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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-05 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2022

Estimates Committees

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (11:41): I bring up the report of Estimates Committee A and move:

That the report be received.

Motion carried.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: I bring up the minutes of proceedings of Estimates Committee A and move:

That the minutes of proceedings be incorporated in the Votes and Proceedings.

Motion carried.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:42): I bring up the report of Estimates Committee B and move:

That the report be received.

Motion carried.

Mr HUGHES: I bring up the minutes of proceedings of Estimates Committee B and move:

That the minutes of proceedings be incorporated in the Votes and Proceedings.

Motion carried.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (11:43): I move:

That the proposed expenditures referred to Estimates Committees A and B be agreed to.

I rise to offer a contribution towards the estimates discussion and the Appropriation Bill in general. It is very easy to talk to because there is so much in it for our local community and for the state in general. With every dollar of government spending, from billions right down to the smallest amount, comes an opportunity to demonstrate to the community what government believes is important. As a Labor Party, we put our cards well and truly on the table at the election, and South Australians delivered a very clear message on how they would like to see our state's public money spent.

South Australians have shown us they are ready for a government that is committed to delivering better outcomes and better lives for all. Labor understands the true power and true potential of public spending, and our community recognises the importance of that understanding, even if members opposite do not. You can change people's lives for the better with any amount of money if that money is used wisely and in pursuit of public good.

Today, I would like to speak about the smaller spends right up to the very substantial ones. I will begin with some of the commitments that were made in my electorate of Hurtle Vale and across the southern suburbs in general. Firstly, I will talk to local parks, sporting clubs and organisations. Community infrastructure, sporting clubs and local organisations play very important roles in the lives of South Australians. It is a pleasure to support them.

In my electorate of Hurtle Vale, I am so pleased that we will be able to deliver the following. There is $100,000 being committed for accessible play equipment in the adventure playground at the Wilfred Taylor Reserve. Before the 2018 election, the then Weatherill government committed $1.3 million towards the development of that playground, which was consequently matched by the then Liberal opposition which became government.

We were very pleased that that commitment was followed through together, and we now have an excellent play space in the heart of my electorate. It is more of a regional playground and is visited by many people from all across the southern suburbs. However, the lack of accessible play equipment, not just in my electorate but statewide, has certainly been brought to my attention over the years.

It was first brought to my attention in my area by a local young man Thomas and his dad, Wayne Savage. I am really thrilled that kids like Thomas will soon have access to this space with additional play equipment available. I think there is one, maybe two pieces currently, so this is a great addition. Sue Sedivy of the Lions Club, Merilyn Russell of the Rotary Club, and Jeff Kaye of Kiwanis all committed before the last election that we would work together with the community and hopefully leverage more on top of that $100,000 investment—from little things big things grow I think is the theory we are working on there.

We also had a commitment of $250,000 to install a public toilet in the Byards Road Wetlands in Reynella East. That piece of infrastructure has evolved over several years and its usage has really grown due to parkrun and many other local communities like the Friends of Byard Road Wetlands, who have some very keen birdwatchers. Many people go to that area, but there are no facilities close by that people can use, so staying there for a long period of time creates a massive problem for runners before and after their event, as pointed out by people like Rachael Semler of the local parkrun group. I thank people like Rachael Semler and also, from the Friends of the Byard Road Wetlands, Gary Goland and Jenni Garden, who have all reached out to me over recent years. We managed together to secure that commitment.

There has also been a $500,000 commitment to construct a dog park in a really large open space on Investigator Drive at Woodcroft. Dog parks are really beneficial pieces of recreational and social infrastructure, which I can vouch for after recently re-entering the world of dog ownership with a bonkers beagle that tears the house apart and leaves us special presents everywhere if she does not get out for a decent run. We do have to go quite a way for a dog park.

When people had been lobbying me over time, I did listen to them. I made that commitment to them well before I went into dog ownership and thought, 'Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about.' That is going to be amazing, not just for the dogs but for the owners, for people to be able to connect. I know during COVID especially having places like that in the outdoors was really important for local communities. That dog park, when it does get established, will be much wanted, I am sure.

The Noarlunga United Soccer Club I think is one of the oldest soccer clubs in South Australia, and I think the toilets are too. In fact, it is pointed out to me regularly that there is actually nowhere you can properly wash your hands in the change rooms. Players who need to spend a penny, shall we say, do not have a good place to wash their hands.

Of course, we all want good hygiene measures, so I have been working with Monika Cadman, Chairman of the Noarlunga United Soccer Club. While we know there are a number of items that could do with refurbishing at that club, the chair of the Doggies, Monika, has been advocating very strongly particularly around the change rooms. That may well be the first piece of infrastructure that benefits from this $1 million investment. I look forward to working with them on more.

Slightly further afield across the south, but not far from where I grew up, I am really proud to deliver, with the member for Reynell, a commitment to invest $322,500 to improve amenities, lighting and irrigation at the Morphett Vale Bowling Club. Tony Snashell and Pat Dyer were delighted when the member for Reynell was able to get there and announce this commitment to that club. It is a very well-used club in the southern area. There is also $350,000 for improved oval lighting, drainage and irrigation at the Morphett Vale Memorial Sports Complex in general. I look forward to working with the member from Reynell to see these upgrades delivered.

I know Michelle Glazbrook from the Morphies football club is particularly excited about these upgrades. The Morphett Vale Football Club is called the Emus and, for the historians amongst us, you will be absolutely excited to know that they are called the Emus because Morphett Vale was originally called Emu Plains, and so we have the Emus. I do not know if there were emus there—maybe—but it is one of those local bits of history. People are always a bit confused as to why it is the Emu Hotel and the Emus Football Club. It used to be called Emu Plains, so there you go.

Also, $570,000 has been committed for upgrades to the Reynella Sports and Social Club. This will include some money towards the change room upgrades. The president of the cricket club, Brett Julian, who has been pestering us for a very long time, will be very pleased to know that this will contribute to new cricket nets. Currently, the cricket nets are located right near the driveway and all the little tackers who play cricket are running out and chasing the balls, so it is not that safe. I hope this helps them to improve that offering at the Reynella Sports and Social Club.

There are some other fantastic people there who are lobbying for improvements all the time, including Dave Denyer from the footy club; Tash Threadgold from the netball club; Marissa Payne from the Hub Netball Club; and Brett Julian, who I mentioned before, from the cricket club. Then there are stalwarts like Graeme Green and Suzanne Thomas from the tennis club, Peter Davies from the air rifle club and Peter Gooch from the bowling club. It is a really well-used space and a big community area. The actual space forms one of the bigger clubs in the south but the amenity could certainly do with some improvement.

Another big one in the south, which has been a bit of a sleeper for a while, is the Hub Gymnastics Club. We have made a commitment to deliver $3 million to the Hub Gymnastics Club. My understanding is that there are some 500 or more kids involved in that club—it is quite huge. It is a very busy training facility, and this investment will mean that they can expand those facilities in line with their growth and help them to continue to be one of the more competitive gymnastics clubs in our region. Emma Murray, an incredible leader there, was delighted when the member for Davenport, the federal member for Kingston and I visited to provide that commitment to that club.

I will move on a little bit to an area that is in my portfolio that was discussed heavily pre election, and that is community centres. Community centres play a crucial role in keeping our people and neighbourhoods connected, a bit like sporting clubs, but particularly for people who can potentially be isolated. We have made a commitment to invest $1½ million in a community centre in Aberfoyle Park that is very well attended and very busy. It will increase the floor space and help to further develop the facilities, providing a space for a wider range of programs in that area, including arts and youth programs.

We also listened when they asked us for some money towards some Men's Sheds activities they were planning. Men's Sheds came up in estimates; we talked about those. This particular men's shed has a $40,000 commitment. I look forward to working out how they are going to deliver that within that space. The other thing in addition at Aberfoyle Park is the library. It takes some five to 10 minutes for someone with a disability to actually get into the library around a really convoluted ramp, so $250,000 has been committed to improve disability access at that library—very important.

The member for Elder was a very strong campaigner around her community centre offerings in that electorate, and a new community centre will be established in Pasadena, where there currently is no community centre. That will be in partnership with the City of Mitcham. That will bring wonderful benefits, and I know from doing lots and lots of doorknocking in Elder that there are many people who will benefit from the use of a community centre.

We have also restored $1 million that was cut out of the funding to the Adult Community Education program (ACE) that was cut under the Marshall Liberal government, and we are now reinstating that so community centres can help to build that support capacity in their communities. It is much welcomed; it has been a very popular announcement. It will ensure that newly upgraded centres in entirety will be places where our communities can continue to learn, grow and develop.

These commitments to the community sector more broadly are part of a bigger set of commitments to improve community infrastructure and make South Australia a more accessible and inclusive state. I think roads and public transport comes up every time you get out in your community. It is one of the big ones that come through our offices.

Being a minister and on a different side in estimates, you do not get as much information or pay as much attention to the other estimates committees, but I know that we have a very strong advocate in terms of infrastructure in our Minister for Transport and in the regional roads minister as well. I think the conversations that we are having around ensuring our roads are maintained will see us well into the future.

Of course, well-maintained roads are critical for safety and productivity. There are some really important roads in the south that I know have had questions asked about them over time and a lot of media attention. One in particular is the $10 million committed to upgrade Main Road, Cherry Gardens. There is a fellow by the name of Nick Villios who lives on Main Road, Cherry Gardens. Many of you would be aware of Nick and his relentless on-air conversations, but he also has a pile this thick of documentation about Main Road, Cherry Gardens.

Nick rallies his neighbours and contacts local members and ministers frequently. He campaigned really hard for an upgrade. It was voted South Australia's fourth riskiest road in a recent RAA survey. The postie will not even travel on it because of the risk it poses. This project forms part of the $150 million Adelaide Hills productivity package funded in partnership with the Albanese government.

There is also $120 million over two years to fund an on/off ramp from the Southern Expressway at Majors Road. We have discussed this in many forums here in parliament. This was the current opposition leader's number one priority leading into the 2018 election. He had a video online. I have not checked lately, but it was on there until a few weeks ago. Labor is delivering this on/off ramp at Majors Road. It will make a difference to the traffic in Brighton at Hove, and the Hove crossing was another messed up and withdrawn commitment that still has fallout for the people who live in that area.

This on/off ramp will enable local traffic to access the expressway, and the Leader of the Opposition can thank us for delivering on that promise he made and then abandoned. There is also the $125 million commitment to the full duplication of Main South Road between Seaford and Sellicks Beach, which is very important. As a retrieval nurse, I have attended some terrible trauma there, and I look forward to seeing that road finally corrected after many years.

An important announcement we made was free public transport for Seniors Card holders from 1 July, a few days ago. It means that so many people in my and other people's electorates are able to work, see family and engage in the community. It was always a bone of contention, particularly for the volunteers who would head out during peak hour to volunteer at the local hospital and have to pay for their transport. It is difficult to get people who can afford that additional cost: now they will not have to. It also provides critical cost-of-living relief to older people who are struggling to make ends meet. I am very pleased to deliver that along with cost-of-living concessions investments.

In terms of health, as a government we have very significant investments in the health system. The once-in-a-generation investment in mental health will deliver much-needed improvements for communities right across South Australia, and that will have a ripple effect. It will take time to get all these things in place, but this will absolutely improve the flow through hospitals and defer people from hospitals. It will ensure that people get the most appropriate placement within our healthcare system, and I know the Minister for Health and Wellbeing is absolutely homing in on getting these things delivered as quickly as possible. It will go a long way towards addressing whole-of-system issues, including ramping.

In southern Adelaide, we see an upgrade committed to the Flinders Medical Centre and to the Repat precinct. The partnership with the Albanese government will see a $400 million expansion, including $161 million over four years to deliver 24 subacute beds at FMC, 136 extra beds and an expanded ICU. I do not know how many times we have expanded the ICU, but when I started working there I think it had 12 beds with a bit of overflow, and I think now it is built up to about some 36 beds. I am not sure what the total number will be here, but it certainly is a very large unit with excellent staff, a lot of friends.

There is also an upgrade and expansion of mental health facilities at the Margaret Tobin Centre, which will be much welcomed, as is the brand-new eye surgery clinic and the expansion to medical imaging services. All these things will assist with flow. If we could do a Bewitched and wiggle our nose or snap our fingers or do a bit of I Dream of Jeannie magic, then it would all be there today. I know that all of us here, from whatever political party, would wish that to happen because it would make life so much easier for all the people in our community, but it will take time.

Along with so many other investments, these really important commitments will have a real impact on health and wellbeing outcomes and I hope will rebuild a sense of trust in our medical system's quality and its responsiveness. You cannot put a price on the feeling of security that comes from knowing that when you need an ambulance to come, it will come and that when you need a hospital bed, you get a hospital bed.

I would like to thank all the members who participated in the estimates process to look at all these things across the week and a half I think it was. I also thank particularly my staff for assisting me in preparation. I found the process fairly low on stress and that was because of them and because of our excellent members of the Department of Human Services and the Housing Authority, so thank you very much.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:04): I, too, rise to make a contribution for the appropriation of funds through the estimates process, another estimates once again. This time, obviously, we looked across the chamber at the incoming government and their priorities—and their priorities are all about themselves. I very much enjoy being a part of a number of areas in the estimates process, but what we saw was the sandbagging of areas of South Australia to fund election promises.

To achieve some of those election promises, we have seen many programs deferred. The government are kicking the can down the road. They continue to do that to fund their pet projects so that, as I said, they can continue to sandbag those seats they want to invest in in preparation for the next election. I urge South Australians to look beyond those sweeteners in some of those areas. This government continues, by preference, to govern for metropolitan South Australia, and we saw the regions continue to be pushed out of the way. It is concerning that, when we see a government exploit the inner circles of metropolitan South Australia, there are those who have to miss out.

Through the estimates process I started off with roads and infrastructure. Obviously, roads and thoroughfares are critically important areas, particularly for people living in the regions, and we need efficiency gains moving freight around South Australia. It is also about making sure that people arrive safely at their destination and making sure that we look at some of those programs. The member for Hammond, as regional roads shadow, and I as road safety shadow, looked at one another and thought it was hard to believe that the minister for roads and infrastructure, without even an adverse face movement, continued to take credit for the great work that the Marshall Liberal government had done.

What I saw was an ongoing funding stream into some of those Roads of Strategic Importance. One very important and dear to my heart is the Renmark to Gawler road: $87½ million. It is a safety upgrade to a federal highway that has been neglected for a considerable period for time. The 80:20 split between commonwealth and state had seen a number of areas that had to be addressed, and I note that the former Liberal government did that.

The $87½ million was to upgrade a section of the Sturt Highway between Renmark and Gawler. Under the former Labor government, two rail operating lines between Tookayerta and Tailem Bend and between Pinnaroo and Tailem Bend were taken out of action. That put more heavy mass-load vehicles on our roads, on our highways, and to address the increased number of trucks, we saw the former government upgrading safety upgrades.

The shoulder upgrades, the safety barriers, the intersections, the overtaking lanes, the parking bays, all the tactile marking and the signage are great legacies that need to be continually maintained and continually upgraded. That is what we saw under the former Liberal government. To the credit of this government, they did not cease that ongoing program, and that is great to see.

There are concerns over a section of the Sturt Highway where we are still seeing, for good reason, a 40-kilometre speed restriction that has been in place for a long period of time. The newly appointed CE of DIT has given me a very clear understanding of exactly what the issues have been there. I just hope that we see a government now that will stop reducing speed limits and put an investment into the maintenance program of our roads.

We also talked to the minister about the Truro bypass, which is a $202 million upgrade of the Sturt Highway. It is about implementing efficiencies into a freight network as well as a very busy corridor for passenger vehicles. We have seen some preliminary work done there, which is good. Sadly, those major works will not progress until 2026, but they are underway. The minister did give me an undertaking that he would look at the duplication of the highway. I would be very sad to see over $200 million spent on a bypass that did not look at the feasibility or at the reality of what a dual lane road would mean to that section of Sturt Highway.

Along the way, we saw a number of projects. Sadly, as to the north-south corridor, when the now government was in government prior to the Marshall Liberal government, they did all the easy sections of the north-south corridor, then we came into government and we had to undertake some of those tougher sections. We now see the issue around the tunnelling. The hard, expensive bits of that north-south corridor again are now being kicked down the road. This can must have no paint left on it because we continue to see this minister, this government, kick that can down the road, to defer funding so that they can come back to their election promises. It is all about sandbagging some of those seats.

I note that the shadow minister asked some very good questions, some of them were taken on notice, and it will be very interesting to see when we get responses to some of those very good questions so that we can actually get on with upgrading our roads, maintaining our roads, building new roads and making sure that we continue to undertake the freight network that needs to happen here in South Australia.

If we look around to the freight corridors that used to be rail corridors, sadly they are very skinny when it comes to looking at the freight. We look at the east-west rail corridor that is antiquated. Sadly, we cannot get past the single-use or the single-stack container freight corridor that runs from the east to the west through the Hills and then over to the west. While we continue to put heavy loads on our roads, we put a heavy burden on our roads. So I say to the minister and the government that you have to actually stump up that program that continues to make our roads better, more efficient and safer.

From that part of the estimates process, I then move to primary industries. Obviously, primary industries and regions are very dear to my heart due to my living in the regions, being a former primary producer and coming from a family of primary production. Our former government did some great work. We had a reform agenda and we did a lot of that heavy lifting that the former government would not do. I say that they were pretty weak. I would not say gutless, but I would say weak. They were not prepared to make some of those hard decisions that needed to be made. The Marshall Liberal government had that reform agenda and I think we got on with it.

There were a number of tough decisions that had to be made along the way, whether it was in the fisheries programs, whether it was in some of those new and emerging industries within primary industries—agtech, for example. We look at carbon capture and carbon storage, and they are sectors that are the future of primary industries, particularly when it comes to government initiatives.

We know that industry by and large will embark on investing into their own businesses, but the government's role is about the R&D programs. It is about being the conduit to industry and the taxpayer feeling that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going into programs that are for their benefit: putting food on the table, making sure we can deal with climate change, making sure we can deal with that variable climate. The uncertainty of being a primary producer is always a challenge.

Over the estimates sessions, we saw that we have a minister who is, I would say, a little bit cute, who took questions on notice at every opportunity and was also very forthcoming in not giving information, particularly with the questions asked. With some of the decision-making—particularly in the marine scalefish sector, some of that reform, the licence buyback, making that sector more sustainable and more viable into the future—what was worrying was the lack of science-based decision-making. Some of the tough decisions made by the former government have now been sweetened so that they can keep going on their merry way and do what they have always done, and that is make half-baked decisions.

That marine scalefish reform was a tough reform package, yes. There was some pain felt out there, but what we are seeing now is a minister who I think is ducking and weaving when it comes to making some of those hard decisions and following through with them. Over a long period of time, we have seen the former Labor government—and it now looks as though it is the same old Labor government—continuing to shirk its responsibility of making that reform agenda that is needed for the future of fisheries.

In forests, there was a huge opportunity for this government to invest in some of the efficiencies that are needed—road upgrades, bridge upgrades—so that we can see huge opportunities, investment opportunities. Obviously, water prescription has been a massive burden on the forestry sector. We are seeing uncertainty with the sale of forests to a private—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

Mr WHETSTONE: Yes, they are a private operator. What we saw over a long period of time was a lack of auditing when that forest was sold. It was sold for a pittance by the government to this operator. They overharvested. We saw the grey area of putting a sawlog or a pulp log onto a ship and exporting it, and guess what? We have timber shortages in South Australia. We have timber shortages nationally.

I think a great question that needs to be asked is: why do we have timber shortages? Why do we have programs? I know that the rotations were brought from, some would say, 36-year rotations back to under 30 years. All of a sudden, the realisation was that, if they continued to keep harvesting as they were, we would see a serious interruption to supply, and we also saw what it meant to the future of timber supply in South Australia.

Along the way, we moved out of primary industries. We moved out of forests, fisheries and some of the programs I have mentioned. Sadly, there are departmental cuts. PIRSA is always a target for the Labor government. They continue to cut positions, cut programs and cut the departments and their capacity to be able to move forward and make sure those programs that we need in the primary sector, that we need in regional South Australia, continue to progress. Now, again, we are seeing the same old Labor.

As we moved past primary industries, we moved into health. I want to thank the shadow health team. There are three shadows, and I think they have done an outstanding job. The incoming government was promising all to everyone about ramping, nursing numbers, doctors and the emergency departments. All of a sudden, we had a problem on our hands. They promised everything to everyone, and they are slowly realising just how tough it is.

We still have a hangover from Transforming Health, and there is no doubt about that. What we continue to see is that the current government have invested quite heavily in mental health, and I think that is a good investment. Again, we are still waiting for a suicide ambassador to be appointed, we are still waiting for the suicide prevention council to be appointed and we are still waiting to see more funding and more of an emphasis put on substance abuse. Over time, South Australians will be awake to an incoming government that promised so much and, at the moment, are hiding under the couch because they know that there is a huge burden of pain coming to the South Australian taxpayer for what they promised and gave so much hope.

We moved out of health and looked at police and corrections. We looked at road safety. Sadly, we have seen a government that is not prepared to be more proactive in attracting police officers, people taking up the police force as a career. It is forecast that we will be 90 officers short in the upcoming year of recruitment. Again, that puts pressure on the existing staff, the existing officers on the beat. They are under the pump.

The issue there is that we have seen low morale within the police force. We are seeing a lack of ability to attract cadets through the cadetships, and the numbers need to be made up. The protective security officers who were used through the COVID period need to be reinstated. There needs to be some funding so that they can take the pressure off frontline SAPOL so that community expectations that their streets are safe are met and so that we have enough police officers making sure that community safety is front and centre.

There have been a number of issues particularly with the number of corrections officers. We have seen riots at Yatala, and we have seen riots in youth justice system just recently. It is a telltale that we do not have the officers, that we do not have the corrections personnel there to address what was an emerging problem—that is, the impact of COVID on those officers—and we have to move on.

What I would say with regard to SAPOL is that the estimates process exposed that the government is not doing enough. Withholding crime statistics has been another issue, and it continues to go on. Regional police stations continue to be and should be under the microscope. While we see a decline in SAPOL officers here in Adelaide, undeniable pressure is put on police numbers in the regions of South Australia. It puts an undeniable pressure on the viability of keeping police stations open in regional South Australia.

We have seen, as many regional MPs in this chamber would attest, the continual pressure on making sure that our regional police stations have a presence, making sure that we keep our regional communities safe and making sure that, as a government, they are responsible not only for keeping police numbers in Adelaide at a rate that is acceptable but for making sure that South Australians have the safety they expect.

One last thing that I would mention is Cobbie steam museum. The Cobdogla Steam Friends Society is seeing a defunding model coming into play. It is very, very sad. It is part of the history not only of irrigation but of SA Water, which was the E&WS. They are defunding that institution. It is home of the Humphrey pump, it is home of the traction engine and it is home of a great steam crane. Sadly, this miserable government are going to defund what is one of the iconic tourist attractions in the Riverland.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:24): I rise to make a contribution to the debate on the report of the estimates committee. This would have been my 13th year in estimates committees in this place.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's newish.

Mr ODENWALDER: That's new, that's right. Compared with some people, I am new at it. I spent the first four years of course as a backbencher, which I will get to in a minute. It is a fairly thankless task, being a government backbencher in the estimates committees.

Mr Whetstone: Come on!

Mr ODENWALDER: Well, not as thankless as being a shadow minister, I have to say. I spent the following four years as the Chair of Estimates Committee A, which is now ably chaired by you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and then four years as a shadow minister (in the same predicament as the member for Chaffey) and, of course, this year as the whip. So I have seen it from most sides now.

I must say that I am looking forward to the traditional contributions to this debate in which people point out the flaws in the estimates system, the ways in which it can be improved, pointing to other jurisdictions, pointing to the Senate's estimates committee process in Canberra and going through how the estimates committee process could be improved and reformed. This has been going on for at least the last 13 years, over which time I do not think the estimates committee process has changed one tiny bit.

I look forward to those speeches. I expect the member for Morialta has some observations about that. Indeed, I sat with the member for Morialta briefly on a committee on committees of sorts, where we sought to look at ways the committee system generally, including the estimates committees, could be reformed. As I said, the basic format and process of the estimates committees has not changed. It has been very interesting seeing it from the eyes of the whip. I think I am one of the few people—apart from you, sir, and the member for Giles—who is lucky enough to have been in the building for almost the entirety of the estimates process.

I want to thank the backbenchers who came in and, especially on the government side, essentially sat mute for most of the time. I want to thank them for that and for their forbearance in the rostering process and also for being so flexible. As the whip, I had to call upon people at quite short notice to change their rosters to come in at times and sometimes sit on committees which they did not have a particular interest in, as much as we tried to marry those things up. I do want to thank them all, and I look forward to next year when we hopefully have a more streamlined process.

The estimates committee process is an opportunity to examine the budget; we all know that, and that is what shadow ministers do. There is much less of a role for government backbenchers, but shadow ministers have an opportunity to examine the budget and look at the way the government—albeit a young government—is travelling. It is also an opportunity for those of us in the government to see how the commitments that we and our shadow ministry made on behalf of the government have come to fruition. I look at some of the projects in my own electorate.

The Adams Road-Yorktown Road roundabout, the member for Light may well be familiar with this intersection. The member for King certainly is. Anyone living in my electorate or in surrounding electorates, particularly in the electorate of King—One Tree Hill, Cudlee Creek and places like that—will be familiar with this intersection. It is essentially an intersection that is a feeder road that empties out the suburbs of Craigmore and Blakeview onto Yorktown Road and thence into the city or wherever they are going. It is one of the few feeder roads.

Other than Uley Road and Craigmore Road, it is one of the few exits from that very fast-growing area of Blakeview and Craigmore. For a long time, and indeed in the present, in the morning rush hour there are huge queues going all the way up Adams Road of people who live in Blakeview or Craigmore trying to get out and turn right onto Yorktown Road, past Eastern Park Football Club, to go about their business.

I was really happy to be able to commit to the people of my electorate, particularly the people of Blakeview and Craigmore, that we will construct a roundabout at that intersection. We will work with Eastern Park Football Club and the other clubs that use those premises to get the right design to ensure that traffic runs much more smoothly and that people who live in Blakeview or Craigmore have a much speedier passage either to work or wherever they are going.

As I said, there are other feeder roads out from that area. Uley Road and Craigmore Road are the two primary ones, but both of those roads become very congested in the mornings. There are schools, there are shops and there is the relatively new suburb of Blakes Crossing adjacent to Craigmore Road, and so those roads get very congested in the mornings and people who live in Blakeview and Craigmore are forced to use that Adams Road-Yorktown Road intersection. I am really pleased that the funding is there for this roundabout to be built, and I look forward to working with council, the Eastern Park Football Club and the other clubs that use that area to see it come to fruition.

Related to that, and in the same geographical area, I was pleased to commit the state government to paying for half of an upgrade to the little Dwight Reserve. This reserve is quite dear to me. It is very close to my parents' house and I grew up playing on that reserve on the way to school. During what passed for a lockdown, initially in South Australia at least, my kids spent almost every morning playing on that reserve. That has no bearing on the fact that it needed upgrading—it needed upgrading anyway, of course.

Part of that upgrade will involve not only improvements to the play equipment for the kids who use that playground but, I am advised, it will also go towards redeveloping some of the grasslands around the fairly temporary footy fields and cricket fields immediately adjacent to it so that people who use the clubrooms at Eastern Park Football Club can also use those grounds to train, to play their reserve games and so on. With the design of the roundabout, which I initially spoke about, it is hoped that the crossing across Yorktown Road, what is a very busy road, can be made safer for the people who use Eastern Park and those playing fields.

The upgrade will also include a pump track. For those of you who do not know what a pump track is—and I must confess I did not know until about two years ago when it was brought to my attention—it is a track used by BMX riders. I must say it was news to me that the BMX community is so large, because they came out in force to support this project, and it is a place where those who ride BMX bikes and mountain bikes can ride. It is a special way of riding: they use the momentum rather than their pedals to ride. Pump tracks are an emerging way of recreation for young bike riders and I am really pleased that the state government, together with the council, is contributing half of the cost to see that project come to fruition.

Probably the biggest commitment, and one closest to my heart, is our contribution to the City of Playford's master plan for Argana Park. Argana Park is a central hub in the north for all sorts of sports. It is looking quite tired: the parking is terrible, the lighting is terrible and a lot of the facilities are very old. Again, it is a part of the world I grew up in. I went to school immediately adjacent to Argana Park and played my school soccer there. My son, Jimmy, started his soccer career there at Elizabeth Downs and then later returned as an adult to play for Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club.

On election day, when I was handing out for half the day at Elizabeth Downs Primary School, and Jimmy was helping me, I had a fairly high amount of recognition at Elizabeth Downs Primary School but nowhere near what Jimmy had. Every second person would walk up to Jimmy, talk about soccer and take the how-to-vote card from him and I am pleased to say that that particular strategy paid off well.

The Malinauskas government has seen fit to allocate $1.115 million for new change rooms that can be utilised by the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club, which I think is the largest of the clubs that use that particular sporting hub. It will also be used by the Elizabeth Netball Association and all the clubs associated with the Elizabeth Netball Association for whom Argana Park and the netball courts at Argana Park are an integral part of playing fixtures.

The female facilities, such as they are, are almost non-existent at Argana Park, so I am really pleased that this is going towards not only improving the change room facilities and toilets there generally but also making them very accessible for all the women who play netball and soccer. I know that the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club is now putting a lot of effort into developing its female sides. Its younger sides are mixed, but it is moving into female sides at the older grades and in the first teams.

The Malinauskas government made a commitment to a local traffic management plan conducted by the Department for Transport in the relatively new suburb of Blakes Crossing. Blakes Crossing was developed by Delfin and is a good project that was developed on, I would say, the European model, where houses are quite close together. It is a very compact way of living, which is attractive to a lot of people. It means that proximity to schools and public transport and those things is quite close.

It is a pretty good model for housing but, in the South Australian context, what often happens with these types of developments is that there is an enormous amount of pressure on both parking and traffic management, and traffic movement generally, particularly when you couple that with the congestion along Craigmore Road I was talking about before, one of the only feeder roads out of Blakes Crossing. I am looking forward to that traffic management plan.

The idea is to get the department in and survey the local residents. I have spoken to local residents many times over the last 10 years—or however long Blakes Crossing has been there—about these emerging traffic and parking issues, including public transport issues, and the idea is to get the department in and clearly identify all those issue. Everyone has a view, of course, and all the residents have a view about what should be done, and this will be a process of compiling those complaints, working through them, seeing who might be responsible in the future for fixing them and what the solutions might be. I am very pleased the Malinauskas government was able to fund that.

Finally, the smallest project is one for a public toilet at California Reserve, Craigmore. Again, this may seem like small beer, but it is a fairly substantial playground in the middle of what is a growing suburb. The City of Playford has recently put a lot of effort into redeveloping that playground, and it is looking great. I was there recently with councillors Akram Arifi and Misty Norris to have a look at the work, and the City of Playford should be very proud of the work it has done there.

In the initial stages, the budget did not extend as far as a public toilet, but at the street-corner meetings and from the various contacts I have had with constituents around this playground it was certainly seen that public toilets were necessary. For various reasons, there are no public toilets in the adjacent shops and, as playgrounds do, the playground attract kids during the day and slightly older kids in the evening, and so on. A properly secure and self-cleaning toilet facility is absolutely essential, and I am very glad we can deliver that to the people of Craigmore.

Those are the local commitments. It was also interesting, throughout the estimates committee, to follow up on commitments made in my previous shadow ministerial portfolios, and it is really great to see that the current government is fulfilling all the commitments we made in those areas.

Following the bushfires in 2019-20, those devastating bushfires—which the member for Kavel and the member for Morialta, on the fringes there, would know well—there was the Keelty review. There was an enormous amount of sympathy for our firefighters and for people living on the Hills Face. There was also a very quickly growing recognition that these were not normal events, that these were clearly driven by climate change, that this was what is colloquially being called the 'new normal'.

Both the Keelty review, which was commissioned by the previous government in order to look into the causes and possible remedies for these types of bushfires, and the royal commission into natural disasters, which was established for much the same reasons but on a national level, made clear that climate change was the real issue and that, in any funding arrangements or planning arrangements for our emergency services, we had to absolutely acknowledge from the outset that climate change is real, that it is here, that it is coming on faster than ever and that our emergency services need to be prepared for that.

But, of course, immediately following the 1920 bushfires, and at the very point where that recognition of climate change was becoming very mainstream, COVID hit. One of the many terrible legacies of COVID was I think that it completely subsumed all other news and, as part of that, it subsumed the attention that was focused on bushfires and on climate change. That is why I am really pleased that the Malinauskas government has committed funding to the policies we developed in opposition, among them reinstating farm firefighting unit grants.

This is an issue very close to the hearts of the member for Light and the member for Mawson, who are very vocal in support of these grants. These were small grants given to landholders, farmers and so on, and they could essentially equip their utes and farm trucks with water pumps in order to assist the CFS in putting out bushfires. For whatever reason (we never quite understood what the reason was), the previous government in its first budget saw fit to axe this particular program, so I am very pleased we are reinstating it. It seemed terrible timing.

I understand there are issues with farm firefighting units; there is a view amongst some in the CFS that it is difficult to follow them on the fireground and difficult to coordinate their activities on the fireground. To its credit, the previous government did some work in that area, but we are at a stage now where it is a very good idea to reinstate those farm firefighting unit grants, and I hope they stay.

Another policy I am really pleased to see some commitment to, at least an analysis of what might be done, is night-time firefighting investigation. Currently, due to commonwealth restrictions on flying, there is almost no way that a firefighting aircraft can fly near a fire at night, and there are perfectly good reasons why this should be the case. But the Victorian government have gone through quite a lengthy process of looking at how this can be overcome. They have worked with CASA, the federal governing body, and come up with various protocols that, under certain circumstances, allow firefighting at night.

We know that with climate change and with the new ferocity of these fires they burn later and keep burning through the night. It is not a case of once the weather cools down at night or once the rain comes that these fires are out—they keep burning. Night-time firefighting is something we definitely should investigate, and it should be investigated further well into the future.

Another important commitment we made in the area of emergency services was to audit the ventilation in fire stations. Country members will know this well, but even in our local MFS stations there is a particular problem with fumes and diesel particulate. When I was first shadow minister, there was an issue around PFAS, the dangerous chemicals within firefighting foam, and the health risks that posed to firefighters. As I made my way around the state talking to firefighters, I would raise PFAS and ask, 'Is this an issue for you? Is this something you're concerned about, your families are concerned about?'

Of course, they were. There was a very big concern, but overwhelmingly the concern was the diesel particulates. So I am extremely pleased that we have committed $250,000 to conduct an audit of our MFS stations just to make sure that we know exactly what we are dealing with and that any fire stations in the future can be built with diesel particulates in mind.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta) (12:44): I am pleased to make a contribution in response to the budget estimates process we have just gone through.

I acknowledge those ministers who provided the bulk, and in some cases all, of their time to opposition members. Not all did, but certainly in the majority of the sessions that I was in they did, and I thank them for that. I hope they will do so again next year, when there will be fewer opportunities to say, 'We've only just been elected. We're still working through the details. I'll take that on notice.' But certainly it added to the value of the process we have just been through. I acknowledge the chairs of the two committees, including you, sir, and, indeed, all those officers who assisted ministers in the preparation of their remarks.

I have spoken in the house previously about the arts portfolio and at length about early childhood—during earlier stages of the appropriation and the previous Supply Bill debate. I propose today to provide in 20 minutes or perhaps even less a summary of the time that the Minister for Education and I spent together, particularly on school education. Perhaps if our whip is kind enough to give me any grievance spots later in the week, we can talk more about TAFE and the Department for Innovation and Skills.

I had the opportunity to ask questions of seven ministers during the process, and I thank them, and I also thank the shadow ministers I might have been representing in this house for their assistance in preparing some of those questions when I was looking after their area. The first thing I would like to say about the Minister for Education is to congratulate him on maintaining commitments in the best interests of children, schools, young people and the state of South Australia, in my view, to a number of projects that were instigated under the former Marshall Liberal government.

The minister confirmed in the process of estimates that the Flexible Industry Pathways, for example, that were introduced under the Marshall Liberal government were a positive reform for our state. He committed to retaining them, along with the related endeavours under the VET for School Students policy, including the embedding of VET in years 7 to 10, the World of Work Challenge, the Student Pathways website and e-portfolios and the career counselling strategy work announced at the beginning of this year. The minister identified he hopes it will work well with Labor's new technical colleges, as, indeed, do we.

I think the minister characterised that when I became the education minister four years ago I did not take an approach of slashing and burning everything that was good that was done by the previous government, and he, indeed, also does not propose to slash and burn things just because they were created by the previous government. That is a commendable approach that is in the best interests of the South Australian children and young people, and the opposition leader and I have said we will always call out good behaviour, indeed, just as we will identify and hold accountable the bad behaviours when they come too.

I commend the minister for that, as I commend him for committing to continue the Marshall Liberal government's Music Education Strategy. The funding goes well before the Marshall Liberal government, but now is the time to again reiterate that every South Australian government continues to support the Primary Schools Music Festival, as we should.

The new government does not expect to see any changes to the Clontarf program introduced by the former government, and we hope that it will expand. The Shooting Stars program starting in Whyalla for younger Aboriginal girls will also go ahead. The chief executive confirmed that support for the International Baccalaureate Diploma at Unley High School, Norwood International High School, Aberfoyle Park High School and Roma Mitchell Secondary College, introduced by the former government, will continue. He also confirmed that the Literacy Guarantee Unit and the year 1 phonics check will stay.

These are all good things for children and young people in South Australia, and I commend the government for progressing them still. I will be following up with the minister in due course over whether he is also going to align that Literacy Guarantee work with the work announced earlier this year of bringing in DIBELS as the standard measure of how our students are going in their early learning rather than the Running Record program, which is not based on the evidence-based science of reading. Hopefully, the minister will be able to confirm that in due course as well.

Then we get the Labor election commitments—the things that are new and how they interact with the system. Starting with the technical colleges, and we spent some time discussing the technical colleges, there is $35 million for each of five sites, admitting there might be unders and overs. The government said that Findon will be built and operational by the beginning of 2024,with the other four in 2026.

The government does not yet know what qualifications will be offered or what the model of governance will be, but they do not want Findon or the others to be competing with Catholic Education, particularly the new Western Technical College recently built nearby. I was pleased the minister agreed with the opposition's suggestion that they consider working with Catholic Education for joint marketing and collaboration in identifying pathways for students interested in the offerings at either the Western Technical College that Catholic Education has just started, or indeed at Findon.

There may be differing governance models in place for each site depending on what the local needs are. At Findon, the chief executive confirmed that the technical college will be 'integrated within the school', noting that Findon will still offer generalist programs for years 7 to 12, with 200 places available in the technical college. What that exactly will look like is unclear although it seems to be a subset within the senior secondary school. The minister would not put a date on when the model will be decided and announced, but we will be interested and will continue to follow that up and ask questions.

I note that the education department website says that these technical colleges will accept enrolments from public and private schools. I went on to ask how that would work. Would a student stay enrolled at their original school but be able to access a course at the technical college? Would it be free, or would their parents have to pay? Would they need to transfer their enrolment altogether to Findon?

There was no clear answer, sir, as I am sure you will remember, other than there would be an option for the student to move entirely their enrolment to Findon. I am not sure that is what either you or the other Labor members going to election thought the promise would be. I think most people assumed that the technical colleges would provide a new offering available to all students rather than just being an expansion of the existing school, but we shall see. The minister took some questions on notice.

There is $175 million funding for the capital in these projects, and that has been identified as new money into the budget. I again congratulate the minister on achieving that. It was a clear election promise of something new, and it is appropriate that it be new money, not using up existing resources. However, there is also $33.8 million in operating costs for the operation of the colleges. We do not know exactly what it will be spent on, but we are aware it will be roughly even across all sites.

The minister said a small amount may potentially be directed towards head office, although he hopes not much, but the chief executive did confirm that this $33.8 million the government will be spending towards running the technical colleges will be part of what the government identifies when they are accounting for the state government's contribution towards what is known as Gonski funding. Funding under the National School Reform Agreement determines how much will be spent on public school funding, and that has been in place since 2018.

In effect, the money going towards running these new technical colleges will be out of the money that was already in the education department's budget and has been there since 2018. It will be spent on this rather than on other things within public education. This is a government election commitment. It is appropriate that the government delivers on its commitments. I am just clarifying where the funding is coming from: it is coming from within existing resources.

It does have a consequence of requiring the government to make decisions about what programs were going to be going ahead that will no longer be going ahead, or will be going ahead with a reduced amount of funding, or will be going ahead later. Indeed, the opposition is very eager to know which programs will not be going ahead or will have their funding cut, or will be delayed and deferred as a result of the government using existing resources to pay for their election commitments.

Other than one particular example I will get to in relation to the delivery of the response to the Graham report, there was very little information provided about what other decisions had been made and what programs might be cut. Indeed, the minister took on notice my question as to when the department and the minister will sign off on any decisions relating to which programs and services will be cut. We will certainly be following that up and look forward to finding out which programs and services within the education department will either be cut or delayed as a result of this decision.

Because the money for the technical colleges is coming from Gonski funding, it does raise questions about how that money can be applied to support students in non-government schools. Our Gonski contribution for public schools, from which this money is coming, is required to support education opportunities for public school students. The election commitment seemed to be for all students, as is repeated on the department's website, so that is going to be a challenge for those in the department who are working on it. There are some smart people in there, so I am sure they will work hard on it, and we wish them well because we want this to work for all students.

It was also confirmed during the hearings that the Department for Innovation and Skills certainly has not had much input into the design of these technical colleges. I asked the minister:

Are we able to identify over the forward estimates how many extra apprentices or trainees the technical colleges—take Findon, for example—are expected to deliver?

The awkward silence that followed was—well, sir, it was difficult to watch. It was difficult for you. You gainfully endeavoured to assist the minister by drawing me back to the budget, and I was able to, I hope, ensure that the budget was sought and identified in that. Then we had further silence and chat and eventually an answer from the minister. It was not meant to be a difficult question or a trick question.

I assumed there would be a briefing there, especially because for weeks Labor had been advertising how great these technical colleges were going to be because they would produce lots of apprentices. What became clear, though, is that the government at this stage is not able to and does not want to commit to any apprentices or trainees being part of the offering. I quote, 'We are certainly talking about, at the very least, pre-apprenticeships.' I quote again, 'These technical colleges will produce people who can go on and do apprenticeships.'

That is a goal for all our schools. We want all our schools to produce people who can go on and do apprenticeships. We want all our schools to produce programs that give students apprenticeship-ready, work-ready and uni-ready skills. We want all our schools to put in place opportunities for kids to try a trade, to try a doorways2construction program, to get involved in local business and industry.

We assumed that when the government was promising $200 million into a new program and then advertising the number of extra apprentices it would make available to serve in plumbing businesses, like that of Ryan who is on our televisions, there might be at least one, or two, or three apprenticeships guaranteed out of these programs—but, at this stage, no guarantee of new apprentices.

In relation to the ads, the minister said, from memory, 'I do not think anyone spoke to me about the content of the ad. It's not something I've been involved in.' I want to be really clear: the opposition is enthusiastic for this government program to work. We want the skills shortages that are in evidence across our state, and which are facing many businesses, to be assisted. The government has put $200 million on the table and we want that to work, and it may well be that the model the government is producing is going to assist.

I hope that we will not be taking students out of the workplace to keep them just in the technical colleges, but it could well be that it can work well so long as the business and industry partners are engaged and the department will help the government, I think, retrofit this policy into something very good, and I hope they do. But I make the point that government spent, it seems, a million dollars or more on TV ads saying that they would do something that they are actually not doing.

There was a lot of nuance in the answers we got from the government about what their policy was designed to achieve and how they were going to deliver it. There is no nuance in the TV ad, where the government have chosen to spend what I assume is at least a million dollars of taxpayers' money on TV ads, some in health and some about the technical colleges, and they say that there will be apprentices for plumbing businesses, like Ryan. I assume that the government have told Ryan that he is going to get apprentices out of this technical college.

I am sad to say that they are not, according to what the government has told us. In 2024, one of them is going to open and then students in years 10, 11 and 12 are not going to be doing apprenticeships, or there is no guarantee that they will, and that is a shame. It is a real shame the government is wasting taxpayers' money on these self-congratulatory ads.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do you wish to seek leave?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I will seek leave in a moment, but prior to the break I just want to identify that there was also $24 million committed to the delivery of rebates for school students. That is also confirmed to come out of the Gonski allocation, which again is a prioritisation the government have chosen to make. We look forward to learning what they are going to be spending less on as a result. I seek leave to continue my remarks after the break.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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