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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-01 Daily Xml
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Supply Bill 2024

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 30 April 2024.)

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (16:09): For those who were listening, watching and engaging yesterday, we started our little—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The whole state was watching.

Ms CLANCY: I am sure the whole state was watching. I am going to continue our journey through the electorate of Elder. We started off with Clarence Park and did a bit of Westbourne Park. We are going to do a bit of a zigzag across the electorate, just for those looking in their Gregory's or for the newer generations on Google Maps, and we are going to head over now to Clarence Gardens.

I committed funding before the election to jointly support with the City of Mitcham some work on AA Bailey Reserve, particularly around the Cumberland United soccer pitch. What that work now means is that it is a lot safer when it has been raining because we have done a lot of work around the drainage, so now more cars are able to park around the oval safely and people are able to get to and from the clubrooms, etc., much more easily. It is much more accessible now. What that also means are fewer cars on the surrounding suburban streets, so it is a real little win-win.

Just over in Melrose Park, we have started work on some new classrooms at Edwardstown Primary School. I know the community is really excited about that. It will include an additional classroom within that new build, and I am really looking forward to seeing that work progress.

In Melrose Park, we also committed funding to Rozelle Reserve and that work I believe is underway. I need to have a quick chat with the council. The work was all tendered out and ready to roll, so there will be a new playground there and a new barbecue, etc., which will make it a much nicer park to use for the local community and for people to come together.

Across in Colonel Light Gardens—we are going on the other side of Goodwood Road now—I was really happy last year to deliver on an election commitment for a heritage-style archway at Ludgate Circus that matches the archway at Oxford Circus. It is just a beautiful in and out to a section of Colonel Light Gardens. I was really pleased to see so many people come out to celebrate the opening, including members of the incredibly active and engaged Colonel Light Gardens Residents' Association.

There is also work well underway now in terms of the planning for the upgrades of Mortlock Park, particularly the Gil Langley Building there. That building really needed a little bit of work, so it is going to have work done on the existing building and will also have the addition of women's changerooms. I think it is so important to increase women's and girls' participation in sport more generally and particularly in that location football and baseball. Currently, the women and girls playing baseball are getting changed in the car park because it is really the only option for them, so I am really looking forward to that being built and us making it a much more welcoming place for our women and girls in sport.

Now we are going to jump over Springbank, but before we get all the way over, we did do a traffic study as promised on Springbank Road. There was a lot of community consultation and I do want to thank particularly Andrea and the community and others who did really fight for that traffic study to be committed to because we want to make Springbank Road safer, particularly for people coming across and going to and from Colonel Light Gardens and Lower Mitcham and between Clapham and Panorama, which heads over into the member for Waite's electorate.

We want to make it easy for people to come across to go to CC Hood Reserve, which I will speak about in a moment, to use their dog park and their playground and also for people coming from the south to the north to access local schools, such as Colonel Light Gardens Primary School and St Therese. That traffic study was done, and a recommendation has been put forward for a pedestrian actuated crossing just west of Eliza Place near Daniels Road. There are conversations now happening and I am advocating for the funding for that. The state government has been in conversation with the federal government to try to get funding for a joint project, which will be really excellent.

I did just mention CC Hood Reserve. That was another one of our commitments. One of the first things I committed to as a candidate was a $1 million upgrade to a very well loved reserve in Panorama. What we have going in there is, firstly, some soccer goals, and the next thing will be a mini basketball court with a basketball ring. We will also be having a pump track and an additional dog park for small dogs, which was something the community asked for.

Another part of that upgrade will be moving the playground closer to the toilet. As I am sure you all remember from my speech yesterday, you do not know how important a toilet is until you need it, especially with young children. I am not sure about other people's experiences, but I find that my daughter only realises she needs to go to the toilet when we have left home, despite me always encouraging a good-quality preventive wee as they all recommend in the TV show Bluey. Unfortunately, it does not always work, but I am glad that we have a toilet there and that the playground will be much closer to the toilet, which will be really great for the community.

As we head a little bit west, there is such great work happening at the Repat. There is so much excellent stuff going on, including a new six-bed facility called CARE which helps to divert some people, where appropriate, away from Flinders emergency and they are able to get the support they need at the Repat.

For anyone who drives down Daws Road or Goodwood Road, you have probably seen the ambulance station that is being built there. That ambulance station is going up pretty quickly, as far as builds go—I am quite impressed—and it is looking excellent. I cannot wait for it to open, hopefully by the end of the year, in our community. There are actually paramedics ready to go straight in there. At the moment, those additional paramedics are working from the Marion Ambulance Station in Mitchell Park, but as soon as our new ambulance station is completed they will be moving over there, which will be really great for our community and also really great for those workers, because at the moment they are probably feeling a little bit squishy with the Marion crew, so it will be really great for them to have their own space again.

Also, just across the road behind Springbank Secondary, we have the Pasadena Community Centre. I have spoken about this centre before, and I think it is so important to do this work that is all about connecting community. What happened before the election was the City of Mitcham purchased the old Sea Scouts hall in Pasadena because the community had fought really hard, asking for it to be purchased so that it could become a community centre. I committed, before the election, that our government—if we were successful—would give $500,000 towards that building becoming a community centre.

It has been incredibly special watching that community centre thrive and flourish. It is a little epicentre of the community and they do so many different things there. You can constantly see people on the Facebook page reaching out for help. The other day, they did not have someone to teach chess for the chess afternoon, and someone put up their hand and immediately went there. It is about creating these new connections and new conversations with the community, and making sure people have a sense of belonging that is really special. It not only feels good and makes your day better, it is also really great for our mental health.

What else have I got across Pasadena? We will head over to Clovelly Park now. This was not one of my election commitments, but this is something that our government has delivered, and that is a 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park. It has already been really well utilised in the times that it previously was not open, those late night hours. I spent one very stressful night just after the state election—if only we could have opened it that quickly—when my daughter had a fever of over 40° and she was so miserable.

An honourable member interjecting:

Ms CLANCY: I know! Little baby, she was so miserable. What I did not realise at the time, but I discovered the next day, was that she actually had COVID. Clearly, COVID had affected her tastebuds and she was refusing Nurofen—which normally she loves the taste of, weirdly, but she hated it. She was refusing Nurofen and that temperature was not going down on its own. I was putting messages in all the community groups that I am in, seeing if anyone happened to be awake at two or three in the morning and happened to have children's Panadol or children's Benadryl or something else that maybe she would take instead. It was incredibly stressful. I was also messaging a friend who is a nurse and a friend who is an ambo. They both instructed me to stay calm, not head to the hospital, not call an ambulance, that she was going to be okay, and I could try to bring down her temperature as best as I could until the shops opened in a couple of hours.

I found that support really helpful, but not everyone has those excellent healthcare professionals to talk to when you are worried about something like this. I can completely understand that some people would call an ambulance, which is obviously not something that we want to encourage unless it is absolutely necessary; but when you are a panicked parent, you can understand why people want to do it. By having these pharmacists open 24/7, it enables people of any age, no matter what their experience, to actually go talk to a healthcare professional, a pharmacist, and receive some support without having to go into our hospitals.

Just quickly, while we are talking about pharmacists, I want to mention again the changes that our government has made around UTI antibiotics. It is another great initiative that will mean fewer presentations to the ED. It can be really tricky to get into a GP. When you have a UTI, and you have had UTIs before, you know what is going on for you and you know what you need. If you are not able to get to a GP, it can get to a point where you need to go to hospital because it is spreading to your kidneys.

From personal experience, I can say that that is incredibly painful, and the last thing you want to do is walk into an ED doubled over in pain saying, 'I'm sorry, I should have gone to see a GP. I just couldn't get in,' or 'I couldn't afford it,' or 'I didn't have time.' Having the opportunity to go to a pharmacist and get the medical support you need is great. I am really excited—I think it may have started today or sometime this month—about similar changes for the contraceptive pill.

I got sidetracked by our exciting 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park, but now I will take you to Mitchell Park, where—you will not believe it—I am going to talk about toilets again. I was doorknocking as a candidate, and a number of people in the community around Maldon Avenue and the reserve there raised with me the fact that there were no local public toilets. I made an election commitment. We delivered on that election commitment. We had an opening of the toilet; it was very exciting. It had been christened by someone else, I am sure. We had a barbecue, the City of Marion provided a coffee van, and it was just a really lovely morning of, again, community connection.

The other day, I was back doorknocking in Mitchell Park because my job is talking to our community all the time, not just election time. One person said, 'My wife reckons she's the reason we have this toilet.' I said, 'Well, she is one of the reasons because she is one of the people who raised it with me before the election.' Then, another man stopped me as he was on the way to the park with his little girl and said, 'Local member, thank you so much for the toilet at Maldon Avenue Reserve. It means that we can have our daughter's three-year-old birthday party there in a couple of weeks' time.' It just shows that what seems to be a little thing can actually be quite a big thing for our community.

We are now going to go a little bit over and head to Tonsley. One thing that people raised with me, when I was doorknocking in Mitchell Park, was the fact that there were no toilets or drinking fountains available on the weekends in Tonsley. The Tonsley Innovation District and the precinct is really great. There is a big shaded, sheltered area where a lot of people go to teach their children how to ride their bikes or their scooters. I have taken my daughter there when I know it is going to be a 42⁰ day. I have taken her there in the morning to ride without the sun beating down on her and to help her get a bit worn out before we go and hide inside with the fan on and all the curtains closed. I know it is a really great place where people come together. I have been to a number of kids' birthday parties at the Tonsley, but obviously all of that is only possible now because we have ensured that toilets are available on the weekends and that there are drinking fountains. It is something I am really proud of.

Another thing that I am really excited about with Tonsley is the technical college that will be built there in the very near future. I am really excited about the skills that will be provided to our young people as a great alternative to university. There are more things to come in the electorate of Elder. One thing I know a lot of people are excited about is that, as part of the Torrens to Darlington project, we will be redoing the Raglan/South Road/Ackland/Edward Street area. It is not just one intersection; it is a bit of a dogleg. We will be making significant improvements to that space. Part of that will be a dedicated right-hand turn arrow for traffic heading west down Edward Street who want to turn right onto South Road. I am really excited about that. It is going to make a huge difference to traffic in the area. I believe it will significantly reduce rat-running because it will make it a lot easier for people to use that intersection.

More broadly, I am incredibly proud of other things we are doing across the state. In our healthcare system we have already recruited 691 extra nurses, 329 extra doctors, 219 extra ambos and 193 extra allied health workers. That is not to be sneezed at. That is an incredible effort that has been done by our government. I want to thank Minister Chris Picton for all his incredible hard work. We have opened the three 24/7 pharmacies and we are building and opening 150 more hospital beds this year and another 130 next year.

There has also been great work done in the education space. We have responded to the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. That response has been delivered. We have already built and opened the Findon Technical College with more to come, including Tonsley. We have passed the legislation to establish the new Adelaide University and funded an autism inclusion teacher for every public primary school.

In housing, we got rid of stamp duty for eligible first-home buyers, passed landmark reforms to residential tenancy laws, announced the largest land release in our state's history and announced the first substantial increase to public housing in a generation.

I am really proud of all that our government has achieved in our first two years and I am really looking forward to everything else we will deliver over the next two years.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (16:26): I rise to speak on the Supply Bill 2024, which is an opportunity for me about a month out from the state budget to talk about some of my local priorities in the eastern suburbs and in the Hills, some of the things I will be looking out for, hopefully, in a state budget to be delivered in a few weeks' time.

There are three things in particular that I have been campaigning on over the past couple of years. The first is around road infrastructure and heavy vehicles on our local roads, including Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road, in my electorate. The second is a number of other road-safety improvements that I think are needed around our local schools in the eastern suburbs. The third is the need for more schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs and the need for a new school in the eastern suburbs to cater for ever-growing demand as well as population growth. I want to talk to each of those things initially.

First is the issue of trucks on our local roads. I make no apology for raising this issue in the house at every available opportunity because we have a very big problem, which is a huge number of heavy vehicles coming down the South Eastern Freeway every year. There are about 650,000 heavy vehicles coming down the freeway and then spewing out onto one of three residential roads, whether it is Cross Road, Glen Osmond Road or Portrush Road in my electorate.

We know that most of those heavy vehicles, or at least most of the B-doubles, choose to come out onto Portrush Road in my electorate. I think about 80 per cent of the B-doubles that come down the South Eastern Freeway are coming out onto Portrush Road. There are about 1,000 heavy vehicles per day coming down Portrush Road past schools in my electorate such as Loreto College, Seymour College and Linden Park Primary School. These heavy vehicles are passing nursing homes and shops in my electorate, past all things that really do not mix well with B-doubles.

We know it is a road congestion issue, an environmental issue, and a health issue but perhaps most importantly it is a road-safety issue. It feels like we only ever want to talk about this problem when there is a terrible tragedy on Portrush Road or at the bottom of the freeway. The most recent of them was very soon after I was elected. There was a giant crash involving a number of vehicles, a bus and, of course, a truck. Thankfully at that time there were no fatalities, but that was the fifth major crash at that intersection since 2010, including on a number of occasions, very sadly, fatalities.

We do not want to wait for another tragedy before we take some action on this issue because, quite frankly, this is an issue that has been deliberately set up this way in the sense that I think Adelaide is the only capital city in all of Australia where our major freight route runs straight through our metropolitan area, straight through residential suburbs in my electorate. I think, frankly, it is ludicrous that a truck that wants to travel from Melbourne to Perth has to do so by coming down Portrush Road, in my electorate, thundering past school children and residents.

I have spent basically the entirety of my time since being elected in parliament identifying this problem but not only, I think importantly, identifying the problem but also talking about a potential solution, which is in the form of the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, which is a plan that will ensure that these sort of heavy vehicles, the truck that needs to drive from Melbourne to Perth never gets to the bottom of the freeway and never has to travel down Portrush Road in my electorate.

We know that this is a good idea. We have had officials from the Department for Infrastructure and Transport tell a public meeting that I attended last year that it is a good idea. They used words such as 'economically positive'. They said there was actual demand in industry to use that road and it would be a benefit to their businesses, being the truck drivers. So not only a good thing for my local community but a good thing for the industry, and I think the state more generally. The other thing they unfortunately told us at that time was that this was not a project that was funded and, indeed, there was not a lot of action in terms of on-the-ground work to make it happen.

I think it is an incredibly frustrating thing when, on the one hand, my local community is being told there is a solution to a problem that we have identified and that it is economically positive and viable, but then on the other hand being told that it is not funded and it is not seeing a lot of action on the ground. They were doubly disappointed this year when we saw the only part of the project that was funded, the Truro freight route, having money ripped out of it by Labor governments. I think the Truro freight route is an important project in and of itself to the community there, and, importantly, it is also a very important first step in a much wider project which is the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass.

That was funded, and I think that project represented for the first time a departure from parliamentarians and communities talking about these sort of ideas for freight bypasses and actually putting some money on the table, which is why it was incredibly disappointing to see it ripped away by Labor earlier this year. Unfortunately, I think if there is no Truro freight route, there will be no Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, which means there is no plan to get trucks off local roads in the eastern suburbs such as those on Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road.

So you can understand why I will continue to very vigorously advocate for funding for this project to be restored, and also for a Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass to be realised so that trucks can stop thundering down our local roads. What I do not understand is why every member who has Portrush Road running through their electorate would not be advocating in the same vigorous fashion. I note the new member for Dunstan's comments in March of this year when she said, and I quote:

South Australia's a small State and having a bypass is a hugely expensive piece of infrastructure...trucks will always be to some degree on Portrush Road.

I think that just represents the new member for Dunstan throwing her hands in the air, giving up on getting trucks off Portrush Road and settling for what is really a very unsatisfactory situation where we have a major freight route running through our local streets.

What I also do not understand is why every member who has Cross Road running through their electorate would not be similarly and vigorously advocating for a freight bypass, because we know, when the north-south corridor is complete, the majority of these trucks will be going down Cross Road to try to reach that corridor.

We know that from the now Treasurer's comments, back in 2017 when he was shadow treasurer and he was on ABC Adelaide and it was put to him by Matthew Abraham: 'So they'll then go down Cross Road.' The now Treasurer said, 'Yes, that's right. That's the long-term plan which has been agreed to by the federal and state governments, which is currently being funded by the federal and state governments, and that's why it's a project priority.' Matthew Abraham replied, 'So you're going to have B-doubles rumbling down Portrush Road and, just for a bit of novelty, rumbling down Cross Road. So really running down heavily populated areas with lots of schools hanging off them.' Then the now Treasurer said, 'It's not a novelty…this is what's in the state's best economic interests.'

Our problem in the eastern suburbs, for my community living on and around Portrush Road, is very fast going to become the problem of all those living on and around Cross Road. That might be good news for my local community, who I think will see fewer trucks on Portrush Road, but all it is doing is shifting the problem elsewhere. The Treasurer might think that is okay but I do not, and I think the only long-term and sustainable solution to this problem is a proper freight route in the form of the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. I will keep advocating for that, even if others in this place bizarrely and sadly will not.

I mentioned that it is a road congestion issue, but of course it is also a road safety issue. That is the second thing I want to talk about today: another road safety issue, particularly around schools in the eastern suburbs and in my local electorate. I think this is a problem right across the state, but it was something that really had a light shone on it in my local area in fairly tragic circumstances, when two children, who were trying to do nothing more than get to school at Marryatville High School, were tragically hit when a truck failed to stop at that school crossing.

Since that time, I have been advocating for a lot of improvements at that particular school crossing. I do want to thank the former minister for road safety for his assistance in getting some really good improvements at that crossing, including a new red-light camera, which is something that that school community had been advocating for. I think the incident showed that this was not a problem that was just confined to Marryatville High School. Indeed, I think there is a lot of work that can be done right across the state and particularly right across my electorate to improve road safety at a number of school crossings.

I have undertaken a body of consultation work with every school in my electorate to get their specific feedback on what we should and could be doing. I have passed that on to the former minister for road safety, and just today I have written to the new Minister for Road Safety. I hope that he considers funding some of these projects, whether it be at Seymour College and issues around Gilles Road; whether it be at Loreto College, where there are lot of issues on Portrush Road and drivers running red lights, and there is also suggestion for a footbridge there; or whether it be at Pembroke School, in the electorate of Dunstan, where I know there are a lot issues at the dogleg intersection of Shipsters Road, The Parade and Gurrs Road.

At Glenunga International High School there are issues as well, particularly at the T-junction right at the front of that school, and Burnside Primary School has issues at a school crossing, or semi-school crossing, on Glynburn Road. St Peter's Girls' School have made some suggestions about Hallett Road, and Linden Park Primary School and the school crossing on Portrush Road was identified as one of the most dangerous in the state, so I have summarised a lot of that feedback and sent it through to the minister. I hope that some of those projects at least can be considered being funded. I have omitted, of course, Rose Park Primary School as well, which is my most recent letter to the new minister, with a number of suggestions that could take place there, particularly in light of yet another accident at that school.

I note that the government did announce on 20 December last year a new investment program in road safety around the state. They did not at that time outline what projects or locations would be funded, so I do hope that as part of that process perhaps some of these ideas for schools in the eastern suburbs might be considered.

Finally, I wanted to talk about schools more generally. We have some of the very best schools in the state, I think, in the eastern suburbs, and in my electorate. I am very proud to have a great number of our best schools, but we do have a problem, and it is a good problem to have, but it is a problem nevertheless; they are so good that they are bursting at the seams.

I think, at least until recently, all three primary schools in my electorate—Burnside, Rose Park and Linden Park—were subject to capacity management plans, and the two high schools in my electorate—Glenunga and Marryatville High School—are over capacity. Indeed, Glenunga International High School was projected to be 153 students over capacity at the beginning of this year, and Marryatville High School 136 students over capacity at the beginning of this year, and I note that Glenunga is also subject to a capacity management plan. What that means is that local kids cannot go to local schools.

As recently as last week, I met with two new constituents of mine who have just moved into Frewville. One of the reasons they have moved into Frewville is because it is about 300 metres from Glenunga International High School where they wanted to send their children, but because of the capacity management plan, because the school is full, they are being told that Glenunga cannot accept them. They are being told Marryatville cannot accept them, and they are being sent as their nearest available option to Springbank Secondary College, which is a bit of a distance from their house, which is just a matter of metres from Glenunga high school. It has a really real impact on our local community when local kids cannot get into local schools, and when these capacity management plans are in place.

I think local kids deserve to be able to go to local schools, and to be able to do that it is obvious we need to dramatically increase schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs. I have been calling for a new school in the eastern suburbs but, at the very least, we need to be able to invest in and increase the capacity of the schools that we have. We are in this problem now, and we are in this problem now well before we even talk about the Labor government's plan to dramatically increase density and population in the eastern suburbs.

I note in particular the Labor minister announcing the initiation of a new code amendment at Glenside that would see housing—apartment towers—built up to 20 storeys tall, which will dwarf the eight-storey buildings that were already planned for that site, and add a number of new dwellings to that site. The problem is the planning has all been done based on eight storeys. The planning for public infrastructure, whether it be car parking, whether it be open space, whether it indeed be the sewerage, is all on the basis of eight storeys, and a thousand new dwellings at that strategic infill site.

What we see now is the plan being changed at the last minute, and I say that that is bad planning from the Labor super minister. It is bad planning because it is not the plan. The plan was a thousand new dwellings and eight-storey towers. But what no-one has considered in this whole discussion—at least yet—is where the kids are going to go to school because Glenside is zoned to Glenunga International High School. Glenunga International High School is full, yet these towers have not even been built.

My constituents in Frewville, even without these new towers, are being turned away from Glenunga International High School. So it is all good and well to think, 'Here is a great strategic infill site with a thousand dwellings; let's just double it,' but you cannot do that in isolation without thinking about the public infrastructure around it. One of the biggest issues for us in the eastern suburbs—and there are many—will be our schooling capacity. There needs to be a really serious conversation about increasing that even before we talk about increasing the population for these school zones.

These are just some of the things that I will be looking out for in the budget that is upcoming in a month or so. I think we really need to make a concerted effort to invest in road infrastructure to see trucks off our local roads. I think we need to improve road safety at schools in the eastern suburbs, and I think we need to seriously increase the schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs, including through a new school. We need to do that now and we especially need to do it if there is going to be a dramatic increase in population and density in the eastern suburbs.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (16:46): I rise today in support of the Supply Bill and would like to talk about some of the wonderful things that happen in my community and things we have been able to work on and deliver. I want to reflect a little bit on something the member for Elder spoke about and that is the Tonsley Technical College that will soon be built at Tonsley. I know firsthand the benefit of something like this and how it could really help our kids. Especially in my community, I know that we will have lots of students that will be going to the science and maths school and then going on to the technical college.

There are students who learn in different ways and that is something that we need to embrace and understand. Personally, I know that there are some students who are very good with their hands and they are very good at doing a lot of manual labour, but they are also thirsty to learn. Sometimes, the way that schools teach them is not exactly conducive to their learning type and that sometimes results in students not completing their schooling and falling through the system.

A technical college that provides them with the opportunity to start a trade whilst they are learning and use that learning to progress their skills is something that cannot be underestimated. I think the Tonsley Technical College will be doing exactly that: providing opportunity for students to start their training and become a carpenter or a builder or anything that they desire that is available at that college and at all our technical colleges across the state. It is just another way of contributing to their education and setting them on their way. I think it is a wonderful opportunity for lots of students and I think there will be some really great outcomes for trades in our state.

In my local area, I have been really pleased to work with the Friends of Belair Station. This is a group that worked tirelessly to keep the Belair train station looking as good as it does. Over the last two years that I have been their member, I have watched them do so much work in the garden, in painting the station, in keeping it clean, and in keeping the beautiful garden right next to the national park looking so great.

They constantly came and saw me about the need to restore the Belair train station shelter. It is a heritage item that has been there since the late 1800s. It is one that we have wanted to restore for a really long time, and I was really glad to be able to help them to do that. In conjunction with Keolis Downer, the shelter is currently being restored. It took a little while, but we got there in the end. Just to provide an update to my community, the shelter is going to have new columns, hardwood plinths and strip footings, new roof beams, and the replacement of life-expired cladding. Some of the cladding was eaten by termites and was starting to rot away and so it is great that that will be replaced.

There will also be new stormwater infrastructure to keep it solid in the future, the rebuilding of the paving and the edging, the rebuilding of the bench seats so it is useable, and the resurfacing of the life-expired pavement under the shelter, and then it will all be repainted. We are anticipating that these works will be completed, pending the weather, by the end of June and I cannot thank the volunteers enough for all of the advocacy that they have put in. I also thank the department and Keolis Downer for their contributions to enable the restoration of this shelter.

The Belair train station is such an important part of the historical story of my area. In fact, with May Day today—not quite related but almost—there was a Labour Day picnic there at the Belair National Park, when over a thousand people used the train to come up a long, long time ago and had a picnic in the park to celebrate that eight-hour day, and I wish everybody a happy May Day.

Further on from that is an update I would like to provide on the Belair National Park around the Playford Lake. The Playford Lake is a beautiful asset we have in the Belair National Park. It is full of ducks and it is a beautiful natural setting. I know I have been going there for a long time; in fact, I used to run away there when I was having a fight with my parents. I would go and sit there and watch and feed the ducks. For a long time, it has been getting a little bit tired and it is also not an inclusive track. Due to the undulating path, it is very difficult for people who are in a wheelchair or even parents with pushers to be able to use them properly, and it is really great now that that is being redeveloped. It is going to look fabulous. Stage 1 has already started and that includes:

demolition of the existing redundant staircase which, if you have been there, it is just some sleepers dug into the hillside—very good if you are trying to keep fit to run up and down there, but it needs to be brought into today's compliance standards;

demolition of the existing bridge structure, which again was just some pieces of wood all tied together. That will be reconstructed with new boardwalks, which will look great; and

demolition of the existing trail, as I said. It is completely undulating and not able to be used by lots of people, so it will be realigned and the walking surface will be re-laid with the construction of approximately 800 metres of a new trail that is DEA compliant.

Moving on from there into 2024, that should be finished by June as well. Stage 2 will start between 2024 and 2025, which will include new car parks, a new existing barbecue area and toilet facilities, which will be just great. The toilets there are a little sad as well, so it will be really good to see that whole area get an uplift. I know how much my community loves the Belair National Park and every time we can do something to make that even more usable for everybody, then that is a really great outcome.

I am a big fan of public transport and getting people on the train and on the bus, and so I am doing all I can to make sure our stations are looking as great as possible. We recently had our shelter at the Glenalta train station repainted by the wonderful artist, Nicky Create. She came in and she has completely covered it in beautiful native flowers and birdlife, and it just looks incredible. You can see it when you drive straight down the main road of Blackwood when you are heading out of town. It is something to be proud of. The beautiful thing about painting murals on things is that other artists tend to leave it alone, and so far we have seen that that is the outcome for that. So I want to thank Nicky for all her work throughout my community and everyone's community. She has done a lot of work all the way through our rail corridor on various buildings, shelters and even signal boxes—so thank you Nicky.

There is more work to do at Glenalta station, and I am working with local community groups on the garden and working with the local hotel as well that wants to be involved. We are working towards making that whole area look good and next week I will be there with the Blackwood Action Group, continuing to work on a little garden that we started last year. It is an area that had been left for a really long time—years and years of just dirt—and it looked like a bit of a barren wasteland as you drove into Blackwood. We planted a whole lot of plants there last year and we are about to plant some more, and it is going to be looking wonderful.

Continuing with public transport and shelters, my year 5/6 class at Hawthorndene Primary School last year—I spoke about it before—came to me with the idea of wanting a bus shelter out the front of their school and also one around the corner on the bottom of Rankeys Hill Road. Those have now been installed and the artwork was provided by the students. We got one of our local artists, Adam Poole-Mottishaw, to take the art that the students had created and transpose it onto the shelters. Those have all been finished and when you drive through there they look wonderful and I think they really make you want to catch the bus, which is great.

Last week, another bus shelter was installed at Blackwood High School and Blackwood Primary School. Quite often after school the students will cross the road and sit and wait for the bus and they have been seen to sit just on the side of the road. We needed to provide them somewhere to sit and somewhere to be sheltered and that shelter was installed this week, so the students would have gone back on Monday and they would have been able to utilise that bus shelter. I want to thank the local community for coming to see me and asking me to help them with that project.

If we turn to train stations, it is the case that we were able to acquire the land at the Torrens Park train station. It has been a piece of land that has been sitting there for a long time and it was destined to be a 24/7 petrol station. The community was not keen on that at all not only because of all the lighting but also the coming and going. It was at an intersection that is very dangerous just as it is and without needing to have more people trying to turn in and out of a service station.

We were able to acquire that land and now I will continue to work with the community as to what they want to see there. A lot of the feedback has been around a park-and-ride because the more places we can provide for people to park their cars so they can hop on the train and stay out of traffic and reduce pollution can only be a good thing. There is more work to do there, but I am hoping that we will be able to make that happen for our community.

Further on from there, I would like to talk a little bit around our investment in firefighting because it is something that is very close to my heart obviously but also important to my community because we are in an area that is of high bushfire risk. I spoke earlier today around helping firefighters directly through SPAM and our increase in investment in SPAM, but another big investment that we have made into firefighting is our aerial firefighting fleet.

You cannot underestimate the benefit of having more planes and more helicopters ready to go when a fire breaks out. You have a really small amount of time to get onto a fire before it takes off, especially on a hot and dry day and especially in grassland, so to be able to send out planes and helicopters that can get there within a really short amount of time, even probably before trucks are out of the station, to dump water on these fires really helps our on-ground firefighters and allows them to get on top of these fires quicker.

I know firsthand there was a fire down at Hallett Cove earlier this year that took off and the planes were able to get on top of it really quickly. I went down later to do some mopping up. Sometimes the job of our brigades is to just go and continue to put water on an already controlled fire to make sure it is out, but without those planes and those helicopters it could have been a different story for residents in Hallett Cove.

Further on from that, I also would like to talk a little bit around our commitment to health. This week, we went to the Flinders Medical Centre where the Marjorie Tripp Ward was opened. It is a beautiful ward. It has been refurbished. It was actually an administration area where a lot of the management sat. We have kicked them out and turned it into a 20-bed ward named after Marjorie Tripp, who was a wonderful advocate for equal rights and a distinguished servicewoman. It is really lovely that it has been named after her. Her family was there to open the little blinds on the plaque at the naming of that ward.

It was really lovely to walk around and see how peaceful the ward was, having lost my dad last year at Flinders Medical Centre. In the end we were in a room on our own, but my mum was having to hop into bed with my dad to keep him warm. There also was not really anywhere else for her to stay. We were trying to sleep on chairs, and it was not a really lovely way to say goodbye to a loved one.

This ward has eight rooms that are single-bed rooms. They have a pull-out day bed and the rooms are very peaceful. They have a beautiful view into the courtyard with lots of native vegetation and it will I know, for what is an incredibly difficult time, give a little bit of peace to family who are having to say goodbye.

When we were there we also talked a little bit around our investment in terms of all the extra nurses, doctors, allied health and ambos. We have 691 extra nurses, 329 extra doctors, 219 extra ambos and 193 extra allied health workers above attrition. That is a huge investment, and they are all pieces of a puzzle that we put together in order to try to fix our health system. There is a lot to do and we are continuing to do it, including at the Flinders Medical Centre which will have a big expansion going forward. This will only benefit my community, who not only work there—a lot of my community work there—but also need to go there in an emergency.

There are lots of things that we are doing as a state government to really push our state forward. I cannot be more proud of the things that we are able to do. There are lots of things to do within my electorate and I will continue to fight hard for all of them. I know that we would love to see every road, every intersection, every footpath, every bus shelter and every train station upgraded, and we will continue to do the work that we need to do to be able to make my area even more wonderful than it is. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (17:00): I rise today to provide my contribution to the Supply Bill debate for this year and I indicate that I am the lead speaker for the opposition in regard to this debate. What I would like to begin by doing today is, obviously, indicating the support of the opposition for the Supply Bill to pass this house and the other. It is one of the quirks, in some ways, of our institution and the parliament—but a good one, I may add. You only need to look abroad to other parliaments and other government institutions overseas to see the impact of shutdowns of federal and state governments off the back of supply or appropriation bills not being passed.

It is convention in this place that the Supply Bill is passed. I did some quick googling to see just how broad the impact of some of these shutdowns has been, particularly in the US where most of these are somewhat more well covered than other jurisdictions. One of the longest and more recent ones was in 2018 when the federal government in the US was shut down for 35 days, with significant impact to federal GDP in that country over that period of time. It is not just isolated to the federal government in the US; from time to time, there have been state governments shut down on the back of similar debates, the longest of which was in the state of California, as it turns out, where their government was shut down for 63 days. That is, obviously, something that we seek to avoid in this place, and the continuation of that convention is a good thing.

My remarks will be wide-ranging across a number of issues, particularly across the state economy and the small business sector in South Australia, in particular touching on the hospitality industry and the issues that are ongoing there; more broadly, across the state of South Australian households and the current cost-of-living issues that are being experienced across the board; and in regard to a couple of more recent pieces of thought leadership and surveys that have been conducted around the state, not just on the business community in South Australia but also on the state of the South Australian government sector and private sector, more generally, around productivity and where we can try our very best as a state to improve, to drive wealth and improve the lives of South Australians by ensuring that we are able to have new age, new sector jobs that produce for the next generation of South Australians.

That is what all of us across both sides of the aisle in this chamber are seeking to achieve: an outcome where we see the lives of South Australians improved as we move forward. I hope there is someone from the Treasurer's office listening to the debate. As an opposition, we did give the Treasurer's office and his staff a good near-month since the second reading speech to this place, which was undertaken on 10 April. There is a stark difference between what was inserted by leave into the Hansard on the day of the second reading and the details that are included on the copy of the bill that is before us and that was laid on the table. I am not sure if that is an issue with regard to the Treasurer at the time, who sought leave to insert his second reading and the explanation of clauses. I am not sure if that is an issue between what was provided to chamber staff here and henceforth into the Hansard.

I do not know if the Treasurer inadvertently provided erroneous details and numbers to this house, but I would say that it is probably time for the Treasurer to come into the house and hopefully provide some sort of explanation as to why, in his second reading speech, it has been indicated that he was seeking $6.5 billion, whereas the bill we have before us today is seeking $7.7 billion, a $1.2 billion difference. It is clear in other details in the explanation of clauses, the most important being that the end of the financial year date is for the financial year before what this bill is dealing with.

When I seek leave at the end of today's sitting to continue my remarks tomorrow, hopefully we will have an explanation from the Treasurer's office which is able to seek out in the Hansard those details as to why there seems to be such a significant difference in what is being sought for the state. Through this process, we essentially are providing a blank cheque to Treasury to continue the funding of government operations over a period of time until the Appropriation Bill is passed. Why it is so important that these details are correct, that the record is correct, is that obviously we are providing a significant amount of money for those purposes, and there is a significant difference between $6.5 billion and $7.7 billion. I do hope that that matter is rectified and that the record is corrected or that the issue, whether that is with Hansard or the Treasurer himself, is dealt with in a sensible time period.

With regard to the broader question around the state about the South Australian economy and the business sector in South Australia, I think we have to reflect on the rhetoric that has come from this government. We have a situation where essentially the Treasurer and the Premier, on the other side of the chamber, are saying that business has never had it better in South Australia, that people have never had it better in South Australia, that the economy is in such a good place that people should be excited about where we are.

What the opposition has seen, what I see when I have correspondence coming through to my office, what I have seen when I have spoken to small businesses around the state over the last 12 to 18 months, is that a lot of people are hurting. That is not just households in South Australia; that is small businesses in South Australia as well. Those in this place would well remember the work that was undertaken by the opposition to cost the extent to which the average South Australian family is worse off since this government was elected. We now have ticked well over $20,000 worse off. That goes across a range of categories, and whether that is with regard to home loan repayments on the back of interest rates increasing so drastically, whether that is electricity prices, or whether that is inflation on everyday goods and services that are purchased by that household, we have effectively seen the buying power of South Australian households completely diminished since this government came to power.

In the same way, small businesses across our state are dealing with essentially the same issues, that costs have escalated, whether that be rent, whether that be electricity, whether that be the cost of the goods that they are taking in to manufacture, to make, to produce whatever product or service that they are delivering. Small businesses are being bitten on both ends in that not just are we an environment where their costs have escalated to such a degree but also, conversely, when we have families out there whose buying power has been significantly impacted and are suffering through a cost-of-living crisis, those households, and rightfully so, have decided to tighten their belt, to spend less and to cut back where they can.

What that has led to is what can only be described, and has been described in public commentary to this point, as an apocalyptic state for the hospitality industry in South Australia. It is not something that we reflect on lightly. We know that those businesses in the hospitality industry obviously faced significant challenges through the COVID period, but that was a period when they were provided significant assistance through the JobKeeper program and through small business grants and supports. It was a period of time that was difficult for everybody to manage. But rightfully so, the government did everything within its power to support those small businesses and those larger businesses that were dealing with such significant issues across that period of time.

If we look back now, in particular one of the key goals of the JobKeeper program was to keep employers and employees linked during that period of time so that that tenure, that relationship between employee and employer could continue post-pandemic. When we have gotten to a situation where we have such a tight jobs market in South Australia, it can only be said that those existing relationships and the continuation of those can only have been a good thing for those businesses and those employees.

What is galling at the moment is the complete contrast in approach from those opposite who were so happy to go out and criticise the government at that period of time about the handling of those issues. They were so quick to stand up and stand next to businesses at that period of time who were struggling. As we shift forward two years into the life of the Malinauskas government, we have now entered a point in time when we have hospitality businesses everywhere, across a range of different subsectors, going broke or really struggling.

In The Advertiser today, we essentially had a list of the businesses that are either struggling or have gone belly up just since January of this year. It is not just isolated to a single pocket of metropolitan Adelaide. It is not just isolated to Adelaide itself but more broadly across our regions as well. The escalation of costs and the cost-of-living crisis has quite literally provided an environment where businesses are struggling.

I list those businesses that were outlined this morning by The Advertiser: the Tuck Shop by Soul Projects in Mount Gambier; the Cheffy Chelbys breakfast bar chain from Morphett Vale and Hallett Cove; Martini on the Parade in Norwood; Terroir Auburn in Auburn in the Clare Valley; Kim Wang supermarket in the Central Market; Hog's Breath Cafe at Glenelg, that has been there certainly for as long as I can remember, gone; Whole+Some, a bulk food store in the Adelaide Central Market gone; a Chatime outlet; and Cardone's seafood and grill, an iconic restaurant in Glenelg that had been operating through thick and thin, through COVID, out the other side, but saw that this current environment that we are in now as being the toughest that they had faced, to the point where they just could not do it anymore.

Also, Hammer 'N' Tongs restaurant out at Strathalbyn, My Lover Cindi in Adelaide, the Little Banksia Tree cafe in Bowden, Enzo's—something of an institution in South Australia—gone from the top of Port Road at Hindmarsh. There is also the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, the Folklore Cafe, Morris Bakery down at Naracoorte, Fancy That—not quite in the hospitality industry per se, but a costume shop down at Christies Beach—and nightclubs. Even in my local patch, we have lost two coffee shops just in the last couple of weeks: CIBO down at Henley Square and Coco Cacao in the Henley strip shops just across the other side of the square have closed in just the last couple of weeks.

These are businesses that are employers of South Australians. They are businesses that give young people their first jobs. These are businesses that are there because, in most circumstances, families have put their capital on the line to try to make a living doing something particularly around the hospitality industry, it can be said, that they love, that they enjoy, and that brings them pleasure by providing food, coffee or other services to their clientele.

If there was one consistent theme through the stories that we saw or even through visiting not too long ago the proprietor at Rusco & Brusco out in the electorate of Norwood, the common theme without a shadow of a doubt was increasing costs. It was increasing costs of electricity and it was the cost-of-living crisis that saw people spending less. We have heard a lot of talk from those opposite about the state of South Australia's economy but, again, there is a clear contrast between what households are feeling, what small businesses are feeling, and what is coming out of the mouths of those opposite.

What is stark to this point is the assistance, or should I say lack of assistance, that this government has given to try to assist these businesses. This is not something that came on overnight. It is something that we have seen, that we knew was coming, the extent of which we are really just starting to learn. If we reflect more broadly on the last budget, there was obviously at that point in time an electricity rebate scheme that was put in place by the government to assist not just households on concession payments but also small businesses, something that we obviously supported and would have liked to have seen go further.

In most circumstances, I think the telling reflection does not come from me in terms of that program but from the head of the South Australian Business Chamber. To paraphrase his reaction now nine months past the implementation of that scheme, the South Australian Business Chamber has effectively called for that concession to be doubled, citing that it did not even touch the sides in regard to the increases that came over the financial year. What we have is a stark contrast without any shadow of a doubt.

Given I have ten minutes to go, perhaps I will shift where I was going to journey and reflect slightly on the current situation of the state budget, particularly in the last couple of years, because I think it is helpful to provide a level of context as to what could have been done.

There were some remarks provided by the Premier today, in fact, that I think underline the situation very well. Again, to quote the media precis from today, the Premier's short quote was that state revenues remain strong. Never have truer words been spoken by the Premier, because the state's revenue has remained very strong. Why is that? There are a couple of pretty easy explanations for that. This is a government that has been one of the luckiest in the history of South Australia. They have effectively come to government at a point in time where they have benefited from significant inflation and significant house price increases.

So all the pain that South Australian households and small businesses have been feeling has been nothing but gain for Premier Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon. What he has seen is an uplift in revenue that is stratospheric, to be completely honest. It is not just in one isolated area—it is not just in payroll tax, it is not just in stamp duties and it is not just in GST—it is across the board. There is no easier explanation or way to communicate this to people but to turn it back to the household level. What has everybody been dealing with? The cost of going to pick up simple things like a loaf of bread and a carton of milk has increased by two or three dollars, or maybe more across that period of time if you look at services.

We have just got the inflation rate in South Australia to a point where it is below 4½ per cent for the first time in a 12-month period, just in the March quarter. Prior to that it was at levels that we had not seen for a significant period of time. Payroll tax, for instance, when you compare what the government expects to take in this financial year versus their first budget, it is $142 million more. For the next financial year it is $158 million more. Stamp duties are $180 million more than what was expected in their first budget for this current financial year and $162 million more than expected in the next financial year.

If you turn to GST revenue, for a period of time we had the Treasurer on the radio saying, quite literally, 'We've got that much GST coming in to the state that I want you to give me some ideas on how I should spend it.' It is in the order of $555 million more this financial year than was originally expected in the 2022-23 budget, and it is $608 million next financial year, with those numbers obviously to be updated in the budget in four to six weeks' time.

But that does tell not the whole story. It was such a wasted opportunity to have revenue increases to the extent that we have had over the past two years: in the order of $1.6 billion in total revenue more than what was expected in their first budget, and $2 billion more than what was expected in their first budget for the coming financial year. Instead of finding a way, during this tough time, to provide relief to South Australians and small businesses, what did this government do? It blew its budget across basically every government department last year.

It wasn't just that revenue went up—and mind you let's keep in mind the fact that the government does not get hit in the same way as a small business or a family budget does. The vast majority of government expenses are related to employee expenses, most of which are locked into longer term EB agreements, so we do not have the same up-front hit when inflation rises as the average business or the average household. But what did we see? Significant increases in government expenses, to the point where the overspend was in the order of $1.3 billion last year.

Instead of preaching restraint, instead of finding a way to release some of those funds to go back into the pockets of South Australian households, to go back into the pockets of South Australian small businesses doing it tough, instead of finding ways to perhaps further incentivise young people buying their first homes or to find ways to incentivise the change of supply around the housing sector in South Australia, instead of doing that, the estimation is that operating expenses across government will be up this year by $2.3 billion compared with this government's first budget. That is galling and it tells a tale.

It tells the tale of a number of things: a government that have so frequently said one thing but done another; a government that say they are here to be fiscally disciplined, to be sensible in their approach, but the reality is that they have not been able to control spending to this point. That is one of the things that we will be looking at very closely as the budget is handed down in just over a month's time.

The most galling part, as I said, was instead of finding a way to constrain that spend, it was locked into this financial year as the baseline. That overspend is now normal moving forward. We have just hit the state budget with just over $1½ billion dollars year on year based on the decisions taken by this government in their second budget.

I will move to some work that has been undertaken by the South Australian Business Chamber that was released yesterday, outlining the situation in South Australia around small business. I think a number of the takeaways from this piece of work are quite telling. In a similar vein to what we are hearing from the business community, and what we are hearing from households, the work that has been done by the SA Business Chamber in this latest report really exemplifies the underlying issues that have been identified, the first of which comes to the state's economy.

I do not think that it would surprise anybody to learn that business confidence is in negative territory. I do not think it would surprise anybody to learn that nearly 40 per cent of the respondents to this survey felt that the state's economy was going to get weaker over the upcoming year. That says a lot. Again, nobody is knocking events. We can have LIV Golf and we can have Gather Round. The economic uplift that comes from those events, while largely centred on the CBD, is about two weekends a year, and two weekends a year do not ultimately change the direction or the course of the state's economy.

It also does not change the underlying issues in regard to business conditions in South Australia. That is why the previous government spent so much time focusing our efforts on reducing the cost environment for South Australian businesses. That is why we highlighted the issues that had been discovered at SA Water where we found that the previous Labor government had essentially been inflating the value of the company's assets to drive water bills in South Australia. That was corrected. There were savings that were handed back to South Australian businesses and households to assist with costs of living.

That is why the government restored the emergency services rebate that gradually, under the former Labor government, increased, increased, increased. That is why the former Marshall government increased the payroll tax threshold to ensure that small businesses were not going to be paying a tax on employing more South Australians. It was lifted from $600,000 where small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry that we have just talked about, were being hit. There was a firm and concerted effort from the former government to improve business conditions and the business environment in South Australia. That is something that we have not seen from those opposite. I will get into that in more detail as I continue my remarks, but for now I seek leave to continue.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.


At 17:31 the house adjourned until Thursday 2 May 2024 at 11:00.

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