HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-03 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Public Transport Safety

Mr DIGHTON (Black) (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister explain how cohesion and discipline within a government can strengthen public transport safety for the people of South Australia, and what are the outcomes of alternative approaches?

The SPEAKER: Before I give the minister the call, I remind him that his year 9 teacher, Trevor Mewett, is in the gallery today, along with other members of the Flagstaff Hill Probus Club. Mr Mewett will be marking your work, minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:57): If my memory serves me correctly, he probably still has that duster he threw at me primed and ready to go!

An honourable member: It wasn't big enough!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, it wasn't. I learnt a lot at Adelaide High School from my teachers and from my friends. Discipline and loyalty and cohesion were some of those core benchmarks of building a united team. So when it comes to working together as a united effort to try to deliver policy for the people of South Australia, it is important that you do have unity—very important.

Just last weekend, the final aspect of our undoing the privatisation plan came into effect, when at 3am on Sunday morning the trams returned to public operation. The public service staff in the rail operations centre officially changed their uniforms and now have the state logo proudly displayed on their uniforms. They are now government employees acting in the interests of South Australians, not in the interests of profit-making entities offshore or multinationals.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, you privatised the buses, that is true. Yes, that is right. I forgot to mention the privatisation. My young friend reminded me, of course: I forgot to mention that they privatised the buses as well. Thank you very much.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I don't forget, when it's 2 o'clock, to be here doing my job. On this side of the chamber, we recognise the importance of centres being in public hands, and we also recognise the importance of the safety and amenity of being on public transport. Of course, those 31 additional Public Service assistants who are on public transport are key. We are investing $7.5 million to roll out security bus screens on all state-owned buses for our drivers and, more recently, we are expanding barring orders to crack down on offenders on our network. The thing about the barring orders, which was interesting, was I had the Leader of the Opposition demanding we do more about barring orders and then when we attempted to do it his colleagues went on radio and opposed it. I've got to say, it's the Hon. Nicola Centofanti who opposed this—

Mr Telfer: Who's got the majority on the committee?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That's right. That's why it wasn't stopped. Your tooth's better.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That's right. It was interesting that the person who opposed our plans for—

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Point of order, sir: the Minister for Transport is always defending his right to privacy when it comes to his family. All day, he's been referring to the member for Flinders' health. It's inappropriate and I ask that it be withdrawn.

The SPEAKER: That's not a point of order. The minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I think the point of order you're looking at is that I shouldn't have mentioned the absence of members in the chamber. That's the point of order you should be looking for.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will resume his seat. The minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I'm glad Mr Mewett can go home and say we put on a show for him, at least. When we brought back those barring orders and introduced that legislation to allow us to remove people from our public transport system who are deliberately disorderly or conduct antisocial behaviour, the Leader of the Opposition in the upper house tried to explain the opposition's opposition to that process despite the Leader of the Opposition saying that he supported it.

The important thing here is that that disunity within the opposition on a relatively minor policy matter goes deeper to what's actually going on in the Liberal Party. If you read exactly what's going on, they are at war with each other, so much so that the member for Morialta isn't going to be contesting the next election. He is quitting. He is so outraged by this, he is leaving. I have to say, seeing members opposite fight amongst themselves is galling. Rather than get behind their leader, all they do is argue amongst themselves.

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

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on his final warning. The member for Chaffey.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT