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

Address in Reply

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

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:41): I resume my remarks in my Address in Reply at the point when I was speaking about the broken promises by the Marshall Liberal government that impact on my electorate of Torrens. Another broken promise by the government was that, in recent years, we have seen great progress with women and girls playing football, and the Gaza Football Club is a great example of this. In the lead-up to the election, the Liberal candidate for Torrens made a promise to the Gaza Football Club to deliver the female change facilities. She said that they would match Labor's promise of change facilities.

The Gaza women's football team list is rapidly growing with a vision of adding another women's football team. They already have a junior girls' team. It is a club which is encouraging and which has seen a number of its players go on to play for the SANFL women's league. Having female change rooms and other facilities at our sporting clubs sends a really important message to women and girls that they are welcome in sport and that their club's culture is one that will facilitate this participation.

As I have previously said, the Liberal candidate met with Gaza's committee and made a commitment that a Liberal government would match Labor's commitments for women's change facilities at the Gaza Sports and Community Club, and I have a statutory declaration from committee members to this effect. Along with the Gaza club, the players and members, I am still waiting for the Minister for Sport to respond to my question asked in question time: when will the commitment made by the Liberal candidate to the Gaza Football Club be honoured?

Addressing inequality for girls and women in sport is important. The government cut the girls and women in sports facilities program, and I have to say that the minister, when I asked him this question, said, ‘They can apply for a grant,' but they stand up on that side day in and day out and they say, 'We're delivering on our promises.' The Gaza Football Club want to know when you are going to deliver on the promise made by the Liberal candidate during the election. We are still waiting. I will send you the stat dec. I will send you, too, the Liberal material that was put out and the Facebook post by the Liberal candidate about their promises.

I mention another broken promise by the Liberal candidate: the North East Road-Fosters Road intersection remains a nightmare to navigate, and the department has stated that the promise made by the Liberal candidate of installing traffic signals will not be happening. Those opposite knew it would not happen when they made the promise because they committed only $1.4 million for the fixing up Fosters Road campaign with traffic signals, but they were happy to put it on Facebook, they were happy to have materials printed. It was a joke!

The locals and the commuters who use it will not forget. I can assure members of the Liberal government sitting opposite that I have spoken to many constituents who voted for you, opposite, last time, 'to give them a go', they said. Well, they have told me that they will not be hollering for a Marshall government at the next state election.

As many members in this place have heard me talk about before, North East Community Assistance Project (NECAP) are yet to secure a site to relocate to after the amalgamation of the Avenues College despite again the government—first, the Liberal candidate and the two members who are now ministers—assuring them that they would assist them with funding and finding a new home. Once again, I urge the government to take this matter seriously and find suitable a location as soon as possible. This important organisation services the most vulnerable in our community and I do not want to see this as yet another broken promise that is going to impact so many.

This brings me back to the cuts and closures. Following the election, the Marshall Liberal government cut the Klemzig O-Bahn interchange upgrade and the additional car parks. I know how much Klemzig residents and other locals were looking forward to the additional 250 car parks and the upgrades Labor had budgeted and planned for at the Klemzig O-Bahn interchange. In this place, and in letters to the minister, I am continuing to advocate for the urgent reinstatement of the car park upgrade at the Klemzig interchange. I often speak to residents who have had their driveways blocked by cars or find it difficult to enter or exit the driveway of the home because of this congestion.

Another closure by the Marshall Liberal government was the Strathmont swimming pool, without consultation with the families of the 1,500 children and adults who used that pool. They closed it. It has gone with nothing to replace it. We live in Australia. Our beaches and our outdoor swimming for exercise and recreation form a significant part of our lifestyle. Access to swimming lessons for our young, water therapy for those with a disability, and water therapy and recreation for our seniors is so important, but we have one less swimming pool. It is not important according to the Marshall Liberal government. The Minister for Education and the Minister for Human Services said they would find alternative pools for the people who were accessing the pool.

I am standing here today to tell you that there are still hundreds who have not been able to access the same quality or number of swimming lessons. Children with special needs have had the number of swimming and water therapy lessons reduced because of the additional cost of travelling a longer distance to the pool, and additional costs for the lessons. Others do not have the same access to the swimming pool, there is less lane space, too many people and too much noise in the vicinity. This is particularly concerning for children on the autism spectrum and, regrettably, some are missing out altogether.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I received a Facebook message from a resident whose child attends Dernancourt School R-7 telling me that they will not be having swimming lessons this term because of the enormous cost of travelling to the pool where lessons were organised. The children from Dernancourt used to have swimming lessons and water therapy at Strathmont swimming pool, the one the government closed down. The school has applied and is waiting on a grant to assist with the additional costs.

Are you listening over there, minister? They have applied for a grant so that they can travel to a swimming centre so that their special needs students are able to access swimming lessons. I hope, minister, that grant is given serious consideration and that the children will again have access to the swimming lessons that both the Minister for Education and the Minister for Human Services said they would have. The lessons are so important for their personal development.

This brings me back now to some of the things that have actually gone well over the past 12 months. Since the election, we have seen the opening of some amazing new facilities for the community in Torrens. They were delivered by the Labor government. We are not the ones cutting the ribbons. We know that we listen to the community, and we delivered not just in Torrens but across the state, including all the electorates held by Liberal members.

The STEM facilities at Hillcrest Primary School, Hampstead Primary School and Wandana Primary School were just two of the things delivered under the Labor government. I know that schools across the state benefited from the Labor government's STEM program. Also in Torrens was a synthetic soccer pitch and the lighting upgrade at Metro Stars. While we are talking about Metro Stars, this is another club that needs female change facilities because when the Metro United women play at the Metro Stars grounds, they have to bring in transportables. It is not good enough.

Of course, we have those that were delivered by the Labor government's Fund My Neighbourhood program, which was savagely axed by the Marshall Liberal government. Again, that delivered projects to communities across the state, not just projects in the Labor electorates but projects in all the electorates.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Reynell and Minister for Sport, please!

Ms WORTLEY: Three projects just in Torrens include the Northgate Oakden Residents Association Men's Shed project, known as the Regency Community Men's Shed, which is now in the member for Enfield's seat; the Gilles Plains and Hampstead RSL weather shelter, which has already provided shelter from the heat on Remembrance Day and from the rain at the ANZAC Day service; and the Greenacres Community Garden. These Fund My Neighbourhood projects go right across the state. They are projects that have been put out there by the community. They are not projects that the government decided on. The community put them up and the community voted on them, and this government axed them.

There are many other things I wanted to speak about today, but I am not sure I will have the time to do them justice. One is the Lights Community and Sports Centre. It is a great example of the former state Labor government and the Port Adelaide Enfield local council working together to achieve a positive result for our community. The centre is really state of the art. It has amazing facilities, with five basketball courts and retractable seating that will seat approximately 1,000 people. It is a welcoming and inclusive indoor community place for all people, regardless of age, cultural background, socio-economic status or ability. There are multipurpose spaces for groups, including social clubs, local schools and other educational institutions. There is the Delightful Cafe and Pushing Performance in the commercial spaces.

Again, through boundary changes, it now falls in the member for Enfield's electorate, but the whole community gets to use it. That is what is so great about the projects that Labor has delivered: they are community projects and communities benefit, and that is what we want to see into the future. In addition to these great features, the City of Port Adelaide Enfield has engaged Play Sight, a technology company that enables live streaming of the North Adelaide Rockets basketball matches because, of course, that is the new home of the North Adelaide Rockets.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:53): It gives me great pleasure to rise today to contribute to the Address in Reply to the Governor's speech, which occurred on the opening day of this Fifty-Fourth Parliament, and what a day it was. I love the pomp and ceremony. Parliament, of course, was prorogued over the summer period, hence we begin a new parliament and an important part of that is the official opening. It was a grand day.

Of course, as members of the House of Assembly, we all marched up to the Legislative Council in good order, where we heard the Governor's speech. It was quite a long speech, as has been mentioned, but a critically important and broad-ranging one. It is always a pleasure to see some of the state's judges present on the floor.

It has been mentioned before but I will mention again that we are so extraordinarily lucky in this state to have a man such as Hieu Van Le as our Governor. Like many others here, I have heard his story firsthand. He visited Port Lincoln a few years ago and took the opportunity to tell a relatively small group of us his story about how his life began in war-torn Vietnam and how he and his family and a small group of others escaped that country.

After the end of the war, if my memory serves me correctly, and ultimately through good fortune, bravery and good management, they arrived into Darwin Harbour not knowing what they would find. I recollect him talking about it being a foggy morning when their boat, filled with refugees from Vietnam, arrived into Darwin Harbour. Not really knowing what sort of reception they would receive once they arrived, they heard a boat approaching. Out of the misty morning came two Australian fishermen in their boat off for a day's fishing and as the two Australians went past they said, 'G'day mate. Welcome to Australia.' What a wonderful way to be accepted into this country.

After acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Governor spoke at some length about the bushfires that have ravaged this state and the nation more generally over this past summer. We trust and pray that the worst is over, but of course we are still in the summer period, although it strikes me that the weather has changed. The weather patterns have changed and certainly it is feeling more autumnal already in South Australia. I have watched the weather for my entire working life, being a farmer for much of that time, and my sense is that once the cyclones arrive in the top end of Australia our weather settles down here in the south.

The Governor talked about the bushfires and we need to talk about them—many of us have during this Address in Reply—because it has had such an impact here in this state and, as I said, on the nation more broadly. Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills have taken much of the focus. They were the biggest fires and had the most impact. I think the Kangaroo Island fire burnt for some 50 days, which is quite extraordinary, and almost half (around 48 per cent) of the island was burnt.

Much of the western half of the island is heavily wooded, either through native vegetation in the national parks or through plantations, being blue gum or pine. The blue gum plantations have been a vexed issue over many years. Unfortunately, much of that acreage was burnt. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is for the blue gum forest. The Adelaide Hills was, of course, a much smaller fire but it impacted equally because properties are much smaller and settlements are much closer. It is always devastating.

We almost forget that there were fires on Yorke Peninsula and in the South-East, significant fires in their own right. I know the one on Yorke Peninsula was on a day of horrific fire danger and burnt all the way to the coast, as fires have before. The South-East fire at Keilira burnt a significant acreage as well and also many head of stock were lost. In the end, I think the numbers on Kangaroo Island were around 50,000 head of sheep and some cattle. Of course, those that were not burnt to death in the fire—and I am sorry to be gruesome but this is the reality of it—suffered significant injuries and had to be destroyed.

There were a couple of other fires of note. On the outskirts of Port Lincoln, way back on Remembrance Day, 11 November, a fire burnt very close to the city of Port Lincoln and destroyed only one home, thanks to the good work of the SES, the CFS, the MFS, I believe, and the Department for Water and Environment. Also, the Aerotech fire-bombers were significant in helping to contain and control that fire ultimately, as they have been throughout all these fires.

Interestingly, within a few days of that (I am racking my memory here, but I think it was probably within 10 days) there was a day of significant fire danger. In fact, the power supply was turned off to Lower Eyre Peninsula. I think that was the right decision because we could not take the risk of having electricity wires down and another fire starting. Of course, with that come unintended consequences, and that invariably is the loss of communication, particularly if the power is off for some time. Batteries run down at the mobile phone towers and the landlines do not seem to work like they used to since the rollout of the NBN.

They are significant unintended consequences that we need to address when there are power outages in a modern world that relies so much on electricity for all things but particularly for communication. Ironically, just a few weeks ago there was also a flood in Port Lincoln. For those who can recall, I think the measurement was around 90 millimetres or thereabouts. It was directly over the city of Port Lincoln. The highest tally I heard was 180 millimetres just outside town, at Green Patch.

Port Lincoln is a beautiful city. It has the geographic advantage of giving everybody who owns a house there a beautiful view. What that means, though, is that all the water runs to the front and to the foreshore. Significant flooding occurred, and it has occurred before. The council are taking steps to ensure that the impact is minimised, although that has not been all that successful this last time. Having said that, I think that the amount of rain, and the time it fell in, was such that not much could have prevented the flooding that occurred.

There was also another fire, on the Western Australian side of the Nullarbor Plain. I mention this particular fire because it impacted my electorate in the sense that the border was closed for a period of a week or so. Much transport, of course, goes across National Highway 1 from east to west and west to east. All those trucks were stranded on one side of the border or the other. Certainly, a lot of tourists were stranded on one side of the border or the other. That put pressure on both Western Australian and South Australian towns such as Ceduna, Streaky Bay and Penong, which really had to manage that situation for a week or more.

I want to talk a little about roads because it is important that I do, and they have been very topical in the seat of Flinders, particularly on the back of the closure of our rail system. I am going to tell the house that I was as disappointed and as sad as anyone to see that Genesee & Wyoming and Viterra were unable to reach a commercial agreement through which grain would continue to be hauled on an ageing narrow-gauge network that was really short haul with a variable tonnage. I understand all the logistical challenges, but what it did, even to the very end, was keep about three-quarters of a million tonnes of grain off our roads and on that railway line.

In hindsight, the end of the railway line had been coming for a long time. The first of the railway sidings on Eyre Peninsula closed in the early 1950s. That is nearly 70 years ago. In a way, that was the beginning of the end, as I see it now. There was a time when the railways employed 650 people on Eyre Peninsula. In the end, about 30-odd people lost jobs. My understanding is that most of them have either taken a package or have been able to relocate, so that is a reasonable outcome.

It means that we have many more trucks on our roads. Our export ports are at both Thevenard and Port Lincoln. The grain into Thevenard for the last—I am going to guess—eight or 10 years has been delivered entirely by road, so nothing much is going to change at the top end. At this stage, of course, the train line continues to haul gypsum in from Penong to the Port of Thevenard—three trains a day—and that is loaded onto a ship and delivered mostly to the building industry on the east coast.

On the back of the closure of our railway, the state and federal governments cobbled together $32 million specifically for roads on the southern half of Eyre Peninsula. That is very welcome, of course. Part of my job as the local member is to ensure that funding continues to come to upgrade our roads, but it is particularly important that the state contributes to this because much of that grain freight I was talking about is hauled into Port Lincoln on our three state highways that run north-south on Eyre Peninsula, those being the Lincoln Highway, the Tod Highway and the Flinders Highway.

I have been banging on about the Tod Highway for as long as I have been in this place with the aim of having the length between Kyancutta and Karkoo shoulder sealed—the sealing of the shoulders done for that distance; I think it is just over 100 kilometres—because, quite simply, I think it is money well spent. It is good value for governments to put money into shoulder sealing, as it makes our state highways both wider and safer. Quite simply, a wider road is a safer road.

Shoulder sealing began on the corners of this road three or four years ago. I will not say that it has continued at pace, but it has been continuing. Many of the corners, particularly the more dangerous corners, between Karkoo and Kyancutta have had work done on them, and now we are beginning to see shoulder sealing extend to the straighter parts of that road. I think that is critical work that will continue. There are also passing lanes that have been talked about.

Another real challenge of this will be how we manage the traffic in downtown Port Lincoln, given that most of the grain that comes from the eastern side of the peninsula and into Port Lincoln needs to come by truck. Many of these trucks, if they are not road trains, may even be triples. Just as an aside, the first truckload of wheat I ever delivered to my local silo came in at seven tonnes of wheat—it might even have been 7.1 tonnes. These trucks now are carrying 70 tonnes. So in one generation—it might be a bit more than a generation; 40 years is probably two generations—the capacity, flexibility and efficiency of road transport have increased significantly.

Downtown Port Lincoln, particularly the shopping precinct through Liverpool Street, sees the passage of these trucks, and the drivers do an extraordinarily good job at this stage. Traffic is managed with roundabouts. There are three roundabouts through Liverpool Street, a T-road at the other end and stop lights going to the silo. It is effective, but it may not be as efficient as it possibly can be, so the challenge will be to come up with a design whereby these trucks, other traffic and pedestrians can be safely accommodated through the Liverpool Street and CBD area of Port Lincoln.

The Western Approach Road of course carries the other significant number of trucks—that is, the grain coming down from the centre, down the Tod Highway that I mentioned earlier, and also from the Flinders Highway (as in the western side) grain is coming in from Elliston, Witera and sometimes even as far away as Streaky Bay.

We had a meeting with DPTI a few weeks ago, and myself and the councils were involved, when representatives of DPTI came over and presented to us a priority list for works on Eyre Peninsula, which we were all pleased to see because people were starting to wonder when something was going to happen. To be fair, the good people of Eyre Peninsula have not seen any physical activity as yet, but I can assure them that I know now that the assessments and audits have been done and that it is a matter of prioritising the roadworks. The prioritisation is critically important because we have at this stage $32 million, and we need to ensure that that money is directed in the best way possible. It will include downtown Port Lincoln, passing lanes and shoulder sealing. We look forward to that work continuing.

Featuring in this conversation are the two port proposals for Eastern Eyre Peninsula. Peninsula Ports are proposing a port development at what used to be called Sheep Hill and then became Port Spencer. It is located near Lipson Cove. They are progressing with their development and fundraising activities. Just north of that—both these sites are in between Tumby Bay and Port Neill—is the Cape Hardy proposal, which from the very early days was an Iron Road proposal when it was thought that the iron ore mine at Warramboo might be developed. It could well still be. At this stage it has not been, but there is a group of farmers who were certainly looking to piggyback on that and develop a grain export port facility at Cape Hardy, just south of port Neill.

There has been much conversation around those ports. I am not going to get too involved with that here other than to say that they are both progressing. The state government has been involved to the extent that it provides approvals, licensing and such things. I mention them here today because if one of those ports were to develop it would potentially change the way freight flowed across Eyre Peninsula. Rather than having all the grain going to Port Lincoln, we would quite likely see some of the grain go across the peninsula to one of the new sites—or a new site between Tumby Bay and Port Neill.

Further to that, T-Ports, which is a third company, have already developed a bunker receival site at Cowell and also a barge facility to export grain out of Lucky Bay. Receivals did occur during the last harvest. To the best of my knowledge no exports have been made. I think the barge is still on its way, so we look forward with interest to that.

In the time remaining, I would like to talk about other key responsibilities of the state government. I have talked about roads. The other two key responsibilities—and combined they take up about 50 per cent of the state's budget—are education and health. There have been some really significant and worthwhile upgrades to school facilities on Eyre Peninsula. I have had the pleasure of opening STEM projects (science, technology, engineering and maths) at Port Lincoln High School, Cummins Area School and Ceduna Area School. Those three schools are really the only three schools on Eyre Peninsula or in the seat of Flinders that were able to qualify because of student numbers and enrolments.

To qualify fully for a STEM project, the enrolment needed to be in excess of 300 students. Streaky Bay are feeling a bit disappointed because I think their enrolments are sitting at about 297, but hopefully they get an opportunity at some time in the future. Further building works are about to begin both at Ceduna Area School and Port Lincoln High School. Certainly, on a personal level, I have been lobbying on behalf of the Port Lincoln High School whose previous principal, Mr Tony Green, came to me some years ago when the previous government were in power and we began our lobbying efforts. It all takes time, but it comes to fruition in the end. One thing I have learnt in this job is to be persistent, so congratulations to those schools for winning projects.

Other works have been going on at other area schools. I think there are 24, 25 or 26 schools within the seat of Flinders, many of them quite small but equally as important as the other because of course education is a priority. Part of that priority is demonstrated by the fact that we are now delivering NBN to all state government schools. It is being rolled out to the schools in Port Lincoln, and over the next 18 months or so I know it will be rolled out as well to all the area schools on Eyre Peninsula.

It is critically important because good fast internet these days is imperative to a good education. I often think that the smaller the school, the more important it is because, as we get to those senior years in small country schools, particularly area schools, it is really quite challenging to offer a broad range of subjects. We often find students in their senior years having to either go away to finalise their education or take up other options, but good NBN broadens their options and that is a good thing.

Health care on Eyre Peninsula is challenging in the sense that we are struggling to attract doctors. The state government has put in place a rural doctor workforce plan. We are contributing $20 million to that, which is a significant amount of money. It is not going to be an overnight fix and the solution will have many prongs to it, I am sure. Streaky Bay is an example that comes to mind, and Wudinna has been operating with Dr Scott Lewis in town. It is even the case in bigger towns, like Port Lincoln. The anecdotal evidence is that we are up to 10 doctors short in Port Lincoln, so it is a problem.

I understand that it is a problem not just on Eyre Peninsula; it is right across country South Australia and, in fact, right across regional Australia. They are challenges that we need to address both at a state and a federal level. I think we will get to a solution. As I said, it is not going to be an overnight fix. Obviously, it is going to take a little while for solutions to flow through the system and for general practitioners to be attracted to country placement.

It is not just doctors; it is other allied health professionals as well, but I am of the view that, if we solve the doctor problem, we will go a long way to solving our other problems in relation to health professionals. Unfortunately, birthing services at Ceduna hospital have ceased at the moment. There is not a problem with the facility; it is simply a lack of staff. That is a work in progress.

As recently as last week, the Premier visited Eyre Peninsula as part of his drought tour. The Premier, the Hon. Steven Marshall, flew into Cleve with the acting minister for agriculture, the Hon. Dan van Holst Pellekaan, and we convened a meeting in the brand-new Cleve sporting facility, to which the state government had contributed $630,000. It was nice to see that project finished. I understand that the official opening is coming up soon. I know the people of the eastern Eyre Peninsula were appreciative of the fact that the Premier and the acting minister were there. There was relatively late notice, but we had a group of about 60 people.

Eastern Eyre Peninsula has been having a tough time of it. Cleve, which is normally a good and reliable area, has had three dry years in a row. If you extend it to Cowell and down to Arno Bay and north through Darke Peak into Kimba, there is a significant part of eastern Eyre Peninsula that has had unfavourable seasonal conditions, let's put it that way. Not only has rainfall been scarce but many farmers have been impacted by frost as well. Much hay has been cut. Much frosted grain has been cut. Fortunately, the market for hay has been good because there has been a drought situation in the Eastern States and obviously those fire-affected farmers have been looking for supplementary feeding.

I understand the Premier and acting minister continued on from Cleve to Orroroo, Hawker and Marree. I am not sure which order that occurred in, but they did the full circuit. Certainly at Cleve, and I am sure in other areas as well, the issue of mental health and mental wellbeing came up and how we manage, address and service individuals and families, etc., who are struggling through difficult seasonal and financial times.

It is not just farmers, of course; the flow-on affects all businesses in small towns. Sometimes whole families leave districts, which leaves a hole in the school, and services become increasingly difficult to provide. I guess the best solution of all is that we have good seasonal rainfall this coming year. Unfortunately governments cannot make it rain—I wish we could—but fingers crossed that the seasonal conditions will turn around. While on the subject of rainfall, an ongoing issue on Eyre Peninsula has always been the provision of a public water supply.

If we go back to the train line, one of the tasks of the early train service was to provide water to the settlements; there was simply not enough surface water and very little groundwater to supply the settlements on Eyre Peninsula. It evolved rather quickly through the first half of the 20th century. We built a reservoir, known as the Tod Reservoir, just out of Port Lincoln. That allowed a reticulated water system to be established all the way from the Tod Reservoir as far north as Ceduna. It was the longest reticulated water system in the world at the time, quite an engineering feat, in fact.

Just after the war years it became apparent that we would need to supplement that supply. We began extracting water from a number of underground lenses or basins at Polda as well as a couple of others west and south of Lincoln, the Uley Basin, the Lincoln Basin and the Uley South Basin. After years of extraction, and very little recharge through these dry years, these basins are under some stress.

At a governmental level we have talked about supplementing the domestic water supply to the desal plant. Consultation is underway at the moment, working towards building that desal plant. Personally, I think it is imperative that we build a desal plant that will supplement our water supply, because it is a possibility that the way we are managing things now cannot continue.

I have talked about farming and some of the bigger projects. Of course, the other two significant inputs in relation to our regional economy are fishing and aquaculture—seafood, if you like—and tourism. The tuna boats are out now, attempting to catch their quota. I am hearing that the tuna are a bit hard to find this year. They are out there, and the fishermen know they are out there; but they just have to find them.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: How are you going to find them, yes. I am sure they will find them. I am sure they will catch their quota, and it is really important they do catch their quota because Port Lincoln as a city relies so much on the tuna industry. It is a fishing town and there are other fisheries—there is rock lobster, abalone, sardines, the marine scale fishery—but, ultimately, at this point in time it is a tuna town. I wish them well in that.

The most important market for tuna fish is into Japan, and the most important market for the cray fishermen is into China. Of course, the coronavirus has meant those borders have effectively closed, and that has meant that the rock lobster fishermen have essentially lost their market. They are looking at options at the moment. I know they are developing a few options to put to government and the minister for fisheries, so we will see how that goes. I wish them well with that.

I have not even got onto space. I know the Governor mentioned space in his speech, and it is a possibility that Eyre Peninsula may play a part in the state's future involvement in the space industry.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (16:22): It is always an honour and privilege to follow the member for Flinders. He always gives a wonderfully polite and sincere contribution to the house in his Address in Reply. He is an example for us all on the good advocacy of a local member of parliament, and I thank him for his contribution. I would also like to thank the Governor for his contribution and his remarks at the beginning of this new 'reset' (which I say with inverted commas). The Governor's speech detailed the government's agenda—I was nearly going to say 'new agenda' but, of course, we know it is not.

I want to talk about a few things in particular in my Address in Reply. Again, I thank His Excellency for opening the parliament and giving us direction for the next two years leading up to the election, unless, of course, the government prorogue the parliament again.

The topics I want to touch on are, of course, electricity and energy in this state; infrastructure; the member for Waite; the leadership of the Premier, pairs and leave arrangements for the parliament, which I think are an integral part of the behind-the-scenes running of the parliament in order for good governance in the Westminster tradition to operate in this state; Kangaroo Island, the Adelaide Hills, the fire victims and the recovery efforts; and regional South Australia. I saw in today's ANZ's Stateometer that there are some concerns about the level of output that might be coming from harvest, which I think a lot of people are very concerned about given what is going on with climate change. However, I will start with the interconnector.

For those people who are not overtly literate in the National Electricity Market, it is a very complex beast, and interconnection is what the government has pinned its hopes on for energy security in South Australia. I will admit that interconnection makes the job of the Australian Energy Market Operator very easy. It is much easier to have an integrated national market with interconnectors operating because it makes their job so much easier. It is not necessarily in the interests of the individual jurisdictions, but it certainly is in the interests of the market operator.

The question we have to ask ourselves as parliamentarians is: is it in our interests? Ultimately, in the long term the interconnector is in our interests. The question is, as always in politics, about timing. The most recent report released from the Australian Energy Regulator and by its Chair, Clare Savage, a former member of the Liberal Party and an expert in this field, is that if the interconnector in New South Wales is to be built it will likely see the closure of three of the largest gas-fired powered stations in South Australia: Torrens Island B, Osborne and Pelican Point. I cannot stress enough the danger for the state's economic sovereignty to lose the capacity of those generators.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: What about Port Augusta?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member for the Riverland interjects, 'What about Port Augusta?' That is a very, very good point. Port Augusta had commercial coal reserves until 2028 and no further. Pelican Point and Osborne are relatively new generators and have a life well beyond 2028, and Torrens Island can be refitted and is the largest gas-fired power station in South Australia. It is the engine room, the horsepower, that South Australia relies upon.

Gas, in my opinion, is the transition fuel to a zero net carbon emissions future, which we must hurtle towards, and quickly. The entire strategy to diversify through a hydrogen road map, or a green steel all relies on one assumption: an overabundance of renewable energy. Members opposite have not contemplated what interconnection will do to that overabundance. It will immediately create scarcity in the market here for renewables.

It will have two impacts: the overabundance will be gone because we will be exporting our renewables into New South Wales, which may have a benefit for investment in renewables in South Australia. The price you pay for that is a displacement effect by losing three generators, which are probably over 1,000 megawatts in generation capacity in the state, making us technically then completely reliant on interconnection for our day-to-day needs. Let that sink in.

The only way a hydrogen road map works, Mr Acting Speaker, as you would be well aware, is for cheap renewable energy to be able to run the electrolysers and, of course, the desalination to get to the water to convert water into hydrogen. You need cheap, free power, otherwise the economics do not stand up. The first thing interconnection will do after it closes three power stations is to create a scarcity of renewable energy and put immense pressure on Whyalla for its energy reserves, because of its green steel strategy. They are my concerns.

I also have concerns about the costs stated. I understand that if you read the report that was published by the Australian Energy Regulator this interconnector to New South Wales only stacks up if the costs in New South Wales of building the interconnector remain as stated. If they are larger than stated, the regulatory approval and the cost-benefit analysis falls over. To explain that in layman's terms, the two proponents, ElectraNet and Ausgrid, have said, 'This is what it will cost to build interconnection to New South Wales. This is what they think the benefit will be.' The regulator took a whole lot of the benefit off it saying, 'You are overestimating the benefits of the market, but your costs better not be any larger because if they are larger your project is not commercial.'

I understand that the AER's fears are accurate, that the cost of the interconnector in New South Wales has already blown out to well above a billion dollars just in New South Wales, not the cost to South Australia. This entire strategy is one on which the government has pinned its entire hopes to bring about their $302 per year annual saving in electricity prices that the member for Colton, the member for Elder, the member for King and the member for Newland all promised the people of South Australia that they would deliver.

We will hold them to account for those promises as they watch the government attempt to try and get prices down by that much because it is not going to be through an interconnector. We know what the benefits are going to be, and they are nowhere near $302 per year. That is the measure that they must meet and they must meet it by building an interconnector and closing three generators in South Australia. That is how they think they will create lower power prices. I have news for them: it will not work—but we will see.

In terms of infrastructure, I am very concerned about what the Leader of the Opposition has warned South Australians of—that is, a valley of death in terms of infrastructure work. The government claims to be spending four point something billion dollars on infrastructure per annum, on forward works. The government spend about that anyway each and every year. They have yet to begin Regency to Pym. They have completed projects initiated under the previous Labor government—Torrens to Torrens, Darlington, Northern Connector—and I concede that some of those projects were co-funded by a commonwealth Liberal government, but this Marshall Liberal government have not commenced any large-scale infrastructure projects of its own.

The Joy Baluch Bridge was something we funded. The infrastructure being spent in our schools of over $870 million was something we committed to in 2017. I am yet to see large-scale infrastructure. To their credit, some individual intersections are being upgraded along Portrush Road in the marginal seat of Sturt, and the marginal seats of Norwood and Morialta, but I am yet to see large-scale infrastructure works elsewhere. Golden Grove Road, again, yes, an important project funded under Labor but not on the scale of the billions of dollars that create the thousands and thousands of jobs that the large-scale north-south corridor created.

Most disappointingly, of course, is the lie we were told about GlobeLink. I think members are hoping that South Australians will forget GlobeLink. I do not think they will, and we will remind them. We will remind the people of Murray Bridge that the member representing the area of Murray Bridge promised them a 24-hour export freight-only airport.

Mr Pederick: No he didn't. He promised $20 million research.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, and we will play the ads with the words of the Premier about how he will transform South Australia with GlobeLink. We will play the ads showing the member for Elder, and the members along the freight line promising to have the freight line removed from the Adelaide Hills, to sweep behind the Adelaide Hills with a brand-new road and rail line to connect to Outer Harbor at Port Adelaide.

Of course, none of that is going to happen. I would like to see members explain to their constituents during the election campaign, 'Oh, no, we only ever promised a feasibility study. It was never actually promised that we would build a road, a freight line and an airport.' I do not think anyone will believe them, but I look forward to them attempting to convince people of that lie.

I think the worst part about spruiking GlobeLink is its shortsightedness. Remember, before GlobeLink there was '2036'. The opposition leader at the time, the member for Dunstan, wanted to portray to South Australians that he had a long-term vision for the people of South Australia; instead, what he did was he duped them. He duped them into thinking, 'I am offering long-term solutions.' They were really tactical promises to try to combat insurgent third parties, like the Xenophon group, in vulnerable marginal seats or in vulnerable safe seats where they were subject to third-party contests.

I will give the Premier this due: that strategy worked. But the thing about politics is that it is not draughts: it is chess, and you have to think more than two moves in advance. So, when you promise to remove a billion-dollar freight line through someone's backyard, increasing their amenity, reducing their noise, improving their travel times to and from work and then do not deliver on it, people will remember. When you promise exporters that you will build them a 24-hour freight-only airport, they will remember.

The reason we know it was a lie is that no-one in South Australia, including the Premier, believed that they were ever going to do it. It was simply a tactical promise (1) to give the people of South Australia a sense that the Premier had a long-term bold vision and (2) as something for his candidates to talk about in response to the insurgent Xenophon group. They will pay for that short-term thinking in seats they probably would have won anyway at the next election when they are explaining to their constituents why none of it had been built. That goes to the Premier's leadership.

The Premier's leadership can be defined in a number of ways. I could talk about it in terms of land tax and the hit to confidence in South Australia, whether it be business confidence, consumer confidence or just sentiment about how the state is travelling. I can talk about it in terms of his judgement in attempting to conceal that he was sacking the Hon. David Ridgway as tourism minister and taking it himself because he used the example himself that the trade and investment minister needs to travel, yet the Premier needed to be here as tourism minister to sustain the fire recovery and then he tried to take a secret trip. Of course, the inevitable flowed out, which was that he was caught and the Premier was embarrassed.

Then we get to the events in this building on Friday the 13th of 2019. I have grave concerns about the handling of this by the Premier. Obviously, there is a culture of drinking in the Liberal Party, a culture of drinking that is out of control. I saw it on the first floor when officers were being moved where there were bottles and bottles—empty bottles—of wine. There is a problem at the core of the Liberal Party in terms of its parliamentarians about how they treat people who have a problem with alcohol. That problem with alcohol then exacerbates into misogyny, homophobia and racism.

How do you deal with that? Well, the Premier told us that what the member for Waite did was unacceptable, yet he stood by him. He stood by him through the sexual harassment, he stood by him during the sexual assault, he stood by him during the homophobia and he stood by him during the racism. Apparently there is now some new secret allegation that trumps all those. We do not know what it is. There are rumours. Members opposite are quite helpfully telling us what they think it might be. Some claim to have knowledge of it. They are not telling us what it is.

It is hard to know who is telling the truth and who is just being mischievous. From what I have been able to ascertain, the member for Waite was something of a wheeler and dealer factionally. I do not know how accurate that is, how powerful he was or is, but it seems he had a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. The friends are defending him and the enemies are talking to us. That is politics, I suppose.

What concerns me the most about that is I found out last weekend that, despite the Premier making public statements of sympathy towards the victims, he had not called anyone to see how they were doing. I do not know if that was deliberate or just an oversight. I will give the Premier the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the Premier thought it inappropriate to call a victim and say, 'I understand my member of parliament assaulted you or sexually harassed you or made homophobic remarks towards you or racist remarks towards you.' Maybe he thought it was not his place to apologise for the member for Waite. But the function of leadership means that you actually do step up and do reach out: 'Are you okay? This is not acceptable. Do not feel guilty about making a complaint. You have done nothing wrong. It is the member for Waite at fault.'

When I heard the tape from the Waite SEC meeting, what horrified me the most was not that there were two sitting Liberal MPs at that meeting clapping the member for Waite, it was not that they passed a unanimous resolution in direct defiance of the Premier, despite being warned by a former cabinet minister no less that it was folly to do so, it was that all of them—all of them—thought that the member for Waite was the victim here. Poor old Sam. The media are camped out front. That is what happens when you get drunk in Parliament House and assault someone.

Mr PEDERICK: Point of order: I have just about had enough of the member for West Torrens reflecting on members in this place.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, accusations, and I want you to act accordingly.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Cowdrey): I direct the member to ensure that he abides by standing order 127 and restrains from making personal reflections on any members.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am making no reflection on any member of this house this year. What is interesting is that to this day they still defend him. Right now, we have a point of order in his defence—loyal to the bitter end. I have to say that stuns me because I know how one of the victims is feeling: the isolation and the guilt. The sense that somehow the member for Waite is a victim as opposed to the actual victims, I find offensive and I would have thought that members opposite would, too. Maybe they do but they just do not want to speak out, which is fair enough. But, I think sometimes it is important to speak out, and I think the Hon. Connie Bonaros deserves to have us speak out for her.

I do not feel sorry for Sam. I liked Sam. I liked him a lot. I thought he had great potential in this parliament. I thought he was a thinker in the Liberal Party. I thought he was here for the right reasons. I thought that he was a conservative warrior for his side and that he was here on the basis of what he thought were conservative principles. I have to say that I like people who are here because of the beliefs they hold rather than a career. But, what I discovered was that was all rubbish. If he was principled and he was a true conservative, none of Friday the 13th would have occurred, in my mind.

Then we get to pairs and leave. I feel very sorry for the member for Morialta, who was unceremoniously dumped as leader of government business or manager of government business, whatever you want to call it. He had the corner office upstairs, a very nice office, my old office. It is a very nice office, I can say. It is very hard losing that office, very difficult. I saw him unceremoniously moved out of that office downstairs because I am assuming the government wanted to send us a message that they were punishing him for not honouring pairs. Okay, we entered into a new arrangement with the member for Schubert, the new Leader of Government Business. We talked. I gave my word. He gave his.

It did not last 24 hours. I suppose there are two excuses for this: either it was deliberate or the government are a rabble. Senior ministers do not know that the Manager of Government Business and the manager of opposition business have engaged in negotiations to return these arrangements and, not more than 24 hours later, when it is inconvenient to the government, they break the deal and then say, 'Sorry. I know you got thrown out of parliament. I know leave wasn't granted. Can we have it back, please, because now it is convenient for us.'

What happens 12 months from now when it is not convenient again, one of our members is having surgery and cannot get here and you break another pair arrangement because you might lose some vote on suspending standing orders, or one of your members is going to cross the floor on some bill, exercising this famous independence Liberals have? What happens then? This building only works on trust and goodwill behind the scenes; otherwise, it does not work and it grinds to a halt.

I would have thought that the government would want to reinstate this process so that people who are legitimately ill do not have to be here and feel guilty about missing out on treatment to be here. It gives me no pleasure to deny pairs for people who want to spend time with their families or who are ill, but if we cannot honour them what is the use? What is the use if every time we enter into a deal you are going to break it? Cross this line; okay. Cross this line; okay. Cross this line—at what point do we just say, 'You're untrustworthy'?

The truth is I do not think you are untrustworthy. I think most members opposite want to do a deal but, every now and then, your ministers blow their brains out in public because they are a rabble. Discipline: part of being a cabinet is being disciplined, following instructions, cabinet solidarity, understanding what the day-to-day operation of government is. If they cannot do it, trust me, there are members on the backbench who are far more qualified than the ones on the front bench, who can follow instruction, understand deals and understand the practice, precedents and traditions of the parliament.

Why do we have pairs? I will explain it one more time: so the will of the election is reflected in every vote in this parliament, so members who cannot be here do not leave their communities unrepresented because of illness or because they are doing important work on behalf of the state interstate or overseas, so that those communities are not valueless all of a sudden. If the government wins 24 seats, the opposition wins 23 and two government members are doing Her Majesty's work abroad, does that mean we can just overturn the election result? No.

We have pairing arrangements to make sure that the will of the election is carried out for the term of the parliament—stable Westminster responsible government—but it seems to be beyond members opposite to deliver that despite their majority. Now they are in a situation where they have 23 votes on the floor of the house and they have an ex suspended member away at Liberal Party functions, and when they reinstate pairs we do the deal and they break it.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: Where's the member for Lee? Where's he?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Do you want to enforce the same standing orders about members not being here? No, of course not.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Of course not. Hypocrisy is—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Cowdrey): Member for West Torrens, you are entitled to raise a point of order. If you wish to do so, you should do so. You should not reflect.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you. Reflect on what, sir?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Cowdrey): Continue your remarks or raise a point of order, please, member for West Torrens.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: Where's the member for Lee?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you very much for interrupting. I want to get to Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills. The difficulty with Kangaroo Island, in particular, is the costs associated with operating infrastructure and enterprise because of freight costs. It is not so much the tyranny of distance but the tyranny of the ferry. It is a big problem. When I was treasurer, I instituted an ESCOSA inquiry into the costs of the ferry service, and, in my opinion, the corporate overheads allocated towards the cost of that service here in Adelaide and on that ferry service were excessive. I think there is plenty of room to move in SeaLink's ability to lower costs, not just in an emergency but on an ongoing basis.

I will tell you something anecdotal. When I went to Kangaroo Island with the shadow cabinet, my wife said to me that it would be lovely to bring back some Kangaroo Island lamb. So I thought, 'Great idea. I'll go over, spend a bit of money and bring it back to the mainland.' I went to every butcher shop I could find and none of them sold butchered Kangaroo Island produce. One of the reasons for that, they told me, is the cost of operating any facility to butcher meat on the island, which I thought they could have done with some premium.

However, it all gets back to the central theme that everything on the island is more expensive; it costs a lot more. That is why every major island anywhere in the world operated by Western democracies has a higher level of subsidy in place than the rest of the mainland. It is important that we maintain that level of subsidy.

The Adelaide Hills are also a very important part of the South Australian economy, whether it is agriculture, wine or tourism. They have been hit pretty hard: twice now they have had hailstorms that did a lot of damage to produce—cherries, apples and other fruits—and of course they have had the fires. Again, I think the government needs to step up and show a greater level of interest in making sure that those regional economies can get back on their feet quickly.

The last thing I will finish with, in the short time available, is to thank members very much for their generous and kind words to me over the last week or so regarding the unfortunate event that occurred in my personal life. It is a sign that there is still goodwill in this parliament and that we are all people who wish to do better. I was touched by the many messages and cards that I received from political opponents and old friends. On behalf of my family, thank you to all members who reached out, stopped and said hello and passed on their condolences.

Debate adjourned on motion of Dr Harvey.

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