of trauma and devastation over and over again. I know members of parliament have as well and I think we have seen some members on TV giving powerful representations about what they are listening to and what they are seeing.

I was completely shattered when listening to the member for Mawson yesterday in his recounting of his journey through KI. To the public servants who are doing this and hearing them still every day in the relief centres, thank you. I hope that the government works to ensure that not just victims and first responders but volunteers and Public Service employees who are providing this help get some ongoing support and welfare into the future and some much needed respite after the fire season finishes.

Contributors to the debate around bushfires and what has been happening have a range of opinions being put forward. I proudly support the science and evidence and pay much attention to climate science and the evidence-based climate change approaches that are being discussed around bushfire contributing factors. I know there are other things as well around management of the environment that need to be taken into account and I look forward to hearing the input into the inquiry around this.

Yesterday, we heard some focus on environment and emissions in the agenda that was set out via the Governor. Broadly, with this National-Liberal Party alliance across Australia, they certainly have some very vocal people—and I guess many would call them troglodytes—who do not support the progressive science and evidence around climate change. There are many of those people who are getting some voice, sadly not just in Australia but nationally, so I did chuckle a little at the Liberal Party here spelling out its vision for lowering emissions and climate change.

I am sure members will recall the opening speech of the Second Session of the Fifty-Third Parliament, when the Hon. Jay Weatherill announced Labor's establishment of a target for 50 per cent of our electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2025, I believe it was. We talked about the carbon neutral economy, autonomous vehicles and a whole range of progressive energy solutions and targets. Of course, it was welcome yesterday that we heard this being repeated by the current Liberal government.

This is a commitment that we made as a Labor government because it is both good for our environment and the right thing to do for the transitioning economy, which affects employment and a whole range of things for our young people. What the current Liberal government have done is stop it, copy it, rename it and claim it as their own, but the electorate knows this. The electorate sees through the smoke and mirrors. Just because you say it is true does not mean it is real. Again, people know that this is an ongoing piece of work that was started under the previous Labor government. We welcome the government adopting our policies.

Another issue around the environment and energy that I welcomed being repeated yesterday—not new: repeated—was the Housing Trust battery scheme, the Home Battery Scheme and virtual power plant. I am really pleased to see that the government is committing again to continuing these great initiatives that were started under the Labor government. I refer people, however, to Housing Trust properties and the way many of them are constructed. We know that older homes struggle to support solar panels on their roofs. We know that many of them have been said to be unable to have solar panels.

I look forward to seeing the maintenance program assessment that was started under the former Labor government, per the report being completed, so that some of these issues with ageing stock might be addressed. They are going to have to clearly address it. I believe it was a $75 million commitment over maybe 10 years for additional maintenance. I do not know about you but, doing the maths, it is not going to get you very far. It is not going to get you very much maintenance and it is certainly not going to get you very many new roofs. We all know how much a new roof costs.

There was zero money in that breakdown—that is, nothing—to be invested in public housing or new builds for public housing. We did see some investment in houses to be sold, but we did not see anything from a public housing point of view. It will be interesting to see how that massive increase for solar panels is going to appear. I look forward to watching it and hearing more from the department on that.

This brings me to the housing strategy. In his speech, the Governor mentioned the housing and homelessness strategy. Where do I start? The speech yesterday was full of many deliverables, lots of small ones, tens of thousands of dollars. They are really small target projects, which are welcomed in local communities. They certainly add up, and we expect a government to have locally targeted projects—I think that is great—but we had a half a billion dollar housing strategy.

It was released at the last minute last year and not much was said about it. Yesterday, there were a couple of sentences on it. It was probably the biggest announcement of investment last year in terms of the community, and we had a couple of sentences. There was not much to say about it, I would say, because it is shocking and it is terrible. Affordable housing outcomes are important but, as a government, you work in partnership with people, with the public, the punters who need the housing and the builders to make sure the settings are right and the opportunities are available for these people to go out, because they can talk and they can access a loan.

We need to make sure those settings are right and, if those settings are right, they can then access the housing and buy an affordable property. However, I am not sure that we should be buying them from the government and I am not sure that the government should be building them in competition with the private sector. What we need to see is investment in public and social housing at a much bigger rate.

The lack in the strategy of any public housing builds shows a lack of compassion and care by the government for those less well off than most. While I appreciate all governments have sold a number of houses—and this happens nationwide in order to refresh and renew stock and to change the way that communities invest in affordable properties through the social and public balance—the Treasurer in the other house has been the biggest seller of public housing in the history of this state.

I have said this before in this place and it is on paper. It is on the record. The numbers are in Hansard. I have put them there, and I am very happy to share them with any member who would like me to send them to them. The current Treasurer in the other place has been the biggest off-loader of public houses in the history of this state. I will have far more to say on housing and homelessness as we continue to consult with the community and with service providers over the next two years.

In respect of disability and people living with disability, the environment is vitally important and I welcome the reannouncement by Liberal government of the discussion about the banning of single-use plastics. We on this side of the house are committed always to ensuring that we re-use, repurpose, recycle and minimise the use of throwaway items, and we welcome the discussion in the last parliament and look forward to seeing the bill.

However, as the spokesperson on this side of the house for people living with disability, I want to make sure that people who require and must use single-use straws and other items to ensure they have quality of life and are able to access hydration and nutrition in a dignified way have access to those products in a way that is not embarrassing, in a way that is dignified and in a way that is publicly understood. This has been raised with me a lot by the community I engage with and we will be watching carefully and consulting with the sector and the community to ensure best outcomes.

In terms of disability, the rollout of the NDIS has been, shall we say, problematic from a federal and a state point of view. South Australia does lag behind in many of the measures and that is shameful. We should not be accepting that. We have seen many things that have been a much bigger challenge in terms of the NDIS, and I cannot count how many times I have spoken about the taxi voucher scheme in this place.

There has been an ending of it, a reinstatement of it, a reannouncement of it, a change of it, a resetting of it. A number of pieces of communication have gone out to people in the community. There is incredible ambiguity and confusion in the disability community about this scheme, so I have begun to pull this together in one document and I will gladly present it to the minister for disability in the other place, and the Minister for Transport in this place, to see if we can work with the community to ensure that people really have a fair go.

As we know, the Community Visitor Scheme, which was started about five years ago by the Labor government, has worked beautifully in order to highlight and, in fact, save the lives of people with disability living in institutionalised care. We have seen a transition of people to different types of care, which is fantastic, but we still know there are issues. What we have seen since the withdrawal of funding from the Community Visitor Scheme and going into NGO and privately owned facilities is a lack of voice for those people and a real risk that issues are not being identified.

We have not heard anything about any reinstatement of or change to that, so we will certainly be working on that this year, as a plan moving forward, to ensure that everybody, no matter where they live, has a voice and equal access to advocacy in this community. A statement was made yesterday that this government has delivered the Disability Inclusion Plan.

This government has delivered the legislation that was started under the previous government two parliaments ago. The document has been delivered. There has been consultation on and conversations about the document. We have not seen any delivery investment at this point. We do not know of any jobs that have been put in place specifically in the department to make sure that this is broadly implemented in an effective way, so I question how committed the government is to actually doing something that ensures real, true and full inclusion for people living with disability. I look forward to hearing about that.

As a woman and as a registered nurse, I thank the Attorney-General for bringing the issues of abortion law and abortion reform to this house. I do not think people understand this until they are fully confronted by it. It is the worst time in someone's life and it should never be part of the legal process. This must be part of the Health Care Act. Abortion care is health care, and that must be spelt out absolutely and finally in South Australia.

For decades, we have been one of the most progressive states in terms of these reforms; let's catch up to the others now. This will be contentious, and many people will be upset by this debate, but I hope that members see why this particular part of the reform is necessary. I am very pleased to be the person who in this house is carrying the Health Care (Health Access Zones) Amendment Bill, which will make it safe and more dignified for people accessing abortion care.

A big ongoing issue I have as a registered nurse is hospital car parking, but not just for our public sector nurses. As I highlighted in the media last week, with the help of some people who wanted to make a statement, people are having difficulties parking in the Flinders Private overflow car park, which has been made available on DPTI land. There were sudden, last-minute changes to the way they could access that car park. They were being forced to walk down a very dark path with potholes, on dirt, across 10 lanes of Main South Road Darlington upgrade traffic. This has been going on for four years, with many iterations of car parking options.

It was highlighted last week by nurses who have to pay 130 per cent more than they had to two years ago for the privilege of parking, because the government said they were going to reduce hospital car parking costs but they have actually jacked it up. This was reversed. I thank the minister, if the minister was involved in this decision at all, or his officers and his department, for reversing that decision and making access to car parking for nurses in our southern suburbs much safer and easier. It is a great outcome, and it took only two days, which is perfect. Thank you for that.

In summary, the reset is very much a review of what was happening and what is still happening. We have seen things such as council rate capping. It is being done to bring the cost of living down. The best way of doing that is to take away the bin tax because, once you put the bin tax on, council rates went up by 1 per cent to 2 per cent. I do not think it is council rate capping that is the issue. There was the GM modification and there was the shop trading deregulation. All these things are being refreshed.

You say that this is why we have had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on pomp and ceremony, stopping people from being able to access their trams and their public transport and holding up the traffic and the court process because all the judges had to come and sit in the parliament. The MPs are not doing their work, we have started parliament later and we have missed a day. I think it was just an ostentatious waste of time in order for you to shove a couple of bills back on the paper, bills that are not actually going to go anywhere. With that, I conclude my remarks and I thank you for the opportunity of providing an Address in Reply response.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (12:30): I rise in reply to the Governor's address yesterday—and what a wonderfully inspirational address it was. I came away very enthused about the future of the state, both enthused about the future and in wonderful celebration of all the things we had achieved in the first two years. If this address that we enjoyed yesterday is as prophetic as the one we enjoyed almost two years ago, we are in for a wonderful two years ahead of us, a wonderful two years indeed.

It was very pleasing to see a focus by the Governor on bushfires, which of course are dominating national headlines at the moment, both in response to the fires we have had to endure across the country and also as to how we might mitigate the impact of those fires going forward. It is a very important topic of discussion at the moment, and it was pleasing to see the Governor dedicate such precious time to it in his address yesterday. I would like to expand on that and speak about the fires that have impacted the electorate of Narungga within the last couple of months, the impact they have had on both families and businesses at home on the bottom end of Yorke Peninsula.

Members may be aware that since 20 November there have been fires on Yorke Peninsula at Edithburgh and Yorketown, as well as at Price, Maitland, Arthurton and Port Wakefield. The major one dominating the news for a little while started on 20 November—it was one of the first ones of the season, I suspect—near Yorketown. It spread out across a 61-kilometre front and was described by local farmers as one of the most ferocious fires they had ever come across. More than 5,000 hectares were burned, along with 11 homes and a long list, an extensive list, of farm machinery and infrastructure, livestock, horses and poultry.

Thirty-three people were injured, but thankfully no lives were lost, although the fire did get close to taking some lives. We all saw the famous photo in The Advertiser of the ute and trailer in a ditch, completely burnt out. How the driver of that ute survived that incident I will never know, but he did. Thankfully, no lives were lost in the fires at the bottom end of the peninsula.

Of course, none of us could know then that the Yorketown and Edithburgh fires were sparked by an electrical fault—but they were. Neither could we know that these were only to be the start of the devastating bushfire season across our nation that has burnt almost 12 million hectares, killed an estimated one billion native animals, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and tragically seen 33 people lose their lives across our wonderful nation.

In South Australia, some 245,000 hectares have been burnt. While the Yorke Peninsula fires on 20 and 21 November only burnt 5,000 hectares, which may pale in comparison to the more than 210,000 hectares burnt on KI or the 24,000 hectares burnt at Cudlee Creek, as well as the fire in the South-East, no less severe has been the local impact of such fires on the property owners, residents and landholders in and around the townships of Edithburgh and Yorketown who lost their homes and possessions and, in many cases, their life's work. For these people the fear and devastation experienced are the same. They are all on the same road of recovery from what is a significant trauma felt by everyone—individuals, families and landowners—who has lost much and continues today to recover with the assistance of a great many people.

The Yorketown local recovery centre remains open some 10 weeks since the fire started. Just as fierce as the fires were has been the power of the rallying communities of people digging in to help others and the enormous, amazing efforts to raise funds for various appeals. Pleasingly, on the southern Yorke Peninsula, $60,000 of donations, raised locally directly for those impacted by the Yorketown fires, has begun to be distributed, with applications for assistance closing today.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend Wendy Ault from the Police Credit Union, Yorketown, for putting her hand up and organising this local recovery effort, everyone else who made a contribution to that fire fund as well as those who have put their hand up to help in other ways. Well done, Wendy, for making a Police Credit Union bank account available for local donations. Fittingly, the job of assessing just what funds are allocated where from this local fundraising is in the capable hands of members of the local bushfire recovery committee, headed by local recovery centre coordinator Deb Richardson.

I commend the Yorketown local bushfire recovery committee for their considerable work in recent weeks. Their role has been to share information, recognise support and action groups and find solutions. The committee is comprised of community representatives Peter Stockings ('Soxy') and Karen Warren, who has headed up the BlazeAid effort; local farmers Ben Wundersitz and Kay Barlow; Yorke Peninsula council representatives, Mayor Darren Braund, CEO Andrew Cameron and Director Development Services, Roger Brooks; Max Barr from Northern and Yorke Natural Resources Management Board; and Marty Collin from the Weaver Ag Bureau.

What a tremendous support Marty has been for local farmers throughout this whole ordeal. The committee also includes Mary-Anne Young from PIRSA, Captain Karen Armstrong from the Salvation Army, plus SAPOL and Department of Health representatives. It has been pleasing to sit in on their meetings on a couple of occasions and hear how well they are working together and how well they are serving their community in their recovery efforts. I commend all involved on the committee. May it continue to provide great recovery services to the people who have been affected by that fire.

I can also advise that the local recovery committee is hosting a community check-in on 14 February, which I am looking forward to attending at Yorketown. It will certainly be a valuable social gathering as well as another opportunity to further assess the value of efforts so far and how the area and local people in it are recovering. I would encourage everyone who has been affected to get to that local gathering. If they have any concerns or issues of any nature that need further addressing, please make them known at that event.

I can advise that the state government's personal hardships grant program, which opened the day after the fires on 21 November, offering emergency cash for adults and children forced to evacuate, has been closed and replaced with the recovery payments programs. As of 28 January, 374 personal hardship grants totalling over $175,000 had been issued for the Yorketown fire. I can tell members of this place that it was wonderfully well appreciated by the local people that that money was so readily available to them when they were needing it most. It was pleasing to see that it was wheeled out without a great deal of bureaucracy, without a great deal of hindrance or paperwork.

It was very well appreciated, as I said, by those who needed it at that time. I commend the government and the minister for making that money available at such short notice and so quickly. As I said, I was pleased to see this assistance swiftly coordinated, along with the recovery hotline opened and a full recovery centre operational within 72 hours of the fire starting. Local recovery coordinator Deb Richardson was appointed to coordinate all the efforts and assistance services.

They came from far and wide to help. People just appeared to help feed the fireys, house them, offer clothing and emergency supplies for those forced to evacuate. Farm units rallied, as did SA Police, SES, MFS, SA Ambulance Service, St John's volunteers, Salvation Army, SA Housing Authority staff, Red Cross, social clubs, sporting clubs, progress associations and local businesses. Everyone rallied to help, and it was wonderful to see everyone rallying around the community in need at their most dire time. Soon after, more federal disaster recovery payments and income support were made available and a PIRSA hotline was up and running for animal and livestock issues.

BlazeAid started arriving. What a great organisation and charity BlazeAid is. I have to admit, ashamedly, I was a little bit unaware of the work that BlazeAid did prior to this fire, but, having seen them in action now, I can attest to the wonderful work they do. I can tell you, after having talked to many farmers who have needed their assistance, their work is wonderfully appreciated.

In the wake of a fire like that, fencing is a job that no-one wants. To have a team of volunteers ready to lend a hand and do all the dirty work, help clean up the wire and fence posts and then install new wiring and new fence posts going forward is well appreciated. I can tell you that one farmer who needed help was brought to tears by the generosity of those volunteers who had travelled from far and wide and set up their caravans in a little community being housed at the Light Church in Edithburgh ready to help.

I did a day with BlazeAid myself. I am more used to office jobs than hard work, as many in this place will know. I thought they were having a lend of me when my first job was getting down on my guts with an empty tuna tin, fishing out loose gravel from the bottom of fence post holes ready for the installation of the fence posts. Those were the deepest holes out of all of them, at the end of the day. I spent the first half of the day fishing out loose gravel from the bottom of fence post holes. I did not enjoy it a great deal, but it was pleasing to help out a farmer in need.

We then got onto the job of actually installing the fence posts, which was far more rewarding, as we could see the fence being erected and coming together. We did almost three kilometres worth of fencing—holes, wire, posts and all—that day and it was really pleasing to join in with a team of mostly local volunteers, at that point, who had come from surrounding towns like Point Turton, Edithburgh and other towns like that just to lend a hand. They were unaffected, but they appreciated that these farmers needed their help, and they came from local communities to help out. It was wonderful to join in with those people.

I would also like to pay tribute to the farm home that miraculously dodged the fire. The fire had burnt all around it and singed the back door, but somehow they managed to save the house. The lady who lived there welcomed the whole BlazeAid team that was on the fence line that day into her house and made us all burgers for lunch and wonderful homemade scones with homemade jam for dessert. It was really a nice break from fishing loose gravel out of the bottom of fence post holes.

It was a wonderful experience and I came away really appreciative and really cognisant of the fact that BlazeAid does fantastic work and it is really well appreciated by the farmers. If anyone in this chamber feels particularly inclined to help, I would suggest that BlazeAid is a particularly productive way in which they can do that. If they are so inclined and willing to get their hands dirty, that is a recommendation that I would readily make. Congratulations to everyone who has served so far in BlazeAid around the state.

So much has been said today about the bravery displayed by the CFS and its volunteers and the exhausting and amazing work of firefighters across the state this bushfire season. To be frank, no praise is high enough for them. The efforts of the CFS and farmers who fought the fires on Yorke Peninsula in November were no different. On 20 November, you will recall, half the state experienced catastrophic fire weather conditions, with the remaining areas rated as severe or extreme. On that day, the CFS responded to over 60 fires at Price on the YP, where 290 hectares burnt; Appila in the Mid North; Beaufort in the Mid North; Yorketown on Yorke Peninsula; Finniss on the Fleurieu; and Angaston in the Barossa. It was a busy day for the CFS indeed.

But the Yorketown fire, with its 61-kilometre perimeter, was by far the largest and most dangerous on that day, with over 47 appliances and 250 firefighters committed to it at its height. To give an indication of the scale of the effort, there were 53 CFS brigades that responded to the Yorketown fires, without whom the result would have been far worse, and they came from far and wide. At nearby Port Wakefield, there were another 67 crews, 14 appliances, three water carriers and two fixed-wing aerial bombers. Thank God for the fixed-wing aerial bombers. At Price, of course, fighting a grassfire at the same time were another 100 firefighters, 18 trucks and three aircraft.

The justified praise of the local CFS for literally saving our towns has been loud throughout the weeks, as we all watched in horror at what occurred in the Adelaide Hills and on Kangaroo Island. I want to touch on 'literally saving our towns' because, upon visiting Edithburgh with the Premier and the Minister for Emergency Services, we were able to witness firsthand how close the fire got to the township of Edithburgh.

A house on the edge of town adjoins what used to be a wonderfully bountiful wheat crop. The entirety of that crop had been burnt out, with only burnt seed lying on the ground, and the fences torched. While still standing, they were clearly and obviously burnt and destroyed. The Colorbond fence that bordered the wheat crop and the house was black on one side but remained its usual cream colour on the other side—that is how close it got. It literally burnt the side of the fence before it got to the house. If that house had taken off, who knows how it would have gone through the town after that, so those CFS volunteers and firefighters literally saved the town, I suspect. As I said, there is no praise high enough for them.

There were firefighters there battling to contain fires for six unrelenting weeks, all stretching to breaking point. Their efforts across the state have been staggering. As I stated in my speech to this house on 26 November, the CFS crews and farmers who literally risk life and limb to help others are genuine heroes and no words can fully convey how grateful and inspired multiple communities across the YP are for their efforts on the southern part on 20 November, so amazing were their skills and dedication.

I commend, too, the ongoing significant efforts of Livestock SA, which has been coordinating the donated fodder to KI from their makeshift camp at the Cape Jervis depot. My office has been inundated with inquiries about this effort, and I commend all local growers who I am aware have directly assisted in fighting fires on KI, have helped clean up and who have donated hay to help their island neighbours.

I had the solemn privilege of visiting KI recently. As I said, there were a number of Yorke Peninsula farmers who went over to help with the clean-up efforts, and one was courteous enough to call and invite me over for the day so that I had the opportunity to witness the destruction and despair that had been brought upon that island. I accepted the offer with the caveat that I did not want to get in the way of the clean-up effort. I was only going over there if I could be of some use, so it was pleasing to get over there and help those YP farmers who were on the island doing something productive.

While we were over there we travelled around the entirety of the island and it was just staggering, particularly in Flinders Chase, to see the destruction. You could stand in the middle of that national park and turn around 360º and not see anything alive for as far as you could see. It was really alarming. At the same time it was remarkable to see how houses had been saved in the middle of fire grounds. As I said, it was a solemn privilege to get over there and witness that, and I thank those farmers, some of whom have land over there, for showing me around.

One lasting memory, amongst many lasting memories I will take away from that visit, is driving around and periodically seeing big piles of dirt that had been removed from the ground. After a couple I asked what they might be and was informed the dirt was from the holes the sheep had been buried in; it no longer fitted back in the hole because of the vast quantity of sheep. To see the size of those piles of dirt and the number of sheep it must have taken to displace that was truly breathtaking and staggering.

That visit to KI was a real eye-opener for me, and to speak to people who were over there fighting the fire when it happened was important for me to do. I am glad I went in the end, and I am pleased to report that I did not get in the way. I also learnt a lot to improve processes to better prepare us for future emergencies and disasters.

As the recovery continues and as reviews of efforts formally commence, there will be much more to assess. I would like to raise a couple of issues that have been brought up with my office, including ways in which we can improve going forward. Issues that have been raised by volunteers and farm fire units include communication procedures; CFS vehicle technology and tracking; firebreaks management, which is a big issue I took away from my visit to Kangaroo Island; assistance for fodder donors (I have highlighted Livestock SA and PIRSA's work on that); water access and replacement for fighting fires; and ideas I will pass on that have been brought to me about how to improve coordination of bushfire assistance grants and qualifying criteria.

The independent review announced by the Premier on 28 January will be valuable. It will rightly look into SA's preparedness for dealing with significant bushfire activity, and I encourage participation by everyone. I would like to commend the tax and fee relief measures made available by the state government, as well as the assistance for volunteer firefighters, who have put in time volunteering in the current fire season and who have incurred great personal financial costs.

The Volunteer Firefighters' Financial Support Program commenced on 23 January, offering eligible volunteer firefighters who are self-employed or employed by small to medium businesses payments of up to $300 per day tax free and not means tested. I was pleased, too, that in mid-January Yorke Peninsula Council was included as an eligible LGA area to receive grants of up to $75,000 for farmers and $10,000 for small businesses.

This additional assistance, provided through the jointly-funded commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements will be most welcome to those in desperate need. It has been incredible to have so many volunteers and support people working so hard across the state and our country, undertaking myriad tasks, from fire containment to wildlife and habitat assistance, to driving fodder relief and fundraising. All these efforts are deserving of all the support government can provide.

As one of the local SYP people impacted, I will not forget the descriptions they relayed of watching their homes being engulfed in flames, of racing through blackness to the Edithburgh tidal pool for shelter, unable to even see the beach or find the boat ramp, escaping just in time with only the clothes on their back, packing their cars with what they could stuff in them and congregating on the beach parking bays, hearing of the numbers of livestock killed, of tractors engulfed in flames, of the collective community cheer that went up when the Boeing 737 dropped 15,000 litres of fire retardant to protect the Yorketown township.

Locals have told of fire literally lapping at the doorsteps of the homes in Edithburgh and of the firefighters, ambulance crews, SAPOL, SES and council staff who assisted them have been described as heroes who ensured no lives were lost. On behalf of the Narungga people, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all the efforts of so many special people. Now that I have concluded that part of my speech, I would like to touch on a couple of other things mentioned in the Governor's address, particularly the success that we have had as a government over the past nearly two years.

We have had tremendous and well overdue success securing road funding for the electorate of Narungga, including $3½ million for the entrance to Kadina from Moonta, a road that was notoriously bumpy and without drainage for a long period of time. I know it has been a council priority for a long period of time, so to see that road being done up in what is quite a heavy business district is wonderfully pleasing. It is pleasing for me that it was delivered so quickly, particularly after having taken the minister there to demonstrate the need for it.

Even more pleasing, I suspect, for people who live anywhere south of the central part of Yorke Peninsula, is an eight-kilometre stretch of the Maitland to Minlaton Road, which has been completely resealed. This road is notorious amongst locals and truck drivers who deliver grain to port as a particularly bad road, and it is alleged by local people that it is right up there amongst the worst roads in the state. They may well be biased—who knows. It is pleasing that eight kilometres of that stretch of about 40 kilometres is done, so we are well on the way to fixing that problem, which had well and truly been ignored, at least for the prior 16 years.

There has also been heavy maintenance done on Highway 1, which is another bugbear of many local people who have to go back and forth to Adelaide regularly. I would like to commend federal member Rowan Ramsey for his advocacy in ensuring that that part of the road is updated and made more safe. Also, wonderful work has been done for those who deliver grain to Port Giles, with improvements to the road there to make their truck trip safer, and stock to the Dublin saleyards, which is the beneficiary of an $11 million investment to make access easier for trucks with large stock loads. Both of those will make it easier for our primary producers to get their product to port, and I commend the government and the minister for their excellent work in delivering that.

One of the priorities of the local population in Narungga for some time has been health care. After the disaster of Transforming Health, it is pleasing to see real inroads being made into the service provision of health in the electorate of Narungga. It gives me great pleasure to report that the work on the surgical theatre at Yorketown Hospital will commence in the immediate future.

This will be a wonderful addition to a hospital that does a great job of servicing a population of largely retired people who need access to these sorts of provisions more often, who like to have them locally and do not like to travel the 3½ hours to Adelaide. It is pleasing that this health minister sees fit to provide those services locally instead of just shuttering hospitals all over the country and making people drive to Adelaide.

It is wonderful for the Yorketown people and wonderful for the SYP people, and we will keep going and deliver better health services for our regional communities. We are also pleased to report that $2.6 million was spent to upgrade Lumeah Homes in Snowtown, which was left to rack and ruin and has now been upgraded to meet safety standards, which it previously did not meet—a wonderful investment there.

Finally, in terms of hospitals, I would like to take this opportunity to commend the minister. Community-owned hospitals are a difficult proposition for a health budget, which is already an extensive part of the overall budget, but the minister in the other place, the Hon. Stephen Wade, was able to find over $700,000 for the Ardrossan Community Hospital accident and emergency services, which is really well appreciated by the local community board that run the hospital. They were having a hard time making ends meet when uninsured patients presented. You cannot turn them away—you have to treat them—and this money will ensure that they can continue to do that.

It has been a wonderful period in our electorate after so many years, in securing road funding, which we have been waiting for, and securing health funding, which we have been waiting for. I would like to commend this government and the ministers for the work they have done in securing that. I would like to touch on one or two more things in my brief time remaining. There has been a great announcement recently, and it is subject to an upcoming motion, of an investment by this government in our beautiful coastline around this state. The electorate of Narungga has been a wonderful beneficiary of that grant program as well.

Considerable money has been allocated to flood protection works at Port Clinton. At high tide, that township is subject to extreme flooding; we should be able to prevent that and keep the bottom floors of homes safe into the future. There is also well over $50,000 to address sand drift and sand retention issues at North Beach, which is the bugbear of people who live on the beachfront and who constantly have to empty out their porches and front verandahs. There is also almost $40,000 to the Barunga West council for their design protection works at Port Broughton. It is wonderful that we have improvements for road infrastructure in Narungga, improvements in health finally in Narungga and that there is work being done on our coastline as well.

I want to conclude by saying to the people of Narungga that I remain committed to highlighting to as many people as I can, and as often as possible, that regional South Australia is home to less than 30 per cent of the state's population yet contributes some $26 billion to the state's economy. A big part of that is the thriving agricultural industry, and policy and investment must reflect the vital importance of farmers and the primary production sector to the economies of our nation and state.

This year, I particularly look forward to the continued work being done by the Marshall Liberal government on the state's first regional development strategy; on the new grains industry blueprint, in recognition that our state's 4,500 grain farmers last year contributed an estimated $4.2 billion to our state's economy; and now on the new beef and sheep industry blueprints, supported by $7.5 million for the red meat and wool industry growth program, in recognition that our red meat and wool industry is South Australia's largest manufacturing employer, supporting 30,000 jobs.

I really enjoyed and was inspired by the Governor's address yesterday. I look forward to the forthcoming success that it hopefully brings. It was very pleasing that the Governor touched on the wonderful successes of the government over the past two years, noting of course that we are almost at the halfway point of this government's first term. I thought it was very exciting to hear the vision he outlined for the future of this state going forward.

I am looking forward to being part of the government and continuing to work cohesively with the ministers to ensure that Narungga gets its fair share going forward. We certainly have enjoyed a greater share of the benefits than previously, particularly the previous 16 years, during which the share we received was an abysmal reflection on the government's priorities and city-centric thought processes. It now being exceedingly close to lunchtime, I conclude my remarks.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:57): I also welcome the opportunity to reply to His Excellency the Governor's opening remarks in parliament. As it is just a short period of time before lunch, I will soon ask to resume my remarks after question time and grievances. However, I want to highlight one key thing and that is the former member for Finniss and his role in the bushfires on Kangaroo Island.

Michael Pengilly, as mayor, I believe has done an amazing job in the work he has done on the island under enormous stress. I have spoken to him many times over the last few weeks. He has finally come to the point where he is able to relax a little bit and not operate on pure adrenaline. The work he has put in as a leader of his community needs to be recognised, and we need to congratulate him on the work that he has done for that community.

It is very hard for someone who knows so many people to go through what he has gone through. His friends have lost houses. He has lost friends and neighbours through the unfortunate loss of two lives on the island. He certainly is someone who has done a wonderful job for his community. With those few comments, I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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