House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-16 Daily Xml

Contents

Bills

Supply Bill 2023

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 4 May 2023.)

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:01): I look forward to continuing my Supply Bill speech. In the first half of my speech, I spoke about tourism. I want to reflect on the other portfolio of multicultural affairs. I often say that I travel around the world every week without leaving Adelaide. I have to say that it keeps me very busy, but I am absolutely honoured when I am invited to come and share with our diverse cultures and communities. Whether it is a religious or a cultural event, for people to be able to continue these traditions is incredibly important to their own wellbeing and important in their lives.

We have people from over 200 culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse backgrounds in South Australia, and they call South Australia home. But what they want to be able to do while living here is continue celebrating and making sure their children and their grandchildren understand it is equally important to be Australian and also be proud of their background and where they have come from.

The 2021 Census found almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas (48.2 per cent), and the population continues to be drawn from around the globe. We have in Australia 27.6 per cent reporting a birthplace overseas. As a multicultural community, we celebrate the many vibrant, established, new and emerging cultures we have across our state. It is the best way to embrace diversity and encourage connections among different cultures and nationalities.

Festivals and significant events are a vital way that our multicultural communities retain and share their culture, history and language. As we know, COVID impacted us in many, many ways. For our culturally and linguistically diverse communities these gatherings were impossible during the pandemic. People felt that isolation. They felt that loneliness. While Zoom obviously replaced lots of different things, it did not replace the opportunity to come together, whether it was a tradition, a holiday, a sporting event, an Independence Day—all of them were cancelled during COVID. In particular, in this last year when I have attended these multicultural events, I have seen a renewed enthusiasm and really high numbers returning.

I particularly thank our community leaders over the past few years for their efforts to keep their communities safe and connected during that time. Some of our new arrival groups came here as humanitarian migrants at a time when people were not gathering or connecting. It was quite challenging. Where they would have traditionally worked in hospitality and tourism, they were unable to find work in those areas. They came as international students and, while we saw a change in policy and they were able to work as many hours as they could, often there was a slow uptake in those initial times.

So many people organised food drives, information sessions and the ability to check on people on arrival and help them with accommodation. I really want to acknowledge the leaders—whether they have been here in very established communities, reaching out to support people during this isolated time, or whether they were new arrivals who were supporting people to get settled here to help them find their way around. If it had been a normal time I think they would have just come together and got to know more people, but they were quite separated. We know that the leadership was engaging with government and finding innovative ways to support the aging, vulnerable and isolated, and I want to recognise and commend the work that they did.

Our recent Celebrate Together round, which has additional money—part of the election commitment—allows communities to apply for up to $30,000 for events and festivals, and we had a record number of applications. We certainly see a renewed vigour in people coming together and celebrating. Every weekend, I am excited to see the vast array of multicultural events taking place across our state and, significantly, the intercultural nature of these events. I saw it first at the festival a few years ago, where the Bhutanese community partnered by providing volunteers. They wanted to understand what it would be like to hold a bigger festival, so about a dozen of the Bhutanese community volunteered for that festival. That enables people to understand that culture, understand that migration journey and that experience as well.

At the Chinese New Year festival we had some displays by someone from our Indian community doing some Indian dances. So what you see is this interculturalism, and part of it is giving the opportunity for people to either learn about how to run a festival or to show part of their culture and their entertainment. We are increasingly seeing cross-cultural involvement by communities, as well as Acknowledgement and Welcome to Country by our First Nations people at multicultural events and festivals.

On 9 March, we tabled in parliament and launched the inaugural Multicultural Charter. The charter acknowledges our culturally diverse history and provides six principles to promote a unified, harmonious and inclusive South Australian community that values, respects and supports diversity. The Multicultural Charter will guide South Australian government agencies, organisations, institutions, businesses and communities, and be a foundation for all service delivery, policy and program development by placing cultural diversity at the heart of decision-making.

I am pleased to report that a number of government departments and agencies have already reached out to inform me how they are implementing the charter in their workplace. The Multicultural Charter was developed in consultation with a working group, which included South Australian Multicultural Commission members, along with representatives from leading multicultural organisations, universities and government, and wide public consultation. The charter is, however, only one of the ways we are supporting and strengthening our multicultural communities.

I think it is safe to say that we went to the last election with a historic multicultural policy. I am excited that we are delivering these outcomes. I know that our diverse community thanked us for taking the time to present a detailed policy. It is important to have additional money for celebration and expansions, but it is actually about recognising more the barriers and the challenges of settling here and, more importantly for me, recognising those people we have welcomed here and asked to come here for what I call their 'stickability'. We have often seen in the past people coming to Adelaide because they get additional points, it is regional status through migration, and they love living here but have not found a job at the level they worked in previously. That is when we sometimes lose people to Melbourne and Sydney.

These are some of the things in that policy, not only additional money, not only bringing back the leadership certificate at TAFE, not only introducing some of the new things about multicultural women, supporting them with intensive case management and starting up businesses and looking at governance and boards, but these other issues, and asking ourselves the question: how do we maximise the economic contribution of migrants in South Australia?

In the 2022-23 state budget, of course, we increased the multicultural budget by $16 million over four years to assist the delivery of these key commitments. One of the key things and something I am most proud of is a multicultural lens that we have applied to community language schools, providing unprecedented support to keeping languages alive among the younger generations through additional investment in community language schools. The funding has included:

an infrastructure support grant and, in the next few weeks, we will be releasing those groups that have been successful in the infrastructure support;

increased needs-based funding per student for equipment and learning materials; and

additional host school funding, including first-time funding for private and independent host schools, as well as rental assistance and case management support for new and existing schools.

We have about 99 schools that operate generally on a weekend or maybe after hours on a Thursday. Traditionally, they have been hosted in government schools, and while that gives a lot of opportunity we have also seen a fair bit of churn, where people might have a community language school for maybe a year, maybe two years, and then, for whatever reason, are asked to move on.

The agnostic part of being able to have it at a government or non-government school enables people to deliver stronger connections, and the case management support means that we can troubleshoot any of those challenging areas before they get to that point, to provide that support as people start up their schools, as they mature, and in their relationships as well. Providing rental assistance really helps those schools, and we thank the volunteers who are the basis of making these schools a possibility.

As I said, a community boards and governance program, to build knowledge and understanding about the role of boards and good governance practices and procedures and how to create and maintain strong stakeholder networks, was a key part of the election, and it has been rolled out. We have reinstated the Multicultural Women's Leadership course to provide the opportunity for up to 40 women from diverse backgrounds to gain a Certificate IV in Women's Advocacy at TAFE, cruelly cut by the previous government. It is such a successful program and we have really seen women taking leadership roles, not only in their own community but within their employment.

We have annualised the Multicultural Festival, which will take place for the first time on Sunday, 12 November. We are going to undertake a skills, qualifications and professional experience review of South Australia's multicultural communities to inform how we maximise the value of onshore migrants. At the same time, something quite significant will be the monitoring and reporting on cultural and linguistic diversity in the South Australian Public Service. We are doing that in partnership with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment. It is incredibly important that the Public Service reflects the South Australian population. We are going to have a look at that data-driven impact and look at professional growth, and see what the barriers are to having a more diverse public sector.

One of the things I am really pleased about is the establishment of the Multicultural Chambers of Commerce group with a series of short networking sessions with presentations on government investment and activity. I want to thank Business SA and KPMG, which is holding something in the near future that is really quite exciting. This is just the start of the list. Multiculturalism is something that gives enormous connection to people. We are a nation built on migration, and people come here for many different reasons, but what we want them to do is flourish.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:14): I rise today in support of the Supply Bill 2023 so that the government can keep writing cheques for the Public Service and certainly keep us gainfully employed. There is a total of $6,553 million, or just over $6.5 billion, of what I am estimating when the budget comes down in a month's time will be around $22 billion in total for getting us through the finances for the 2023-24 financial year.

We have had a very interesting time over summer with the River Murray floods, which I have spoken about in here on multiple occasions. It is interesting, when I reflect on being here in my first term, from 2006 to 2010, and onwards, that we came to the end of 2006 and we had the Millennium Drought, which lasted pretty close to four years. As I have indicated in this place before, the Darling section of the Murray-Darling Basin is the most unreliable as far as flows go, and I can still remember that dirty water flowing down—I was watching it from the Swanport Bridge as I drove over it—to refresh the system and get it back on track.

It goes to show, in the famous words of Dorothea Mackellar, that it is the country of drought and flooding rains. We recently came out of a flood that has been the biggest in living history for a lot of people—thankfully, short of 1956—and it has caused a lot of angst but also a lot of renewal in river communities. It has caused problems in farming communities with levee banks being breached; it caused a problem for people with shacks, businesses or homes on the river. I reflect especially on the businesses on the lower end of Randell Street in Mannum, who were engulfed because there just was not an engineering solution to save them down by Beachy's pub.

In this week of saluting volunteers, I really want to commend the work of volunteers and those paid contractors, council workers, mayors and CEOs right up and down the river who took on the huge job of doing their best to support their communities and keep them safe. I have reflected on it here before, when we saw the massive operation at Renmark. It really showed how much Renmark is an island when 150,000 tonnes of clay were moved in to save that town.

Work was done right up and down the river, right through all the council areas, whether Berri, Barmera, Loxton, Waikerie or Renmark, which I have already talked about. Mid Murray, with its 440 kilometres of riverbank, a 220-kilometre long section of river—a large council geographically, but with a small rate base that has worked itself butt off, to be frank—had contractors and volunteers doing their best for their community to save what could be saved. It cost millions of dollars to put in levees, especially in Mannum, and I understand it was several million dollars to remove them.

I have had discussions with the government, certainly with the council and certainly with Senator Murray Watt's office on the federal scene—and I have a direct contact there, which is good—to make sure that all the councils, especially Mid Murray, are not left in the lurch as far as the funding for their management of the recovery time.

The recovery time is an interesting time. We have people who are quite proactive. Some people have spent a huge amount of money, many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and are just getting on with the job to make sure that their business keeps going. One family, the Martin family—I worked with Ash Martin when we were chasing clay to protect Mypolonga—said, 'We're going to sow our pastures in April at Wall Flat, just north of Mypolonga,' and that is exactly what they did. They got on with it, made sure they worked with the departments and got the big Millewa pumps that were being used to pump out those swamps.

We see areas like Mypolonga, where it is about 700 or 800 metres out to the original levee bank of the river, but that is all covered in water. They are getting sheet piling in and getting that levee back into some sort of state so that those areas can be pumped out appropriately as well. South of Murray Bridge with all those swamps down that way, from Riverglades through to Jervois and Monteith, there is certainly a lot of work done by locals and volunteers. The Army were involved for a while, building up those banks to make sure they could save what they could. It certainly was a very interesting time.

I appreciated the direct contact I had with Chris Beattie, the head of the SES; John Schutz, head of the environment department; and other heads of departments. We had real dialogue in real time, whether it was text or conversation, about making sure we could find ways to protect buildings, protect farmland and basically just get clay to where it needed to be. It was quite a good working relationship, but we still need to make sure that someone pays the bill. I will certainly be chasing that up as time goes on, because recovery is going to take a long time.

We have seen the issues with insurance. Insurance companies get very nervous when something actually happens that people are insured for. I saw it once years ago when I had a shed blow down. I rang my insurance company and they said, 'There was no wind that day.' I said, 'I'll tell you where two other sheds blew down.' That cleaned up that argument, but it was a battle and I still did not get all my money.

Plenty of us pay plenty of money for insurance, but there were issues where some companies would just use postcode-based theories, really, on whether they would insure people or not. I can assure you, if someone is living at Rockleigh a River Murray flood is not going to affect them. They are far more likely, as sadly we have seen in recent history, to be hit by fires than flood. However, we will keep working through all those processes.

I note that a lot of those restrictions have come off, but it is making it interesting for some people with shacks—the thousands of shacks that were affected along the River Murray—and homes and businesses along the River Murray, regarding what their insurance costs are. Some local members, including the member for Chaffey, the Hon. Nicola Centofanti on the river and others of us, have connections to the river. David Basham, the member for Finniss, now looks after the Milang, Clayton Bay and Lower Lakes area heading out to the mouth.

I want to reflect on some of the things that were brought to my electorate, and I am going to talk about its old boundaries. The electorate of Hammond used to go all the way to the Victorian border at Pinnaroo, then head up on the Dukes Highway. A few kilometres north of Coonalpyn is the boundary, which used to be about 18 kilometres south-east of my home. It then went down around the Lakes, around Clayton and Milang, across the Cambrai way, and then up almost to Mount Barker, as it still does. I note that, with the redistribution coming into this election and the population drain in regional areas, which is what happens, sadly, now we look after Murray Bridge, Mannum, Langhorne Creek and Strathalbyn and surrounding communities.

Certainly, in that four-year period, it was great to see funding secured for projects like the $20,000 Milang butter factory upgrade restoration project, and that was for the facade. Also, $400,000 went into the great upgrade of the winery at Bremerton Wines. It was already a great place, but it made it a better place to go and do wine tasting and taste those great wines and great foods from the area.

We also had Lake Breeze Wines, which were recipients of a $300,000 grant from the Marshall Liberal government. We were actually in their function room on Friday, where we had the Langhorne Creek Wine luncheon, and some of the responses I got from some of the winemakers I cannot repeat, but they are quite happy to see this season gone. This was a tough vintage, a very tough vintage. Apart from the fact that there is a lot wine in storage—three or four years, depending on where you are—a lot of fungicide had to be used to keep grapes going and a whole lot of other management practices, but, sadly, a whole lot of grapes were picked and put straight on the ground in some areas, which certainly happened in the Langhorne Creek area as well.

It was a great event. I want to acknowledge my great friend who I have had for over 40 years, Mark Cleggett—'Clank' is his nickname—who received Viticulturist of the Year. He was quite taken aback when he received that award, amongst all the other awards that were presented on that day, whether it was to Bleasdale or Kimbolton Wines and other people in the wine sector.

Certainly, it was great when we were in government that the Eastern Fleurieu School at Langhorne Creek was promised $3 million to get new classrooms, and we are monitoring that project as that moves forward. Callington Recreation Community Centre was granted $197,500, which is a great centre right on the edge of the oval. There is another oval next to that one as well to work with the cricket and football and all the social activities that happen there.

Monarto Safari Park was granted $4.55 million as part of a $16 million project with a new entry precinct, which Tony Pasin, the member for Barker, and I got to open. I want to acknowledge Gerry Ryan from Jayco for building the 78-room hotel, which I hope will be open later this year. I think there will be over 20-odd glamping sites to go with that, so it will essentially be another 100 rooms coming into the area of high-quality accommodation. Being right out there amongst the lions, I am told they will keep the lions caged, which is a good thing. It will be great to see that open up into the future to complement all the other levels of accommodation in the area, including the 100 rooms at the motorsport park and the 100 rooms at the Bridgeport Hotel in Murray Bridge.

We put $36 million into the Old Murray Bridge upgrade, and I note the government put another $10 million in the last budget to keep that going. It caused a little bit of controversy during the flood event. Some people were indicating, 'Perhaps we will just pull all the scaffolding down so we can make it two ways, in case something happens,' because there were one or two accidents near the Swanport Bridge, but that would have been a massive undertaking—even I knew that. We managed to persevere and get through it.

We put $14 million into community infrastructure at Thomas Foods, and that was matched with $10 million by the federal government for roadworks, gas connection, power and water. It is pretty wild that there are only one or two companies or maybe only one or two people in the world who can do these—I am not sure what they are called—I think they are called hot gas connections. They do not turn the gas off and they reconnect. So this does not cost hundreds of thousands; it is north of $1 million to do one of those connections into a business because the SEA Gas pipeline was not turned off.

It was good to see that the early commissioning of the beef plant happened on Friday, and I am hoping to go through there soon to see that project running, remembering that disastrous day back on 3 January 2018 when the old plant burnt down.

We put in $7½ million for track work at the Gifford Hill racecourse at Murray Bridge. There has been much money spent there—over $40 million—to make that racecourse a world-leading operation. I am very proud to have delivered on $7 million for the emergency department at the Murray Bridge Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, which was matched with $3 million to upgrade the operating theatres, so $10 million there.

The Murray Bridge High School upgrade was $20 million. That is fantastic, and some world-leading architecture went into that. Also there is $5 million for Murray Bridge North School, which I believe is ongoing. The Karoonda swimming pool, which now is in the member for Chaffey's electorate, was a six-year saga that should never have been that long. I do not think these were exactly political decisions being made by MPs, but we did have to dig in and remind people in the department that the people in the Mallee deserved a swimming pool. I was told one afternoon that it was not going to happen, and we sent an email back saying, 'I think you need to have another look,' and thankfully they did for that $1.6 million project.

The Murray Bridge swimming pool upgrade was $1 million, another great project for Murray Bridge. We are waiting to see what has happened with the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass Planning Study, and $5 million of state money and $5 million of federal money went to that. Also, I certainly know the Murray Bridge to South East Links business case, which includes looking at the duplication of the Swanport Bridge, is ongoing, with $5 million going there.

It is not just about the Swanport Bridge, which should have been duplicated when it was built. It was a bit of a shock when I drove up to it for the first time in 1979 and saw that it was only a two-lane bridge and not a four-lane bridge, so only one lane each way. It is also looking at the first five kilometres of duplication of the Dukes Highway to be done in around 40 years, from Tailem Bend out towards the motorsport park and the Mallee Highway turnoff.

The Beston foods Jervois plant upgrade was $2.5 million, and some of that would have gone into the lactoferrin plant, which is the high-value material they extract from the milk to really value-add to that milk product. An amount of $99,350 went to the Tailem Bend netball courts. The Tailem Bend new CFS station was $1.061 million, so just over a million dollars there. The Karoonda Districts Football Club received $258,000. The Lameroo swimming pool regeneration was $850,000. For Zerella Fresh up at Parilla, $2 million for a new packing facility—fantastic facilities, and they have a whole heap of migrants from New Guinea working there.

Also, for the Browns Well Highway and the Ngarkat Highway upgrade, to bring it back to 110 km/h, $42 million; for Kalimna Hostel at Strathalbyn, $3 million, and we are still waiting to see where that goes; for the Strathalbyn and District Aged Care Facility upgrade, $16 million; for the Mannum Community College new STEM building, CAD lab and senior school upgrade, $3.9 million; for the Eastern Fleurieu school Strathalbyn Campus upgrade, $1.8 million; for a new SES unit at Strathalbyn, which we got to open recently alongside the government, $2.65 million; for the new ambulance station at Strathalbyn, $4.6 million; and funding of $1.5 million has just gone through to the Strathalbyn abattoir to get it operational again. This is a significant amount of money, well north of $200 million. Let's see what happens in the budget so that we can keep appropriately funding not just my electorate but the whole state.

Time expired.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (11:34): I rise to speak on the Supply Bill 2023. It is hard to believe that I am speaking on a supply bill already for the second time, because the time has completely flown. But when you look at all our government has been able to achieve so far it makes sense that we are here again, reflecting on what we have achieved and ready to do more.

It feels like our state has well and truly come back to life bigger and better than ever before, and I want to thank our Premier and Minister for Tourism for playing such big roles in that. To lure tourists back to our wonderful state we spent $45 million to market South Australia to people interstate and overseas, significantly more than our election commitment of $20 million over two years. The investment was front-ended, with $15 million this financial year to provide additional support to tourism businesses, with an additional $10 million per year across the forward estimates.

We are also delivering on our election commitment to the Tourism Industry Council of South Australia of $1.6 million over four years. These funds are being used to build capability through workshops and one-to-one business coaching as well as a program to encourage young people to consider a career in tourism.

Last year, we delivered on our election commitment to protect the giant Australian cuttlefish in the Upper Spencer Gulf, stopping the taking of the cuttlefish in the waters north of Arno Bay and Wallaroo. Our government worked really quickly to put in place the temporary arrangements during the 2022 spawning event, which saw a 28 per cent increase in cuttlefish numbers compared to 2021, after the former Liberal government allowed protection to lapse.

We have since enacted a regulation change to make the closure on the taking of giant Australian cuttlefish in the Upper Spencer Gulf permanent from the beginning of this month. Making the protection permanent allows the community and tourism operators on the Upper Spencer Gulf to confidently build upon a really popular nature-based tourism experience while also giving the iconic giant Australian cuttlefish the best chance to grow in numbers well into the future. I am very keen to put on a very thick—very, very thick—warm wetsuit and check it out one winter soon.

While on the topic of nature-based tourism, our government has established a $2 million nature-based tourism fund to show off our state's natural landscapes and to encourage visitors to enjoy South Australia's natural and cultural assets. The South Australian Tourism Commission's Experience Nature Tourism Fund is designed to boost South Australia's visitor economy and encourage investment in nature-based tourism experiences.

The funding program runs over four financial years, with up to $500,000 available in each year for grants from $10,000 to $50,000 for new and improved nature-based tourism products and experiences that are in or near a national park, reserve, wilderness protection area or marine park.

Moving a bit away from nature and into some lights, technology and art, we have Illuminate. Illuminate Adelaide is supported by our government through the Tourism Commission, and last year it attracted more than 1.2 million attendances. Bringing people into the city on cold, wintry nights can be tricky, but Illuminate Adelaide managed to do just that, and the great thing was that many visitors did not just see something and leave; CBD businesses reported the strongest trade they had ever experienced in winter, experiencing the highest ever spending for a July in the city.

Illuminate drove an incredible $44.8 million in economic activity generated for the state, contributing to the strongest July on record. The night-time economy contributed to a third of overall spend, with spending levels between 6pm and 6am even higher in July than in the Mad March period last year.

The Australian premiere of the major exhibition Wisdom of AI Light, by Istanbul-based artists from Ouchhh Studio, attracted more than 40,000 people. Light Cycles returned to the Botanic Garden, attracting more than 123,000 people, of which my partner, Miss Six and I were three. I tell you, it went a lot better for our family last year than it did in 2021. In 2021, our little one completely broke down when we walked out of the Botanic Garden when she realised that it was all over and she was not allowed to just walk straight back in. Last year, she learnt from her mistakes, she took it all a little slower and we managed to leave without any tears but still a lot of love for a really incredible experience.

It was not just the city that shone brightly during Illuminate. Illuminate also attracted massive numbers for three regional shows: Renmark's In Depth, which attracted 11,213 visitors over four weeks; Mount Gambier's Digital Garden, which saw 17,398 people head to the state's South-East over 2½ weeks; and Victor Harbor's Harbor Lights, with a total of 21,742 spectators.

In August, we saw close to 37,000 spectators attend as international rugby returned to Adelaide Oval. Before heading into the afternoon games, thousands of people took the opportunity to enjoy our city's pubs, cafes and restaurants, which we love to see. In September, our government partnered with the 36ers to get them to the USA to further raise our beautiful state's profile across the world.

Our relaunched Brand SA—that was another election commitment delivered—backed the 36ers to play against two NBA teams, with our state's brand being prominently displayed in both Oklahoma and Phoenix, including our state's logo on their uniforms. After the tour to the US, the new partnership continued to provide other promotional opportunities and extended through the regular 2022-23 NBL season.

The partnerships then continued with Adelaide's baseball team the Giants and the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants, thanks to the hard work of our Minister for Trade. Members of Japan's most successful baseball team came to Adelaide to connect with elite South Australian sporting organisations on a trip set to pave the way for future training and development opportunities. The Tokyo-based Giants have sent a team of experts to gain insight into how local clubs operate, including the Adelaide Crows and Adelaide Giants, as the global superstars explore making Adelaide their long-term spring training destination.

The tour was a direct result of the Malinauskas government meeting with the Giants on a trade mission to Japan, demonstrating the value of sports diplomacy and a growing relationship between Adelaide and the world's third largest economy. The visit by these experts from Tokyo happened just three weeks after South Australia attracted 70 students from some of Japan's top universities to compete in a Junko baseball series against the Adelaide Next Generation Giants, pumping an estimated more than $100,000 into the local economy.

Controversially, I am not a massive cricket fan. I blame my older brothers. When I was about six years old, I remember walking into the lounge room and asking, 'Who is winning?' Then, with rolling eyes, I was told, 'That's not how cricket works.' Many years later, after that rough start, I did go to and really enjoy some T20 games. I do really like cricket in that format, which I understand is a bit blasphemous to some cricket fans.

I was stoked that with the state government's support, 10 teams played in Adelaide as part of the T20 World Cup. I was even more stoked when more than 100,000 spectators helped international cricket deliver almost $95 million in economic spend across South Australia in November. Even for those who did not make it to Adelaide for the cricket this time around, the event had 6.58 billion video views across all ICC platforms and a global dedicated TV audience of 1.28 billion, so people still got to see our city from afar.

In November, the fun just kept coming in Adelaide with the return of the National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant to the streets of Adelaide. We made public transport free to make the pageant that little bit easier to get to. I really want to shout out to the children who got to ride Nipper and Nimble. I hope you got to bask in the joy of that honour because that was a dream of mine for many, many years.

While I did not make it to the Christmas Pageant—please do not tell Miss Six that she missed out—I did make it to the Harvest Rock music festival and, despite the rain, had such a great time. I love live music, and so when you throw in some food trucks as well I feel almost as happy as I think I would have felt if I did ever get to ride on Nipper or Nimble.

It was not just me who enjoyed Harvest. The event was such an incredible success, with hotel occupancy rates high and great crowds. The event saw almost 24,000 festivalgoers, more than 30 per cent of whom were from overseas or interstate, and it generated $16.5 million in total economic activity for Adelaide. I am looking forward to it coming back to Adelaide later this year. After the Harvest Rock festival, the East End made a quick switch and was once again home to car racing.

After being elected in March, we were able to pass legislation through parliament in July to re-establish motorsports in South Australia more broadly, and we then hosted an epic event in December. In 2019, before the former government axed the Adelaide 500, the race attracted over 200,000 people and generated over $45.9 million in economic activity. It was a major draw for our tourism and hospitality sectors, attracting 15,200 interstate and international visitors and supporting 90,000 visitor bed nights.

The 2022 VALO Adelaide 500 generated a record $51.85 million benefit to the South Australian economy, in a resounding endorsement of the race's long-awaited return. Preparations are now well underway for the 2023 VALO Adelaide 500, which will be held in November 2023 to 2026 and headlined by—I am getting all goosebumpy—heart-throb Robbie Williams performing at the Sunday after-race concert. I have not seen Robbie live since I won tickets to his concert at the Entertainment Centre by calling in to SAFM and being the right numbered caller back in 2001. Suffice to say, if you cannot tell, I am pretty excited.

Since the new year and the VALO Adelaide 500, there has been a heap more on. The Tour Down Under included the world's most elite female cyclist for the first time in the event's history. The elevation of the women's event to the UCI Women's World Tour put it on equal footing with the men's competition, which also sees elite UCI World Tour men's teams come to South Australia.

I was also really lucky to attend the tennis and see Novak Djokovic play just weeks before he won the men's singles title at the Australian Open.

Ms Savvas: Did you get a selfie?

Ms CLANCY: Yes, I did get a selfie. All these events help to put our beautiful state in front of the world. They do not just bring excitement and money to our state while they are on, they help to make us a destination for many visitors in the future.

While January was big in Adelaide, the regions also saw incredible amounts of tourism. The best average occupancy for any January on record and an all-time high revenue of $25.2 million were among the celebrated figures for regional South Australia in the summer of 2023. All-time highs were clocked for the Limestone Coast in January, which saw its highest ever occupancy of 84 per cent; highest ever room nights occupied, at 31,000; and highest ever revenue at $5.9 million—all monthly records for the region.

The combined wine regions of Adelaide Hills, Barossa and Clare Valley reached the highest occupancy for any January on record, at 70 per cent, and toppled their pre-COVID occupancy of just 59 per cent in January 2019. The Eyre and Yorke peninsulas saw a combined average occupancy of 77 per cent in January 2023, the best January result for the regions on record.

But, while these regions thrived, it was of course an incredibly difficult time for our river communities. In February, our government announced the Rise Up for our River campaign. This campaign includes three rounds of vouchers, expected to inject millions of dollars into the communities hit hard by the recent flood. More than 25,000 vouchers will be released over three rounds this year, the first of which started to be used in April. With values of $50, $100 and $200, the vouchers can be used for experiences and accommodation in the Riverland and Murray River, Lakes and Coorong regions.

A $750 houseboat voucher will also be introduced in rounds 2 and 3, allowing South Australians to plan an iconic houseboat holiday in the winter and spring periods, when most houseboats are expected to be fully operational again. For the first time in the commission's voucher program history, caravan park sites have been included, adding several thousand more options across the region as the larger parks reopen, such as Discovery Parks Lake Bonney, BIG4 Renmark Riverfront and Waikerie Holiday Park. An additional $500,000 will also be provided for a further round targeted towards businesses that are still to reopen, such as affected areas of the Mid Murray Council region, and I am really looking forward to visiting the Riverland with the Suicide Prevention Council later this year.

We have continued to really earn our badge of the Festival State this year with a record-breaking Mad March. Like many in this building, I am sure, I did not get to attend any of the Fringe events last year—we were a bit preoccupied with something else—so it was exciting to get to a few shows this year and to attend a show on the last night of the Fringe, when we hit one million tickets sold for the first time.

WOMADelaide and the Adelaide Festival were also both incredibly popular. WOMADelaide sold out of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and multiday tickets in advance for the first time in its 31-year history, and the Festival exceeded box office targets. Adelaide Writers' Week, one of my personal favourites, also brought so many interesting, engaging conversations into our city and libraries and people out and about into our cafes and restaurants.

Again, it was not just us locals enjoying it all. The week ending 11 March was the strongest week ever for Adelaide accommodation, with an average 9,140 room nights occupied—87 per cent occupancy—and revenue of $2.5 million each night. Adelaide accommodation occupancy on the Friday and Saturday of the March long weekend was 90 per cent and 93 per cent respectively. On Tuesday 7 March, Adelaide recorded the third highest revenue of all time at $3 million, driven by Mad March events as well as the Ed Sheeran concert at Adelaide Oval.

Nearing the end of March, we had the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, but things did not settle down in April. Our Premier fought to get the Gather Round here, and it is clear many, many South Australians loved that he did. All nine matches sold out. We saw tens of thousands of people travelling into South Australia. I know local hotels in my electorate of Elder, such as the Marion and the Tonsley, were incredibly popular with people trying to stay there so they could get to the games. Now we have this awesome event secured in Adelaide until 2026.

We then had some glorious weather for horses and golf, with LIV Golf and the return of the Adelaide Equestrian Festival. Tasting Australia wrapped up on 7 May, and I love that Rose Adam, from local Elder cafe The Middle Store but also MasterChef, got to show off her skills as part of the program. Now we take a little breath before State of Origin is in town on 31 May. In July and August, we have five games of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

We can and we should be proud of our government's investment in tourism in our state. Visitor expenditure in South Australia in the 12 months to December 2022 hit $8.3 billion, a new all-time record for the state that is truly worth celebrating. These investments support our tourism sector, bring incredible economic benefits and make our state an even better place to live. The work ethic, determination, understanding and passion of our government mean we can do all of this while also making significant investments in health, education, housing, infrastructure and much more.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (11:53): It is my pleasure to speak in relation to the Supply Bill 2023, which is important to make sure that all the important services that the government runs keep running, particularly before we pass the Appropriation Bill following the budget. Of course, whenever we look at expenditure like this, a bit over a third of it goes towards our state's healthcare system. Obviously, the increase in funding has been ramping up substantially since we were elected to office a year ago.

We are particularly delighted with some news out this morning in relation to how that money is being used to deliver additional staff working in our hospitals, working in our healthcare system. Over the last year, between March last year to March this year, we have employed an additional 550 healthcare staff, healthcare clinicians, across our system.

That is some 278 additional nurses, some 89 additional doctors, 141 extra ambos, and also 42 allied health professionals across our health system. This far and above exceeds the targets we set for ourselves when were elected last year. We talked about recruiting, in the first year of office, about 100 nurses, about 100 ambos—and we have exceeded that. We talked about recruiting about 20 to 30 doctors, and we have far exceeded that as well.

Of course, there is much more to do. I am really excited that, in addition to the excellent results we have had so far, we are continuing our aggressive, assertive way of recruiting additional staff into our system by launching a new recruitment campaign that will roll out nationally and internationally to attract more doctors, more nurses and more other healthcare workers to come to South Australia. This will highlight the benefits of working in South Australia, our great lifestyle and the excellent conditions we have on offer here in South Australia, particularly compared to those we see around the world.

The pay and conditions here in South Australia far exceed those that are provided in many other countries, particularly in the UK. If you look at the UK at the moment, NHS doctors (who are out on strike) are paid much less than they are in Australia. They are out there singing songs about how they want to move to Australia: well, we have the deal for them to come here, right to South Australia. Just this morning I met with a number of doctors who have moved from overseas and interstate to work here in South Australia who are absolutely enjoying that experience.

To make that recruitment campaign even more effective, today we announced additional incentives to help recruit more health staff to come to South Australia, including up to $15,000 of recruitment incentives to help people relocate here. That will be $10,000 in metropolitan areas for relocation expenses and $13,000 in regional areas, going up to $15,000 in remote South Australia. This is really helping to make the journey to come here and work in our state as easy as possible for those healthcare professionals; helping to pay for their loans, helping to pay for relocation expenses, removalists and the like, which obviously can all add up very substantially.

We have done this because we have listened to our healthcare staff, those who have come here, who have said this would be a great help in attracting more and more people. We have also conducted research with healthcare workers interstate and internationally looking at what we need to do. This brings us in line with what we see in other states; the relocation expenses are exactly the same as what is on the Victorian website in terms of the attraction they have put in place for their staff. Combine that with the fact that we have a much lower cost of living in South Australia compared with other states and it makes it a very attractive proposition.

Unfortunately, this has not been universally welcomed. We have the very negative Liberal Party who have been out this morning criticising this. They have just complete negativity and no solutions of their own. When they were in office, only a year ago, what did they do? They had a program of making nurses redundant. So they made over 300 nurses redundant while they were in office. We have absolutely scrapped that program. We want to hire additional nurses, not make nurses redundant in our system.

They have been out there using all sorts of dodgy figures in relation to what they are claiming is in place in Victoria, claims of up to $100,000. That is complete rubbish compared to what Victoria is actually putting out, which is the same as we are doing. It is grossly irresponsible to do that, and it makes you question, when they are putting out those sorts of dodgy figures into the market, whether the Liberal Party and its leadership are really backing South Australia or not, or whether they want other states to succeed.

We want South Australia to succeed. There should be bipartisan agreement on making sure that we can attract as many healthcare workers to this state as possible. Unfortunately we do not see that. We see the petty, negative politics from those opposite with dodgy figures that bear no resemblance to the truth whatsoever.

We should be backing getting more staff here to South Australia, because that is absolutely what we need to make sure that we can build on the success that we have already had. Clearly, even without those incentives, without that recruitment campaign, we have had excellent success in recruiting more staff. We now need to build on that in the future and this recruitment campaign and these incentives are only going to make that job easier.

I think that the Liberals should back up their claims with some facts, because they are completely baseless. Unfortunately, these sorts of negative claims seek to undermine our state, undermine our hardworking doctors, nurses and paramedics who are every day going in to bat for South Australians. Unfortunately, all we see from the Liberals is playing politics with people's health with their dodgy figures. They should be backing our healthcare workers instead.

This is a budget that was delivered last year which sets a program over the course of four years of investing in more and more health resources to make sure that we have the capacity that we need. We know very clearly that the issue that we have in relation to our healthcare system is blockages that happen from one step in a patient's journey to the next, which means that people cannot get through the system and ultimately people get ramped and ultimately people do not get ambulance responses on time.

We are investing right across the healthcare system, from ambulances right through to discharging people out of hospital, and probably the most critical component of that is building the capacity of our beds in the healthcare system. In fact we have increased, since our election, our commitments to additional beds in the system. We came to office promising 300 beds for the system. We are now promising over 550 extra beds and that is funded within the bill which we are bringing to parliament at the moment.

These are additional beds which we have not seen for a long time being brought into the system under successive governments, because these are absolutely critically needed to make sure that we have that capacity now and into the future. We have increased our commitment to Lyell McEwin Hospital. We said at the election we would put 24 more beds in there; now we have increased that to 48 more beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. At the election we said that we would put in 24 more beds at Flinders Medical Centre; now we are putting in 136 extra beds into Flinders Medical Centre. We are putting in an additional 24 more beds over what we said at the Repat as well. At Noarlunga Hospital we promised 24 more beds and we are increasing that to 48 beds.

All across the system, not only are we delivering on the commitments that we made but we are increasing those commitments, because we understand the absolute need for those additional resources to go in. We have made excellent progress in relation to that recruitment, as I have said. That has had an immediate impact in terms of the additional paramedics that we have been able to put on the road, which has had an immediate impact in terms of lifting ambulance response times—not back up to where we need them to be, but certainly a lot better than where they were before we came into office.

The additional beds, the additional staff and the additional capital works into the rest of the system are critically needed to make sure that we can get people through the rest of the system, reduce that ramping time and increase those ambulance response times. I am delighted to see progress being made in terms of construction starting at the moment in terms of Lyell McEwin Hospital, where we are putting on those 48 additional beds and progress is being made where we have brought on an additional ward through Flinders Medical Centre in very short order.

There is progress being made in the release of the model of care for our mental health investments. It is important to touch on mental health, because that is a key issue that we face in our healthcare system, not only in terms of improving the outcomes for people who are suffering mental illnesses in our state but also in terms of that leading to a lot more blockages for the rest of the system. Quite often the people who will get stuck in our emergency departments for very long periods of time are mental health patients. Those patients who get stuck there have a much worse outcome. You do not want to be in that sort of environment for a very long period of time.

It also means that other patients cannot come in, use that bay, use that staff in the time that that patient is there. Additional mental health beds are what was recommended by the College for Emergency Medicine as well as the college of psychiatrists. This was ignored by the previous government but we are now delivering those beds across Modbury, across The QEH and across Noarlunga Hospital as well. These will provide step-down rehabilitation beds to free up acute beds to make sure we can continue that flow of patients throughout the system as well.

In addition to all those investments, we need to particularly look at peri-urban needs as our population is growing across Adelaide, and one of those areas where it is growing very substantially is Mount Barker. We have a hospital at Mount Barker that has had in the order of about 30 beds for the past 20 years, despite the massive increase in population growth that has happened in Mount Barker since that time.

We have committed to a hospital that will triple the number of beds at Mount Barker to make sure we can deliver that need for the community up there and to make sure we can reduce pressure on the city hospitals because if we cannot care for patients in that community then, ultimately, they have to be transferred to city hospitals. In addition to that, I really do want to highlight the work that is being undertaken at the moment in relation to the control centre.

People would be familiar that this was a commitment we made connected to establishing the new SA Ambulance headquarters that it should contain a control centre for SA Health. This is something that people may have presumed was in place already for a $8 billion organisation, the biggest organisation in the state, that we should have a 24-hour control room where we are managing the use of resources, the connection between the system and the connection between the Ambulance Service and our hospitals at all times.

Sadly, that has never been put in place; however, even before we build that new building, we have in recent weeks established the first service at Tonsley. This is being set up as a virtual control centre. It is staffed 24 hours a day and is able to monitor and coordinate between our hospitals and our Ambulance Service and we are really getting some good understanding of where a lot of those blockages in the system are. I really want to thank the team that has been involved in setting that up.

Of course, it is not the only answer, in itself, but providing that level of coordination can mean that we can hopefully get ahead of the game in trying to predict and address blockages in the system before they arise, rather than what has historically always happened which is just responding very reactively when that situation has arisen over time. I do also want to thank our hardworking staff.

I particularly want to say something in relation to those new crews of ambulances that have come on board. Understanding that is not the solution to all the problems in itself, it has meant that we have been able to improve response times for patients right across the city. Those response times were in the low 30 per cent of people in January 2022 who were getting a priority 2, lights and sirens, response time on time. We have now increased that to 60 per cent.

There is still a long way to go to where we want to be, as this figure used to be in the mid-80s before the Marshall government was elected, but it is a very promising sign. We now have additional ambulance resources based in the Norwood area, the inner south through Edwardstown and Marion, the Golden Grove area and the Woodville area as well. These additional ambulances are making a difference in getting to people on time.

We have now announced the sites for all our new ambulance stations that will be built across Adelaide, Norwood, Edwardstown, Woodville and Golden Grove, as well as looking at our peri-urban sites, such as Mount Barker and Victor Harbor. These sites are critical for making sure we can build that capacity in the Ambulance Service and improve our response times to patients, so that, if any one of us or our parents or our loved ones are in the situation where they need urgent medical attention, we have more resources able to get to them on time.

I really want to thank all our hardworking staff who work in SA Health. I congratulate the team that has been so successful in increasing the staffing level that we have seen over the past year. Through the funding we have committed and through the initiatives we have underway, there is much more in store to be able to address those situations—those issues—that we know are in the system.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (12:09): I rise in support of the Supply Bill presently before the house. This is an important bill to ensure government services continue running ahead of the upcoming budget and Appropriation Bill. First and foremost, I am incredibly proud to be a part of a government that is getting on with the job and delivering for the South Australian people. We are delivering on commitments that are making our streets, our neighbourhoods and our communities healthier, safer, greener and more connected.

As I detailed in my very first speech to this place, health care is incredibly important to me and my family. I am very proud that for the Malinauskas government health is also our number one priority. In our first year in government, we have recruited an extra 550 clinical staff to deliver better health care and lift ambulance response times. That is 278 extra nurses, 89 extra doctors, 141 extra ambos and 42 extra allied health workers. That is 550 extra clinical staff above attrition to support our commitment to open hundreds of hospital beds across the system. This also includes a brand-new ambulance headquarters on Richmond Road as well as a brand-new ambulance station for Adelaide. These are projects that have been long called for by the sector. That is incredibly important to my community as well as to all South Australia.

Another of our commitments is to also build a bigger and better Women's and Children's Hospital. During my campaign for the City of Adelaide, for my community, I would spend many hours out the front of the current Women's and Children's Hospital with two incredible advocates, Professor Warren Jones and Professor John Svigos, with a petition, collecting signatures and talking to staff, doctors, nurses and many parents about the need to invest in a better Women's and Children's Hospital, particularly for mothers and children across our state. So I am incredibly proud that we are also delivering on that commitment.

Another topic I often talk about in this place, and also talked about in my very first speech to this place, is public education. I am a public school student, proudly educated at Naracoorte High in the state's South-East. I am a School Card kid. Thanks to the School Card, my mum could afford to pay for my schoolbooks. It meant that I could be the first in my family to go to university. So to be able to give that precious gift of an amazing education, an amazing public education, to young people in my community is something I am incredibly passionate about.

We took a commitment to the election to expand Adelaide Botanic High and are now delivering on that. We are currently in the process of expanding Adelaide Botanic High so that more young people in my community, more families in my community, can access a state-of-the-art public education. It really is state of the art. For anyone who has visited Adelaide Botanic High, it feels like you will find a 3D printer in every room. There is even a food 3D printer. Given that the expansion in technology for my school was when we moved from blackboards to whiteboards, when you visit Adelaide Botanic High I am pretty sure you will be blown away by the state-of-the-art education that is being delivered for young people there.

I am incredibly proud of my government for really bringing Adelaide alive again. There is a real sense of pride in our state because we are bringing back events. We are bringing our city alive with things like Gather Round. That was incredible, in particular the Crows' win against the Baggers. It was amazing. It really had a grand final atmosphere at Adelaide Oval. I congratulate the Premier on how much he really fought to secure that event for South Australia in coming years.

There are things like Harvest Rock. It was a little soggy, but that did not dampen the spirits of the thousands of people who descended on the city for that incredible event, particularly the huge numbers of interstate guests. Obviously, we brought back the Adelaide 500 as well. I would not describe myself as the biggest revhead, but it was just incredible and had this Grand Prix atmosphere. Again, it brought back so much pride to our state to see people with huge smiles on their faces, enjoying our capital city.

The important thing about those events is not just the pride they bring to our state but the fact that our hotels are full, that our restaurants are full and that it is supporting hospitality jobs. Having worked and managed a pub myself, I know there is nothing better than a full house and people really enjoying themselves.

We are also investing a significant amount in the Adelaide Fringe, and arts and culture and live music grants to boost the arts and creative sector as it resets from the pandemic. I want to congratulate our Minister for Arts, Andrea Michaels, on her continued support for the sector. The fact that we were able to sell over one million tickets for the Adelaide Fringe this year was just the icing on the cake for what is an incredible festival that is supporting people in the arts as they reset after the pandemic.

As a mum of two young children, one thing that often concerns me is what the future looks like for our kids and for our grandkids, in particular the health of the planet. Again, there is a huge sense of pride around South Australia in regard to the legacy we are going to deliver around renewable energy and green energy. That is no truer than our efforts in investing in hydrogen. Our Hydrogen Jobs Plan will deliver a large-scale, green hydrogen production facility and hydrogen power station. It will once again put SA on the global stage of green energy leadership.

I was among the people at Jamestown when the big battery was switched on for the first time. Being part of something that significant is not anything that I will ever forget, being able to build on that, that we are not just the home of the big battery—or as ScoMo liked to say, the equivalent of the Big Banana—and we cannot wait to deliver more big projects just like that.

As well as those major commitments, I am also really proud of the local commitments that I have made to my community and that I am working hard to deliver on for our neighbourhood; I worked on one just last week and received such an amazing amount of feedback on this particular project. It was not the biggest or the shiniest, but it was something that I think really touched a lot of people, and that was a project I have been working on regarding the free City Connector bus. The free City Connector bus now has a bright new look thanks to an incredible person in my local community, a local artist Robert Eckert.

I first met Robert a few years ago. I was at some local markets in Hutt Street, and I came across this amazing gentleman who had all these beautiful and colourful artworks laid out at his stall. One artwork in particular caught my eye. It was called Bump Along, and it is where Robert would sit on the free City Connector and let the movement of the bus guide the pen on his page, including all of those bumps and corners. I just loved that story, and at the same time he talked about how important the free City Connector bus was to him.

He cannot drive, so the free City Connector literally was his lifeline. It was his connection to support services, to health services, to his social groups, to his beloved art class, and it was around the time the former Liberal government were considering slashing funding to the free City Connector. It got me thinking about how we can acknowledge and celebrate just how incredibly important this service is. It has been a long time coming, but just last week we were able to unveil the new look of the free City Connector, completely covered in Robert's Bump Along artwork.

When he first saw it, he burst into tears. It was so incredible to see his meaningful and colourful artwork completely spread across the free City Connector that for him is his lifeline. He actually calls it an artery that connects him to everything in our community. That artwork will cover four of the free City Connectors, and we are going to wrap the two remaining free City Connectors in Aboriginal artwork by students from the South Australian Aboriginal Secondary Training Academy.

It was really important that we do that because the free City Connector operates on Kaurna land, so it was very important that we acknowledge and respect that. So, as well as two of those buses featuring the work of Aboriginal students, all the buses also carry an Acknowledgement of Country, recognising that this amazing community service operates on Kaurna land.

The students at Gilles Street Primary School had a much safer start to the school year, thanks to an election commitment that I was able to deliver shortly after the state election in March last year. That was for a 25 km/h school zone in front of Gilles Street primary and Pulteney Grammar schools. For our safety, it was such an important priority for these students, so it was amazing we were able to get this funded and constructed as soon as possible after the election. It is a culmination of years of campaigning by the school community that, despite repeated calls for change, was ignored by previous council administrations and the former Liberal government.

Before my election, I joined with the community in fighting for this school zone. We stood out the front of the school, collecting signatures on petitions, and I am very proud that together we were able to deliver this 25 km/h school zone at Gilles Street primary and Pulteney Grammar. I drove down Gilles Street just this morning and it was great to see all the cars travelling at a very safe and slow pace and also the kids out at the school crossing, working together to make sure that all our students are arriving at school safely.

Two weeks ago, I was at the old Franklin Street bus depot with the Premier, Minister Champion, the Lord Mayor for the City of Adelaide, Dr Jane Lomax Smith, and Property Council CE, Bruce Djite. We were announcing an exciting new housing project in the heart of the CBD. We very much acknowledge the challenges around housing both for young people in particular, trying to afford their own home, as well as the real challenges that are faced in the rental market. I myself as a renter experience those challenges.

We are going to transform this particular site into a 392-apartment complex as part of our plan to deliver more affordable housing. What is amazing is that it will be right in the middle of our capital city. It will provide much-needed housing in the form of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, right across the road from our famous Central Market. It is an amazing location with carbon-neutral targets, electric-vehicle charging, all the amenities within walking distance, a built-in civic community centre and no impact on inner metropolitan suburbs. It is a real win-win for everyone. The Franklin Street apartment announcement is just one of the many projects our government is doing in this space.

We have a plan for A Better Housing Future: to release a significant amount of land to increase supply in the market, make buying and renting more affordable, as well as increase and upgrade public housing. We are actually committed to building an additional 564 public homes for South Australians in need, and we have stopped the planned sale of 580 others. At the last election, we committed to $177.5 million for public housing from 2022 to 2026, and then increased this to $232.7 million in December last year. We also made a promise to build and upgrade public housing when and where it is needed most. With this brand-new home completed in Croydon Park, it is all the way up from there.

In December last year, I also hosted a public housing forum with the Minister for Human Services, Nat Cook, to listen to the community around their housing concerns, particularly in the CBD. We listened to locals, really heard their feedback and took this all on board. Now, six months later, our government is delivering on this commitment and making significant impacts in the public housing space.

We have also committed to significant rental reforms. This includes banning rent bidding and making rental bonds more affordable. This, for example, would save a renter of a medium-priced house in Adelaide $930 in up-front payments. I want to thank one of my local constituents, Ariba, and her partner, Toby, who first brought the issue of rent bidding to me last year. They talked about moving interstate, having to apply for up to 20 rental properties and, in some cases, not even knowing what the cost per week would be.

The fact that we had people in my local community thinking they were going to a rental inspection but actually going to an auction instead was completely unacceptable. I really want to thank Ariba for bringing this issue to my attention and allowing me to advocate on her behalf and on behalf of so many others in my community to our minister, Andrea Michaels, on this area.

During my two-year campaign for the seat of Adelaide, one of the other issues that would constantly be raised with me when I was out doorknocking was in the Collinswood neighbourhood, and that was around the notorious Howard and Rosetta streets intersection. I would hear about this intersection daily. It is the scene of regular accidents and near misses, and that is why I made the election commitment to our community to fix this intersection once and for all with a new mini roundabout. I want to give a shout-out to a local resident, Jackie, and her little boy, Sam. She lives just a few doors from the intersection and so I really want to thank her for her advocacy on this. She would walk and ride with her young children across the intersection every day and would see the constant danger to motorists and pedestrians.

There is also Tom, who lives on the corner of the intersection, who has had to rebuild his fence too many times to count after cars constantly ploughed into his fence when they were trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle. Thanks as well to the City of Prospect that is delivering this election commitment with me. They have come to the table to support me and my commitment to make this area safer for motorists and pedestrians. I am pleased to share that the construction of the new mini roundabout at the Howard and Rosetta streets intersection is expected to start later this year. I look forward to a much safer neighbourhood for the Collinswood area.

Growing up in a regional community with plenty of green space and open trees I would often take it for granted, so I am a huge supporter of ensuring that my local community where I live today can also experience these benefits. It is why I delivered on my election commitment to fully restore Parklands protection to Helen Mayo Park, ensuring that the park's trees and open green space are saved for current and future generations.

We have also invested $1.5 million to revitalise degraded areas of Helen Mayo Park to be delivered by Adelaide City Council. Under the former Liberal government, Helen Mayo Park was rezoned as entertainment, to pave the way for a $662 million basketball stadium to be built on the site. Upon winning government, we immediately scrapped the former Liberal government's basketball stadium and began the process to return 2.61 hectares of Parklands to the community.

By reinstating the Adelaide Park Lands Zone, Helen Mayo Park once again has full Parklands protection, ensuring that no development can occur on the banks of the River Torrens. It is also the first time that Helen Mayo Park has been formally protected as a gazetted parkland regulated entity. I am thrilled that protection for Helen Mayo Park has been fully restored, delivering on the election commitment I made to our community to save this park, its trees and open green space.

I am also creating green spaces in the local Prospect and Ovingham communities to increase our tree canopy and open green space in the suburbs. The first pocket park is on the corner of Main North Road and Da Costa Avenue—some might know this as opposite the famous giant Scotsman, on Scotty's Motel—and this is going to bring some much-needed space and trees to this part of our community to provide locals and dog owners a space to connect with nature.

At the recent Ovingham overpass project community event, to celebrate the completion of the level crossing removal, I was also incredibly excited to announce to the Ovingham community that we were going to develop another three pocket parks for this local area. At the southern end of Churchill Road I was proud to fight for and secure a new pocket park on a disused area of land. A local, James Maybank, was the driving force behind this grassroots campaign to secure the land as open green space, and I congratulate James on his enthusiasm and vigour in pursuing this result.

It is also really wonderful to see the community coming together to create a new group, Churchill Greening, and to share their ideas on how they will bring this new green canvas to life on Churchill Road. In addition, pocket parks will be created at Brompton and Bowden at Chief Street and Drayton Street, which is a credit to the advocacy of locals Steve and Iolanthe Sutton.

Almost 2½ years ago I stood out the front of the Walkerville YMCA as staff moved out of the beloved sport and recreation facility. An image ingrained in my memory was the large skip sitting in the car park with the YMCA sign ripped off the building and sticking out of the dumpster. Having knocked on almost every door in Walkerville and Gilberton, it was hard not to find a local who did not have a story or a special memory about the YMCA. It is why I joined with the community in fighting to save this beloved hub but, despite the hard-fought campaign, the then council proceeded with the closure as the former Liberal government sat back and watched.

It is an example of why elections matter because I committed that, if elected, I would return a sport, recreation and community hub to the former YMCA site, delivering $5 million to the Town of Walkerville to make it happen. I am very excited to see this project come to life, with an expression of interest for community groups commencing soon, and building works expected to start later this year.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (12:29): I am pleased to rise today to support the Supply Bill 2023, especially given that this bill is designed to enable the funding of the Malinauskas government for another year. Whilst the budget for the forthcoming year has not been presented to the house yet, I would like to draw to the attention of the house a number of projects impacting on my local area, for which funds have already been allocated.

First, there is the upgrade of Modbury Hospital. Earlier this year I was pleased to attend, along with other local members, the Premier and the Minister for Health, the 50th anniversary of the opening of Modbury Hospital. While there we were able to commemorate the official conclusion of the major $98 million works package, begun by the Weatherill government in 2017, including a 26-bed, short-stay general medical unit, a 20-bed palliative care unit, expansion of the surgical unit and an additional emergency care unit.

We were also able to inform those gathered that funds have been allocated for a mental health rehabilitation unit, set to open in 2025, which will be combined with a 20-bed older persons mental health unit in a single build, representing a total of 44 purpose-built new mental health beds at the hospital. These additional mental health beds were committed by Labor during the 2022 election campaign, following the former Liberal government's decision to close Woodleigh House, leaving Modbury Hospital with no adult mental health beds.

Work has also commenced on the government's commitment to a Modbury Hospital cancer centre, introducing cancer services to the hospital for the first time. The cancer centre will include 12 chemotherapy chairs and outpatient consulting rooms to deliver cancer services closer to home for north-eastern suburbs residents. The centre is expected to be completed in 2025.

Another series of projects I am glad to see in my local area is that of upgrades to local schools. Two of those projects in particular are the upgrade of the gym at Ingle Farm East Primary School, and the Bridge across Dry Creek at Mawson Lakes School. First, as I have spoken in this house before, the gym at Ingle Farm East Primary School is one of the oldest and smallest school gyms I have ever seen, and is definitely not fit for purpose.

I am grateful that my colleagues saw fit to allow an upgrade for the gym to be put forward as an election commitment and that funds for the upgrade were included in the government's first budget. The school community has begun working with the department on the design, and I for one cannot wait for it to be built and used by students and the community.

Another school project I wish to highlight is that of the bridge across Dry Creek that joins the eastern and western campuses of Mawson Lakes School. Ever since I have been elected I have been advocating for funds to enable this project to be completed. The current causeway is simply not sufficient. When it rains the causeway is closed, causing students and the local community to be not just inconvenienced but potentially exposed to additional risks involving traffic.

Finally, after years and letters, speeches, petitions and campaigning, a bridge is under construction in cooperation with the City of Salisbury. In fact, I understand that the bridge itself might be delivered to the site today. I am looking forward to attending the official opening in a few weeks to demonstrate to the local residents of Mawson Lakes the level of commitment the Malinauskas government has to their safety and that of their children.

I am also pleased to be able to inform the house that upgrades to sporting infrastructure in my electorate are also progressing well. I recently attended a competition at the Para Hills Bowling Club and was able to see the progress of the installation of the artificial playing surface on one of their rinks. It is already an excellent club, with dedicated leadership, but this surface will help make it even better. I look forward to working with the club to make it one of the best playing facilities in our state.

Two other projects in the planning stages, but for which funds have been allocated, are the change room upgrades at the Pooraka Football Club and the Ingle Farm Sports Club—two institutions of our area, but sadly neglected by the previous government. Work continues on these important projects.

Finally, on the subject of local projects, I thank the government, and especially the Deputy Premier, for their support regarding the upgrade of the irrigation at the Pledger Wetlands at Mawson Lakes. This project, which is being delivered in cooperation with the City of Salisbury, is due to be formally completed next week with a community day. Although I am, indeed, not much of a gardener myself, as a local resident of Mawson Lakes I am very grateful for all the work that the volunteers of the Friends of the Pledger Wetlands, especially Mr Colin Taylor, have done to make our community a greener place.

Today, I also wish to talk about the importance and likely positive impact of the direction of government effort into increasing the diversification of the South Australian economy. We live in a beautiful state that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, fertile land and a highly educated workforce. But, as we all know, it has been a long time since our economy was diversified enough to be truly resilient.

Today, we face a rapidly changing global economic landscape, with geopolitical shifts, decarbonisation and technological innovations transforming the way that we do business. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted to the world the importance of a resilient and diversified economy, as we have seen firsthand the devastating impacts of over-reliance on a single sector on national and subnational economies.

Now is the time for South Australia to take proactive steps to diversify our economy, build resilience and seize the opportunities of these global trends. Diversifying our economy will not be an easy task, but it is a necessary one. It will require collaboration between governments, businesses and communities, but if we can achieve it the potential benefits for our state are enormous. We can unlock new opportunities, create more jobs and improve the standard of living for all South Australians.

So what are the global opportunities that exist for us? First and foremost, there is the growing demand for renewable energy, which South Australia is already well positioned to supply. With our abundant sunshine and windy plains, we have the potential to be a world leader in the production of renewable energy, but to truly capitalise on this opportunity we must invest in research and development and build the necessary infrastructure to support the growth of the sector.

A major part of our response to this opportunity is the Hydrogen Jobs Plan taken by the government to the last election, having at its centre a demonstration of the government's dedication to embracing this sector, with the construction of a hydrogen plant at a cost of nearly $600 million. This is not the end of the story, however, and I am pleased that ongoing work is being done to make sure that our state continues to be a leader in renewable energy while enhancing the opportunities for our citizens to benefit from a low-carbon future.

As the only member of this house with a solar panel factory in their electorate, I am determined to make access to solar power, in particular, more accessible to the citizens of our state. I know this is also an issue that the Minister for Energy is passionate about.

Another opportunity that exists for us is the growing demand for high-value agricultural products. South Australia is already a leader in the production of premium food and wine, and we have the potential to expand our capabilities further. By investing in research and development and leveraging our natural advantages, we can unlock new opportunities to export high-value agricultural products to the world. We have already taken steps in this direction with the re-establishment of Brand SA as part of a program to provide cohesive and cooperative assistance to exporters.

The mining and resources sector also presents significant opportunities for us. South Australia is already a major producer of minerals such as copper, uranium and gold, but as the demand for clean energy technologies increases there is a growing demand worldwide for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are used in batteries. South Australia has significant deposits of these minerals and we have the potential to become a major supplier to the world.

There is perhaps no other sector that provides an example of where considered industry regulation can provide dividends than in mining. The government's policies of broad support, for example by providing open access to geological information while working to enhance the maintenance of the industry's social licence, will ensure that quality projects continue to materialise. This will provide not only royalties to the people of our state—who are, after all, the owners of the minerals—but growth and further diversification of our economy.

As with any major economic transition, there will be challenges that we must face. One of the key challenges will be ensuring that our workforce has the skills and training required for the jobs of the future. As industries transition, the demands of our workforce will change as well and we must be proactive in ensuring that our workforce has the necessary skills to succeed. To not properly address the challenge of skills will lead to further skills shortages. As we shift towards new and emerging industries, there may be a shortage of workers with the necessary skills to fill these new roles. To address this, we will need to continue to invest in education and training programs to help ensure that our workforce has the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in new industries.

Another challenge we will face is the need for new infrastructure to support the growth of these new sectors. This will require significant investment, both from governments and from the private sector, but if we can work together to build necessary infrastructure we can unlock new opportunities for our state. We must also be mindful of the need to protect our environment and preserve our natural resources. As we seek to diversify our economy, we must ensure that we do so in a sustainable and responsible way, minimising our impact on the environment and ensuring that our natural resources are used in a way that benefits all South Australians.

An increase in diversification may also result in workers in existing industries being displaced as a result of a shift towards new opportunities. It is important that we address this challenge head on, by providing support and assistance to those impacted and by working to ensure that they can successfully transition into new and emerging industries. In both this and the concern of addressing skill shortages, it is important that we have a viable and responsive training capability. This government is continuing to invest in TAFE so that the role of government in providing training is preserved.

The need to diversify our economy is clear, as I have said. The benefits of doing so are enormous and the risks of not doing so are too great to ignore. By doing so, we will help to expand our economy and we must be inspired by and build on the work of those like Playford and Bannon, who sought to bring new industry to our state, not to replace our existing economy but to build diversification.

An increase in economic diversification can create new and exciting opportunities for South Australians and also help to address some of the underlying employment issues that we have been facing. This will build on our recent turnaround of the long-running brain drain, as talented workers will no longer need to leave the state to find exciting and meaningful work opportunities. A properly diversified economy means that South Australia will no longer be seen by many as simply a place where successful people used to be from.

As I said previously, like so many people of my community, I am very much looking forward to seeing the budget being presented by the Treasurer in the coming weeks. I have every confidence that the Malinauskas government will not only continue to build on the good work that it has been doing over the last year or so but also look forward to the future and help to make our state a better place, not just a more resilient economy but also a place that actually provides for the citizens of South Australia in terms of health, education and also for the economy more generally.

I am looking forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to develop more projects in my local area. There are a number of things that I have not talked about today that I am looking forward to giving good news to the house about in the forthcoming weeks and months and even years to come of this government. It is on that note that I commend the bill to the house.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (12:42): I rise to speak on this Supply Bill 2023 and recognise that in an electorate as big as mine there are a lot of different varieties and a lot of opportunities for government to be involved in making sure that our regional economy, in particular, is streamlined and as efficient as possible.

One of the key areas for government to invest in within our regional communities, and especially within the electorate of Flinders, is infrastructure and roads. Every time I visit the different parts of my electorate, I am reminded of the importance of having a strong and durable road network to get, firstly, products which are produced within our regional areas to an export market or an endpoint but also to make sure that we have safe passage for people who are spread many hours apart.

It has been encouraging to look back and see the significant expenditure by the previous Liberal government on the upgrade works on the Eyre Peninsula highways. We saw shoulder sealing on the Tod Highway and on the Eyre Highway, which traverses east to west. We saw overtaking lanes and intersection upgrades on the Lincoln and Tod highways. Unfortunately, it has been a bit of a challenge with some of these works, which were instigated over two years ago now. That work, which was completed, is still defective—it is not good enough. We have been so frustrated with the missed opportunity, the missed potential we have within our region in particular, because of the work, which has been proven to be not actually up for the task that is ahead.

We have seen one, two, three, four lots of reseal on work that should have been done right the first time. It is not good enough and it is an absolute frustration for me as the local member and for my people in the electorate of Flinders. It needs to be better and we need to make sure that the work done within our regional communities is actually appropriate for the traffic going down our roads.

There is an exciting opportunity within the township of Port Lincoln. I was optimistic with the recent announcement from the federal government around the intersection between Liverpool Street and Porter Street, which is necessary to look at the modern transport needs of our community, to make sure that the interaction between heavy vehicles and domestic use is done in the safest way possible. This is why as the local member I am always looking at what are the necessary next steps for roads and infrastructure within our community.

I look ahead at the Flinders Highway, in particular, which is a really necessary next step for what has been highlighted as one of the poorer roads in the state. For me, it is especially the section between Streaky Bay and Ceduna, and the area south of Elliston, an area which is used by significant freight but also significant tourism traffic. It is incredibly important that those interactions are done in a safe way. To have caravans going down the same road as heavy vehicles could potentially lead to a dangerous situation, and this is why the government need to be investing in these sorts of roads. I am hopeful that they are actually listening to local communities so that they can put well-earned taxpayer dollars back into the areas that are producing those taxes.

Health within our regional communities is an incredibly important need and an incredibly important investment which has to happen for both our regional hospitals and our regional health delivery. We need to have a health system within our regions which is suitable for our needs going forward. We need proper GP services within our regional areas if we are going to truly maximise the opportunities for that economic potential which is driven in our state from our regional areas. We need to have those services in place.

I hope that between the federal and state governments we can get some of those initiatives in place that the northern Eyre Peninsula Health Alliance has put forward, get them funded and get them delivered. Without proper investment within our regional health, we end up with a situation where those who are most vulnerable within our communities—that is, our very young and our very old—are going to be put at risk of whether or not they are going to stay there. Without that in place, we do not have a balanced society and we do not have a balanced community.

We need to be investing in the foundations of our community which ensures the quality and sustainability of our regions, and that starts with our health network. That starts with making sure we have proper GP services within our regions to make sure that we are healthy and that we have longevity for the future.

Across our regional coastal communities the importance of jetties as part of the social and community fabric should never be underestimated. I, myself, in the electorate of Flinders, have 20 jetties dotted around a couple of thousand kilometres of coastline. At the moment, the Tumby Bay jetty is one which is definitely front of mind, after being closed now for over six months due to the degradation of the more than century-old structure, leading to it being assessed by the council as unsafe for the community.

This is a terrible outcome for both locals and visitors alike, and this is why the community is coming together to ask for action, to press the state government to invest back into this important infrastructure. The Tumby Bay jetty is owned by the state government, as all jetties around the state are, and leased to the District Council of Tumby Bay for maintenance, but this lease is soon expiring and major works are needed on this structure.

I am encouraged that the department has been undertaking a body of work looking at five jetties around the state, including Tumby Bay, to put together a business model that can be considered for funding from the state government. Appropriate funding for the future of the jetty at Tumby Bay is so important, as it is a key component of a vibrant community which is used by locals and visitors to experience a unique marine environment, to go fishing, to go swimming, to go diving or to simply walk along and take in the sea air. It is so important for our community wellbeing, as I said, both for locals and visitors alike.

The council and the community at Tumby Bay are willing to partner with the state government on this project. It is time for the state government to commit to helping provide a solution. I have spoken a number of times to the minister. I have written to him, I have spoken with his department, I have worked closely with the District Council of Tumby Bay to try to get this sorted. I have also tabled a petition here in this place from several thousand South Australians who are urging the state government to fund the Tumby Bay jetty. As the local member, I will not give up until we get a suitable solution for the jetty at Tumby Bay and, indeed, for jetties around my whole electorate, as we cannot afford to lose such important pieces of our coastal communities.

Our South Australian communities deserve to feel safe in their homes, in their streets and in their towns. Some of the alarming increases we have seen in offending, especially in areas such as assaults, thefts, break-ins and other antisocial behaviours in areas such as the CBD in Adelaide but also in some of the regional centres such as Port Augusta, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Ceduna are really concerning—really worrying for our community safety.

As the shadow minister for police and community safety, I have deep concerns about the resourcing of the police force within our state. I hear too many stories about some of these struggles, including hearing that for every recruit that is coming into the police force we are losing more to retirement and resignation. This issue of recruitment and retention of police within our state is only exacerbated within the regional areas of our state, which is often where there is an ever-increasing need.

The stories I am hearing from communities such as Ceduna and Port Augusta are frightening, as are the anecdotes I hear from police on the beat in these types of communities. They are getting worn out. They are getting worn down. They are getting overburdened with work and questioning their long-term career. This is happening at the same time as, interstate, governments such as Queensland's are offering significant incentives and financial supports to recruit police officers from interstate and overseas.

Here in South Australia we have heard nothing from the government on this at all. There is apparently a Premier's Taskforce into policing, but we have barely heard or seen anything from them despite being formed over a year ago. The communities of South Australia and communities within my electorate are crying out for action from the government, as they need to feel safe, and they want to have these offenders held accountable for their actions.

So where is the strategy for recruiting more police officers? Where is the appropriate resourcing for the police force within our regional areas? Where is the action from the government? What do you say to the communities at Ceduna, at Port Lincoln, at Port Augusta around appropriate policing resources to actually keep our communities safe?

Our regional communities put so much into our state and federal economies—tens of billions of dollars—and this is why we need to continue to invest as a government in regional communities and in areas such as primary production. Ag technology was a real focus of the previous Liberal government, and I hope that the now Labor government have an eye to the potential of the agricultural industry.

Also, the fishing and aquaculture industry within my area is something which needs continual government investment, not government handbrakes and red tape. We need investment such as the previous Liberal government's South Australian Seafood Growth Strategy, which actually put some structure behind the often different perspectives of the different aspects of the aquaculture and seafood industry.

There are exciting mining opportunities within our state and within my electorate. There are exciting export port facilities and proposals that could really make a difference in our regional economy. With those opportunities comes the need for the state government to be investing in, accompanying and enabling infrastructure such as roads and export facilities that are so vital. Along with that, we need continued investment and an eye to making sure that the community structures within our regions are properly invested into.

Within my electorate, you can barely find a rental home. The regional housing shortages are incredibly concerning. Although there are some positive noises from the government, we are yet to see positive action. We need to make sure that the government is investing in incentives and programs that actually enable the regions and the state as a whole to truly thrive.

The things that we take for granted day to day in the city areas are an absolute luxury for us in regional areas, such as child care. There is a real need for the state government, through the Department for Education, to play a proactive role in making sure that there are childcare options for regional communities that put so much into our state's economy.

These are the sorts of structures we need a proactive government looking at, diversifying some of the options that are already in place and maybe trying to widen out some of the arrangements that are there. We need a proactive government that actually understands regional South Australia to make sure they are investing back into the things that add so much into our state's economy.

As I said, our regional communities and our regional economy put tens of billions of dollars into our state and federal economies and that really needs to be reflected back in investment into our regional areas, especially into the electorate of Flinders.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:56): I rise to make a brief contribution to the Supply Bill and to talk a little bit about some of the commitments made by the Malinauskas government in my electorate that are starting to bear fruit now. As well as in my electorate, also the adjacent electorates, because the Elizabeth-Salisbury area is often split between Elizabeth, Taylor, Ramsay and Light up to the north and we do share a lot of facilities, including Lyell McEwin Hospital, which I will get back to.

The first commitment I made before the election that is now starting to bear fruit is the commitment to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Adams Road and Yorktown Road in Craigmore, actually the corner of Elizabeth Downs, Elizabeth Park and Craigmore. It is an area I know very well. Indeed, there are two intersections along that stretch of Yorktown Road opposite Eastern Park Football Club that do require attention.

If it were entirely up to me, I would have chosen the Yorktown Road-Adams Road intersection because that is the one I use far more frequently than the Adams Road one, but I do accept the argument that was put to me many times that the Adams Road-Yorktown Road intersection, directly opposite Eastern Park Football Club, causes significant problems.

It is very difficult to turn right onto Yorktown Road in the morning. For those of you who do not know the area, east of Elizabeth Downs is what we call a new area, which is in fact about 20  years old and some of it is significantly newer and stretching up the hill and it is most of Craigmore stretching into Blakeview.

If you want to access the city, for example, or even Elizabeth City Centre in the morning, you almost certainly have to use either Uley Road, heading straight down to Main North Road, or go across Adams Road and then down Yorktown Road, Of course, everyone has the same idea in the morning. Everyone is barrelling down Yorktown Road and it is very difficult, under current circumstances, to turn right onto Yorktown Road.

Yorktown Road is a major thoroughfare; it is an arterial road, a state road, and therefore the Department for Infrastructure and Transport have to be engaged to do the work, obviously with some council approval.

My understanding, by way of an update, is that the department met with council in February. Geotechnical surveys have been on site for the last couple of months and I have a meeting with the department and the minister's office tomorrow to finally look at a concept plan, which I will then take to the community, and the department, in a separate engagement exercise, will take to the community, in order to gauge the response of the community and particularly Eastern Park Football Club. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.