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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-30 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

Valedictories

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (17:20): I rise to speak on indulgence. We have reached the conclusion of the parliamentary year. That provides a rare opportunity to reflect not so much on the work of a government but more on the work of everything that allows us to be able to do everything we undertake in our respective roles in this job.

There is an extraordinary volume of people who put in so much effort that allows us to do the work that we do as members of parliament, more broadly. When we get to the end of the year, it always provides a moment to decompress and pause and to reflect on how lucky each and every one of us is—all 47 members of this place—to have the assistance of not just one another but a great group of South Australian public servants who undertake that work.

From my perspective, the one group of people I am in a permanent state of gratitude to is my parliamentary Labor Party caucus colleagues. It is a privilege to serve as the leader of their political party with the support of caucus colleagues or party room colleagues, and that is a privilege not lost on me. I am very grateful for their support and their solidarity.

I want to thank each and every one of them for the work they are doing within their respective electorates with their constituents. Being a member of parliament, before any of the other duties that we respectively perform, is a big task in and of itself. Servicing approximately 25,000 constituents and all their concerns is a diverse challenge. It can vary in nature but it is substantial and comes at significant cost to the individuals who have to perform those functions. I want to thank all my parliamentary caucus colleagues but also the important EO staff who underpin them doing their work.

With respect to the parliament itself, on the rare occasion the mind wanders during the course of a parliamentary debate, one cannot help but sympathise with the work of our Hansard officials. I say that because how they undertake their work without forming judgement on each and every one of us is beyond me—unless, of course, they do form judgement on each and every one of us.

One can only imagine being a fly on the wall around the kitchen table of our Hansard staff, 'these muppets' or whatever language is used, I do not know. You should not laugh too hard because that would be a verification of my suspicions, but we do thank Hansard for their work and their patience. How you do it day in, day out is truly beyond me.

From there, I thought I would thank you, Mr Speaker. Your job is not easy. Your job is to independently arbitrate over the proceedings of the house, which I think you have done with great diligence and commitment and great balance. The very fact that you will not get uniformity of agreement around your various judgements probably speaks to the fact that it occurs with a degree of independence. So we thank you for your work, Mr Speaker.

To other members within the house who make it all function, we are incredibly grateful. It is a difficult job. To the Clerk, Rick, and David as deputy, we thank you for your contribution to the proceedings of the house, along with all of your diligent staff, including the Serjeant-at-Arms. Can I acknowledge David Woolman, who does so much work behind the scene with his team within the parliament and has done so over many, many years, along with other administrative and corporate staff. We roll in on sitting days then we roll out when the house adjourns, but the work continues for the parliament staff and we are very, very grateful for it.

That thanks also extends to the library and the extraordinary character and icon of the parliament, Dr John Weste. Every time I see John engaging with members of the South Australian public, it fills me with a sense of warmth that here is someone who is so passionate about the work the parliament does, the building itself and the studies and what his team does. That could only have a positive and infectious impact on the members of the public's perception of the work that the parliament does. I want to thank John and all his team. I know that the library is a particularly useful resource for MPs, particularly in opposition. I got a really big appreciation of how useful it could be in that role. So I thank him for the work that the library does.

Then there is the Blue Room and all the catering staff, people who look after us in the most meaningful of ways by ensuring that we are not too 'hangry'. I want to thank the staff in the Blue Room, a great company: Karen, Belinda and, of course, there is Nicky, who is a constituent of mine. She lives literally one street over from me, so she gets to hear when I am yelling at the kids. She never raises her voice, as we all know, so there is nothing to worry about there! There are also all the protective security staff, the team in the cellar, and everywhere else. We are very grateful for their work.

In terms of within the parliament, there are various officer positions that exist. I do not want to name them all, but I do want to thank the whips. There is obviously the Opposition Whip, which is a thankless task, and also the Government Whip. They have to work together to keep the show running. I want to thank the Opposition Whip for working with the Government Whip in a way that I understand is very, very collaborative.

Particularly to the Government Whip: he has done an outstanding job. It does not often get recognised, but we all have our wants and needs and various requests, and the member for Elizabeth has just gone about it with a great degree of effect. I know he has a great team behind him, so I particularly want to acknowledge Billy and Shaylee as well, but I do hope that the member for Elizabeth gets the opportunity to spend some time with his family over the Christmas break with a degree of satisfaction that the government has been able to rely on his service in driving our agenda through in a seamless way. We are very, very appreciative of it.

There is also the other somewhat thankless task—officers in the building or in the parliament or in the house—and that is the Leader of Government Business and the Leader of Opposition Business. They are not easy jobs. Making countless points of order is something that the Leader of Opposition Business has a degree of enthusiasm for and, dare I say, is particularly effectual at on occasion. I thank him for his contribution.

I do want to thank the member for West Torrens and the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, the Leader of Government Business and, dare I say, the Father of the House, for his ongoing stewardship of this forum that he has become familiar with over—how long a period?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Twenty-seven years.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Twenty-seven years. I do want to thank the member for West Torrens and his beautiful family for their ongoing support, both here in the chamber and privately as well. It is of great value to me and I do appreciate it.

To my cabinet colleagues, they have all dedicated themselves to their respective portfolio responsibilities with real vigour and energy—I do appreciate it. We have a cabinet which occasionally will have robust discussions, which I think is absolutely healthy and to be encouraged, but everyone has been across their portfolio in a way that I am very appreciative of. I do not have to worry about ministers doing their jobs at all really. They do it with great effect and are able to function because of the work and the way that they dedicate themselves to the task, which is unquestionable in each and every instance.

The staff who support ministers—all the chiefs of staff, the media advisers and everyone else in those teams, the policy advisers and what have you—again are often unrecognised. If they are in the media, it is probably not a good thing, but their work is mission critical. That is also particularly true in my office, the Premier's office. I am really well supported by a group of people who believe in the work they are doing and provide me a lot of support, starting with my Chief of Staff, Mr John Bistrovic, and deputy chiefs of staff, Cheyne Rich and Sonia Romeo; senior policy adviser, Cat Perre, and a number of other advisers who sit around her.

The EA is like a mission-critical position, and Ann Duff, my EA, makes it all tick somehow—I do not know how most of the time, but she is able to pull it off. To all the media adviser team I am eternally grateful. Their hours are countless and often around the clock. To Adam, Pam, Nick, and the digital team of Minh and David and Harry and Wendy and Andrew, who helps write speeches in my office, I am very grateful, along with other policy advisers. I desperately hope I do not miss out on anyone.

Then there is all the corro staff and the office manager team, including Jess and her whole team: Paul, Angela, Kate, Victoria, Andrew, Monica and Anne-Marie. Again, we get endless amounts of correspondence and we are able to respond to it as timely as we possibly can, principally because of their hard work.

To the broader Labor family who underpin the work we do: again, we thank you. We have a number of them here in the parliament tonight. Most of them dedicate themselves to the cause on an entirely voluntary basis. We stand on the shoulders of giants in that regard, and the same is true with the trade union movement.

To the opposition, I would also like to thank them—mostly. It is such a hard job. Your task is really difficult. I know sometimes it can be endlessly frustrating. We can sympathise with you on that, having experienced it not too long ago but, as frustrating as it is, it is also really important. We expect to be held to account in a robust way. You have gone about that diligently. Politics is a really tough business.

The way we are set up is adversarial by nature. It can make people who would otherwise be acquaintances or even friends theoretical enemies. I think on occasions that is unfortunate, but it is necessarily the way it works. We have to be professional and appreciate that, if we remain professional in appreciating that, we can understand and appreciate the role and the fact that you have to perform it and do it to the best of your ability.

My particular acknowledgement goes to the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition I am sure—in fact, I know—shares all of our view that Christmas is a time to reflect and to think about how we are all relatively lucky. I would like to wish the Leader of the Opposition and his family a safe and merry Christmas as well, along with the remainder of the opposition members more broadly.

The Public Service: we get a bit of attention in our roles, but the over 100,000 people who are in the Public Service virtually get no attention unless they are maybe in significant positions of leadership. They just get on with the job. They do not sit around worrying about the politics; they just get on with servicing the community and they do it very well. COVID was just the most stark example of how much the state and the country rely on the work of public servants, and COVID really did elevate that in people's consciousness.

As COVID has abated, it runs the risk that we can get back to where we were before and not necessarily appreciate it. I do not want to list all the professions that exist within the Public Service; you know who we are talking about. All I would say is that it is not always just the ones we regularly recognise in emergency services and what have you. There are a lot of people who sit in non-uniformed roles, non-frontline service delivery roles, that are equally as important. Their work might feel more humble on occasions, but it underpins the way the whole system ticks, and I want to wish every single one of them a safe and merry Christmas.

The final observation I will make is that we all have families. We have our parliamentary families. In my case, I might particularly rely on the Deputy Premier for guidance on some issues or the Treasurer or the Leader of Government Business or any of my cabinet colleagues for particular issues and you develop relationships in the course of that, but all these relationships, as powerful and as important as they can be, do not ever compare with the relationships that we have with our own families at home or elsewhere.

Christmas is a time to reflect on family and those really important things in life. We have been witness to some tragedies in our state recently which puts top of mind just how fragile life is, how precious it is and how in the blink of an eye things can be taken away from us that we value most. We all collectively hope and hopefully commit ourselves, at this time of the year, to valuing those things that are most precious and most valuable, and I sincerely hope that many people across Christmas are able to do that.

The final acknowledgement I would like to make is with people who might not be able to do that. There are people in our community who are doing it tough. More often than not we tend to talk about those in economic terms—the cost-of-living crisis, people doing it tough, people in need—but we should particularly think about not just those who are in economic difficulty but also those people who are just genuinely lonely and might have a hole in their heart because they do not have the capacity to share a moment like Christmas with a colleague, a loved one or a close confidant.

So for those in our state who might be suffering from a degree of loneliness or a lack of companionship, maybe we should all try to make an effort to reach out to them over Christmas, too, if we can find a way of doing that in our busy lives. I hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas. We live in a beautiful state in an amazing country, and we have been reminded of that frequently in recent months. Long may that continue because of the work of this parliament. Merry Christmas.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (17:38): On indulgence, I would like to add to the Premier's remarks at the end of this parliamentary sitting year. I think all of us who come here to work owe a deep level of gratitude, a debt of gratitude to the many people who make this place happen. We wander in when the bells ring. In my case, being the Leader of the Opposition, I have a permanent office here, as some of our upper house members do; others have offices in electorates and elsewhere. We really just appear here to do our jobs for a moment and a huge amount of work goes in behind the scenes to make this place what it is, to make it the seat of democracy here in the great state of South Australia.

We throw the term 'great state' around a fair bit and say what a great place it is to live. We have the Hills, the sea, the regions, food and wine, great people and all that, and it is actually true. We look around the world today and we see so much conflict, pain, suffering, tragedy, natural disaster, man-made disaster, poverty. Yes, we have poverty here, but not really anywhere near to the extent of some places in the world. We see famine. We see difficulties every time we turn on our TV.

While there are individual challenges and tragedies in this state—some of those have been in the forefront of our minds over recent weeks in this state, perhaps more than normal—we are all exceptionally lucky to be able to call South Australia home. No matter which party is in power, government here, democracy here, is something we ought to celebrate. Today, we can celebrate it; in fact, every moment we are in here, we celebrate it because we undertake our tasks, we undertake our jobs, we undertake democracy in this state in a way that ought to be celebrated and in a way that ought to be mirrored to other places in the world because we do it pretty well here.

I am thankful every single day that my mum and dad chose to move here 21 years ago today. It is an incredible place to call home. It is an incredible place to do my job, and I think everyone here would agree with that sentiment. This building, this institution, what it represents and what happens here must be celebrated. We have to cleave onto it. We have to do all we can together across this chamber, and in the other place as well, to make sure that its traditions are upheld and that the things that make it great continue. Many of the things that make it great are held in the hands, hearts and minds of people, not just parliamentarians—far from it—but the people who work behind the scenes to make this institution, or institutions if you see the houses as separate, work well.

I want to list a few of those names. I will not cover everyone because there are many tens if not a couple of hundred people who work here, but here are some of note: Mr Rick Crump, the Clerk of the house; Travis Freckleton, Executive Assistant to the Clerk; David Pegram, Deputy Clerk; Josh Forkert, the Clerk Assistant and Serjeant-at-Arms; Ms Michelle Martin, the Manager of Corporate Services; and in the other place, Mr Chris Schwarz, the Clerk of the Legislative Council, and Mr Guy Dickson, the Deputy Clerk and the Usher of the Black Rod. They are just some of the people who make this place tick.

Often, when I do tours of parliament—and we all do those—people know where I sit; my name is here. They know where the Premier sits. But they ask me, 'Who sits in these chairs?' I say, 'People who know what they are talking about'—people who know how this place works and how to make it work, people with an expertise that, when you add it altogether, stretches back for many decades in an accumulative sense. I think it is worth acknowledging and celebrating that it is the people who sit in these chairs around us, not the chairs of elected members but the chairs of the officials of this parliament, who ought to be recognised and celebrated at the end of this parliamentary sitting year.

The Premier mentioned that great institution of the institution, Dr John Weste, and the passion that he brings to his role in running the parliamentary library. If I have a school tour or a group going through the parliamentary library, I have my fingers crossed that we will bump into Dr Weste, if we have time, because he has an incredible amount of knowledge and passion. It just depends whether we have time or not to get in and out quickly enough to be able to hear about the Queen's mock turtle soup that she had here when she had her state dinner during her first visit to South Australia in the 1950s.

Dr Weste knows about the Queen's mock turtle soup. It almost feels sometimes that he was there and he tasted the stuff—and we have all heard it. He is an institution. He is a great man and he has brought that library to life. It is the Parliament Research Library that many of us have access to to learn about lots of different things, but his knowledge of this building, the people who have served here and really the history of this state is immense and just bloody impressive.

I wish to thank Mr Andrew Cole, a constituent of mine, for his role as Leader of Hansard, and Mr John Clarke, Deputy Leader of Hansard. Mr David Woolman, whose role it is to keep this building ticking along, I think has had a few more challenges this week than normal with all that bad weather we had earlier in the week and water appearing in parts of this building where it should not appear. They were non-traditional leaks from this building—normally you get leaks out of this building; those were leaks coming into the building—but he and his team had their work cut out this week. They have their work cut out day in and day out.

When you are managing an old building, an ancient building in some ways, a building which of course was plugged together as two halves, sometimes when you do that it does not work very well, and it comes with particular challenges to keep this building beautiful, to give this building the wow factor, and so David Woolman and his team must be mentioned especially for the work that they do to make this beautiful building what it is.

Kent Nelson, Chief Finance Officer, and Mr Peter Evans, the unit manager of PNSG are two people who also make some of the things happening behind the scenes tick along. Creon Grantham, Catering Manager: I think I was once told that in the state you have the opposition leader, you have the Premier, you have the Governor and then you have Creon. That is the order of precedence as to how this state runs. When you run a function in the Speaker's dining room, it certainly feels like that sometimes. But Creon does a great job to keep this place ticking along.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: My deputy leader certainly appreciates him. You will probably have to host events on my behalf now because I will not be allowed to for saying that. Catering is complex here, and Creon does a great job in making sure it all goes well. Looking to the Blue Room, we have Karen Steindorf, Belinda Adlington and Nicky Irons, who all serve us there. We have our protective security staff and a range of others who make sure that this parliament is what it is, and we are grateful for their contribution.

People say that Leader of the Opposition is the worst job in politics, perhaps the worst job anywhere. I do not necessarily agree. I just see it every day as a privilege. It takes me about half an hour each day when I wake up to realise I am the opposition leader, and I think that is because I have to pinch myself to realise I occupy such a significant position. There have only been 44 of us since this state came about. Twelve are still alive, most of them are Liberals—that says something—but it is a unique job. Many of the 12 I would rely on for advice and support along the way, largely because many of them are Liberals. It is a unique job with unique pressures but a unique opportunity as well.

It is my deep desire that my team and I do this job well because the system of democracy, our Westminster system, really requires us to step up and put forward an alternative vision for the state and to challenge the government along the way. It might look messy sometimes and it might look messy in question time, and it might look messy when I do my grieves after question time, but actually it works. It works pretty well most of the time, and we should be incredibly grateful for the system of democracy that we have inherited. We have our own particular takes on it along the way, but it works well and it delivers for this state.

I want to thank my leadership team who help me do my job well: the deputy leader, the member for Morialta; the Hon. Nicola Centofanti, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council; and the Hon. Jing Lee, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council—a leadership team who serve me exceptionally well.

I want to thank my shadow ministers and my entire parliamentary party. There is not one of them I do not call a friend, there is not one of them I do not respect and there is not one of them I do not want to do the very best t they can do in both serving their constituents and also fulfilling their roles on the front bench.

My job/our jobs are made so much easier by the staff we have around us. The Premier listed staff members who rally around his team and ensure that each day they can do their jobs serving the state. On our side of the house in the Liberal Party we have the same. We have people, many of whom do not do it for the money—they could probably get paid better elsewhere—but they turn up day in, day out because they are passionate about a community, they are passionate about an ideology and they are passionate about working hard for the state of South Australia.

I want to pay particular tribute to my Chief of Staff, Ryan Smith. I tell Ryan about 75 per cent of his pay is to absorb all my nonsense and the other 25 per cent is actually to produce the goods. Being the Chief of Staff is a really difficult job, and they are at the end of the phone from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, making sure that I am equipped and my team are equipped to do our jobs well.

I want to thank Ben Harvy for his role as my media director; Elise Baker for her role in the media team; Erik Ruehl; Natalie Duenn, who is on maternity leave—and we congratulate Natalie for the birth of baby Sunny recently; it was not an easy journey for Natalie over the last couple of years, and we are just so heartened that she and her husband, Jo, have baby Sunny in their arms today. I want to thank Stuart Peevor, who works with me and Nicola Centofanti; Pia George; Julian Robertson; and Samuel Murison. Samuel is headed overseas to Oxford or Cambridge.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Oxford.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Oxford—I knew it was one of the fancy universities over there; he is very smart and he is going to do good things at Oxford University. We have Lucy Huxter, Patrick Moller and Stuart Brennan. There are also staff who work across offices in the opposition: Caitlin Organ, Dawid Jurczak, Liam Hindshaw and Jonah Edwardes.

I think it is really important to pay tribute to my electorate office. When you are the Leader of the Opposition—and I know the Premier would certainly agree with me—your ability to get to your electorate office, your ability to undertake some of the activities that other members of parliament might take for granted is that bit more limited, and my electorate is incredibly important to me.

I am only the Leader of the Opposition because first and foremost I am the member for the seat of Black, but I could not be the member for the seat of Black if it was not for the team down there in the electorate office at Hallett Cove who open the door, welcome people through, answer all the phone calls from people who phone there who really should phone here, and divert them here—the process of diverting them here might take a minute, five minutes, an hour—that is just part of the job down in the Hallett Cove office. I want to thank Jana Kranixfeld for her role as my office manager, Ben Freeman for his role assisting Jana, Rachel Koch and also Blake Darer. They do the most magnificent job in keeping everything running well.

The Premier mentioned the Public Service. While the Public Service is largely there to serve the government of the day, they also have a role in assisting the opposition. They provide us with briefings and they run our state. I really want to take this time to thank the Public Service, particularly those who are more intimately involved in the day-to-day process of cabinet and the Cabinet Office but the broader Public Service and the frontline Public Service.

Many of us will have a break over the Christmas period, but there are many who will not: police officers, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses and many others. Those public servants will not necessarily be having a break over Christmas; many of them will be rostered on. They will be there to keep us safe, they will be there to catch us when something goes wrong in South Australia. There will be bushfires this summer—there is no doubt about that, there always are. We hope they are insignificant, but they will happen. There will be public servants out there fighting them and there will be public servants picking up the pieces thereafter.

There will be public servants who are trying to keep us safe on the roads. We have talked too much about the road toll in this state over the last couple of weeks, and hopefully we will not be talking about it too much over the next four weeks—but we may well be and there will be families impacted, but there will be public servants there trying to help people and breaking news to people. Those public servants deserve to be at the absolute forefront of our minds every day of the year, actually, but at Christmas time it is that little bit harder.

I will close by again saying what an incredible state we live in. I do not feel there is any animosity between me and anyone in this building. We disagree; there is a level of adversity between us in the battle of ideas, but there is no real animosity. There are certainly no hate. I do not believe there is even any great dislike. I call the Premier of South Australia a friend. There are other places in the world where he and I could not be in the same room because it would not be safe for us to be able to do so. He and I can have a coffee and we can talk on the phone about things that matter from a strategic point of view for our state. That is a great thing about our democracy, and let's hold onto that. I wish everyone a very merry Christmas, a great new year, and I look forward to seeing you all in 2024.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

The SPEAKER: I understand there is some additional business and therefore it may be necessary for a minister to move that the house sit beyond 6pm. I do recognise that we are all very anxious to resolve matters as speedily as possible.

Sitting extended beyond 18:00 on motion of Hon. A. Koutsantonis.

The SPEAKER (17:57): It has been traditional for me to make a number of remarks, but because we are so close to time I simply want to amplify those remarks that have already been made and to say that this is the only occasion which we have, as a parliament, to recognise those who assist us. We are deeply grateful. We require the assistance of a small and specialised cadre of the civil or Public Service. They build up vast knowledge, they maintain that knowledge and they deploy it for our benefit—but actually they deploy it for the benefit of the people of our state.

Those people sit in front of me, above me, at the head of the chamber and right throughout this building. There are more than 150 people who come to work here every day. Their sole purpose is to assist us and to assist our democracy. There are many others who come into this building—I think on occasion there are up to 230 people here gathering when we sit. As I say, their careers are dedicated to our state, to assisting us in our roles, and we are so deeply grateful. The Premier and the opposition leader have rightly mentioned many of those people today and, as I say, I amplify their remarks.

This is also, on indulgence of the house, an opportunity for me to briefly thank my personal staff: Airlie, Lukas, Nicole, Kayla and, by relief, Lauren. They assist me. Also working very closely with me, of course, are Rick, David and all of the house staff. They put up with me; I am sure it is not an easy task, but they do not show any immediate frustration. No doubt they take that frustration elsewhere. Thank you. Really, it is a service that cannot be overlooked.

To both houses and to both parties in this house and in the other house and to the President, of course, of the other place and to his staff, it has been a pleasure working with you all, particularly the Premier and the opposition leader.

Can I particularly mention the Leader of Government Business and the Leader of Opposition Business, with whom I work very frequently. This year, I think it is right that we emphasise the work of the whips who have achieved behind the scenes quite significant and useful reform. Their relationship maintained by the both of them is actually essential to everything we do.

I bring my remarks to a close there because we are right on 6 o'clock and, despite the extension, I am hopeful that we might resolve our business very close to 6 o'clock.

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