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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-22 Daily Xml
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Mount Gambier Gas Outage

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:56): Can the minister explain when he made contact with the local member and let him know about the outage in Mount Gambier?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:56): Well, the answer, as the local member knows, is that I did not contact him, but I did—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: But if those—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Is he supposed to get out with a wrench and a spanner?

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The enthusiasm of those opposite to look for a problem means that they just have to wait longer for the answer. As the member for Mount Gambier knows, I did not contact him directly myself, but what I did do was make sure that he had been informed. I made sure through the Department for Energy and Mining that he was aware of it. So me telling him something that he was already aware of was not going to do him or me any additional benefit whatsoever. This was a serious issue—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: There is something up the back. I don't know what it is. I satisfied myself that all of the people, including local mayors and other people, had received the information that they were expecting to receive, that they deserved to receive. If I had been advised that the local member hadn't been or wasn't going to be informed, then I certainly would have done it myself, but I didn't see any need to waste his time with another phone call, because no doubt a good local member would have been engaging with his constituents and making sure that they were all okay.

In addition, I also made sure that flow of information was going to be available to the member for Mount Gambier just to be sure that he knew what was going on. Essentially, I said, 'If there's anybody who needs anything, let me know. If there's something that they're not getting already, let me know.'

But, as I have already explained, the most important thing—the absolutely most important thing—was to make sure that nobody was harmed through this process, and it actually wasn't too long a bow to draw to think that could have happened. The initial issue was a shortage of gas, appliances not working, making sure that the hospital had everything that it needed—for example, making sure that emergency services had everything that they needed, including backup from other places if they needed it.

So it was making sure that people weren't without information, making sure that people actually got visits from APA staff predominantly—there were other people involved as well but predominantly from APA staff—to help them with the reignition of their appliances to avoid the risk that I was talking about before with regard to potentially a burn, a potential explosion, potentially appliance damage, etc., etc.

Those were the sorts of things that were front of everybody's mind. Let me just say that if it is unsatisfactory to the member for Mount Gambier that I did not contact him directly myself after being told that he was aware of what was going on, then I certainly make a very clear commitment to do exactly that in the future, even if I know that he is already fully informed. The member for Mount Gambier and I have a very positive working relationship. We were colleagues—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —for a long time, as people know. He is now an Independent MP and, as I do with all of the Independent MPs, I treat them with great respect and dignity and very happy to—

Ms Bedford: Oh, I don't know about that!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Well, in fact, I will ask—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —the member for Florey to hark back to when we visited—

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will not respond to interjections.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —the Adelaide Produce Market together.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. Before I call the member for Reynell, I call to order the member for Chaffey, I call to order and warn the member for Mawson, I warn for a second time the member for Lee and the member for West Torrens, and I remind the member for Playford he's been on two warnings for some time. If he continues to interject—and I am not wanting to remove anyone from the house—that's the next step for the member for Playford.

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