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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-04 Daily Xml
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Community Forum, Eastern Adelaide

Mr BROWN (Florey) (14:37): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier update the house about the community forum recently held in eastern Adelaide?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:37): It is a pleasure to answer this question, and I thank the member for it. It was a delight to attend this forum held in Payneham on Tuesday night along with the Premier, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing and the urban development and planning minister.

The four of us attended the forum along with around 100 people who had chosen to respond to the invitations that we had sent out widely both in paper form and, I believe, through social media. The forum went for more than the allotted time, for well over half an hour in addition, because there were so many questions that were raised.

Many of the people who came to the microphone to ask a question in fact prefaced it with a statement of their gratitude and pleasure in having a forum available to them. I got the impression that this was not something that had happened very much in the previous four years. Indeed, if it is the case that it had not, it is very consistent with the previous government's attitude to country cabinet, for example, which they cancelled and which we reinstated. We have already, of course, held country cabinet meetings in Mount Gambier, Upper Spencer Gulf and Yorke Peninsula, and we have many more to come.

The issues that were raised by people who live in the seats of both Dunstan and Hartley were of significant interest. There were a number of compliments that were given. Self-praise is no praise at all, though the compliments were not to me as Deputy Premier but of course, as always, to the Premier—the government generally, perhaps, but the Premier is too modest.

It was extraordinary for me to go to a public forum where we are asking 'What are your issues? What would you like us to fix?' to hear so many people saying thank you to the Premier for keeping his election commitments, which, of course, is something that perhaps wasn't seen quite as frequently in the previous four years, and, of course, also for events such as Gather Round. Indeed, there was some praise and gratitude for the Norwood ambulance station, which was excellent.

The other questions that were raised, though, canvassed across a range of issues, including noise pollution and soft plastics—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Colton! Member for Hammond!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —a number of questions about animal welfare, which I, of course, found very pleasing and interesting, and a question about some addition to land for the parks system. The Minister for Planning did receive a number of questions about planning, as you would expect, and we look forward to his—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Hartley!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: We look forward to his response to the rather disastrous four years of management of the planning system.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Questions about—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —the future use of land acquired in association with that Portrush Road-Magill Road intersection upgrade, which, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport gave some time to the other day—and it is clearly still a bit of a sensitive point on that side of town—and questions about the education system, which the Premier answered extremely fulsomely; about the proposals that we have and the reforms that we have in the public education system in particular; and about specialist services available at the RAH.

One question that was of interest started as a thankyou for bringing the trains and trams back into public hands and then a lament that ETSA had been privatised under the previous Liberal government, so that was a delight to hear also.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: In short, it was an excellent evening, I think, enjoyed by all and of great importance and interest to members of the government.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Who are you suing today? Who are you suing today?

The SPEAKER: Order, member for West Torrens! The member for Frome has the call.

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