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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-26 Daily Xml
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Justham, Mr L.I.T.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:31): I am going to pay tribute—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —to someone who recently passed away, and I am very disappointed by the comments that the Leader of the Opposition makes as I try to respectfully make this grieve. I am actually going to sit down—and I am going to allow those members to leave so that I can pay respect to someone I know who has passed away and so that this can begin again—

The SPEAKER: Members, please leave quietly. The minister has the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —and for the next 20 seconds to enable that.

The SPEAKER: Members, please leave the chamber, thank you. Minister, you have the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank you for the opportunity to make this contribution today. I want to pay tribute to the life of Leif Indigo Taylor Justham, a young man who lived from 14 August 1999 until 6 April 2021. Leif and I met last year when I was asked to speak, along with Robert Simms (at the time an Adelaide city councillor and now a Greens member in the upper house) at a community forum on environmental issues undertaken and delivered by Power Living, a yoga studio in Adelaide's CBD.

We had the opportunity to present on where we thought the big environmental issues were going in the state, the nation and, in fact, the globe at the moment, and then we spent a lengthy period of time in questions and answers with the audience. A number of the questions asked were particularly probing, many of them to do with climate change and both the state and nation's approach to that. Several of the questions came from a young bloke with shoulder length, dirty blond hair who had a big smile on his face and a real earnestness about him.

At the end, when people left, he hung around with his girlfriend, Gemma, and we had the opportunity to take an extensive period of time just sitting around having a chat. He was really interested in sustainability, the environment, climate change and the politics of our state and nation that are wrapped around those issues.

Leif and I stayed in exceptionally close contact from that night, being regular correspondents via Instagram Messenger—he added me during the evening—and started to ask me questions. If I put up an InstaStory he would be very quick to ask me particular questions: what were we doing in that national park, or what was the insight into a particular initiative we had announced, or what was a place in South Australia I had visited in my role as minister and what was that place like? He was insightful, he was perceptive and he was inquisitive.

A few months later, Leif told me that in order to raise awareness about climate change and the impact of climate change, particularly the role of big polluting industries in superannuation funds, he was going to ride around Australia raising awareness. He set out in March to do that very thing. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later, while crossing the Nullarbor, he was struck by a truck and killed.

I was deeply affected by his death, not nearly in the same way as his family obviously were. I had been in such regular contact with this guy and had made lots of promises to catch up. He wanted to do a podcast together, but with my diary and all the things I am juggling I just did not have the time to do that. He sent me a couple of messages that I just want to put on the public record, because I was taken by the way he wanted to encourage me. One of his last messages to me was in response to an InstaStory, where he said:

Gotta say, mate, even though we didn't get to do that talk—

being the podcast—

pretty stoked to have you and the Liberal government as every other state seems to be so heartbreaking in their efforts to bring the planet. Thank goodness that SA is decent.

He was not an advocate for the Liberal government by any means, and I am pretty sure we would not necessarily have got his vote, but a couple of days later he sent me a message: 'Keen to have a kayak together when I get back.' I messaged him and said, 'Yep, at Myponga.' He said, 'Why not?' We did not get to do that. That was the end of our conversations.

I want to pay tribute to a young man who showed leadership, creativity, energy and passion for our natural environment and who made his community of Scott Creek, the Adelaide Hills and South Australia a better place.

The SPEAKER: Thank you for sharing that solemn tribute.

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