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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-12-01 Daily Xml
Contents
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Motions

Strangers Gallery Renaming

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (12:01): I move:

That the Strangers Gallery be renamed the Public Gallery and that it continues to be so named unless and until amended or rescinded by the house in this or a subsequent parliament.

They may be too young to vote or to drive, but primary school students still have the power to change the parliament. Prospect Primary School students are in the Strangers Gallery today to try to aim to make history by modernising the House of Assembly viewing gallery to ensure the people's house, their house, is one where they feel welcome. Currently, members of the public are confronted with the words 'Strangers Gallery' when they visit the state parliament viewing galleries.

We know that parliament has many weird and wonderful traditions, from dragging the new Speaker to the chair, to the blood line that runs along the front of the front benches. Some of these traditions date back over many centuries and, while some of them are harmless or interesting reminders of our history, others, like the use of the term 'strangers', can be seen as being out of step with community expectations.

This motion seeks to drop the word 'Strangers' from the doors of the viewing gallery so it instead reads 'Public Gallery'. If this motion is successful today, it will follow changes made some 20 years ago in the United Kingdom and Australian commonwealth parliaments.

This call for change started after a classroom civics lesson with the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC from the other place where students were surprised to learn that the parliament's viewing gallery was called the Strangers Gallery. Students expressed that this outdated term made them feel that parliament was not welcoming and it sparked a passionate response, with the students setting about writing letters to the Speaker, the President, the Governor and the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC.

Today, those very students are watching from the Strangers Gallery. I would like to acknowledge Prospect Primary School students Beatrice Coleman, Swanit More, Jason Overduin-Scrutton and Evelyn Callen, who are here to represent the year 5-6 cohort at Prospect Primary School and who are all the inspiration behind this motion. They are accompanied by Prospect Primary School Principal Karen Duval and Deputy Principal Anita Hall and the student's classroom educator, Louise Comey, along with the formidable Hon. Emily Bourke MLC, who is the driving force as well behind this motion.

I am so incredibly proud to be their voice on the floor of parliament as Prospect Primary School students and the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC aim to make history by changing the name of the parliament's Strangers Gallery to the Public Gallery, so that the people's house is more inclusive and welcoming. As students rightfully raised, members of parliament are elected to be the voice of the people of South Australia, yet it is the very people who choose MPs to be their representatives in this chamber who are referred to as 'strangers'. To quote Beatrice, Swanit, Jason and Evelyn themselves:

We are of the belief that this name disregards the people of South Australia. Parliament House is owned by the members of the public; therefore, the name of the gallery must represent and respect that. Why must we be considered strangers in our own 'house'? It makes no sense and seems disrespectful towards those who view the meetings that take place in parliament, which is why we believe that the name change…is necessary.

They go on to say:

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of stranger is 'a person who does not know, or is not known in, a particular place or community'. This is an inappropriate way to refer to the people of South Australia because we are a democracy; all citizens of this state have their say in what happens within it. Furthermore, we are not just members of the public, we are also the owners of Parliament House.

In the parliament of the United Kingdom, what used to be called the Strangers' Gallery is now called the Visitors' Gallery. Yet here in South Australia, our government, which is almost identical to that of the United Kingdom, has not made any change to the name of the Strangers Gallery to show respectful acknowledgement of the public. This demonstrates that we are severely behind other democracies in recognising the place of the people in their state.

They continue:

We must move forward from the inequalities of the past and recognise the people of South Australia as the rightful owners of Parliament House and their power within it. It is only right that this name change takes place, and we look forward to your response to our proposal.

To all South Australians listening today, we want you to know that, no matter what your age, your voice is important in our democracy. We want you to know that you can make change and that you are always welcome here in the parliament, so do not be strangers. I commend the motion to the house.

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (12:06): When I was Speaker of the house, like other Speakers before me, we worked very hard to make sure that this house was as inclusive as possible. That is why I am proud to say that it was a Liberal government that fought to make sure we have the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags hanging in this chamber and that it was a Liberal government that fought very hard to make sure we had things like Facebook Live, so that people could actually watch question time—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr TARZIA: They are going to care today—and we worked together to make sure we had things like cameras in this chamber so that the outside world could actually see what happens in this chamber. All these things are very, very important. I commend the students for having their say and raising their request with their local member of parliament. Good on them. That is a fantastic thing, and I welcome more feedback.

However, my comments today are directed to the government of the day. It is a sad state of affairs when we have a ramping crisis, we have record levels of ramping not seen before in our history, we have people losing their power on the River Murray as we speak, we have people who cannot find a home and are being kicked out of their home, but the government decides to use precious time, allocating its precious resources, to things like this when these things could have been done another time.

We have record levels of inflation and people uncertain if they are going to be kicked out of their homes because we still do not see a design for the north-south corridor completion. It is a sad state of affairs when this is the priority, to use up precious resources today. With those comments, it will be the will of the house, of course. I commend the students for raising their concerns. I wanted to put those few things on the record because this just shows that the government's priorities are all wrong.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (12:09): I am very pleased that the parliament is finding time to send a clear message not only to young people here in South Australia—some of whom are represented by visitors in the gallery—but to the entire community that parliament is their house. It is open to them and is where they choose their representatives to have their voice heard. It is not just me who thinks that is important. We have had civilisation after civilisation across the world who have fought for representative democracy and here we have it embodied today.

Perhaps this will be instructive for those students who are here today seeing a relatively robust parliamentary debate. We have had the government of the day introduce this as a matter of importance, as something that should be—as democracy has always been fought for—brought before the house and debated strongly between a proud representative of their community, the member for Adelaide, opposed in word if not by vote by a person they probably have not seen or heard of before, who happened to be one of the two short-term Speakers of the previous Liberal government.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I am sorry, am I debating during a debate? Is that the point of order?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The standing orders require members to be referred to in a certain way and the minister is ignoring that intentionally.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry, I am not clear on your point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Sir, as the Deputy Speaker you would be familiar with the point of order that members should be referred to by their seat or their title.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I missed that and I apologise for that. Minister, please ensure that you refer to people's titles or their seats.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Hartley is one of two former Speakers of the previous Liberal government. For those who are spectating their first parliamentary debate today, not only were there two short-term Speakers of the former Liberal government but there was a Deputy Premier who had to stand down in disgrace, three ministers who had to stand down in disgrace, a Government Whip who had to resign in disgrace, a Chair of Committees who had to resign in disgrace.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, sorry. There is a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Relevance is the standing order relevant to this point, and the minister is not being relevant to the debate.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, please! The member for Schubert and the minister will please keep quiet. Member for Morialta, you have indicated relevance. If we are going to rule on relevance, I think the member for Hartley's contribution was not exactly relevant to the actual topic itself.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: On the point of order, sir, that is utterly irrelevant to the point of order that I have raised.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I understood you said it was the relevance of the comments.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: No point of order was raised against the member for Hartley, sir.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The point I am trying to make is that if you are going to have a consistent standard about relevance, members also have to be relevant as well.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Sir, the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker, as the case may be, may enforce the standing orders at any time they wish, but they are required by the standing orders to respond to a point of order when it is raised.

Mrs Hurn: Absolutely.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, I actually do not need your guidance yet. When I do, I will ask for it.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, you will leave the chamber for 10 minutes.

The honourable member for Schubert having withdrawn from the chamber:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am going to enforce the rules.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister!

Mr Teague interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Heysen, I do not need your contribution either at this point in time because you do not have the call. Minister, please get back to the subject matter.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: On those initiatives which are designed to bring greater relevance of this place to the community that it seeks to represent, I think they are important. I think we should make time for them and I think we should celebrate them.

Yes, there have been moves previously in recent times to make this chamber more relevant. I am really pleased to report for those guests that we have in today, those members of the public up in the gallery, that this follows quickly on the heels of a former initiative of a member of parliament, the member for Wright, who brought a school group onto the floor of this chamber and a question was asked by a year 5 student: 'Why isn't the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander flag raised in this place?' It was the initiative of those schoolchildren that led to—

Mr Tarzia: It was their idea?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes, it was their idea for these two flags that we see proudly displayed here today to be in this chamber. The member for Hartley tries to take ownership of this away from nine-year-old schoolchildren. He thinks that it was his initiative to do it and not the initiative of year 5 schoolchildren. We should all reflect on why a member of parliament would seek to belittle the efforts of schoolchildren to make this place more representative and more contemporary for those people out in the community.

While the member for Hartley might say that raising these two flags in this place was his initiative, it was not. Once again, it was younger members of the community who visited this place and noticed something that had been overlooked for decades in this place. They drew it to our attention, just like the member for Adelaide has raised with us today that, when they visit this place, schoolchildren do not appreciate being referred to as 'strangers', and I think that is important.

It has taken a new member for Adelaide to bring more people from the community into this place and have once again these opportunities to improve this place so that the community feels more at home. I think that is worth celebrating. For the member for Hartley's benefit, Facebook Live was an initiative of Mark Zuckerberg and not him. Let the record stand corrected. I support this motion.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (12:16): I want to make a small contribution as the Minister for Human Services and as the member for Hurtle Vale. I represent many young people, including within the youth portfolio, and I am absolutely delighted that we are getting young people and children through parliament who are coming up with such great ideas.

As the member for Lee, the Treasurer, previously mentioned, the raising of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags came to fruition after the member for Wright in the previous term had children visiting this place asking why those flags were not in here. The member for Hartley cannot rewrite history. It was those children who suggested that. It was not some Liberal initiative. It was a process of parliament that actually got those flags up there following the children suggesting it. I think what we are seeing now, again, is a really fantastic opportunity to change some of the practices here, which will make parliament a much better place, and I thank the kids from Prospect.

Prospect Primary, you have done an outstanding job and you will rewrite history as we make the area in parliament somewhere to visit that does not have a connotation of 'strangers' being present. Not only do the children coming to visit not want to be referred to as strangers but also they do not want to go somewhere where strangers are, and that is not what this place is: it is your house. I hope that one day one of you is sitting down here also addressing children and young people as they bring their terrific ideas to reality.

I support the member for Adelaide with this wonderful initiative, along with the Hon. Emily Bourke in the other place, for making sure that young people and children in our community are having a true, active voice in parliament in the same way that we as members and ministers are trying to make sure that as many people as possible in our community get the opportunity to have direct influence on policy and strategy that dictate what happens in our community through voice to us, such as our advisory councils, such as our round tables, such as the task forces we have launched, a number of which are having direct influence on policy and delivery in our state.

Perhaps if those opposite had done more of that when they were in government, and followed through on things that real people want and understand, they might not be sitting opposite, but who am I to coach? Well done, kids. Thank you so much to you, your parents and your teachers—great job. Well done to the members who brought this forward.

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