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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
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Adjournment Debate

Valedictories

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (16:21): On indulgence, I rise to make some concluding remarks for the year 2020—and what a year it has been. What a privilege and a pleasure it has been this afternoon to have Dr Roger Thomas, the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement, present his report as the commissioner for the very first time. It is the first time that this chamber has ever had that voice. I thank the commissioner for his hard work and for this historic moment for our chamber.

It was 40 years ago, almost to this very month, when this chamber was busily engaged in the debates leading up to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act. Next year, we will celebrate and commemorate when that piece of groundbreaking legislation passed this parliament, and it is important to note that this parliament—this state—has had some highs in terms of our engagement with Aboriginal people in South Australia. We have had some groundbreaking legislation go through this chamber. We have had some nation-leading positions that this state has taken. We were the first jurisdiction to apologise to the stolen generations.

But just as we have had some highs, we have had some lows here in South Australia and there still remains an enormous amount of work to be done. I for one know that we all have a shared responsibility to work to improve the lives of Aboriginal South Australians, and again I thank the commissioner for his historic address in our chamber today.

This has been an extraordinary year. Almost 12 months to the day, the bushfires began in South Australia. They affected so many lives, and I would like to place on the record in my valedictory remarks for the year my grateful thanks to all those people who worked so hard to extinguish those fires. Many people lost property. Many people lost livestock. Tragically, three lives were lost in South Australia during those bushfires.

I do want to thank all the men and women of the CFS, the SES, our firefighters in the MFS, SAPOL officers and all the volunteers, whether they be in one of those groups or part of a farm firefighting group. So many people worked tirelessly together to attack those fires, to extinguish those fires, and then work diligently in the rebuilding of communities, lives and properties in South Australia.

Of course, this year has been punctuated by COVID-19. I do not think any of us will ever forget 2020 and the effects on individuals, families, businesses, our state, the nation and the world. This is something that I had never envisaged could possibly have occurred, and I have to say that I am very proud of the way that South Australia has responded to this coronavirus.

I have already placed on the record earlier today in this chamber my grateful thanks to the people within SA Health: our Chief Public Health Officer in South Australia, Dr Nicola Spurrier in her large and expanding group of health professionals, including Dr Tom Dodd, Dr Louise Flood, Dr Katina D'Onise and their teams in SA Pathology within the Communicable Disease Control Branch for the great work they have done.

I have spoken at length about SAPOL and the wonderful work that they have done. I also want to acknowledge the very hard work that the Transition Committee does. This is the group that is responsible for easing the restrictions in South Australia. It has health representatives, SAPOL representatives, and it also has the Under Treasurer, David Reynolds; the Chief Executive of the Department for Trade and Investment, Leonie Muldoon; and it is chaired by the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Jim McDowell.

I would like to place on the record today my grateful thanks to all the people who do the work on that Transition Committee. This is not an easy committee to be on. In fact, it is a quite thankless task, but it is an important task where they balance the health, the social and the economic consequences of every, single restriction that we have in place.

Jim McDowell will be leaving the Public Service. In fact, he was due to complete his service to the people of South Australia at the end of November. He has very graciously extended his time for the next two weeks to assist us as we tackle this Parafield cluster. I am very genuinely grateful for the excellent leadership that he has provided in the Public Service and in my department for the past two plus years.

He is an extraordinary contributor from a business perspective and from a community perspective. He was not born in South Australia, as anybody who has ever met him would know, but he is a very proud South Australian. We are very grateful for his service and we wish him all the very best in what lies ahead.

To my colleagues, I would like to place on the public record my grateful thanks to the Deputy Premier, the Attorney-General, for her great work in this chamber this year during a very difficult time when I was taken offline with COVID responsibilities. The Deputy Premier has made sure that we have not moved away from our legislative agenda this year, and I thank her, all the members of my cabinet and all the members of my party for the great work that they have done, united and focused on delivering for the people of South Australia despite the great challenges that we have faced as a state.

I would like also to acknowledge the great work of the Treasurer, who has never ever seen so much red ink in his entire life. I think that many people are traumatised with this year's proceedings. The Treasurer is probably the most traumatised by the amount of money that he has had to hand over recently. We thank him for his work as the Treasurer of South Australia and as the Leader of the Government in the other place.

I also would like to place on the record my very, very grateful thanks to my assistant minister, the Hon. Jing Lee, who serves with distinction—and she has since she came into this parliament. We have a very harmonious multicultural relationship across our state. We should never ever take this for granted. We must work very hard. I cannot think of anybody who works harder than the Hon. Jing Lee.

I would like to thank the Leader of the Opposition. This has been a very tough year and I have had to have probably more conversations with the Leader of the Opposition this year than in all previous years added together. It has been important that we do work in a coordinated way to tackle coronavirus.

One practical example in recent weeks was when we were faced with the significant developing cluster in Parafield, the Leader of the Opposition—in fact all members of the opposition—were more than accommodating. In fact, they reached out and asked, 'What can we do to assist with the program for the estimates committee?' I thank them for that. This can often be a very combative place, but this is a time when we have worked to serve the people of our state, and for that I am very grateful.

I also would like to place on the record today my grateful thanks to all the people who work within my office. There were an extraordinary number of hours done by very dedicated people and also by the people who work at my electorate office. I think the number of inquiries this year has been extraordinary. One month I think I had in excess of 12,000 pieces of correspondence. I am very grateful to all the people who have listened respectfully to some of the frustrations and concerns of South Australians who have been trying to grapple with, trying to understand and trying to process what we have all had to face this year.

Finally, I would like to provide my thanks to the people who work in this place. This is an extraordinary year, as we have already stated, and it is a year when the people in this place have had to adapt and change. Change is not always something people in this place like to embrace. Nevertheless, there have been changes here, as evidenced by the flags, which now hang proudly in our chamber.

I would like to thank our Clerk, Rick Crump, for his excellent leadership of this House of Assembly, and the Deputy Clerk, David Pegram, who sits alongside him at the moment. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the Clerk in the Legislative Council and Black Rod, Chris Schwarz and Guy Dickson.

I would like to particularly, as I always do, thank David Woolman. I feel very privileged that we come to work in such an incredible building, but it does not just stand up without a lot of tender loving care. I think it is an incredible privilege to come here every day, and I want to thank David Woolman and his great team for preserving and always looking for opportunities to enhance the fabric of this incredible institution.

I would like to thank all those who work in the Parliament Research Library under the great leadership of Dr John Weste. Whenever I go in there, there is this great sense of pride in the history of our state, in the collection that they have and the opportunity they have to serve the people of this parliament and, more broadly, the people of South Australia.

I would like to thank the catering team led by Creon Grantham. It is always a great honour to bring people into the Strangers' Dining Room. It is an incredible privilege to have that opportunity and it gives us a sense of occasion to thank and honour some people who have made a contribution more broadly in South Australia. I genuinely want to thank Creon Grantham.

I would like to acknowledge all the great work of the people who work in the Blue Room, who listen to our gripes and our grumbles and sometimes our hilarious stories on a very regular basis. To Casey, Nicky, Karen and Belinda, in particular, and I would like to acknowledge that it is Nicky's birthday today, so happy birthday, Nicky.

To Ben down in the cellar, to everybody who works in the Procedure Office, the cleaning staff, the switchboard team, the maintenance team and our very dedicated security team, I say a very genuine thankyou from me and the government.

I would also like to acknowledge all those people who work more broadly, some people I do not come into contact with every day—people who work in PNSG, people who work in finance and who do all the tasks that mean this is a smooth functioning parliament. Thank you very much.

I wish everybody here an opportunity to get some relaxation over this period. I know that many people in this place did not have a second to relax over last year's festive period, in particular the member for Kavel, the member for Mawson and the member for Morialta. These members had to work supporting their communities through an extraordinarily difficult time. I hope that you get double time to put your feet up this year and relax. Congratulations on the great job they have done serving their communities. I offer that same congratulations to you, Mr Speaker, in your support for people in Heysen affected by the Adelaide Hills bushfires.

It has been a tough year. I will be very glad when the calendar ticks over to 2021 and I hope that 2021 is a very successful year for us as a state.

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (16:34): I thank the Premier for his contribution. Similarly, I would also like to acknowledge Dr Roger Thomas for his historic address to the parliament this afternoon. I think it is worth acknowledging Dr Thomas's work in trying to address important policy issues that confront the Aboriginal community in South Australia and the work that is being undertaken by him and his colleagues. I also acknowledge the fact that there is an extraordinary amount of work to be done in the future.

One image that has never left me was from when I was corrections minister, when I had my first chance to go out to Port Augusta Prison. It was an extraordinarily sobering experience to see firsthand the human representation of a statistic that Australians have become all too familiar with in terms of the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody. For as long as we have that challenge here in South Australia and across the rest of the country, then clearly there remains work to be done. I commend the address from Dr Thomas today and wish him all the very best in his endeavours.

The year 2020 has been an extraordinary year, and I think we have often reflected on that. Being the year that it has, I think it is worthwhile to commence these end of year remarks by acknowledging the contribution of particular people we do not often reflect upon in similar remarks in years prior. I want to start with the silent heroes of this COVID-19 pandemic. Those heroes of course are our frontline workers in various roles who, without any equivocation, have continued to serve our community day and night with humility and distinction. From our frontline police officers to our nurses and doctors in hospitals to those hardworking pathologists, scientists and technicians in the background, everyone is doing everything they can to help tackle the pandemic.

But there are others, and I am talking about people in places like supermarkets and other industries that have just gone on with the business of delivering frontline services. We do not really think about supermarket workers or people in DCs as heroines or heroes. They certainly do not see themselves that way, but this year they have been front and centre of making sure the most elementary of functions, making sure there is food on the table, are performed in a way that we all desperately need. They have done it amazingly well under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I want to start by acknowledging those humble heroes throughout the crisis.

Then there are other humble heroes, those people who cannot attest to working during the pandemic. I am talking about those people who have lost their livelihoods, lost their jobs, lost their businesses. These people have willingly sacrificed themselves and their families in order to keep everybody else safe. It is an extraordinary act to watch your livelihood disappear before your eyes and compromise your ability to provide for yourself and your family. That is an extraordinary sacrifice that needs to be acknowledged. Those people continue to deserve our support, but they also deserve our recognition and thanks for so humbly making the sacrifice in the name of our health.

Of course, the effort around the pandemic has not been able to occur without extraordinary leadership, starting with the man in the hottest seat of them all, and that of course is the State Coordinator, Mr Grant Stevens. He has had an extraordinary amount of responsibility thrust on his shoulders in a way that no-one would have anticipated at the beginning of the year, and I think he has performed that task with valour. Obviously, of course, he has been ably assisted by other key officials, not the least of whom is Professor Nicola Spurrier, and I thank her for her work. Working in conjunction with the Premier, they have done an incredible amount to do everything they reasonably can as a state to keep the health of South Australians first.

Throughout the course of the pandemic the opposition has tried to do what it can from its relative position to try to be as constructive as possible. I want to acknowledge the Premier's remarks he made earlier and thank him for that recognition. He does not owe us that recognition, so I particularly thank him for making those remarks. We have made a number of constructive suggestions along the way, many of which have been taken up by the Marshall Liberal government. I think most South Australians would acknowledge that is parliamentary democracy and government working at its best.

The vaccine provides us with hope and much good news in recent days. We in the opposition, as I am sure are those in the government, are watching that news closely. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can have an expedited rollout of a vaccine, not just locally but throughout the world, to relieve us of this scourge that has been COVID-19.

Here in the parliament a lot has to happen for us to be able to undertake our work, and I want to thank all those people in our parliament who facilitate that exercise, particularly all the parliamentary staff. They come in varying forms. If I may start by acknowledging the staff within the chamber itself of course, with you, Rick and David, and the Hansard staff. Hansard staff, I do not know how you do it sometimes. I do not know if your task diminishes your faith in democracy or enhances it—do not answer that question—but we thank you for your tireless efforts nonetheless.

Of course, there are all the other staff who work in the parliament, including the catering staff, led by Creon, and the whole team. I remember the Premier reflecting at one point early on in his reign as Premier that in opposition you spend more time in the parliament than you do in government, and you get to know some of the staff a bit better throughout that exercise. That has been wholeheartedly enjoyable over the last 2½ years or thereabouts and, to Creon and his team, I thank you very much.

I, too, would like to acknowledge Nicky on her birthday today. She told me this morning she was 21, and then Karen quickly corrected the record and said, 'She is lying; she's 23.' So happy 23rd birthday Nicky. Nicky is a constituent of mine and lives not too far from where I do in the community of Bowden Brompton, so no doubt I will hear the cops coming around at some point or another in the neighbourhood telling her to keep a lid on it this evening. I do hope she has nice dinner out, maybe even at The Brompton, which is our shared local.

Of course, there are other staff involved in the parliament. The Premier rightly mentioned David Woolman and the team, and also John Weste, the library staff and everybody else. Thank you for all your hard work and indeed, on occasions, patience. I want to thank my staff in the leader's office led by JB and a great team around him. To the extent that I do anything right, often that is on the back of their service not just to me. I hope they feel in their hearts that it is a service not to the person who is in this office, or indeed the office itself, but to the broader labour movement as a whole and the ideals that we hold dear.

I would also like to put on the record my thanks to my electorate staff led by Corey Harriss. Being leader, as the Premier knows, does not allow one to necessarily spend as much time in the electorate as one would hope, so those staff become particularly important and I thank them for everything they do.

I want to thank the caucus, the parliamentary Labor party members and their team. I feel so fortunate to be able to rely unfailingly on the support of the entirety of the caucus. Our unity is one of our great strengths here in South Australia. It is underpinned by a good culture that we have developed for many decades, but ultimately the custodians of that culture are caucus members themselves, and I want to thank them wholeheartedly for their ongoing faith in me and my team. I look forward to hopefully repaying that faith and trust as we get close to the election. I thank you sincerely.

I do want to put on the record, naturally, particular thanks to a handful of members. That of course starts with the deputy leader of the parliamentary Labor Party, Susan Close. I rely on Susan heavily in many regards, and I am very much enjoy working with her as we round out our policy development exercise in the next year, so thank you very much to Susan and her team.

I want to thank the Hon. Kyam Maher in the other place. Kyam is an outstanding leader of the party within the upper house. It is a role that he has held in both government and opposition, and he provides unfailing support in understanding the machinations of the Legislative Council and ensuring that the opposition uses the Legislative Council to great effect to assist policy and the South Australian people generally. So I want to put on the record my thanks to Kyam.

All my shadow cabinet deserve thanks, but I want to thank Chris Picton—hopefully the Hon. Chris Picton in due course—

Mr Picton interjecting:

Mr MALINAUSKAS: He was for a few months, yes. The member for Kaurna has done a particularly important job as far as the opposition is concerned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We are frequently on the phone late in the evening and sometimes early in the morning—very early in the morning—so I just want to thank you, Chris. I also want to thank Gemma in his office, who is an absolute star. She really punches above her weight, so I want to put my thanks on the record.

The Leader of Opposition Business in this place is like no other, and I want to thank the member for West Torrens for his ongoing support and leadership in this role. He is someone who is frequently on their feet. Whether or not that is to the joy of the government probably depends on the subject or the victim, but I do want to thank you, Tom, for all your ongoing support, ably assisted by the whip, of course, Mr Michael Brown.

The other people I have to thank are my family. We are so lucky, all of us in these roles, that we have very, very patient loved ones. I do want to acknowledge my beautiful wife, Annabel. I know that 2020 is often talked about as being a tough year; we had a bundle of joy in 2020 with the birth of our third child, our daughter Eliza. Annabel has just gone back to work in the last couple of weeks, so we have re-engaged in the ritual of total chaos at home.

The truth is that is only able to be done because of Annabel's amazing organisational skills, being able to coordinate which child goes where on which day. We have three different drop-offs going at the moment; it is absolute bedlam but, unfailingly, she somehow manages to make it all work like clockwork. I cannot thank her enough, particularly for her love and support throughout the course of this year.

Christmas is about family, and we all have families in this place. This is a tough business; it is the toughest of them all, and 2020, in some instances, has been particularly tough for members of this chamber. I want to acknowledge the impost that politics often imposes upon those people outside the chamber, close loved ones, and hope they enjoy some respite from the toughness of politics over the Christmas period.

There are people in our community who are not as fortunate to have close family around them at Christmas or a reliable job to earn an income from, people who are less fortunate than all of us here. We should all spare a thought for those South Australians and make sure that in 2021 we devote ourselves to them, hopefully enjoying the full beauty that life can offer with the love and support of the community around them.

The final thing I will say is that we have reflected on how 2020 is a tough year and that is true, it is tough, but we should draw strength and confidence from our predecessors. Throughout the course of the 20th century there were sustained periods of extraordinary struggle that well and truly exceeded what we are undergoing now in 2020, particularly people of my generation who, quite frankly, in their adult life have never seen recession.

We have not seen anything in comparison to our grandmothers and our grandfathers in terms of struggle, so we can draw from them confidence and inspiration that whatever challenges 2020 has thrown at us will be easily overcome, with brighter days ahead.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:49): I will not hold the house long but the crossbench does exist and we would like to acknowledge the statements of both the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition and echo wholeheartedly all their sentiments. The crossbench has hopefully worked constructively with both sides of the house, and looks forward to continuing to do so, and thanks the Premier and the government for the extra resource that we have been grateful to have to make sure we can make a contribution to this place.

It is a historic day and it would be remiss not to acknowledge the Premier finally putting the flags here. It is just great. I never thought I would see the day. As a crossbench team, we have done our best. We think we punch above our weight and we are very grateful to our staff, too, both here in the house and in our electorate offices. We represent the entire state, as we have two members with large regional electorates, and we think two very important city electorates. We would also like to acknowledge the help of the Clerk of the house and his staff in making sure we take as much advantage as we can from our role here.

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (16:51): As has been customary for the whip, I would also like to contribute to these end-of-year remarks and, like others, acknowledge the fact that this year has been an incredible year. As others have said, we started off with bushfires that were already occurring and then continued, which had a catastrophic impact on the entire country.

The Liberal party room went on a trip for our early party room seminar to Kangaroo Island and saw the devastation that had occurred on that island. It was something I had never seen on that scale. The impact it had on that community was obviously immense, but that certainly was not it. There were the Adelaide Hills, Yorke Peninsula, the South-East and many other parts of our state.

If that was not enough, then our world was hit by a pandemic, by a novel coronavirus, the likes of which our world has not seen for 100 years. This is a virus that about 14 or 15 months ago probably did not exist; 13 months ago there was a cluster of viral pneumonia in a province in China and people were wondering what was going on. The next thing you know we have something finding its way all around the world.

Before I came here, I used to work on infectious diseases and, in my undergraduate studies, we studied pandemics. We had some lectures on it and it was very academic and theoretical. You do not think of these things happening. The examples always given were the flu and, to some extent, that is a novel entity. But to think something like this could happen where, a few weeks ago, 1.7 million people were asked to stay at home and everyone did, I must admit I did not know that that could happen. To the credit of the state, everyone got on and did what they needed to do to support the effort, but it is quite a surreal thing we are living through now. In the future, there will be a chapter not only in our country's history but quite frankly in the world's history about what is happening right now.

I think that as a country and a state we can be proud of not only how governments have responded but how we have responded as a nation. You look at how so many other countries around the world have tried to grapple with this and I think it shows a very strong pragmatic streak that Australians have that we take on expert advice and say, 'That makes sense to us. This is what we need to do to keep ourselves and others safe.' I would have to concur with the Leader of the Opposition's remarks in that we have asked many people to forgo their livelihoods for a period of time to keep the community safe.

Obviously, not during the more intense periods, but later on I was doing quite a lot of doorknocking, as many of us do. Often one of the questions I would ask people is: how has the pandemic impacted you? A number of people I spoke to were out of work because of restrictions associated with the pandemic. Not one of them was angry or blaming anyone else for that, but they had really just taken it on. It was not a responsibility that was easy for them to take, but they understood everyone's role in this and that everyone has a part to play.

On a personal note, coming into Christmas, I am very pleased to see the Victorian border open up. My brother lives in Melbourne with his daughter, who is just over one year old, and I have not seen her since December last year. My parents live here, so her grandparents have not seen her since January this year. I am, like so many others who are much more severely impacted, certainly very pleased to see the borders open and, in my case, have our family reunited for Christmas.

I am relatively new in the role of Government Whip. I had the role of Deputy Whip since the election and I would really like to place on record my thanks to the member for Hammond for his work as whip until I took on this role, and also for his guidance and support. This support went on through my period as Deputy Whip and has continued now that I am in this role. I would very much like to thank him for that. He calls it 'the whips union'. Some of the challenges that we as whips have to grapple with are perhaps not always completely understood by everybody else, and I would very much like to thank him for his service in his role as whip and thank him very much for supporting me.

I would also like to thank my Deputy Whip, the member for King, for her support. I would like to acknowledge the Manager of Government Business, the Minister for Energy and Mining. I think we work very well together in helping keep things running along. I would like to thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the Deputy Speaker, the member for Flinders, who I work with quite a lot. He is a fantastic member in this place. I must admit I was very sad to hear of his retirement at the end of this term. He has certainly made an enormous contribution to this place.

I would also like to acknowledge the Attorney-General, who spends a lot of time in this place and, as a result, we work together quite often. I would like to acknowledge the Opposition Whip. I think we have a pretty good working relationship, and I think it has been quite good over the time that I have been in this role, so I would like to acknowledge him for that. I would also like to thank the Manager of Opposition Business for making sure he keeps me on my toes during those pairing arrangements and divisions. Thankfully, we have had them all right to date.

I would like to thank my whip's office staff, particularly Jessica, who came across from the member for Hammond. She does a wonderful job in helping me get into this role and does all the work behind the scenes to make it look to the untrained eye like a well-oiled machine. I would like to thank the rest of my electorate office staff: Kay, Lloyd, Josh, and Shaana our trainee, as well as the casual staff who come in and help us out every now and again.

I would like to thank all the staff who help keep this place running. I know others have done so, but I think it is important that I do this as well. In no particular order, I would like to acknowledge David Woolman, the Manager of Building Services; Paul Chadwick for his role as part of the team for the broadcasting and filming—text message banter is something that Paul certainly likes, and I very much appreciate that—all the catering staff, led by Creon Grantham, and certainly the Blue Room staff, who make sure that I am on the straight and narrow in terms of actually eating a proper meal at lunchtime and providing me with that important advice.

I would like to thank Corporate Services, led by Pauline Thomson; Finance, led by Kent Nelson and his team; and all of Hansard, led by Andrew Cole. Thank you for everything you do. As the Leader of the Opposition said, I do not know how you do it. It takes an extraordinary amount of patience. I am sure that you often think we prattle on endlessly and not always with an apparent purpose, but thank you very much for the work you do. It is essential for how this place operates, so thank you very much. Dr John Weste, the parliamentary librarian, is a wonderful member of the parliament's staff. Whenever I, as a local MP, have brought through a Probus Club or a school group, he could not do enough to share wisdom with whatever age group—

The Hon. A. Piccolo: And entertain.

Dr HARVEY: —and entertain. He really does a wonderful job and I think his contribution could never be underestimated.

I would like to thank PNSG. I am sure it would be a challenging role at times, with members of parliament calling up with stupid questions about why things do not work, blaming them and finding out that that is not really what was at fault. I would like to thank Serjeant-at-Arms, Lauren Williams, who also works on behalf of the Police Security Services Branch. To the Clerk and Deputy Clerk, Rick and David, thank you for your patience with me and for bouncing up and answering the various questions I have at different times. I also thank the house services attendants and parliamentary officers for everything they do.

If I have left anyone out, I am very sorry, but thank you for everything everyone does to keep this place running. In conclusion, I would very much like to wish all members and their families and friends a safe and merry Christmas, and I wish you all what could only hopefully be a better and happier new year in 2021.

Mr BROWN (Playford) (17:00): Merry Christmas to everyone in this chamber. I would like to start by thanking my electorate staff and my whip's office staff, led by the very capable Caleb Flight, who is well known to all opposition members for his occasional jocularity but often sternness toward members. I thank him. As much as I might give him the odd ribbing, I actually do not know what I would do without him, so I thank him so much for all his work throughout the year. I would like to thank Mr Sav Ly in my electorate office, along with Ms Catelyna Lawless, and also my very, very reliable and essential world game adviser, Mr Nick Antonopolous. I do not what I would do without him in my office.

I would like to thank the Clerk for his constant advice. I like to think that he enjoys our little chats where I pepper him with hypothetical motions and so forth and try to get his responses; I hope he enjoys them nearly as much as I do. I would also like to thank the Deputy Clerk, who is also very helpful from time to time, so thank you so much.

Something has already been said about Hansard staff, but I would like to add my contribution. I do think that in years to come, perhaps centuries from now, people will look back upon the things that we say—not what I say in this chamber but what some people say in this chamber—and, because we have such reliable and accurate Hansard staff, they will actually be able to make some sense out of the things we say. I know they do their absolute best to take our random musings in this place and make them into good sense and make them logical, so thank you so much for all the good work you do.

What would we do without the catering staff and their constant ability to keep us fed and watered in this place? I thank them so much for everything they do. Particularly over the last few years, I have appreciated their ability to keep us fed with a variety of cuisine from around the world—always something to behold—so thank you so much for all your efforts.

I thank the committee staff, particularly those associated with the ERD Committee, of which I am now once again a member after a short hiatus. I certainly enjoy my time on the committee, which is led by the iron fist of the member for MacKillop, who is a very powerful Chair. I thank him for all that he does. His chairing style is a bit more direct and not nearly as relaxed as that of the member for Hammond, who was the Chair when I was on the committee previously, but I thank him for everything he does.

The library staff, led by the incredible John Weste, are very helpful whenever I ask them to do anything. I know lots of other members have remarked to me just what an incredible resource the library is here in Parliament House and what an excellent job Dr Weste and his team do. The support staff also do a fantastic job keeping the place organised. They are the people you see moving around and working behind the scenes, but I appreciate the fact that if it were not for them and all the work they do, this place would come to a stop.

I would like to thank you, Mr Speaker, for everything you have done this year. I know it was an interesting start, but now that we are finishing up at the end of the year I hope that we are on a bit more of an even keel and a more solid relationship, so thank you so much. I will not complain about the number of times that I am asked to leave the chamber because, truth be known, often I would say it is a fair cop. Thank you so much for all you have been doing this year, Mr Speaker.

I cannot make a valedictory statement without talking about the Deputy Speaker, who has rather unfortunately announced his retirement this week. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the member for Flinders is the most popular member of this chamber across both sides. He is a man of the utmost integrity who has been something of a mentor in a variety of ways to many of us in this chamber. He is always happy to give advice, always happy to listen to people's views and always happy to give his own honest and fearless response, and I think we are all the better for having served in the parliament with him. I wish him well in his retirement. Although he is coming back next year, I want to take this opportunity now to wish him well.

I would like to thank the Government Whip, who is the second Government Whip I have had to—'deal with' are not really the right words—work with. I think he has moved into the job very well. Although he and I are both in our first terms, I think we are trying to find our way and I think we are getting there together, so I would like to thank him for all he has done.

I must also thank the previous Government Whip, the member for Hammond. He is also a man I have certainly enjoyed working with. I know many people on the opposition side say 'work for', but I have never 'worked for' the member for Hammond, just 'worked with'. I would like to thank the deputy government whip, the member for King, and I look forward to having more to do with her in the coming year.

I would like to thank my colleagues for allowing me to continue as the Opposition Whip. I know humility is something that is often sorely lacking in politics, so I do appreciate the regular free character assessments I have been known to get from my colleagues from time to time when I let them know about things like late-night sittings and other things like that, so I do thank them for all that.

I would like to thank my own Deputy Whip, the member for Taylor, for assisting me throughout the year. His assistance has been valuable. He does a lot of things here in the chamber so I do not have to, and that is always greatly appreciated. I would like to thank the member for West Torrens for filling in for me while I was unavoidably detained earlier this year. I would like to thank the JPSC members. I have stepped off the JPSC now to be replaced ably, I believe, by the member for Lee, who I am sure will do an excellent job, so I would like to thank all my former colleagues on the JPSC.

Finally, I really would like to acknowledge and thank the people of my own community of Parafield Gardens, Mawson Lakes and Para Hills. It has been a very difficult year for many of us in that area, particularly more recently. When they asked us all to go and get tested, we all went and got tested. Thousands of people lined up, often for hours upon hours, to do their bit to try to keep our state safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. When they asked us to isolate, we all isolated and waited for our test results. When many of us were asked to quarantine, we quarantined and then, when many of us were asked to get tested again, we went and got tested again.

Being in quarantine for two weeks for me meant that I missed a day of parliament and I missed estimates, but for many of my constituents and members of my community it meant they missed work, it meant their businesses were in trouble because of what was going on, it meant they missed being with their family or it meant they missed human contact altogether. They never grumbled, they never complained, they just did it because they wanted to do their bit to keep our state safe, so I thank them for all the sacrifices they made. I recommit to them that I will do my best to make sure that their 2021 is a hell of a lot better than 2020 was.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:09): It is my pleasure to say a few words. I will not go through too many people individually because that has happened a lot already; suffice to say, my support of all those individuals is certainly there. But there are a few things I do want to say.

We know about 2020, and of course we think about COVID, but let me just remind everybody that 2020 started in drought, and then we had bushfires and then the drought was still going on, and then we had COVID, and then the drought was still going on. Thankfully, the drought is not still going on. It is not right to think that all primary producers are out of difficulty, because it takes a fair while after it stops raining for people to really be in the grip of drought. It takes a fair while after it starts raining—if you are lucky enough, hopefully it keeps raining—before you are out of the grip of drought.

There are certainly still plenty of challenges and so, while we still do wrestle with COVID-19, there are people all over our state wrestling with lots of other challenges as well, and for some people those challenges are compounded. I am sure all members will be thinking of people who are in these sorts of difficulties, particularly over Christmas and into the new year.

It has been a tough year, of course. No more needs to be said about that, but we have learnt. We have learnt so much. The world will never be the same. In some ways, we will miss some things, but in some ways it will be better. We have learnt and learnt, and we have learnt in South Australia, I am sure, better than just about any other place in the world because South Australians have contributed so much so willingly. What the member for Playford was saying about his electorate would be true of every single electorate.

We know that we have had the least number of legally enforceable restrictions in South Australia of just about any jurisdiction in the world, but we have also had the highest compliance with advice and suggestions and recommendations of just about any jurisdiction in the world, and those two things combined have, broadly speaking, left us in an extremely good place.

Could it be better? Yes, of course. Would we be better if we had not had a recent cluster outbreak? Yes, of course. But compared with the rest of the world we are actually doing pretty well. In fact, even looking at Victoria now, which thankfully is out of the grip of COVID it seems—and our challenges are slightly greater than Victoria’s right now—I think if you go all the way back to January and February and consider the whole year we have done a lot better than just about anybody else in the world.

We have to take what we can out of this. We have to take the learnings that come out of this and we have to apply them and make sure that South Australia, and Australia, is a better place for the challenges. I really genuinely thank all South Australians, particularly those in the electorate of Stuart I represent, for the great work they have done.

I do genuinely appreciate the leadership that all members of parliament have shown. Of course, I put the Premier and some very key public servants and the Minister for Health on a slightly higher pedestal because they have had greater responsibilities, but I believe all members of parliament in South Australia—Liberal, Labor, Independent, crossbenchers and the other chamber—have all led to the best of their ability with regard to the people they represent, and I thank them all very deeply for that.

I work with an outstanding group of government colleagues—absolutely genuinely outstanding. We are not shy about sharing views openly. If we agree with each other, we say so; if we disagree, we say so. We really have developed over the past 2½ nearly three years a very effective way of working with each other, which I think is the strength of our government. The Premier is an extraordinary leader. The Deputy Premier shares a role in that and supports the Premier extremely well, and I acknowledge the Treasurer and others. Our group is very strong, and I really do thank my colleagues for that.

I thank those opposite for their friendship. I think I have a good working relationship at the very least with just about everybody on the other side of the chamber, and certainly with some people on the other side of the chamber much more than a good working relationship, and I thank them for that.

Our whip talked about being new in the job. If you look at our Deputy Whip, our Speaker, our Deputy Speaker and our Leader of Government Business, only one person has actually been in the job for a length of time and that is the Deputy Speaker. We acknowledge that we are learning as we go. We are happy to learn as we go and I think we are learning pretty quickly. We would not be doing as well as we are, though, at whatever level that is, if it were not for the help of the Clerk and his staff. They have been outstanding to us in regard to sharing as much advice as they possibly can. I genuinely thank the Clerk and his key people for that.

This is a pretty extraordinary place to work. I have been here coming up to 11 years and I can tell you there is never, ever a day when I walk into Parliament House that I do not think, 'Goodness gracious, how fortunate am I to be part of this, to come here to work, to contribute to this.' It has never worn off. I do not believe it will ever wear off. I know that most members feel exactly the same way.

It is that way in part because of the grandeur of the building, because of the extraordinary furniture, because of all that we see around us, the history and the beauty, but it is even more so because of the people who work in this building and support us. I cannot thank the people who support us enough. I am not going to go through individual names. Whether it is Hansard or building services—if ever there is a time when a light bulb actually goes out and you ask for it to be fixed, it is done really quickly.

We are looked after extraordinarily well in this building with regard to advice from attendants, with regard to catering, building services, Hansard, the police security services that are provided, the library, whatever it happens to be. There is nowhere in this building where a member of parliament asks for some help or support or for something to be done that they are not treated incredibly well. I thank all the people who do that and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I do not think there would be too many workplaces in the world where people are treated as well as we are in this building, so thank you very much for that.

I do want to talk about my own staff. I put an enormous amount of effort into choosing who I work with and I put an enormous amount of effort into how some other people I work with choose who they work with. I am not saying for a second that I have actually interviewed or chosen every person. The people in my team, and my broader team, know the type of person I want to work with. They know the type of person I want all of them to be working with. I have absolutely extraordinary people.

There is never, ever a day when I am here in Parliament House that I am not thinking about my electorate or about the people who work in our electorate offices in Port Augusta and Kapunda. I said I would not name names and I will not, but let me tell you from the bottom of my heart that the people in my electorate office are absolutely outstanding as people, as friends and as electorate officers—absolutely genuinely outstanding.

Our team here in the ministerial office—and I am not only talking about ministerial advisers or chiefs of staff or the other people who might technically be departmental staff or public servants in another way—is very good. We have a good working relationship and we have good friendships. The team that is closest around me, my Chief of Staff, my advisers and my EA, I would go into war for those people. They are very good people and they are very good at their work. That is the kind of people you want to be with.

I am driven to do the best I can in my work in many different ways, but one of them is to repay the effort, the skill and the contribution given to me by the people with whom I work. I want to repay them by making sure I do not ever waste it, making sure that I do them justice, whether it is electorate staff, whether it is ministerial staff, whether it is administrative staff in our office, or whether it is my colleagues here in government.

I will wind up and say: bring on 2021. The year 2021 will be a better year than 2020 without doubt. It will be much better. We all deserve time with family, time with friends, some downtime. We will all be doing a lot of work through the summer period as well, but we will get a bit more time away from work than we normally do throughout the rest of the year. Bring on 2021!

I wish all members and all staff in this place, in the electorate offices and in the other offices which support us, a healthy, safe, relaxing and fun Christmas and new year period. Come back refreshed and ready to go. Next year, the race to the election begins as well. We all deserve a bit of an opportunity to recharge our batteries because next year is going to be a biggie. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (17:21): Before I continue with these other remarks, I would like to thank all the people in this place who make everything move so seamlessly and do all the things parliamentarians take for granted on a daily basis. We do appreciate it, although I am sure we do not say so often enough.

It is very easy I think these days to get very down in the mouth about people who feel underwhelmed by politicians and people who feel disengaged by the political process. But every now and then a little bit of magic actually happens. In November last year, I had a class from Surrey Downs R-7 School come into parliament for a tour. Everything was proceeding as it normally does until we arrived in this chamber.

I asked a question that I always ask during tours, whether there are any other questions from students or any observations they would like to make about this chamber. There were all the usual questions: why are the old wooden clocks set for a date in the future? Is the grill in the middle of the floor where they used to put the heads after a dual took place? Then there was also a question on that day from a year 6 student by the name of Bella: why is no Aboriginal flag flying in this place? I was completely stumped by that question.

That one question started a process of writing to the then Speaker, the member for Hartley, pointing this out and asking what could be done about it. Following this, to the member for Hartley's credit, and the current Speaker's credit as well, he and the Clerk undertook to make this happen. Today is indeed a proud day for all of us here, I hope, to see the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags finally flying in this chamber.

I must say that it fills you with hope and optimism for the future when you come across a young person like Bella, who was all of about 12 years old when she came on that tour, who has the courage to speak out and ask what in her mind may have been a silly question and instead hold her elected representatives to account, and that is what she did on a really important issue. I was proud today not only because we finally have these flags flying here, where they should have been flying a long time ago, but also because we could come through on the commitment that was made to Bella almost 12 months ago—that we would do something about the very important issue that she raised.

In finishing, regardless of that fantastic result, the highlight of today was without a doubt the very moving address given by Dr Thomas. I think it is fitting that this parliamentary year concludes with what I thought was an incredibly powerful reminder of why we are here and of all the work that remains undone.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:24): I would like to make a contribution to this adjournment debate. Before I get onto the one topic I really want to speak about, I want to say that in terms of the year 2020 and in the context of COVID-19, a whole range of people have suffered immensely in our community as a result of the pandemic. I do not wish to diminish people's different experiences, but one group I would like to acknowledge in particular is people who during this period of time have lost a loved one and, because of travel restrictions or other restrictions, have not been able to see that loved one in the last moments of their life.

Death comes with a whole range of grief, but not to be able to experience that grief in a way that you would like just adds to that. For all those people, the reality is that it is final. Like other members of parliament, I have received a number of emails from people seeking an exemption to attend a funeral or be at the bedside of a family member in hospital or a hospice, etc., but have been denied that opportunity. I understand why. That does not in any way diminish the additional pain and grief those people have experienced, and I would like to put on record that my heart goes out to those family members. I was fortunate not to be in that situation, but I am aware that hundreds of people were and that it was a very difficult time for them.

One thing that drives me in my work in this place, and my life's work, is to support and serve those people who are the least economically, politically and socially powerful in our society. That comes from family experience, from my parents, and from what I have learned through life in Australia. Today is International Day of People with Disability. I think it would be remiss of me if I did not make some comments to acknowledge the contribution that people with disability make in our community and what we try to do on a day like today to celebrate their achievements. It is also important to acknowledge the hardships and challenges that people with disability still experience.

The challenge for us as a society is the way in which we think about disability and ensuring that we see the ability in disability. We have come a long way over the last 10 years in terms of the way we treat and deal with and relate to people with disability; there is no question about that. The NDIS scheme was probably one of the major reforms to help people living with disability and their families, and I am proud to say that was a Labor Party reform at the national level. But we still have major gaps in the way we support and treat people with disability, and we can and need to do better.

Firstly, for example, we do not have a workforce that is capable of providing a lot of the services that are required. It is incumbent upon governments to make sure that we provide the right incentives in an environment where people are actually prepared to work and be trained in this area. When in the Barossa area, I have been told there are numerous jobs but there are not the skilled people there to do them. That is sad in itself. More important is that there is a range of people living with disability who do not get the support that they and their families require and need.

The second issue is people's experience with the review of plans. There is still a problem. Also, demarcation between school and non-school support is still creating some difficulties. One other issue I hear about in terms of the NDIS support is the issue of transport. We still need to do that better. We still do not have enough positions in our schools to cater for people living with disability in their local communities, and we need to do better there. When people leave their community for their education, they lack support and their families lack support. What we take for granted, in terms of local primary schools and secondary schools, a lot of these families do not have. That adds additional pressure on those families.

We still have a long way to go in training and employment. People living with disability still experience a whole range of discrimination and, in terms of participation in the workforce, we have one of the lowest levels of participation in the world in that regard. In terms of recreation and sport, and the arts, we still do not have enough resources to ensure that people with disability are able to experience the whole joy of sport, art and recreation in their lives because they do not have the facilities in their local community. It is important to have these resources at the local level because it helps to build a sense of community.

On this day, the International Day of People with Disability, I would like to acknowledge the inroads we have made and the improvements we have made. I would also like to acknowledge the difficulties that a number of people living with disability and their families experience. We should never take our mind from helping those people, who are the least economically, politically and socially powerful in our society.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (17:29): I am so humbled to have this opportunity to rise and speak on behalf of my electorate and the Marshall Liberal government as we mark the last sitting day of parliament in 2020. I would like to start off by thanking our wonderful Premier for his hard work, compassion and leadership in 2020, and I thank the Treasurer and his team for creating a state budget that gives our state a robust plan for recovery from the tough year we have had.

I do not think any of us will forget 2020. Only 12 months ago, hundreds of members of our community were out risking their life to fight fires in South Australia, and this continued over the next couple of months into the beginning of 2020 and the new year. These threatening fires have ignited once again over the last couple of weeks. To each of the MFS, CFS, SES and all our emergency services personnel and community who jump in and help, thank you.

Then in March came COVID-19, and it is our entire South Australian community that has helped us fight this health and economic crisis this year. We have minimised deaths in South Australia because of the strength of our community spirit, because our community has followed restrictions, because our community has helped each other out, because our community has supported local businesses and because the local businesses have adapted.

I could talk for hours on the acts of kindness I have witnessed this year. These kind acts have been a silver lining, the generosity and patience of people a silver lining, the opportunity for businesses to realise they can trust people to work from home another silver lining, and our ability to learn how to do things online has been a silver lining. I have had many community forums this year where I have invited the community to talk to the Premier, to the Treasurer, to ministers, all through online technology. We may not have learnt how to do this or thought about it if it were not for 2020. Neighbours helping neighbours, a wonderful silver lining.

I feel for the business owners who have gone under and for the people who work for those businesses who have lost their jobs or hours, who have had to line up at Centrelink; this is tragic. As a government, we are here for you, I am here for you and you must reach out if you need help. Together as a community we have held off the worst impacts of this nasty virus. I acknowledge that people are still being hurt by the restrictions, I acknowledge that local businesses are still working out at the last minute if they can open up or not, and I hope things get back to normal soon. The good news is that a fresh year is coming and is not far around the corner.

In this place today, we have just witnessed a historic moment. Dr Roger Thomas presented his report as the South Australian Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement, and I thank him for his decades of advocacy and his commitment to our Aboriginal community. It was wonderful that he was able to stand in this chamber under the new flags that are flying and deliver his report. His relentless leadership has resulted in a plan for Aboriginal South Australians to take their rightful place in South Australian decision-making. I would like to thank him and also recognise the footprint he has started today that we will work to deliver.

I would like to thank every community member in King this year—and there have been many—who have reached out to ask for help, who have come to my coffee catch-ups, who have taken the time to offer their views so that I can best represent them in this place and work out what to fight for to make our community the absolutely best place to live. I want to thank my colleagues for their hard work and support, as I have learnt from them how to represent my community in this place.

I thank my colleagues for their support to deliver the Marshall Liberal government's promised commitments to King—things like Golden Grove Road stage 1 and stage 2, Golden Grove park-and-ride, hospital upgrades at Lyell McEwin and Modbury Hospital, the additional parking at the Lyell McEwin, the short stay mental health unit, the upgrades to the SADNA courts, and the Golden Grove Tennis Club's new clubrooms that are going up. There are so many things happening in King and I am very grateful to people telling me that they needed these so that I could advocate for them and for my colleagues for helping me deliver.

I want to thank my office team, Kirsty, Steven, Bradley and Courtney, who was there this year, for helping people living in King every day. I ask each of my team to wrap their arms around each community member and help them to the best of their ability and that is what we try to do every day. I thank the staff in this place for allowing our government to deliver on its plan for South Australia. I thank my friends and family for helping me to get messages out to people living in King and for their support and feedback and sharing their views with me.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family—my husband, Ian, my son, Max, and my daughter, Brooke—for the sacrifices that they have made every day to help me serve the community. It helps when Brooke drops Max off to school so that I can get into committee meetings. For the last couple of weeks, Ian and Max have spent their time on weekends and nights after school and work letterboxing to get our messages out in the community. Ian and Max, you give up so much so that I can serve the community. We are in this together and this is a good chance to say thank you.

Mr DULUK (Waite) (17:36): I rise to echo the words of many of my colleagues during this adjournment debate, especially the words of the member for Florey, to thank the parliament and everyone who works in parliament over what has been a very difficult year for all of us as we have dealt with this global pandemic.

But the things I have been most impressed with in 2020 are our communities, whether they be my local communities—and I know how important community is to my electorate—or all of our communities, as we have gone about dealing and living in a new reality and how we have worked well together, how we have ensured that a sense of community is ever present.

At the moment, my community groups like the Blackwood Action Group are out there putting up red bows, yesterday and today, throughout the community to make us look like Christmas. There is no Blackwood Christmas pageant this year. I am sure in your electorate, sir, there is no Stirling Christmas pageant. There are no big community carols at the end of December, nearly up to Christmas.

So as we navigate this very different Christmas and very different and difficult 2020, I would like to thank my community for their support of me and the work that we do, for my staff in my office who go about doing their job every single day in helping serve that community, and to all of us in this place who represent the good people of South Australia at this very difficult time.


At 17:39 the house adjourned until Tuesday 2 February 2021 at 11:00.

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