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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-04 Daily Xml
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Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:48): I move:

That the following Address in Reply to the Governor's opening speech be adopted:

May it please Your Excellency—

1. We, the members of the House of Assembly, express our thanks for the speech with which Your Excellency was pleased to open parliament.

2. We assure Your Excellency that we will give our best attention to the matters placed before us.

3. We earnestly join in Your Excellency’s desire for our deliberations to serve the advancement of the welfare of South Australia and all its people.

I would like to acknowledge that the land we meet on today is the land of the Kaurna people and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. I am proud to be part of a Malinauskas Labor government that will deliver a state-based Voice, Treaty, Truth for Aboriginal people led by our Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Kyam Maher.

My connection with my community began more than 22 years ago, and it started with a bottle green door on Hutt Street. That door, hidden among the cafes, small businesses and historic buildings on Hutt Street's leafy green boulevard, is a door to my past and why I value the things that I do.

The door led to an apartment: it was support accommodation organised by a social worker from the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It was to become a home away from home for my family during the most difficult time of our lives. But for us, home was Naracoorte in the state's South-East, a town known for its farming and its fossils, where I was raised by my mum, Penny, and stepdad, Patrick. Patrick worked at the local men's clothing store, Heard Brothers in the town's main street. Everybody loved Patrick. He was a gentleman with a wicked sense of humour. He was incredibly smart, even though he did barrack for the Bombers. He was a self-taught French cook and dreamed of opening his own restaurant with mum, herself a fantastic baker.

My mum, Penny, worked at the Longridge Retirement Village, first as an aged-care worker and then as a lifestyle coordinator. Her role was to interview the aged-care residents, find out about their interests and their hobbies and ensure their lives were enriched by social experiences, connection and joy. It was the perfect role for someone of mum's empathy, genuine interest in people and her ability to make everyone feel like they matter. It was where I would spend hours after school and during the school holidays, playing the piano for residents or just sitting with them and listening to their life stories. It was the greatest privilege, and it was while sitting with those residents that I began to consider a career in journalism.

Our family home was on Naracoorte Creek, where my brothers and I would kick the footy and climb the gum trees. We would come home to Van Morrison or Billy Bragg playing on the CD player. Patrick was always in the kitchen, standing with his blue and white striped apron on, underneath his saucepans and frying pans that hung above the kitchen bench. One of mum's cakes or puddings would be baking in the oven. We were a 'dessert every night' kind of family.

On Friday nights, my dad, Robin—yes, that's Robin Hood—would pick us up for pipe band practice at the local Catholic church. Together, the Hoods made up about a third of the Naracoorte Highland Pipe Band. My grandfather Lindsay, my dad and oldest brother Ben all played the bagpipes. My brother Toby played the snare drum and I played the tenor drum. From the age of seven I played in the band at ANZAC Day marches across the Limestone Coast, in Christmas pageants and country shows. Our Scottish heritage is important to us, and I wore our Wallace tartan with pride. I never did make the Edinburgh Tattoo, though, although I did come second in the state pipe band championships held at Adelaide High. I should probably mention that there was only me and one other drummer in the category.

After pipe band practice, my brothers and I would spend weekends on my father's farm at Bool Lagoon. Robin Hood, like his namesake, would give you the clothes off his back or his very last dollar. From him I learnt the importance of helping a neighbour, a mate or a stranger. One of my favourite memories was spending time in the Mary Seymour Conservation Park at Bool Lagoon with my brothers and my nanna Bobby. It was the best of nature playgrounds.

We would also spend hours climbing the beautiful old mulberry tree on our farm. We would eat all the berries and climb down covered head to toe in purple mulberry stains. We loved that tree, so much so that dad's farm was named after it, and that beautiful old tree still stands to this day on Mulberry Farm at Bool Lagoon. My grandparents, Lindsay and Bobby Hood and Lavington and Lois Fisher, were all farmers, and instilled in us the value of hard work, of rolling up your sleeves and just getting it done. While my grandparents' work ethic, love of community and giving back were identical, their politics were not. The Hoods were conservative Liberal farmers, while the Fishers were Labor voters.

Lavington Fisher, my pa, lived to almost 103, and something he told me always stuck with me. He said, 'Lucy, I don't just vote to make my own life better. I vote to make other people's lives better.' One of the greatest days of my childhood was when my baby brother Liam Patrick was born. He was the perfect baby, and to this day, even though he is now a schoolteacher and approaching 30, I still call him Bub. He is his own person, but I love how similar he is to his dad, Patrick.

My three brothers and I grew up with home-cooked food, music, sport, freedom to explore, community and fresh country air. Money was always tight, but we were wealthy in all the important ways. But life was to change one Monday night when our family doctor knocked on the door while we were sitting on the couch watching TV. It was not the type of news a doctor could deliver over the phone. He had come to tell us that Patrick had cancer.

That is when my connection with the Adelaide community first began and leads me back to that bottle green door on Hutt Street. We made the decision to seek support accommodation so we could be close to Patrick during his various rounds of treatment. My mum and I would take turns pushing Liam in his stroller down Hutt Street to the Royal Adelaide Hospital to spend the day with Patrick before walking back to Hutt Street in the evening.

I am thankful that we were able to move into this iconic main street. I never knew, as a country kid, that you could find little pockets of community, little villages, in the middle of the CBD, and it was a great comfort to mum and me. I believe the inclusivity of Hutt Street, a place where everyone is welcome, remains its strength today.

I was around 14 years old, but when you spend hours, days and weeks on ward D6, the cancer ward at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital, you grow up pretty quickly. You see a lot: how the human spirit can be pushed beyond anything you imagined was possible; how you can still laugh, even on the darkest of days; how tirelessly our doctors, nurses, allied health workers and hospital staff work.

As a public patient, Patrick shared a room with about four other patients. When the doctors told us there was nothing else they could do and it was time to take Patrick home to say our goodbyes, the only thing that separated the other patients and their families from our grief was a thin hospital curtain.

It is why I was so incredibly proud when Labor built a new Royal Adelaide Hospital, one where every patient has the dignity of their own room—to have treatment, to recover, to hope and in some cases, like my family, to grieve. Because the Labor Party is a party of dignity. We believe in the dignity of work, the dignity of a roof over your head, the dignity of a good education, the choice to die with dignity. And on 25 October 2000, as the sun set outside the Naracoorte hospital, we said goodbye to our incredible dad, an amazing husband and best friend. He was just 44.

After we lost Patrick, we clung to anything that reminded us of him. It is why I loved our family's letterbox—because Patrick had made it himself. It was in the shape of a little white house with a dark blue roof to match the colour of the roof on our family home. The summer after we lost Patrick, condolence cards were slowly being replaced by bills, and we were struggling. We went from a family who could afford to pay their bills to not being able to afford our schoolbooks, through no fault of our own, just like so many South Australians who have been hit by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising cost of living and stagnating wage growth.

I helped mum where I could. I waitressed at Blacksmiths Cafe, I worked in retail every Saturday morning before netball and I became a lifeguard and swimming instructor, working at the Naracoorte Swimming Lake during the school holidays. One summer I even sold raffle tickets for the chook raffle at the sports bar at the Naracoorte Hotel Motel. There is no greater preparation for a life in politics than a country sports bar.

What I will never forget one summer is standing at the letterbox Patrick built and seeing the look of relief on my mum's face when we received the School Card. It meant we could afford to pay for my schoolbooks. I remember going to Naracoorte High School's library to collect my schoolbooks and seeing that there was one line for the School Card kids and one line for everyone else. It was while standing in that line that I understood the importance of opportunity, and I knew that I would never take my education for granted.

I had always been a studious kid, but I threw myself even further into school, sports and civics, from the Lions Youth of the Year competition to a week-long Rotary Adventure in Citizenship to our nation's capital. A few years later, while standing at that same letterbox Patrick built, I opened my year 12 results and found out I would be the first in my family to go to university. It was a bittersweet moment, as it meant leaving mum and Liam and my country town to move to Adelaide. My housemates Kate, Chantelle and I cried all the way from Naracoorte to Coonalpyn.

The thing you will learn about the Hoods is that we want things done yesterday. I did not want to wait to be a journalist, so two years into my double degree in journalism and international studies I began a cadetship at The Advertiser newspaper. I went on to become the education reporter, writing about the power of education through the stories of students and teachers. The Advertiser is where I also met my husband, Jarrad, a fellow cadet journalist.

Adventure would come calling and we moved to London in 2008, just as the global financial crisis hit. Journalists were being laid off all over the country, so a job in our profession was out of the question. Instead, we worked behind a bar, The Narrow Boat, in Angel Islington, a beautiful two-storey pub overlooking Regent's Canal. Before we knew it, I was managing the pub and Jarrad had become one of the chefs. It was a humbling experience. For Londoners, the pub is an extension of their living room, and standing behind that bar I was often the first person a Londoner would talk to after finding out they had been made redundant at work and no longer had a job. I offered a friendly face and a Foster's, and I listened.

My experience managing a pub during the global financial crisis had nothing on what our hospitality businesses have faced during the global COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud a Malinauskas Labor government will bring our city alive with events, festivals and live music that will fill our restaurants, bars and laneways once again. While we loved our time in London, there is no greater place on this earth than the most livable city in Australia, Adelaide. Jarrad and I came home to pursue our passions in journalism and politics and to settle down and start a family.

We bought our first home, an off-the-plan apartment in Sturt Street in the city, a stone's throw from Adelaide Central Market, and we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Audrey Scarlett, at the Women's and Children's in 2016, followed by our son, Ned Patrick, at the Calvary in North Adelaide. I have always wanted to live in a community where popping down to the street for a coffee, milk or a loaf of bread turns into a two-hour round trip. I found that in Prospect, in Walkerville, in Ovingham and in North Adelaide. I look forward to the next four years telling the stories of my wonderful community and the incredible people within it.

It has been 22 years since I first moved into the apartment with a bottle green door on Hutt Street, and 22 years later when I drive down Hutt Street I always look at that same bottle green door. It has become an anchor to me, a reminder of what is important and what I want to fight for, because it is these life moments that have determined the policies I fought for and Labor fought for at this election.

My family knows the importance of a strong healthcare system. That is why I stood on the side of the road, week in, week out, holding a hand-painted sign that said 'hospitals and ambos over a basketball stadium'. That is why I am so proud that a Malinauskas Labor government scrapped the stadium and will invest every single dollar in our health system instead.

As a country kid, community is in your DNA. That is why I fought for a new Adelaide Aquatic Centre, to keep our community active and connected. That is why we will bring back a community hub at the former Walkerville YMCA site and invest in our iconic main streets like Hutt Street and Melbourne Street. As a School Card kid, I believe every child deserves access to a good education. That is why I am proud to be part of a party that is investing in the early years, building five new trade schools and delivering the very best teachers.

My days proudly wearing the Wallace tartan in the Naracoorte Highland Pipe Band and climbing the mulberry tree on Mulberry Farm instilled in me the importance of heritage. That is why I am proud a Malinauskas Labor government fought against the previous government's rezoning of Pinky Flat, Elder Park and the river itself and will restore full protection to Helen Mayo Park and return the National Trust to Ayers House.

As a parent of two young children, their future and the future of my grandchildren will be dependent on the health of our planet. That is why I am proud a Malinauskas Labor government acknowledges the climate emergency and will take action on climate change by establishing a green hydrogen industry.

Never underestimate the power of what Labor governments can do. The policies, the infrastructure we build and the decisions we make have such a profound impact on everyday families like mine, because I am the proud product of Labor governments. I am a public school kid who, with the support of the School Card, became the first in her family to go to university. I am a mum of a baby girl born under the incredible care of staff at the public Women's and Children's Hospital. As a first-home owner, I would never have been able to buy my first home without the policies of the former Labor government.

I also would not be standing here today without the support of so many people. First, thank you to my beautiful community for putting their faith in me. I know that by voting for me many voted Labor for the first time in their lives, and I will work tirelessly to prove myself as their local member.

To my all-female Adelaide Hoods campaign team, led by the formidable the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC: I will never be able to find the words to express how I feel about my tireless campaign manager, mainly because they would be unparliamentary. She is our queen, our Wonder Woman, our Energizer Bunny. They did not have time to break the mould when they made Emily because she had already broken it herself in the rush to start the next campaign or idea. In all seriousness, in the entire two years of campaigning with Emily by my side we never had a cross word. She is my lifelong friend and the most remarkable, hardest-working woman I have ever met.

To my volunteer coordinator, Ella Shaw, along with Lydia Heise and May Harrington: the talent you possess at such a young age is mind-blowing. Emily and I are like proud mother hens clucking around you. We cannot wait to be knocking on doors and wobble boarding for you one day. You are three rising stars of our movement. Thank you also to Daisy Miller, who took a leap of faith from restaurateur to political adviser—from the frying pan into the fire, some might say—but like a flambé she has shone and she is a bright spark within our movement.

Thank you to our fellow Thursday morning wobble boarders, Joel Wemmer and Bazz Sherwell, for their support and friendship. I want to thank all of the Adelaide Hoods incredible volunteers, in particular those who spent hours every weekend knocking on doors and letterboxing, in particular Jordan Mumford, Dante McDonald, Toby and Lachlan Priest, Leah Sham-Shure-Rin, Lucas Fragnito, Bridget Price-Brooks, the amazing Shaw family, especially Sandy Shaw, and my parliamentary colleagues, Lee Odenwalder, Nick Champion and Nat Cook.

To the many, many young Labor volunteers who week in, week out, spent their evenings and weekends letterboxing, making phone calls and folding letters: they did this without the expectation of acknowledgement or reward. They do it because they believe in a cause greater than themselves. Thank you so much. None of this would have been possible without you.

To our leader, Premier Peter Malinauskas, a person of intellect, work ethic and empathy for all South Australians, I think your greatest attribute is that you listen intently and genuinely care, from the baggage handler at the airport to the teacher in the classroom, the orderly in the hospital or the brickie on the worksite. You are a once-in-a-generation leader and I am so proud to be part of the government you lead. You are also the hardest-working man I know and on those long and sometimes lonely days knocking on doors these past few years, it was your voice ringing in my ears like Game of Thrones: one more door. Thank you for the trust you have placed in me.

I am proud to be a member of a strong union movement that fights for our frontline workers in retail stores across our state. I want to thank SDA Secretary, Josh Peak, for his unwavering support and putting his faith in me, along with Tom Carrick-Smith and Jennifer Allison and the rest of the SDA team for your friendship and support, and for the important work you do.

Thank you also to the TWU team led by Ian Smith and to my extended Labor family, Nimfa and Don Farrell, Sonia and Dan Romeo, John Bistrovic, Rik Morris, Stephen and Antonia Mullighan, Andrea Michaels, Chris Picton and Connie Blefari, Nick and Fiona Champion, Marielle Smith, Adam and Alice Todd, Amanda Rishworth, Anthi Koutsantonis, Reggie Martin and Shannon Sampson, Michael and Victoria Brown, Mark Butler and Daniela Ritorto, and our secretary Aemon Bourke and the Bourke girls, little Lucy, Maddie and Anabelle, Peter Geytenbeek, Pam Perre, James Agness and Minh Tham, Peter Chataway, along with the Adelaide sub-branch.

To my mentor Tom Koutsantonis: your unwavering belief in me is one of the reasons I stand here today. Tom has taught me the importance of loyalty and backing yourself in. Working with you, Tom, to help deliver three budgets has been the highlight of my career. I am proud of what we achieved in our years in Treasury, from undertaking significant tax reform, increasing the threshold of the School Card and investing in our public schools and, with Emily, establishing the community infrastructure program Fund My Neighbourhood.

To my other boss, who I still call boss to this day, Patrick Conlon and one of the smartest and funniest people you will ever meet: thank you for your and Tania's friendship, your wisdom and support, and for making the best salt and pepper squid in Australia. To the former members for Adelaide, Jane Lomax-Smith and Kate Ellis—who are both here in the gallery today—thank you so much for your guidance and support, and thank you to former premiers Mike Rann and Jay Weatherill. Also in the gallery are my adopted uncle and auntie, Roger and Rosey Currie, who are such dear friends, along with all my Meals on Wheels volunteers and beautiful clients. Thank you.

Thanks to my dearest friends Simonne and Ben Whitlock, Blair Boyer and Cath Kleinitz, Chris Burford and Lucy Wozniak, Emma Schwartz, Sylvia Rapo, Cressida O'Hanlon, Nikki Smart, Naomi and Damon Barrett, Nick Henderson, Joanna Vaughan, Phil, Sam and William Catley and the Saturday morning coffee crew at Cibo Prospect. To my other brother Matthew Clemow, to Satu Teppo, Ryan Liddell, Alicia Genet and my beautiful best friend, Jess, we are the family we choose for ourselves and I love you so much.

I am so grateful to my mum and father-in-law, Jacqui and Mike Pilkington, my sisters Rhiannon, Tegen and Gemma, along with my brother-in-law, Michael Case, and my adorable nephew, Rory. It takes a village and I am so grateful they are mine.

My best mate, my brother Ben Hood, and sister-in-law Elle are unfortunately in isolation back in Mount Gambier and could not be here today. Some might say Ben would do anything to avoid sitting on the Labor side of the house today. It is no secret that Ben and I come from different sides of politics, but we remain best friends. I often joke that he stole all the good genes and left my brother and I to fight it out for the rest. He is annoyingly good at everything he does except for which political party to run for. Ben has been our family's rock through the rockiest of times. We would be lost without him. To Ben, Elle and my nieces and nephew, Neave, Piper and Arlo, I love you and I wish you were here.

To my two other best mates, my brothers Toby and Liam (Bub) who are here in the gallery today: I am so proud of you both. Toby works in Western Australia in the mines and Liam is a maths teacher at Scotch College. You are such incredibly hard workers and brilliant at what you do. You are the most supportive brothers and I am so lucky to be your sister.

To my beautiful mum and stepdad, Alan, who join me in the gallery today: mum is my biggest cheerleader. Just ask the voters at the Melbourne Street booth who crossed paths with her on election day. We won that booth by two votes—thanks, mum. Alan, my stepdad, is the kindest man you will ever meet and I love that mum and Al have already become great friends with the catering staff at parliament. It is just the people they are.

To my husband, Jarrad, my best friend, my teammate, my everything: I love you and I could not have done this without you. In London, we would finish our working week on Sundays at the Narrow Boat and we would always sit together to have a Sunday night roast and a cider. Every Sunday, to this day, Jarrad still makes me my Sunday roast.

To my beautiful children, Audrey and Ned: you are the light of daddy's and my life. While I might not always be home before bedtime and a story, know that I am in this chamber fighting to create a brighter future for you. I love you more than life itself.

Last but not least, I would like to recognise that the 2022 election was just not a victory for the Labor Party and the values we hold dear but for women too. Some 128 years ago, South Australian women were the first to be given the right to vote and to run for parliament and for the first time in the House of Assembly, the government has a majority of female MPs.

I want to thank the women who came before us, who shattered the glass ceiling and walked over the shards of glass, clearing a path for those of us who follow in their footsteps: women who will not be lectured, not now, not ever; women who recognise a side eye is not a side step; women who smile because they want to, not for civility's sake; and women who understand that sometimes being the opposite of polite might just save their life. Thank you, Molly Byrne, Anne Levy, Julia, Jane, Kate and Dr Susan Close.

Thank you to the many, many women who came before them, the brave fearless women who first placed their names on the ballot paper but who never took a seat in this chamber. We stand on the shoulders of these women who paved the way for my fellow female Labor MPs here with me today, the seven, the class of '22: the member for King, the member for Newland, the member for Elder, the member for Davenport, the member for Waite and the member for Gibson. What an honour to stand with you and now sit beside you. We are sisters, daughters, mothers, friends and parliamentarians.

But please do not ask who is looking after our children because they are loved and they are proud, growing up in a world where it is completely normal that mums run for parliament. Do not ask if we are too young, because wisdom is not always created in the years lived but by the living of those years. Do not ask if our skin is tough enough, because it is. Instead, ask our opinion and let us speak. To the girls and young women in classrooms all over our state: remember a woman's place is in the house—Parliament House—and my door will always be open to you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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