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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-31 Daily Xml
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Kaurna Electorate

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:44): I rise to make a number of contributions, largely about my local electorate. Firstly, I would like to inform the house about the very sad passing of Daniel Roach. Daniel Roach was a significant leader and community member of the southern suburbs, somebody who for many years led the Seaford and Moana business association as the bedrock of that association. He was also involved in many other community forums, including business breakfasts. He was involved in the Rotary club and was on the board of the Aldinga community bank.

He contributed so much to our community, and it is truly very sad that he has passed away. I know that his legacy will be remembered by many in our community, and there are already moves underway to make sure his legacy is remembered through scholarships that will be granted for leadership in our area. To Sam, his family, his children, his colleagues and all in the community who knew him—rest in peace to Daniel.

Secondly, one of the big issues in the southern suburbs has been Main South Road from Seaford to Sellicks. We know that this road needs to be upgraded. It is one of the most dangerous roads in South Australia. People are shocked this week to see that the government have finally released draft plans for that road but are not upgrading it to the level that is needed, including a series of roundabouts that are only going to make the traffic situation on that road worse. This has been a two-year delayed project.

The member for Mawson and I have been pushing very hard for this since the former Labor government committed the funding for it in the 2017 budget. People across the south are shocked at the disrespect—'the forgotten south' once again—in getting a second-grade proposal from this government. I encourage all members of the south to raise their concerns about what this government have put on the table and make sure that we get a better deal for the south. Lastly, I commend the Main South Road Action Group for their advocacy to improve this issue and get a better deal for people in the southern suburbs.

The Port Noarlunga Football Club has been a bedrock of our community, but it has very tired, old clubrooms, with change rooms that are not up to scratch. For a number of years, the football club, the tennis club, the cricket club and the netball club have been working together on a proposal to council and government to try to get funding for a new upgrade to make sure that clubrooms are put in place that are up to date as well as new change rooms that will enable more women's sports to be played.

I am very delighted that that campaign has been successful. Now, both the state and local governments have come on board fifty-fifty to fund that proposal, which will be a great benefit to people in the south, a growing area—there are lots of kids who want to get involved in sport—and will grow women's sports as well. I particularly say thank you to Phil Wood, who for many years has been the spearhead behind this operation to make sure that this development becomes a reality.

Lastly, I would like to speak about the rally that is going to be happening tomorrow in the city. South Australians know that our ambulances and our hospitals are in the midst of a major ramping crisis, and the government continue to sit on their hands about this. Tomorrow, paramedics, nurses, firefighters, other health workers and the community will be joining together to send a message to this government to stop their cuts to the Ambulance Service, to stop their cuts to hospitals and to invest in these services, which are at a crisis level like never before.

We have seen ramping double over the past three years. We have seen cuts to nurses at our hospitals. The Productivity Commission spells out that there has been an $11 million cut to our Ambulance Service. Not one extra ambulance crew has been put on the road under this government, yet this crisis is going from worse to worse. We now have a situation where patients are being stuck in emergency departments for five days and where patients are being stuck outside hospitals, ramped for hours upon hours.

When patients call 000 for an ambulance, quite often they do not get one for hours and hours. I spoke to a family recently, and this man's wife was lying in pain for many hours waiting for an ambulance in Clarence Park. One eventually came two hours later from Stirling. This is the level of crisis that things are at. The government has ignored this issue. I will be joining with our paramedics tomorrow. I encourage South Australians to do that. Enough is enough. We need to make sure the government stop their cuts and address this issue.

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