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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-06 Daily Xml
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Supply Bill 2021

Supply Grievances

Adjourned debate on motion to note grievances.

(Continued from 4 May 2021.)

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (16:13): I rise to make a few brief remarks as a grievance on the Supply Bill. I enjoy the greatest privilege of any member of parliament, and that is the privilege of representing the electorate of Lee in this place. It is a fantastic part of South Australia. It is a beautiful place to be. We have the best beaches, indisputably, in the metropolitan area. We have West Lakes, and we have many lovely parks and reserves, and actually we are fortunate, unlike some parts of the metropolitan area, to have a council that invests in them to make them so, which is terrific.

Of course, we have a large regional shopping centre, the Westfield West Lakes. Unfortunately, we also have boom gates, which are a continued frustration for people in the western suburbs. I warn those members in the north-eastern suburbs to resist boom gates on shopping centre car parks with all effort. We have a diverse community. Statistically, I think I have the privilege of representing what is demographically the oldest electorate in South Australia, but we also have many young families. We have increasing numbers of migrants, many workers, many retirees, many retirement villages and hospice service providers as well. We have small business owners, we have people working in industries from banking to manufacturing, hospitality to retail, and it has been an absolute privilege over nearly the last two terms of parliament to get to know not only the community but all those parts of my community as well.

However, nothing stays the same, and like all members I think I am right in saying my electorate had a change of boundaries at the most recent redistribution of electoral boundaries by the commission responsible for doing so. While I am pleased to say that this change of boundaries is not as extensive as occurred before the 2018 election, when approximately half of my electorate had changed, I have had a significant change nonetheless. Nearly all the suburb of Grange has been removed from the electorate of Lee, and the suburbs of Albert Park and Hendon have been included. I want to spend a little bit of time talking about some of the parts of Grange that contribute to it being such a fantastic part of South Australia. It is of course full of terrific, large, successful sporting clubs.

One of the first clubs I got to know after that last redistribution when Grange came into the electorate of Lee was the Grange Uniting Netball Club—one of the largest metropolitan netball clubs in South Australia based, initially, from the very modest area of the Grange Uniting Church on Beach Street in Grange. There are only two courts there for a club which I think now has over 700 players. It is obviously a club in need of some support to expand its facilities. I am pleased to say that along with the previous member for Colton, the Hon. Paul Caica, I was able to work to secure some funding to enable them to expand their facilities.

It felt like the club for me the first time I got to know it because when I was doorknocking in Grange after that redistribution—I was doorknocking in Surrey Street, close to the Grange Primary School—the door was opened and there was a group of parents of kids who play in the Grange Uniting Netball Club, as well as some current players in the senior teams, and they were enjoying a glass of wine late in the afternoon and they strongly encouraged me to join them. But I thought, 'No.' You always regret the doors you do not get around to in a day of doorknocking, and I politely refused the offer. However, I found many occasions to catch up with them subsequently, including at their presentation nights.

It is a club that goes from strength to strength, not unlike the Grange Dolphins Cricket Club, another club I got to know after the last redistribution. It is a large and very successful club in the Adelaide Turf Cricket Association competition fielding a very strong team in the A1 men's league—a very high standard of cricket and has been for decades.

Of course, it is a club like so many other sporting clubs that runs on the strength of its volunteers, not just the people who are elected to its committee each year. I was very grateful for the warm welcome several years ago from Dominic Garuccio and his lovely wife, Angela, and boys, who continue playing in the club, and also other members of the Grange Dolphins Cricket Club community. I am thinking of the Frys, the Pearsons and also Rob Gordon, who is also now the president of the club. It is a really terrific club. In fact, it is presentation night this Saturday night, which I am very much looking forward to. They have had a very good season. They won the LO3s and the LO7s. Also, Matt Antell won the C2 competition—both batting and bowling trophies—which is no mean feat for any cricketer.

The Grange Dolphins Cricket Club is one of several sporting clubs that utilise facilities at the Grange reserve. Not only is the cricket club there but also USC Lion Soccer Club—or I should say football club—another proud western suburbs soccer club, and also the Grange Royals Hockey Club. They do not play their games at the Grange reserve but their clubrooms are there. They play most of the games at other locations, including West Beach, I understand. It is a very busy reserve at Grange and I am pleased to say that the City of Charles Sturt is looking to commit some money in its current budget for a process for the next financial year to undertake a master plan for that area for the future needs of the Grange reserve.

Those members who have coastal electorates in South Australia would all be aware of how strong the Grange Life Saving Club is. It is incredibly successful in competitions. It is one of the most successful clubs in competitions across the country. It is an absolutely incredible facility there at Grange, very close to the Grange jetty and the Grange Hotel. It is an absolutely spectacular club redevelopment, supported by the member for Croydon, who was the Minister for Emergency Services, and also the former member for Colton, the Hon. Paul Caica. It is a really terrific facility. Its success is not just in club competitions but also in the tremendous work they do keeping the community safe through their beach patrols.

Not far from Grange, I was very grateful to recently attend this year the Seaton Park RSL for its ANZAC Day services. It was a bit of a treat this year for the community to be able to attend the local RSL after last year when we had to commemorate ANZAC Day with our families in a driveway vigil, so it was nice to get back to it. It is a terrific community around the Seaton Park RSL, and very well supported by the local community. It was not just me but also the member for Cheltenham who laid a wreath.

In attendance that morning were Angela Evans, the Mayor of the City of Charles Sturt, and Councillor Kelly Thomas from the City of Charles Sturt. Really pleasingly, and something that we are seeing across the state now, there was a very strong turnout from local school kids at the dawn service. The school student leaders from St Michael's College were both in attendance, as was a newly formed Army Cadet Corps from St Michael's College. It was a really lovely morning and it was great to stay on for a gunfire breakfast afterwards.

Heading a little further down the coast, I have a second surf lifesaving club in the electorate of Lee, the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club, a very strong and proud community club patrolling the beaches. It is also a real destination for the community. For example, on Thursday nights and Friday nights they have meal nights. It is a great place to go and have a drink on the balcony over the weekend, and since the clubrooms were redeveloped about three years ago with some support from the City of Charles Sturt and the former Labor government, it is now one of the most keenly sought after wedding and function venues in our part of the western suburbs.

One of the largest clubs in the electorate of Lee is SMOSH West Lakes Football Club. As its name suggests, with a merger some years ago of the West Lakes Football Club and the St Michael's Old Scholars Football Club, it is now an absolute powerhouse, in particular when it comes to its junior teams and its division 1 women's team.

In fact, this football club is renowned for giving Erin Phillips her start in football. She played many years of junior football there, in the boys' teams of course because female teams had not yet been entered into by the league. It is a very strong club. The women's team is now coached by the greatest centre half-back that this state has ever produced, Greg Phillips from the Port Adelaide Football Club, an absolute South Australian football and club legend.

There are 13 junior age teams at West Lakes SMOSH. It is such a strong club. Again, it has strong ties to St Michael's College, it runs a very strong Auskick program and does an enormous amount getting local kids active in the community, and it is proud to be a supporter of it. This weekend is heritage day, another big day at the club.

The Seaton Ramblers Football Club, another longstanding and successful football club in the western suburbs, is located at Pedlar Reserve in Seaton. It has been an incredible achievement for the Ramblers to get their teams on the field for the last few years since cricket stopped being played at Pedlar Reserve. It means all the heavy lifting to maintain all the facilities all year round falls financially on the football club, but they have done a terrific job managing that.

They have three senior men's teams and they have a strong junior football program out there. However, the good news is that it looks like a cricket club will be returning to Pedlar Reserve for the cricket season, and I am told that talks are advancing strongly with the Adelaide Lions Cricket Club, another turf association cricket club, a cricket club that draws its players from the very strong Sri Lankan community across Adelaide.

It will be terrific to have them based at Pedlar Reserve. It will involve quite an investment in those facilities, a new turf pitch being laid and new facilities that need to be put in to manage that turf wicket as well, but it means they will have a great home and that the Seaton Ramblers will have a bit of their financial burden eased in the off season.

We also have two terrific football clubs—and by football I am talking about how their members would describe it as the 'real' football and what we would perhaps call soccer clubs—and they are White City Football Club at Woodville, a very strong football club, and also the Western Strikers, based at Royal Park. These are two very strong clubs, two very proud clubs, and two clubs that have invested a huge amount of time, effort and resources into building their junior programs in recent years.

They attract not only hundreds of members and players across their teams but also many hundreds of spectators to their home games. That is why both the council and the former state government continued to invest with them to improve their facilities and help them be the success that they are at the moment both on and off the pitch.

I must also say, though, that we do have some outstanding concerns in the electorate of Lee. We have heard from the government about the health upgrades that they trumpet. One of the major health upgrades was committed to in 2017 under the former Labor government, and that was the $270 million upgrade of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. While we commenced work on the first part of that upgrade, which was building a brand-new car park to provide room for the new tower to be built at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, other than that car park being completed and opened—and unfortunately the hospital car parking fees increased by the Liberal government—no further work has happened.

That project would be coming to an end roughly about now if it had proceeded on schedule, but for some reason we still have not had an answer to why that project has been delayed. We need to get on with this project. The money is in the budget, I trust, and the will is there to get this work done. It is the hospital upgrade that, frankly, the western suburbs deserves. The member for Cheltenham, the member for Port Adelaide and I will continue to bang the drum in order to encourage the government to pull their finger out and get on with that job.

Another project that was committed to in 2017 was the upgrade of the intersection of West Lakes Boulevard, Port Road and Cheltenham Parade at what is now the site of quite a large Bunnings at Woodville and at what was previously a manufacturing facility for General Motors Holden. That is a very congested intersection, which is why we committed $6 million to effectively give more lanes at that intersection, particularly for traffic leaving West Lakes Boulevard heading towards Cheltenham Parade or turning right onto Port Road.

Unfortunately, what has been delivered—the intersection has been open for about six or eight months now—is not the intersection that the former government committed to. There is only one dedicated right-hand turn lane, one shared right-hand turn or through lane and one dedicated through lane to Cheltenham Parade. This means that the full benefits of an intersection upgrade like that have not been realised. It seems like that intersection upgrade was done on the cheap.

One thing that constituents raise with me regularly is the confusing line markings and lack of signage for that intersection. As a result, we have people turning right in the right-hand most lane at this intersection from West Lakes Boulevard onto Port Road, with the intention of getting into that Bunnings, and then having to cut across three lanes of traffic in less than 100 metres in order to turn into Bunnings. This could be easily rectified with some better signage and better line marking, and I have contacted the Minister for Transport twice now urging him to do that.

One project that is not years overdue but unfortunately decades overdue is the completion of the Coast Park coastal project in the suburbs of Semaphore Park, Tennyson and Grange. Like some parts of the southern suburbs along the coast, the electorate of Lee contains those areas that have incomplete sections of the Coast Park.

There is a very vocal, very well-funded small local group of residents, some of whom have bought houses on the sand dunes, and once they found themselves there and once approached with the prospect of having a shared walking and bike path close to their homes suddenly discovered environmentalism. They have run a very well-funded campaign, including Supreme Court challenges to the council's and the former state Labor government's proposal to finish this Coast Park through this part of the western suburbs.

The dunes around Tennyson, Semaphore Park and Grange are indeed some of the last remnant tertiary dune systems that we have in South Australia. However, that does not mean that we cannot reasonably, responsibly and collaboratively deliver the Coast Park through this section, bearing in mind the ecological significance of this area. I have to say that, while that is a concern, the alternate concern of some residents of not wanting it near their homes is not a good enough reason to oppose the Coast Park project.

They choose to frustrate this because they think that, now they live close to it, this part of Adelaide's coastline should function as some private reserve for them and their neighbours and that the rest of the community should not have access to it. Well, I have surveyed my electorate. I sent out a survey to the entire electorate a couple of years ago. I had 490 responses, and all but six of those 490 responses came back in favour of completing the Coast Park. You can guess where the six came from. We need to get on with that project.

When it comes to public transport, the Grange rail line cuts through part of the electorate of Lee, part of the electorate of Cheltenham and part of the electorate of Colton. It is an incredibly important public transport service. It carries in the order of 2,500 to 3,500 passengers each day. Of course, like all public transport services, those numbers remain lower than normal because there is still a lot of reticence amongst the community to catch public transport during the pandemic.

It is an important public transport service because you could imagine that if those 2,500 to 3,500 people instead chose to use their cars they would be contributing to congestion on either Port Road or Grange Road, and the last thing we need is a reason to push people out of public transport and into cars. That is why there was such consternation when documents emerged from the transport department, penned in 2018-19 by the current chief executive, about future options for the Grange line, including a reduction in services or closure.

It took a very vocal campaign from the residents of Grange, Seaton, Woodville West, Albert Park and Hendon to shame the government into ruling out those options of service reductions and closures. Unfortunately, the government did still choose to remove security guards from train services after dark, and you can imagine that there would be a lot of train passengers who would feel vulnerable catching public transport without that sort of security service after dark.

We would encourage the government to leave our Grange line alone, maintain the services, including their frequency and the quality of those services as well. I am getting reports of perhaps increased general grubbiness of carriages, including graffiti, since the trains have been privatised. We hope that the government is not penny pinching when it comes to maintaining the rolling stock on our train line.

We had to stare down a dreadful proposal from this government of bus cuts in the last two years. We had a proposal from the former Minister for Transport to remove $40 million worth of bus services throughout metropolitan Adelaide, and the western suburbs were particularly hard hit, including the electorate of Lee.

Bus services in particular on Delfin Island were drastically reduced. At one point, it appeared that there would be no bus services on the entirety of Delfin Island, and also bus services along the length of Military Road had been removed, which would necessitate a walk of over 1½ kilometres for a resident to leave their home to get to the nearest bus stop. That is not a public transport service. I am pleased to say that the backlash against those bus cuts was strong enough to convince the government to dump those changes.

It is a wonderful part of South Australia, it is a wonderful part of metropolitan Adelaide and a particularly wonderful part of the western suburbs. It is an absolute privilege to represent the electorate of Lee. I look forward to the coming months, not just because we have a state budget coming but, more to the point, we have a state election coming. I think it is one of the best times to be a member of parliament.

We spend an enormous amount of time meeting with people, speaking with people, doorknocking them at their homes, attending their events, organising street corner meetings and engaging in community activities and community campaigns. That is the bread and butter of what it means to be a member of parliament. I have really enjoyed my time doing it and I look forward to giving it my best shot at having an opportunity to do it for several more years yet.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:33): With less than a year to go before the next election, the Supply Bill provides an opportunity to reflect on where we are, where we are headed and where we are likely to end up, and it is hard to get beyond the notion, even considering the impact of COVID, there has been a lot of marking time, particularly in the last year. Rightly, the government has followed public health advice and been reasonably successful in steering the state through the beginning to the vaccination program, but as a state we need to be able to do more than one thing, particularly in the post-COVID period, as there will be many challenges ahead.

In this last year of the election cycle, I again emphasise my belief democracy happens every day, not just one day every four years. As is often the case, discerning the truth from spin is very hard for any MP or member of the public, and I maintain getting to the truth of any commitment remains one of our most important responsibilities on behalf of the communities we represent.

The yardstick for every government's performance will always be the basics: the provision of good health and education services. Now more than ever, the questions of employment and secure affordable housing, issues that go hand in hand, are added to the core government responsibilities, for who else other than government can act in our best interests when profit becomes the focus, as it inevitably must, because profit is a prime consideration for outsourced private providers?

Let's start with health and hospitals, most particularly for my community in the north-east Modbury Hospital, our major hospital, and the Lyell McEwin at Elizabeth, our general hospital. It has been perhaps one of my most driving responsibilities in all my public life to speak up for Modbury Hospital—the community need for it and the wonderful staff and volunteers who make it such an important part of our lives. What services do we have there now, after so many years of evolution and beyond the Healthscope experiment, something that time today will not allow me to tease out completely, but I am sure I will have other opportunities.

Every government is mindful of the cost of providing health and hospital care, a shared responsibility of both the state and federal governments, and there is the beginning of the difficulty here: discerning the truth from spin, the fact from fiction and who is really responsible for what. Who is responsible for the $96 million spend at Modbury—now $98 million because someone forgot an elevator and a few other things—a spend first promised in the 21017 budget? Be under no illusion: it took continuous effort over many years and many budget bids to finally get a commitment for this spend, albeit at that stage without a level 1 intensive care unit.

The removal of the ICU became a non-negotiable issue for me and saw me stand up for the community and eventually become an Independent. Then, after the 2018 election, the original designs shown to me did not actually have a high dependency unit or ICU, or whatever term we are going to use for it, which I hope will be consistent into the future. This was subsequently rectified and now the unit stands ready for action, but there is no use having the space if it is not staffed adequately, and making sure it stays staffed and remains open now becomes the next struggle.

The inclusion of high-level care at Modbury should, in theory, reduce the need for transfers to the Lyell McEwin Hospital and allow all kinds of surgery at Modbury to cater for more complex needs, but I am not reassured this will actually be the case. Initial indications suggest the major benefit from the refurbishment at Modbury Hospital, beyond the much-needed outpatient department and cosmetic facelifts to the public areas and facade, will be an increase in the number of orthopaedic surgeries performed, especially for those patients with existing comorbidities. We all know that list has a long waiting list, so any surgeries I will say will be worthwhile. There will be a new, modern palliative care unit, created to care for those in the north-east who are at that stage of life. It is well earned by the amazing people who have staffed the outstanding service for so many years, led by Lawrie Palmer, that has had its home on the fourth floor.

It is good to have any surgery return to Modbury because, in order to finish the redevelopment in time for the election this coming March, all four operating theatres were closed. We were originally told the theatres would only be closed two at a time to enable surgery to continue, but this could not happen because the beginning of the work did not take place until February 2019, a full year after the election. I quote from the 100 Days campaign document that states, 'First 30 Days…Commence establishment of an HDU at Modbury Hospital.' I am not sure that paperwork only can be claimed as part of keeping that promise.

The closure of all four theatres saw the already overloaded Lyell McEwin given the extra work of surgical procedures from Modbury's lists with the rest of that work—50 per cent or so—diverted to private hospitals. This worrying trend of moving public lists to private hospitals cannot be allowed to continue for many reasons, one being the impending increases to the cost of private health insurance which will make it inaccessible to so many on low to medium incomes.

I cannot shy away from some of the more worrying losses of services at Modbury Hospital, each explained away by the then current government or department despite community dissent and activism at the time. The wonderful Modbury Hospital maternity unit was closed in 2007. I organised and was at a public meeting before the final decision when a prominent AMA doctor involved told the gathering and the then minister, who was present, that epidurals could not be guaranteed.

I then lobbied hard for a low-risk maternity unit, as exists in other states, but was told this could not happen at Modbury. Assured that the outcome of the closure would see a 24/7 state-of-the-art birthing unit at the Lyell McEwin along the lines of the level of care at the Women's and Children's—although without the neonatal SCBU—little more could be done. It is a matter of record that north-east mothers do not always birth at the Lyell McEwin, despite its wonderful care and well-earned reputation, so service uptake and distribution of services remain a real problem in all areas of health service.

The paediatric ward at Modbury faced closure in the face of stats showing it to be poorly utilised. How the stats were produced now seems to be a case of damn lies and statistics. Nevertheless, we were again promised a 24/7 service at the Lyell McEwin rather than two small services. Again, this did not happen and has no doubt contributed to the now unsatisfactory waiting times in paediatric areas, particularly for ear, nose and throat surgery. I could not believe it when I was told that waiting times have blown out to nine years for child ear, nose and throat surgery.

But that damning situation was confirmed at a recent Modbury Hospital press conference, attended by the minister, when I was told that waiting lists in paediatric ear, nose and throat had halved. I asked what they were now and was told 54 months. If you are smart enough to do the maths, that is 4½ years, which means nine years was the norm. I imagine the damage done in some cases, although I can see not all cases would be urgent; even so, this flies in the face of supporting people to stay healthy, not wait until they are sick. That is a heading on page 22 of the '2030' document, which was the Liberal Party campaign document in 2018, and it states in the chapter titled Being a Healthy State:

Real transformation in health care comes when we support people to stay healthy, not wait until they are sick.

The ear, nose and throat example alone highlights the fact that this is not happening. We have a capacity issue, not enough operating theatres, not enough doctors, not enough medical professionals, yet TVSPs for frontline staff continue, further weakening the system, seemingly on the advice of bean counters and private liquidators carrying out a duplicated auditing task without input from clinical specialists. This is not supporting people to stay healthy.

We live in a community, not just an economy, and we need people focused on solutions to these system issues sooner rather than later, which leads us to another crucial area—the provision of mental health care. Woodleigh House is way beyond its use-by date and is in urgent need of replacement. I am already lobbying both major parties for a new-build facility to include veteran mental health services and to complement the older persons mental health initiatives already in place at Modbury.

Other healthcare issues include access to GP visits and the entire question of aged care, which I absolutely cannot cover today but will try to do so in future, but be assured that I will continue to work with the Oakden whistleblowers, Stewart Johnston and Alma Krecu, in the lead-up to both the state and federal elections. I will deal with many other issues of concern in my next contribution to the house and these are just a few of them: education, schools, TAFE, job security, employment, unemployment and underemployment. These all have connections to the education system. Other issues include public transport and the missing additional promised and budgeted for park-and-ride at Modbury TTP—which is a saga in itself—cost of living, access to services and the bureaucracy issues that make life a lot harder than it needs to be.

I am here to advocate, legislate and watch out for my constituents and their interests. I cannot make policy on my own, but I can suggest, formulate and promote the policies my constituents tell me they need and want. My function as a true Independent is to compare and weigh up policies of the major parties to make sure the people of the north-east get the best possible outcomes. I will work with everyone and speak to both political parties to make sure that happens. I am not beholden to anyone but my electors and I will give them bold, honest and unvarnished representation. I can certainly assure them I will always put them and their interests first.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (16:46): I rise to give a contribution to this supply debate, first touching on a number of issues in my own electorate. We have had an issue with some of the new developments happening in the electorate of Kaurna, particularly around Moana and the Seaside Estate. People who paid significant amounts of money and bought new houses are now finding their backyards and their houses are almost uninhabitable because of the problem of dust from the neighbouring development.

There have been countless people who have raised this issue over the past couple of years with the local council, the City of Onkaparinga; the EPA; and Planning and the issue has only got worse and worse. People are finding that their backyards are covered in dust. Their roofs and their solar panels are covered in dust. Their air conditioners are covered in dust because the development on the remainder of the estate that has been underway simply has not had the requisite protections in place to make sure that that dust can be properly controlled. There is concern from those residents as to the health effects that this might be having on people living in those dust conditions on a daily basis. There is concern in terms of the cleaning that is required, the air conditioning faults that they are finding and in terms of parts of their homes, such as garage doors and the like, already wearing out.

The residents have been very strong in terms of raising their concerns. Recently, I had a street corner meeting where we had 30 to 40 people come to to voice their concerns to me and the local mayor, Erin Thompson, about the issue. This is a street corner meeting where I invited the planning minister, the member for Bragg, and the environment minister, the member for Black, to attend, neither of whom came or sent any representatives to hear from people about their concerns as to what is going on there. The EPA have been telling people that it is not their concern. Planning has taken no action in terms of making sure that the developers comply with the terms of their development approval. Sadly, council, up until now, have been too slow to act in relation to these concerns that residents have been facing.

I am raising this issue here in the parliament. I have asked a number of questions on notice to ministers about this issue in terms of what they are doing to address these concerns and we are going to raise these issues publicly. We are going to address them before the council because residents have had enough, quite rightly saying that there are laws in place to say that this should not be happening and that there should be protections for these residents. It has been repeatedly breached over a number of years and nothing has been done about it by either the state government or local government. I share those residents' concerns and I will be speaking up for them about the fact that nothing has been done. I will be raising those issues in every possible forum.

Another issue that is very significant in my electorate, which I believe we are hearing more about across the whole state, is in relation to the housing crisis we are currently facing. People in my electorate are finding it increasingly difficult, particularly to rent in the private rental market. I have spoken to real estate agents locally who have said that when they used to put up a house for rent probably 10 people would come to a rental inspection. They are now seeing 50 people come at a time. They have stacks of people who are ready to go, preapproved for rental properties, but properties are just not available.

At the same time, we have significant numbers of public housing properties that are sitting empty and not being used and the government's plans seem to be to sell off more housing properties despite the fact that this crisis is underway at the moment. This is a crisis that is hitting many families in my electorate and across South Australia, yet we have seen no action taken by this government to address this crisis. We cannot wait much longer for those families who are sadly facing homelessness in many situations because they simply cannot find a house to rent.

Many of these families have the ability to pay rent. Many of these families have the ability to rent on the private market. They just cannot find a house where they can do so. It is an indictment that we have not heard from this government, from this Premier, any plans to address this crisis. It is going to be much too late for many families who are now facing this stress across the southern suburbs of Adelaide and, in fact, across the rest of Adelaide.

Connected to that, we now have an exacerbation of the rental crisis problem, where the government is now embarking upon an absolutely ridiculous proposal in terms of cutting funding to some of our most important homelessness charities and organisations in this state. Over the past week, we have seen an announcement that the Hutt St Centre, Catherine House and St Vincent de Paul are losing funding for their homelessness services. It also includes Neami, Junction housing and Aboriginal housing that are losing funding under this proposal.

There is no certainty from 1 July. What is going to happen in terms of those services that are well respected by South Australians that every single day provide support for people in need? The Hutt St Centre, Catherine House and Vinnies are losing those beds, losing those services, and we have no answer to where those people are going to go.

Homelessness is increasing in South Australia and the government's response to pulling funding from these vital organisations is going to make this situation so much worse. I will be standing up for the Hutt St Centre, I will be standing up for Catherine House, I will be standing up for Vinnies in the work that they do and we will fight to get this funding restored to these organisations to make sure that those services continue to be there from 1 July.

Lastly, turning to the health system, today we have seen some very serious revelations in relation to the state of our health system. It has been revealed that there has now been a major IT bungle in SA Health that has impacted upon medication errors across the health system. We have found out that at major hospitals such as The QEH, the Royal Adelaide, Port Augusta Hospital and others there has been a major medication error that is resulting in 10 times the dose for people affected.

Ten times the dose is a massive number. By adding a zero to the dose, this is potentially putting lives at risk by delivering a 10 times dose. If you have a dose of morphine at 10 milligrams, that might be the sufficient dose to look after that person and alleviate significant pain. But if you times that by 10 to make a dose of 100 milligrams, you are putting people's lives at risk. We have only heard about this because staff in SA Health have raised it after they have been notified.

There was not any public notification from this government about this concern. There was not a bulletin. There was not a press release. People were not informed about this. We need an independent investigation into what has happened here. We need answers to how many people have been put at risk, what patient adverse effects have been caused and how we can stop this from ever happening again.

Let's remember that this is the system that this government lauded that they were putting in place. They said that it addressed issues and they said that it was safe, and now we have this significant issue which potentially is putting lives at risk. We do not know how long this error has been in place for. We do not know how many patients have been affected. That is why we need an independent investigation into this right now: to get answers for the patients who have potentially been affected by this major IT bungle that is putting lives at risk.

Lastly, we have had news today that Professor Sue O'Neill, the head of Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, has announced her resignation. On behalf of the opposition, I thank Sue for the incredible work that she has done over many years. She is well respected in the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network. We know that our hospitals are under tremendous pressure. We know that they under the vice grip of Treasury budget cuts.

We know that Flinders has been under tremendous pressure and is not getting the resources that it needs, particularly when you look at the Code Yellow internal disaster that had to be called this week. We thank Sue for her efforts in trying to work to address these issues, despite the overwhelming pressure on the system. We wish her the best, but she is going to be a significant loss for the health system. This is a big blow to the running of the health system, to lose somebody of Sue O'Neill's calibre at this critical time when we are in a massive ramping and hospital crisis.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (16:56): I would like to make a contribution to the grievance debate for the Supply Bill. I will highlight a couple of issues and a couple of policy areas that I think are very important. The first one is to do with education and bilingualism. At the end of last month was International Day of Bilingualism. I am a great supporter of young people trying to learn a second language wherever possible, because languages not only open the door to understanding other cultures but also can benefit in an economic sense.

Closer to home, a language that was once taught in the region, particularly in the Schubert electorate, was German, which sadly has a sore history, and I will explain why. I have been working alongside the Barossa German Language Association for some time now. I know they are very keen to re-establish a bilingual German program either as a subject or subjects to be taught in German or as a bilingual program throughout the Barossa. With appropriate government support, I believe a pilot program could be initiated to see what the uptake would be.

The Barossa German Language Association aims to value, renew and expand the use of German in the region and hosts regular events spoken in German, such as the monthly Kaffee and Kuchen event, which is basically coffee and cake. Some key individuals involved in the association include Dr Peter Mickan from the University of Adelaide, who has been a key driver of this initiative as a project leader of a Barossa German language revival and renewal project, which led to the establishment of the Barossa German Language Association in 2015; Steffi Traeger, the current president of the Barossa German Language Association; local historians Everard Leske and Don Ross, and Don is also the manager of the Barossa Museum, and they both regularly attend events; and Reto Gasser, who is a former teacher at Xavier College when it was in my electorate, and he provides catering for the events. He was actually a catering and hospitality teacher, and he lives in my electorate.

Very importantly, German is a heritage language in the Barossa. There is an emerging younger generation of local families and migrants who want their children to learn and retain bilingualism with effective German programs. A bilingual program would re-establish bilingualism for community members who have missed out on the opportunity to be competent in the use of German. I hope that a motion in this parliament at some point will contribute to the rehabilitation of the status of German as significant in the lives of people and in the history of the Barossa Valley.

German is of significant social and cultural value. I understand that before 1914 and the First World War, there were 29 bilingual German-English schools in the Barossa Valley. The schools were closed down due to anti-German sentiment in 1917. This has had a big impact on the practice of spoken German in the valley. The Barossa was settled by German speakers in the mid-19th century, with spoken and written German maintained by a few descendants into the 21st century.

The history of spoken German in the Barossa is a combination of the resilience of language transmission across generations and the fragility of language in the face of ethnic hostility, exacerbated by global conflicts. In the Barossa community, German was spoken normally until the second half of the 20th century. People spoke German with families and neighbours and in their day-to-day business. They attended local Lutheran churches with services held in German.

When children went to school, they were required to learn English as an additional language. Celebrations and social events were in German. German was the first language at home, in church, in schools and for business. It was for quite a while the community's language in the Barossa. Sunday school, confirmation classes, weddings, youth activities and funerals were also spoken in German. Church services were based on the German liturgy, with hymns sung in German and preaching in German. Pastors and teachers were educated in German. Education was valued in Lutheran communities.

Between 1839 and 1914, some 115 Lutheran congregational schools were opened in South Australia. In the Barossa Valley, from 1842 to 1862, 23 community bilingual German-English schools were established. The curriculum was organised with subjects taught in German in the morning and English in the afternoon. Sadly, by the middle of the 20th century German was no longer a community language. In a few families, German was spoken in private at home, to talk with grandparents, but the maintenance of German through use in the family has practically ceased.

In the years from 1914 to 1946, anti-German attitudes, actions and legislation had an enormous impact on German language use in the community. With the declaration of war in August 1914, the descendants of German-speaking immigrants who had been welcomed into the English colony in the 19th century and contributed significantly to the economy of the new colony experienced ethnic discrimination and internment, including pastors, community leaders and businesspeople. To cope, some families actually Anglicised their names.

In 1914, inscriptions of gravestones in German were discontinued. The Nomenclature Act of 1917 changed 69 German place names in South Australia to English—places like Bethany in the Barossa Valley and others. Petersburg became Peterborough, Hahndorf became Ambleside, Lobethal became Tweedvale, Klemzig became Gaza and Blumberg became Birdwood, amongst some others. A few of the names were restored between 1935 and 1986, but others remain unchanged.

In 1917, the South Australian government passed legislation to close all bilingual schools. The legislation halted local bilingual education and disenfranchised teachers who could not switch to teaching English. After the Second World War, when former bilingual schools were reopened, the curriculum was only in English without reference to the German history and culture of the school. By the end of the Second World War, public and private use of German was discouraged and German was taught in schools not as a community language but as a foreign language.

Today, German has virtually disappeared from public use outside some of the Barossa German Language Association events. The promotion of Kaffee and Kuchen events has attracted recent immigrants to join with heritage speakers. The current focus of the Barossa German Language Association is education. It has established programs for preschoolers to adults. There is a playgroup (spielgruppe) for preschoolers, children's club (kinderklub) for school-age children and German classes for adults. The Barossa German Language Association is now planning the introduction of bilingual teaching in local schools. The re-establishment of bilingual classes is a social justice responsibility of cultural restoration with recognition of the value of bilingual education.

Just to re-enforce the importance of language, it is interesting when speaking to people who have a great understanding of the history of the Barossa Valley and German migration to the Barossa to learn that the German people were a highly educated population who put huge value on education. I wondered why German people were different from groups of migrants in other parts of the world. I am told it is that they are Lutherans. Lutheran people have a strong emphasis on the relationship between an individual and God, and so to understand that relationship they had to be able to read the Bible, and to be able to read they were educated.

So there was a strong emphasis in Lutheran families to make sure that their family members were well educated so they could have that relationship with God. As a result, German was a really strong language and, as a community, they were quite literate and well educated. It would be sad if a language that has had such a strong history in this state disappeared. I think the time has now come to consider some bilingual schools, acknowledging the importance of English but also accessing the culture of the Barossa through an understanding of the German language.

Mr BROWN (Playford) (17:06): I rise today to discuss some important issues in my community in the north and north-eastern suburbs. First, there is the issue of the condition of Nelson Road. I have received extensive feedback from a number of residents and members of my local community who have expressed their concerns over the lack of attention this road has received in recent years with regard to planning and a lack of upgrades to accommodate for the growing use of the road and its inherent safety concerns.

Nelson Road has unfortunately gained a level of notoriety amongst those who use it for having poorly implemented planning that has resulted in numerous collisions and near misses over recent years. Members of my community have expressed to me their safety concerns when using the road. One of the primary pieces of feedback members of the community have provided was their concern with the management of traffic along the northern end of Nelson Road, particularly the intersection of McIntyre and Nelson roads. The concerns have highlighted the difficulties that many people face when trying to travel to the north and north-eastern communities.

This road is part of an arterial road network that provides vital linkage to the local community enabling many residents to not only travel to work but also access shopping, schools and essential services. In its current state, there are several safety and traffic management concerns and Nelson Road is in dire need of a complete review. Residents have been calling for improvements to be made to this road for some time, and I believe that it is timely for a review of the traffic management of this vital piece of infrastructure to be conducted with community involvement.

Another matter I wish to raise is the lack of allocated funding toward conducting a trial for electric aircraft in South Australia. There is a need for increased innovation in our aviation industry by the state government not only to enhance the quality of equipment used by those being instructed on flight but also to enhance the quality of life of many of my community members who have raised with me their concerns over excessive aircraft noise caused by training.

Last year, the member for Wright and I had the opportunity to meet with one of the suppliers of electric aircraft and were assured that these planes are more environmentally friendly and can produce significantly less noise when compared with traditional aircraft. The reduction of noise emissions makes electric aircraft an important and attainable step forward for the aviation industry in our state. Parafield Airport is located in the central part of my electorate, and I believe that it would be an ideal and convenient location to conduct trials of electric aircraft.

Although aerial transport is the responsibility of the federal government, I believe that the state government has a responsibility to support these electric aircraft trials, and it was certainly disappointing to see that the state government has so far not allocated a single dollar towards this innovative initiative or any other such initiative throughout South Australia in the budget. Given the government's purported interest in aerospace innovation, a trial of electric aircraft in our state would seem to be an achievable goal and would be consistent with ensuring that South Australia is a leader in aeronautical innovation.

I also rise to speak about the state of the parking area of the Mawson Lakes Golf Club located on the corner of Main North Road and Mawson Lakes Boulevard. Local constituents and members of the club have raised with me first-hand their need for increased parking facilities to support the growth and accessibility of the club. In its current state, the parking area is not sufficient to accommodate the current needs and projected growth of the club.

The parking area at the Mawson Lakes Golf Club is in a key location in terms of potential future use and accessibility. The UniSA Mawson Lakes campus is directly adjacent to the golf club and, if upgraded, this car park will also be able to be utilised by students of the university. Furthermore, investment in upgrading parking facilities at the site will be of benefit to the development of sports in the local area and the easing of congestion through our local roads. I call on the state government to work with the club and UniSA to enhance this facility for the local community.

Another issue I wish to raise is that of the traffic on Shepherdson Road near Parafield Gardens High School. In discussions with both the former acting principal and the new principal, they raised their concerns about the limited number of parking spaces available for both staff and students and the impact the location of entry and exit points has on traffic in the local area, particularly at school pickup and drop-off times.

Parafield Gardens High School is one of five educational facilities located along Shepherdson Road and, as I am sure members can appreciate, traffic along this road becomes highly congested around times of school drop-off and pickup, causing stress not only to the school's parking capacity but also to local parents and caregivers trying to get their children to and from school. In response to these pressures, I would like to see the state government work with the high school and the City of Salisbury to create an enhanced family kiss and drop along the vacant land at the northern end of the school. This kiss and drop would not only improve accessibility to the school but it would peripherally also provide the same service to the adjacent primary school and children's centre.

In the time I have left I would like to once again address the issue of the sale of the land immediately adjacent to the Mawson Lakes Interchange. In cooperation with the City of Salisbury, the state government has previously invited developers to tender for this parcel of land. My constituents and other residents throughout the northern suburbs have for some time been calling for improvements to the park-and-ride that currently exists at the site as well as additional parking spaces to accommodate the growing needs of the community who use nearby transport services.

These additional parking spaces will not only accommodate commuters who are trying to access public transport but will also alleviate the pressures caused by on-street parking and traffic congestion for nearby residents. This is a need recognised on this side of the house. However, instead of working to improve access to free car parking for residents in the northern suburbs, the state government is continuing to remain intent on pursuing a process to sell the site to developers.

Renewal SA has already informed us that this site presents an opportunity to provide improvements for local residents as well as for those across the north by delivering, in their words, 'a new and exciting development'. Whilst there is certainly a growing need for further employment opportunities in our area, I still believe this site has the potential for development, but I once again caution the state government—in particular the Treasurer, who is responsible for this project—that and the local community and I will not be in favour of any form of development that does not ensure that additional free car parking is provided at the Mawson Lakes Interchange's park-and-ride.

My community will also not endorse the sale of the site to a commercial car park developer, which has previously been speculated about on numerous occasions. Labor stands committed to improving accessibility of car parking along the Gawler line, and my colleagues and I will continue to advocate for improvements to not only the accessibility of parking at this site but also the accessibility of parking along the entire line, which unfortunately is currently inaccessible.

All the issues I have raised today have two very important things in common. Firstly, they all improve the everyday lives of people within my electorate, and more broadly throughout the northern suburbs, and, secondly, and of most concern to me, is that none of these issues have been prioritised or have had any funding allocated towards them by the state government in last year's budget or indeed in any other budget delivered by this government. However, I do look forward to seeing further consideration given to these initiatives in the upcoming 2021-22 budget.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (17:13): I rise today also to speak on the grievance debate in relation to the Supply Bill. Given the announcement yesterday, what I will speak about will be no surprise: it is once again the steelworks and the enormous unrealised potential that I believe exists in Whyalla. The announcement yesterday about the San Francisco-based White Oak Global Advisors looking to provide financing for the GFG operations in Australia is good news. However, there are some qualifying statements. The finance has not been signed off on at this stage, and the expectation is that that will happen in around about four weeks, so there is a process to go through. The fact that there was an announcement yesterday would seem to indicate to me that there is a confidence about signing off on the financial arrangements that will be entered into.

Another qualification is that we do not know what the conditions are surrounding the financing at this stage, and I do not know whether we will be made privy to those conditions after the sign-off. One of the things about the GFG saga and the GFG history is that, as a privately held company, as a company that is not publicly listed, there has been an issue about transparency when it comes to finances.

I think there needs to be change and a fundamental change in that area and a far greater degree of openness when it comes to transparency, because so much hangs off it—whole communities hang off it, so I think it is important that those issues of financial transparency are addressed. I guess that we would not be surprised that financing can be found, at least here in Australia, given the performance of the assets in Australia. The mines in the Middleback Ranges—ranges that have provided iron ore now to this nation for over 120 years—continue to operate well, and those mines are generating a lot of cash for GFG in Australia.

The steelworks has turned around. It was burning a lot of cash. It is at least breaking even now and possibly making a profit, and the order books are full, but the issue about the need to invest in the steelworks has not gone away. InfraBuild in the Eastern States with its mills, its supply chains and distribution chains is doing extremely well also, but that is partly as a result of the intermediate steel product that is provided from Whyalla, with close to 500,000 tonnes of intermediate steel product going to InfraBuild in the Eastern States.

We have operations in this country that are doing well, and one of the things that we should be mindful of is the need to ensure that those operations are held together as more or less one entity, because they are stronger together than they are broken apart. I am sure that the financing that has been arranged has nothing about breaking things apart, but it is still something that we should have at the back of our minds.

The whole thing about the steel industry in Whyalla is not just the dependence of the community. The estimate is that, if we were to lose the steel industry in Whyalla, 5,000 jobs would be at stake in the Whyalla community, and that is out of a labour market of approximately 10,000 jobs. They are reasonably well-paid jobs, they are jobs that are important for the community and they are jobs that support workers and support families, so we cannot afford to lose them.

The thing about the steel industry in Whyalla is that it is not just important when it comes to Whyalla: it is important nationally. It is the only integrated steelworks in the nation that produces structural steel and rail, so it is part of our sovereign manufacturing capacity, and it goes beyond our sovereign manufacturing capacity. In an uncertain world it is also strategically important.

To be dependent upon overseas countries for something as basic as structural steel and rail puts you in a very vulnerable position. So, the importance of the steelworks at Whyalla goes way beyond Whyalla. The whole issue about sustaining the steel industry in Whyalla is that all of the elements are in place. In the Middleback Ranges we have hundreds of millions of tonnes of magnetite, which is the feed stock for iron and steelmaking in Whyalla. There is potentially up to a billion tonnes of magnetite in the Middleback Ranges and nearby on Whyalla's doorstep to feed a long-term steel industry in Whyalla, a steel industry that could serve the community and the nation for generations to come. But, in order to do that, at some point there will have to be an investment in the steel industry.

Iron ore prices are high at the moment. Steel prices are good at the moment. The steel industry is a cyclical layer industry, so things do change. Iron ore prices at the moment are high because of what is happening in Brazil, both in relation to the tailings dam incident in Brazil and the impact of the poorly handled COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil. Brazil has partly dropped out of the market and is not exporting as much iron ore as it did previously.

We know that the Chinese are focused somewhat on developing iron ore provinces in Africa, even though the infrastructure costs are going to be huge and there is always the issue of sovereign risk, but they do want to break their significant dependence on Australia. They do want to drive down iron ore prices, and the African strategy will be about driving down iron ore prices. Certainly, we can have a steel industry in this country to meet our domestic needs for years to come. As I said, it requires that investment to modernise the steel industry.

The Gupta vision, I think, was the right vision, but we have to see delivery. You can have a vision, but we have to see delivery, and there might be a role for the state government and the federal government in that. Time will tell. That vision did incorporate a new mill with a doubling of finished product in Whyalla, additional production of intermediate steel product, an electric-arc furnace for Whyalla and direct reduction ironmaking with a transition with natural gas initially, but looking to hydrogen in the long term.

I have taken an interest in hydrogen going back to 2014. When Arrium was still in place and we were losing jobs before administration, in the 2½-year period leading up to administration, Whyalla would have lost close to 1,000 direct jobs. At the time, I wrote to Premier Weatherill with a number of suggestions about what could be done in Whyalla, one of which was looking at Whyalla as a hydrogen hub. Subsequently, the Weatherill government, with the Hon. Mr Koutsantonis, delivered the hydrogen road map, which was the first hydrogen road map in the nation. I am not claiming any credit for that because I am sure that that was just going on in parallel to my thoughts for hydrogen. Hydrogen is going to become an important part of our future in so many ways.

I think it is important that we be honest about a number of things when it comes to hydrogen. I have noticed the Premier and the minister talking about H2U and the Mitsubishi project near Whyalla and the allocation of funding. The allocation of funding happened under the previous government. I have also noticed the talk about the $30 million for the jetty at the gas fractionation plant outside Whyalla.

When we were in government, we committed over $30 million to the upgrade of the jetty and the current government have also committed over $30 million, but that was initially part of a hydrogen strategy. That was what was needed for that jetty. At the end of the day, it is a government-owned jetty, so both governments have committed dollars to that particular jetty. But it is right to recognise that jetty as a potential export facility for initially green ammonia, maybe hydrogen, but certainly green ammonia.

Time expired.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (17:24): The other day I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on some of the changes the government has instituted in the last couple of years to provide increased support for students with disability in South Australia as part of our Inclusive Education Support Program. In doing so, I noted that this last year the Marshall Liberal government had an expenditure of $305 million for special education options supporting students with a disability in South Australian public schools.

That represented an increase of 26 per cent since 2018, from $241 million to $305 million. I start with this figure because it is an indication of the dramatic support, in financial terms, the Marshall Liberal government has demonstrated for supporting students with disability. There are very good reasons for this that are straightforward in their way. Fundamentally, our ambition for education in South Australia is for every child, whatever classroom or kindy they are in, whatever town or suburb or city across this great state they are in, to be supported to fulfil their potential, to be given the opportunity for a year's growth in their educational understanding every year for every year they are in school.

That means that every student is valuable and precious. The future of every single one of those children is precious and we want to support them to be their best selves, to live their best lives, to live successful lives—whatever success means for any individual child. That means that 21,115.7 students were recognised in term 3 last year as receiving support, whether it be through the Inclusive Education Support Program or other disability funding measures—a 10.5 per cent increase in the number of students receiving that support the previous year—and not necessarily relying on a diagnosis but instead focusing on their functional needs.

I was talking the other day about the Inclusive Education Support Program and the level of support that mainstream schools in particular might be able to provide for a student who needs that extra support. As at term 1 this year, 82.6 per cent of our students with disability attend mainstream schools. Today, I would like to spend a little bit more time talking about the extra support we are providing for the 17.4 per cent who attend what is known as a special option. That means 7.4 per cent of those are in a special class, 4.6 per cent in a disability unit and 5.4 per cent in a special school.

To help people get their head around what those numbers mean, we are talking about 1,383 students in a special class. These are classes that are usually part of a mainstream school. Sometimes you may even have students who go back and forth between a special class and mainstream settings. These are students for whom the curriculum is adapted as necessary, but there is a certain level of integration with the rest of the school. We have 872 students in disability units and 1,022 students in special schools. Special schools are standalone schools and most are co-located or next door to a mainstream school site.

The disability units provide a similar level of extra support as a special school would, but they form a unique and distinct unit within a school. Wherever possible, there is an opportunity with a disability unit for students there to interact with students in the mainstream setting, but the unit itself is often separate, and often for very good reasons, often for the safety of students. Sometimes these are students who might be runners, sometimes these are students with very particular social or physical needs, so a level of extra care is taken there.

In relation to supporting these students, the commitment of this government is one that comes not only from our own intent but also from what we have signed up to in the national school funding reform agreement—that is, every student in our schools will be supported financially by this government to meet their needs. From the government's point of view, the particular job we have is to ensure that a student is able to be placed in the setting that best suits their educational needs, where their educational future means they will be stretched to fulfil their educational potential and not just a sense that we will put them somewhere where they will be looked after. They will be looked after and their wellbeing is a priority, but we also want to stretch them to fulfil their potential.

Finding the placement that is most appropriate is very important, whether it is in a mainstream setting with a certain element of support through the curriculum, or a mainstream setting with extra support wrapped around, or in a special class or a unit or a special school. The government's recent initiatives are providing additional special options places to meet the needs of those students. These include 180 places at 11 secondary schools as part of the year 7 to high school project next year. That is 180 places, which is millions of dollars extra that we have put into the budget to support extra units to be created next year in our high schools with the year 7s coming in.

In addition to that, next year we will also see 104 special options placements at each of the two new schools, Aldinga Payinthi College at Aldinga and Riverbanks College at Angle Vale. In addition to that, there is an additional special class included in the design of the new Whyalla Secondary College in 2022, which will bring the total of special class places in Whyalla to 48 in that secondary school. In response to further demand of eligible students seeking junior primary or primary school placements, 10 schools established new special options classes at the beginning of this year, resulting in a further 112 places in those primary and junior primary years.

Those places have been created at Ingle Farm East Primary School, South Downs Primary School, Balaklava Primary School, Lake Windemere Primary School, Riverdale Primary School, Hendon Primary School, Highbury Primary School—which is in my own electorate and shared with the member for Newland as the boundary between Morialta and Newland runs through the school, so we share that one with great joy—Ridgehaven Primary School, Playford Primary School and Tanunda Primary School. All those schools at the beginning of this year supported extra special options to support those primary students who needed that level of support.

Departmental officers are currently undertaking forecasting processes to identify any further potential required options for 2022. The Department for Education—and I cannot say enough what a significant body of work this has been and what an important body of work it has been—has cleared the waiting list of children who were assessed before the end of the 2020 school year as eligible for a special option starting junior primary in 2021.

These are very young children assessed as needing a special option whose parents wanted them to be in a special option and not a mainstream class. For the first time in living memory, and certainly the first time since records have been collected, the department has been able to find a place for those junior primary students, with one exception of a student in a regional area where the local option was preferred to the closest available special option.

I will talk briefly in a moment about what a significant role that is, but it is important to note that, whether in a mainstream or a special setting, the department will continue to provide support to students with a disability embarking on their education. There is no financial benefit to the department from having a child in the mainstream setting rather than in that special option class or a disability unit or a special school. We will provide that extra support to the mainstream setting to support that student, but ideally you find the place that best meets the educational needs of that child.

In 2021, the beginning of this year, there was only one student in junior primary years who was unable to be placed in exactly the right place for their needs and instead was in a mainstream setting with extra supports. There were seven in the primary years and 29 in the secondary years. We would ideally like it to have been none, but 37 is an extraordinary outcome compared with previous years. In the previous year, for example, there were 59 unable to be placed in junior primary settings, 18 in primary and 11 in secondary, so a total of 88 students and that, too, was too many.

To be clear, the students continue to get that extra support that is needed to support their education in a mainstream setting, but it is still an improvement on 2018 when there were 262 placed out of 365 eligible in secondary, 209 placed out of 260 eligible in primary and 318 placed out of 424 eligible in junior primary. If you go back further to 2016, which is the first year we have the records, 203 were placed out of 315 eligible in secondary, 202 placed out of 290 eligible in primary and 300 out of 381 eligible in junior primary. In 2016, we see 282 students were unplaced in the public system. In 2018, 260 students were unplaced in the public system. Last year, it was 37.

There is always more to do and we will do that work, but we are committed to the funding. We are committed to supporting these students. Those students who cannot get the placement exactly according to their needs will get the support that they need in a mainstream setting and we will continue to do better. I want to congratulate all the public servants, teachers, principals and educators who have worked so hard for these children to get this good outcome.

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (17:34): In rising to speak in this Supply Bill debate, I take the opportunity to again call on this Marshall Liberal government to get very serious about supporting and empowering South Australian women economically, socially, in terms of their safety and also in terms of their ability to equally and actively participate in community life in whichever way they choose.

I am grateful every day to be Labor's shadow minister for women and the shadow minister for prevention of domestic violence. Like many in our community and in this place, I have been driven for many years to work collectively with others towards the achievement of gender equality and towards the prevention and eradication of violence against women. Work together we must because the gender inequality that underpins disrespect and violence towards women relentlessly persists. Over the past few months, we have very sadly and disturbingly heard about the most horrific allegations of sexual assault and abuse at the hands of very powerful people. Our community remains absolutely devastated by the brutal murder of baby Kobi. We continue to offer our love and support to her mum and all who loved her.

It is absolutely past time that this government step up and properly fund domestic violence prevention services so that women have a place to turn at the earliest opportunity before they are in crisis and potentially facing homelessness and so that communities can engage in the most robust and effective way possible in education around prevention. In estimates late last year, the human services minister confirmed to the parliament that the Marshall Liberal government's much spruiked domestic violence hubs were in fact not designated ongoing funding. In that estimates committee debate, the minister said:

We have been clear in relation to the safety hubs that they needed to be quite lean. There was not any election commitment funding attached…

This has to change. Our community is demanding that it does. In saying that, many individuals and organisations and service providers in our southern community have got together with me to campaign for funding for an outer southern domestic violence prevention hub, a hub that is desperately needed, a hub that our community has been calling for for some time. It is also time that this Marshall Liberal government look seriously at what economic support it can provide working women in this state who on average are paid around $23,523 annually less than their male counterparts. When COVID-19 hit last year, women who were already earning less, working fewer hours, less likely to retire with a decent retirement income and more likely to be engaged in precarious and insecure work than their male counterparts faced even more intense challenges.

Together with the leader and a number of other parliamentarians and other community leaders, I was grateful last week to be at the launch of the Working Women's Centre's report entitled, 'Loss of work, isolation and worry: the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on young women'. It is an extraordinary report that has been researched and put together by women in the Young Women's COVID-19 Advocacy Program with the support of the McKell Institute and the Working Women's Centre Management Committee.

There were a number of compelling findings in this report that speak to the need for this government to absolutely focus efforts on women, and particularly young women, in terms of targeting programs that will help them to get into work and to have secure work as we continue to deal with the effects of COVID-19. Alarmingly, the report found that since March 2020, of those young women who responded to their survey, 22 per cent had lost their job; 28 per cent had had their hours or pay reduced; 53 per cent had their way of working disrupted; 40 per cent had concerns about getting COVID-19 because of their work; 71 per cent became more anxious, more sad or more depressed; and 44 per cent became more discouraged about the prospect of finding work. They are very sobering and worrying statistics. Again, I thank all at the Working Women's Centre who progressed that really important report.

We have heard story after story and seen evidence of the gaps that I have described, yet not one cent of the huge debt that the Treasurer has saddled our state with has been directed towards industries where women are predominantly employed. There certainly have not been any specific programs for people working as cleaners, in aged care, in retail and in hospitality. Instead, this government is engaged in an industrial dispute with health heroes who have been working and continue to work at the frontline of health, as cleaners, as patient support attendants, caterers, etc., and it is absolutely time that the Treasurer and this Marshall Liberal government heard these people, respected what they do and targeted programs that will better support them.

It does seem that this government fails to understand the basic concept that to achieve an equitable outcome you need put in place positive measures for the advancement of those who start behind, although I suspect not understanding may be a generous description. I think, sadly, perhaps they just do not care. As I have said in this place before, this government has also so far refused to support Labor's inquiry into modern slavery, which again overwhelmingly impacts women, and has offered no position on the proposed inquiry into insecure work. Just last week, we saw a further $1.2 million cruelly cut from Catherine House, which supports women experiencing homelessness, including the far too many who are homeless as a result of the experience of domestic violence.

Sadly, we have heard numerous accounts of an increase in domestic violence during COVID and, horrifically, stories of new types of insidious abuse around COVID itself as women were trapped at home with their abusers. Amidst this spike, women desperately need better access to support services, but it has simply not been forthcoming. Instead, we have seen seemingly relentless cuts to those services that women rely on. I urge this government to focus on the needs of women in its budget. I am not hopeful that they will, but I do and will continue to urge them to do so.

The 2018-19 state budget saw $4.75 million of cuts to the Legal Services Commission, denying women access to valuable legal advice when most needed. Nearly $20 million was cut from programs that provide services to women addressing safety, violence, advocacy and legal assistance. Also, $800,000 was cut from the concierge service at managed taxi ranks; funds were cut from the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service; $250,000 was cut from the safe city grant program that supports creating safer environments in the city; and $4 million was cut from crime prevention grants that ensure a safer environment for women announced in the 2018-19 state budget. Despite many calls for that to be reversed, it has not been.

It has been well spoken about in this house that this government cruelly cut the $24 million dedicated Female Facilities Program. In my community, there are many frustrated people. This government continues to blatantly refuse to fund the South Adelaide Football Club—two-time SANFL women's premiers—for change rooms, despite the fact that they missed out when this government cut the $24 million Female Facilities Program and despite the fact that they missed out in the much spoken about terrible federal sports rorts grant program.

I know I am running out of time. Sadly, the list does go on. I can assure the house that certainly on this side of the house, as is the same for many in our community, we will not be silenced until all women in our community are respected and that respect is shown by this government in terms of increased economic security through a focus on wage growth, increased safety programs and a range of other measures. We are coming from such a long way back. This government absolutely has to focus on what it can do to positively shift gender inequality.

Motion carried.

Third Reading

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:45): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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