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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-13 Daily Xml
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Members

Valedictory

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta) (17:04): I seek your indulgence, sir.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I love South Australia, and I love my local community. It has been an honour to serve as its local MP over the last 16 years. There is 35 minutes or so of this, and it is a bad sign that I am starting to get emotional at that. I have endeavoured to keep service at the forefront of my mind during that time. We build almost nothing by ourselves in life or in politics, and for the role I have been privileged to play, I am very grateful to all the people who have supported me along the way.

All of these valedictory speeches already this week, and I am sure next week will be the same, have been very different. To be honest, I have been tying myself in knots over the last couple of weeks trying to work out exactly what to say. What is the purpose of a valedictory? Is it like a graduation? Is it an exit interview? Is it an indulgence? For me, this speech is for my girls. I hope it helps them understand what I have been up to for so much of the first years of their lives.

I am grateful for every day that I get to spend with my beloved wife, Trudi, and our precious girls, Emma and Eleanor. They have laughs that will fill the room, and they have smiles that will light up the dark. Emma is as inquisitive as Marie Curie, as creative as Taylor Swift and as big-hearted as Dolly Parton. Without pause or a second thought, she will give up her new toy to a friend of hers who has hurt herself so that she can have a little bit of comfort. She is curious, she is eager to explore all the world has to offer, and we have no doubt she will go far—as far as the eye can see—in whatever direction she chooses.

Eleanor is always willing to show compassion to those in need. She is equally as inquisitive and eager to learn. Her creativity knows no limit, and she loves to express herself, whether on a stage or in an ice-cream shop or in our home at 5:30 in the morning, always driven by a joy that fills our hearts. Eleanor, will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed—98¾ per cent guaranteed.

For Trudi and for me, being Emma's and Eleanor's mum and dad is the greatest blessing in our lives, and they bring us happiness in measures beyond our dreams. The adventures we undertake together, the stories we discover together and the life we are building together are central to everything that motivates me. From their birth up until now, I have sought to channel my hopes for their best futures living in our community and living in this state as motivation for my work as an MP, and it has been a privilege to do so.

But there are many ways that we can serve our families without making the compromises that political life requires, and so I am going to do that from now on. Emma and Eleanor have had some suggestions about what that might look like. Their top idea is that I become an ice-cream person, because that would enable me to bring ice cream home from work every day. They are very clever, and that may be the case. Whatever comes next for me professionally, I am just looking forward to the new challenges.

At its best, I have found my time in politics to be an opportunity for service, a chance to advocate for my community and my values. Whether through helping a constituent solve a tricky problem or through undertaking major reform work for the betterment of our state, with the team behind me, we always work to make our state better, and I have loved those aspects of the job.

But politics is also an adversarial contest. It requires wells of patience, resilience and a hunger to fight for your cause. As MPs, we expect to face long and unpredictable hours, disruptions from family life, robust accountability and constructive character assessments from strangers and colleagues alike, but all of this can be very hard for families to endure. Depending on your reserves of patience and endurance, it can be hard for the MPs to endure as well.

To do this job justice sustainably, your heart must be in it, and you ideally need a good level of support as well. So to Trudi, Emma and Eleanor, who have given me so much of that love and support while my heart was in the work, for bearing with me while I have been doing the work, I give my first and most sincere thanks to you.

Thanks next to my mum and my dad, the earliest adopters of the 'John Gardner for Morialta' concept, as well as our broader family for their love and support. Thank you to my godchildren for letting me be a part of your lives. Astrid Whetton and Ava Flett were very little when I was elected, but they are now strong young women, both of them confident in their principled beliefs. They are compassionate sisters, they are loving daughters and they are engaged citizens in our community. Astrid has just been through year 12. She finished a day or two ago and Ava will have that pleasure next year. I cannot wait to see what they achieve. I am looking forward to having more time and opportunity to cheer them on from the sidelines along with their beautiful families.

I was about their age, in fact I had just turned 17, when I joined the Liberal Club and the Young Liberals in O-Week, in my first year at Adelaide Uni. It was Paul Keating's last week as Prime Minister and Dean Brown was our state Premier. I paid my $5, I picked up my free Cooper's Pale Ale which I was not legally allowed to drink at that time, and five days later I watched the election results come in on the UniBar screens at the O-Ball.

At the time, my friend Michelle Lensink was President of the South Australian Young Liberals. It has been a privilege to serve as her colleague and, in about two years' time, I am very much looking forward to congratulating her when she takes her place as the longest-serving female member of this parliament in its state's history.

I offer my thanks to my former employers, Trish Worth, Vickie Chapman and Christopher Pyne, who all served their state and nation with passion and integrity. They gave me a chance and they taught me an enormous amount about how to get results for our community.

I thank the members of Morialta SEC for choosing me as their candidate, especially the committee members and volunteers who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to, first, help me win Morialta from the Labor Party and then hold it three more times. Now the SEC, well led by President Cristian Di Iulio and secretary Jake Fedczyszyn, has a new job to do and I wish them well.

Projects such as the upgraded Paradise Interchange and the new Morialta Secondary College will benefit our community for decades to come but there is always more to do. I am pleased our Liberal candidate for Morialta, Scott Kennedy, is now taking up that fight, including his support for the desperately needed upgrades to the dreadful Moules Road, St Bernards Road and Arthur Street intersection. There are fights he is taking for our local community to be heard when it comes to the future of the Magill campus of UniSA. In the north of Morialta, Scott is fighting for a comprehensive effort to stop the spread of giant pine scale in its tracks and rehabilitate affected areas for our local community.

It may be news to the house if they have not been watching my speeches, but Scott Kennedy is a lifelong local whose record of service includes his entire adult life as a volunteer firefighter and it is a pleasure to support him in his campaign. I offer thanks to residents in Morialta who have voted for me since 2010 and I offer thanks to those who have not. I encourage them all alike to now support Scott Kennedy.

I dedicated a whole separate speech last week sitting week to naming and thanking my staff who kept me on track along the way and I recognise them here. To my parliamentary colleagues, I thank you all. It would be inappropriate to name a gold class who stand out as those I admire most so instead I will highlight the service of just one, former Premier Steven Marshall.

Steven Marshall led the state through the most difficult time the world has seen in 70 years and we came to the other side in better shape than pretty much anywhere else in the world. His leadership was a blessing and his legacy will endure. He was also an enormous support to me as education minister and many of the achievements in that portfolio that took place during his term as Premier were only possible thanks to that support.

He and I were elected together in 2010. Our local campaign managers were Courtney Morcombe and James Stevens, and we were generously supported by the popular local federal member, Christopher Pyne, and Senator Simon Birmingham. Liberal leader Isobel Redmond was generous with her time and support during the campaign.

At the time I was the youngest in this house at 31, and the second-youngest was Jack Snelling who was 41 and had been the youngest for the previous 13 years. I am 46 now. If I was elected at this age back in 2010, I would have been the eighth youngest person in that chamber. Things have moved on. It was a very different chamber and there are some opportunities, some really positive opportunities, for cultural improvement that I have seen over the last few years that I have been very encouraged by.

As I found my feet in the early years, I used the freedom that comes with not having a portfolio, to explore a few issues that had not gained broader traction with others. I introduced bills to require web streaming of the parliament and to ban the supply of alcohol by adults to minors without parental consent. While neither bill passed, both became reality, although obviously the streaming of parliament would have happened whether I was here or not, but I am proud of the secondary supply bill. It was not a universally popular policy then or now but it was the right thing to do and I am proud that the parliament was able to incorporate it into other laws during the time of the Weatherill government.

Other early efforts included a successful private member's bill to repeal a very odd law which prevented parents of adoptees from publicly identifying themselves as such, and a successful campaign to enable Chinese adoptees to gain Australian birth certificates. As a result of that change, many of those adoptees in question—there is about 300 of them in this state—are now adults, and they have been able to travel internationally on an Australian passport that they would not have other ways been able to get.

I served on two parliamentary committees during my time. My favourite is the Legislative Review Committee, and, frankly, I think any of you who are still here should be lining up to be on that committee after the election because it does really important work in ensuring good governance of our departments and, very importantly, of our council by-laws. I thank the diligent staff who have supported the committee during my two separate appointments.

The other was the Joint Parliamentary Service Committee, a body usually deeply resistant to parliamentary reform, with the exception of one during my time. With bipartisan support from all of the three delegates from this chamber, I am pleased to say, and one stray legislative councillor, who must have been persuaded unexpectedly during the debate, we took the bold step of opening the gate outside Old Parliament House, and soon we will celebrate 10 years of unfettered access to the footpath of North Terrace, despite the dire warnings at the time—and, as far as I am aware, no-one has had a serious injury yet.

As a shadow minister, I worked hard to ensure that our policy proposals were relevant, consistent with our values, credible with stakeholders and, frankly, most importantly, likely to improve people's lives. One factor I am glad I kept in mind was whether or not they were actually capable of being done. You would be surprised, sir, or maybe you would not but our guests might be surprised, how many suggestions come to us without having consideration to whether they were legally or ethically or even physically possible.

Having been appointed Minister for Education in March 2018, I worked with some excellent public servants who helped deliver these proposals and I offer them all my thanks. I was fortunate in my chief executive of the education department, Rick Persse. He added value to our work through his own initiative, while remaining faithful to the government's agenda in the best traditions of the Public Service. He ensured that the juice was worth the squeeze, that we were always focused on shifting the dial, and that we always kept in mind, of course, that culture eats strategy for breakfast. I apologise to him for my regular threats to reintroduce Latin as a compulsory subject in the junior secondary curriculum. Much as I would have loved to have done it, and I still think we should, I do recognise that there will be challenges finding the workforce.

It is worth acknowledging that two of our biggest achievements—year 7 to high school and flexible industry pathways for senior secondary students—were originally championed by David Pisoni, my predecessor as the Liberal spokesman for education for eight years. I tried to ensure subsequently that our policy documents were clear in their principles and their purpose and realistic in their assumptions.

In government, the teams led by Caroline Croser-Barlow and Clare Feszczak had flexibility and licence to be creative in helping us deliver these projects. In both cases, Caroline and Clare and their teams added significant value and the delivery exceeded expectations. Year 7 to high school in particular was a massive commitment, the biggest structural change to our public schooling system in a hundred years. We set ourselves a 2022 start date, which, thankfully, turned out to be just enough time, literally by days. We persuaded cabinet to authorise the level of funding for the project that allowed the transition team confidence and flexibility to solve problems creatively. Thanks to that work, the transition went well and year 7 students in South Australia now undertake their specialist high school subjects in specialist high school settings with specialist high school teachers.

My office tells me that I was responsible for the carriage of 18 bills through the house during my time as minister. I had a look at the list earlier today and a couple of the bills jumped out at me. I was trying to work out why I was responsible for ticket scalping legislation and a criminal procedure bill, and then I remembered the glorious week when Vickie Chapman was away and for six days I was our state's first law officer as Acting Attorney-General—a happy time for someone with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in languages and classics. Of all the times I have ever been on the telly, having that screenshot under my name is my favourite.

In education, the most significant reform was undoubtedly the establishment of a new education act, which we discussed yesterday in the context of the member for Port Adelaide's involvement, which will forever contain the key clause underlining how we saved Christmas in our public schools.

Other highlights from the period include TAFE SA's full reaccreditation and the restoration of its reputation after the ASQA audit scandal, the introduction of Clontarf academies to South Australia, along with the Teach for Australia program, and the SWiFT internet program. Telstra delivered fibre-optic connectivity to 900 sites around South Australia, taking us from the slowest internet on the mainland to the fastest internet speeds in the country.

There was a $1.5 billion works program, including five new schools and more than 100 school upgrades. I thank the now minister, the member for Wright, for his very important work as a member of our team at the time. Everybody working on that project knew that if there was so much as a minor slip, an erroneous email suggesting that things might be late, then the member for Wright would be on morning radio, giving us hell. The fear of that helped motivate many people in our team.

Securing cabinet agreement for our early-learning strategy in the 2021 budget was also a good day, and I am glad at its retention and the expansion of many of its projects by the Malinauskas government.

There was the History Trust's yearlong celebrations of the centenary of the epic flight, culminating in securing funding to move the Vickers Vimy into the new Adelaide Airport terminal. We also assisted in seed funding through the education department for the educational program and funding through the History Trust for the curatorial assistance in the establishment of the Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre.

Finally, one of our youth arts organisations, Windmill Theatre, did extraordinarily well when they took advantage of Victoria's extended COVID lockdown to bring the preparations and rehearsals for the Bluey's Big Play world premiere to South Australia. They populated the production with South Australian actors, who were then able to tour the world. On a personal note, this was the first chance that our family got to go the theatre all together, which was when Eleanor and Emma went to their first stage theatre production, as Her Majesty's Theatre was reopening for live performance. It was fantastic.

Even more significant—hard as it is to imagine anything being more significant than Bluey's Big Play—and it is an area of public policy where more remains to be done, is the way in which we teach our children, what we teach our children, and how we can better integrate the science of learning within our schools. Our literacy guarantee policy measures embedded phonics, explicit instruction and an understanding of the learning sciences in the lower primary years around the state.

New resources were provided for schools. We overhauled the assessment methodology of student progress; we replaced running records with DIBELS and so forth; and we put massive new resources into teacher training, professional development and coaching in evidence-based pedagogy. We wanted to ensure that we were aligning our teaching with best practice for all students, but most importantly for students with dyslexia, ADHD and other learning difficulties, who are too often consigned to being considered naughty or uninterested in their schooling because they had never been effectively taught to read.

There is a very positive bipartisan story here, because at the same time that I was doing my research and reading books by clever people like E.D. Hirsch and Daniel Willingham and talking to stakeholders, advocates, educators and academics, the member for Port Adelaide was doing the same. She was talking to a lot of the same people, and she and the government were moving in a similar direction.

The most noticeable feature in our literacy guarantee policy was the new year 1 phonics check. The phonics check was the brainchild of former UK schools minister Nick Gibb, now Sir Nick Gibb. I always want to say Sir Nicholas because—anyway. I commend to you all Sir Nick's book, recently released, called Reforming Lessons. It outlines the story of how declining standards in England were turned around over a decade, to the point where, by the time of the last election, English school student results had climbed dramatically to being near the top of the OECD tables in performance.

Dr Jennifer Buckingham, then of The Centre for Independent Studies, had been a very high-profile campaigner, effectively advocating for these programs around Australia—and it was starting to gain traction. The then federal minister, the exceptional Simon Birmingham, was encouraging all states to get on board. Under the member for Port Adelaide's ministerial responsibility, South Australia became the first jurisdiction to put their hand up to conduct a trial, and of course we had also announced our policy in a similar area.

In 2017 the Department for Education secured agreement from London to borrow their check—I think we paid a dollar for it in the previous year—in 50 South Australian schools. That commitment through the Liberal Party went further than the trial. We committed to mandate it in all public schools, but, in time for the election, the Xenophon party and the Labor Party had matched that promise too.

Bipartisan support for the new approach helped us overcome opposition from the union and reticence from educators, who were very sceptical about the approach. Delivery of the commitment was made much easier by the trial, backed up by expert analysis—commissioned under the former government—by respected researchers at Flinders University, who gave us some excellent advice about how to improve it in the following years.

The most dramatic improvements in our phonics check results have been among our most vulnerable cohorts of students, and now—I think we are seven years on from the first one—there are far more kids in these cohorts through the primary years who are able to read as they progress through those primary years. Between 2017 and 2022 South Australia had the most significant increase in our NAPLAN results of any state. Many of those teachers, educators and principals who were sceptical before have subsequently shifted their views as they have seen improvements in the classrooms.

Non-government schools are getting on board, too. Just last week I was at Rostrevor College in my electorate, the alma mater of both our Liberal leader, Vincent Tarzia, and also our Liberal candidate for Morialta, the lifelong local volunteer firefighter Scott Kennedy. That school's overhaul of their approach to the primary years in line with the science of learning has delivered rapid growth in their phonics check results and their NAPLAN data too. Pretty much everywhere in every state in Australia is somewhere along this path, and New Zealand has gone even further.

The so-called 'reading wars' now seem to be over, but the ground that has been won must be protected vigilantly. That is why I talk about this; that is why I encourage all policymakers to familiarise themselves with these issues and with the international evidence around learning science which continues to develop. I had hoped we would have more than two years to implement further reforms, but we were overtaken by events. In retrospect, I wish we had gone further faster in this space and worked towards a more knowledge-rich curriculum in South Australia.

At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, when it comes to what our students learn we need to ensure that they will be exposed to the great ideas and the texts that have had culturally enduring significance for hundreds and thousands of years. This is perhaps most important of all in our public school system, lest the advantages and opportunities of that cultural capital be consigned only to children who grew up in those homes where the bookshelves are already full.

The final aspect of this time that cannot go unmentioned is the impact of COVID. I spoke about this at length earlier in the week, but in brief I want to reiterate that our children and young people and the communities around them were served extraordinarily well by South Australia's education workforce. When the world was turned upside down, we worked hard to ensure our schools were the most normal places in our society.

From the Premier down, everyone was doing their best with the information we had. For as long as that information suggested that we could keep public schools open with as many students attending as possible, then that was our consistent ambition. I remember Courtney Morcombe calling me up almost every morning, checking that that was still our plan—and it was and we did pretty well.

In addition to the teams within the education department, led by Rick Persse, along with SA Health, I also want to highlight the non-government sector led by Neil McGoran at Catholic Education SA and Carolyn Grantskalns at the Association of Independent Schools of SA at the time. No other jurisdiction in Australia had such close and working relationships between their sectors and their health department, and it contributed to the fact that while we would love to have not had a global pandemic that killed tens of thousands of people around the world and disrupted everything in everyone's lives, at least South Australia's school students had less disruption to their learning and school attendance than pretty much any other jurisdiction in the world.

This week in these valedictories there has been a lot of reflection by members about their core values. We respect conviction and consistency. Constancy is preferable to treachery. Virtue and principle are more appealing than graft and transactionalism. But as somebody who has never wanted the perfect to be the enemy of the good, I want to offer a positive word for pragmatism in our considerations as well.

The pragmatist foregrounds the importance of getting outcomes for the people we serve. It is not about limiting the ambition of what we try to do but rather tempering it with our judgement about what is possible. Compromise does not mean capitulation if it results in better outcomes for the communities we have been elected to serve, certainly compared with what would otherwise be possible.

One of the things that sometimes bothers me about politics is the expectation that MPs have to immediately respond to new events or developments without having had the chance to investigate deeply, discover what all the facts might be or consider the implications of an issue in depth.

In one example, about a week after ChatGPT had been released to the world I was criticised by a journalist for not yet having determined the Liberal Party's position on the use of artificial intelligence in schools. It is an issue on which I now have a lot of views—it is okay, I am not going to go through them today. But the point is, at the time I was asked it would have been negligent, irresponsible and foolish for me to form a position that was then going to tie myself and my colleagues based on a vibe of something that nobody really had any understanding about at the time.

An opinion once stated, especially in this place, can be hard to retract. There is a natural pressure for politicians to stick to opinions long after the evidence should have persuaded them to a different position. While I encourage all members to be true to their values and mindful of their purpose, I also encourage them to reflect that wisdom requires a willingness to change your point of view when the evidence demands it.

In terms of my own political values, I consider myself a pragmatic liberal with both a small 'l' and a big 'L'. In a world where some of the best governments are built on stable coalitions, whether formal or informal, whether within a party or between them, I welcome the fact that the party I represent is home to two great philosophical traditions with enormous sympathy and complementarity. I know a great many loyal Liberals with both liberal and more conservative views who feel the same way.

I consider myself a classical liberal, because I value freedom for the individual to maximise their potential according to their lights and to pursue their best life without unnecessary constraint in any form from the state. By the same token, classical liberal thought has always understood that society needs a strong safety net to catch people as they might fall or help them up if they need it.

I am also happy to be associated with the mainstream conservative tradition that so values the institutions that have protected our liberties from extremism. It asks of us that we offer evidence to justify the benefits of reform as compared to the status quo, rather than just assuming that new is always better, and a reasonable dose of that in any government can be a good thing.

Conservatives and liberals working together in the best interests of our state and nation, in no way reactionary but rejecting the stifling homogeneity of a socialist panacea is exactly what Menzies had in mind for the Liberal Party, and he said as much. That is how we operate when we are at our best. I am pleased that my Liberal colleagues in this building take that view too, and I hope they all have the opportunity to put that approach into practice once again in government, in service to the people of South Australia.

I started this speech talking about my family, and I return to them now: my parents and Trudi's, Trudi and our girls. I am conscious that I have led a fortunate life. My parents worked through far greater challenges than I have ever had to face. I think all our parental instincts are to work hard for our children so that they have more opportunities than us, and Trudi's and my parents did that for us through their hard work and sacrifices.

I have spoken about my parents in this place a number of times. My parents-in-law, Lynne and Lorenzo Mercurio, also came to this country as children, in their cases from Coventry and San Giorgio La Molara respectively. They have worked hard all their lives and they can now take enormous pride in Trudi's and Mark's achievements.

To Trudi: I love you so much. Our girls and I are very lucky that we get to spend our lives with you. Trudi is a first in family to go to university, with bachelor's degrees from Flinders University and postgraduate qualifications from St Andrews University in Scotland. Her legal career may now be freed from the significant impediments that my job has continually and routinely placed in her way.

She sets an extraordinarily wonderful example for our girls. She offers them her strength, her care and her love every day. For nearly seven years, she did so while I was a minister or deputy opposition leader, out five or six nights a week, missing early mornings and all too often my mind wandering to work issues when I was at home during what should have been dedicated family time. Like many of our partners, she has borne witness to the worst aspects of our jobs.

In signing up as candidates, we implicitly agree to some intrusions on our lives, but our partners do not. Yet she has been steadfast in her love and support for me and the work I have sought to do. She has regularly given me insightful advice. She has been my partner in our engagement with community and she has ensured that while our girls want for nothing they never take anything for granted. Our girls will always be taught that much is expected of those to whom much is given.

Our girls love and appreciate their mum. When I asked Eleanor if there was anything she wanted me to say on her behalf during this speech, she stopped for moment and wrote a little note. She wrote her name, 'Eleanor', she wrote a love heart and she wrote 'Mummy'. She went on to ask me to say the following: 'Mummy likes bananas. Mummy likes to play with me. Mummy is the best person in our family.' Who could argue with that? Emma also had a wise comment to offer: 'Mummy is a kind and generous person. She is lovable and she loves us. She's the best person in the world.'

For many years in this role, I have woken up looking forward to my days and I have gone to sleep confident that I have done my best to do something useful. So why am I now so extraordinarily happy to move on? As I think my friends are all too aware, I have not had a moment's regret since announcing my decision last year, and I have had some opportunities to reflect on this question too.

You are going to have to bear with me at this point. I have spent the last 16 years being told to ensure I relate to people, that I am electable, that I use appropriate pop culture references in speeches. That ends now. More than 2,000 years ago travellers seeking wisdom from the Oracle at Delphi were confronted at the Temple of Apollo with an inscription of its most important lesson. I am not going to do the Greek. It said, in English, 'Know thyself'.

It is a very simple command, but it rings true to me today. To live our best life for ourselves or, even more importantly, for those around us, we need to ensure we have an appreciation of our strengths and our limitations. Unless we can find the courage to admit uncertainty and reflect on our weaknesses, how can we possibly serve others as we should?

Plato wrote in The Republic that the punishment for refusing to participate in politics is to be governed by someone worse. Unfortunately, after a while it starts to feel like the punishment for continuing to participate in politics is that it requires continued participation in politics, so I will take my chances and move on. From 22 March next year I plan to follow the advice of the second-century Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. If you are not sure, think Richard Harris in Gladiator. He wrote in his Meditations:

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

He also wrote:

In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.

I extend my respects to everyone who offers themselves in service to others here or elsewhere, if here, whether for the first time or having served for much longer than I have lasted. Working in this parliament offers an extraordinary opportunity to make a positive difference for our state and the people who live within it. I wish you all the best.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (17:36): I rise to make a few comments about the outstanding service of the member for Morialta—his service for the people of Morialta, for the Liberal Party and also for our state. John is a man of great intellect, integrity and work ethic. People like John—and people like Simon, people like Vickie—help to build this party. Not only do they help themselves to get elected but they have also helped a number of colleagues here get elected too.

John is a company man. He is a team man. He does what is in the best interests of the team and the party. I still, I think, have some of your A-frames, John. I think I might now give them to the lifelong local CFS volunteer who is the candidate for Morialta.

Much has been said about John's distinguished career. If I just reflect on education, the children of South Australia will be grateful to John for generations for the work he especially did in things like phonics and year 7 into high school. But I look also at a local level: the upgrade at Norwood International High School, the new school of Morialta Secondary College, which might not have happened if there were not a Liberal government. These are generational builds. They will be there for generations to come.

John is generous, he is talented, he is kind and he has been a great support to colleagues and to the community. He has always served with that great kindness and humility. He leaves, certainly, an enduring legacy for us all. On behalf of all of our team, thank you so much.

I also want to pay tribute to John's family: to his extended family but especially to his girls—to Trudi, Eleanor and Emma—for sharing John with us. I am sure you very much look forward to having John back. We wish you all the very best for the years ahead.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (17:38): It is a privilege to be able to rise and respond to the member for Morialta's remarks after an exceptionally thoughtful and well-crafted valedictory speech on which I take this opportunity to congratulate him sincerely. I do not know if the member for Morialta recalls this or not, but we first met a long time ago, and to the best of my recollections, that was indeed here. I do not know if your recollection is different to mine—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: I was thinking the wedding.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Yes, there is that too. I do not remember that as well, which is not a good sign. We were here. The member for Morialta was presumably playing a senior role within the Young Liberals, and I had recently become a lot more active in Young Labor. There was a bit of a dinky-di battle within Young Labor about the really important issue of a mock parliament. We had to duke it out between the right and the left, because in mock parliament the Libs were in opposition on one turn and then we swapped and Labor was in opposition and vice versa.

So we had to work out in Young Labor who was going to be the leader of the party when we were in government and who was going to be the leader of the party in opposition. I was keen on the government role. Anyway, we duked it out internally. That happened, and then we came into the parliament. We were in mock parliament, and the member for Morialta was the Leader of the Opposition and I was the mock parliament Premier.

There was a debate on a piece of legislation. I do not remember what it was, but all I remember was the member for Morialta getting to his feet, speaking first and giving the most eloquent and powerful contribution on whatever the debate was about. I was sitting here filled with nerves and dread that I had to respond to such an extraordinary contribution. I remember being rather anxious about the whole experience and recalling to myself that this individual was clearly going to play some form of significant role in parliamentary politics at some point into the future. Of course, that was to transpire.

It transpired in 2010, when the member for Morialta won a significant election over Lindsey Simmons, who was the member for Morialta at the time. I had the experience of being Lindsey Simmons's campaign manager at the 2006 state election. We worked exceptionally hard to beat or overcome the then formidable parliamentarian in, of course, Joan Hall. That was a significant exercise and we were very happy at the time. Fast-forward four years, having gone through that experience I remember being keen to get the first possible opportunity to congratulate the new member for Morialta on his success. Ever since then, he has made a fine contribution to his local community, indeed.

But the member for Morialta's contribution to the state extends well beyond the community of Morialta, where he has a legacy in and of itself. Indeed, his most profound contribution undoubtedly is in his time as education minister, and he was a very good one indeed. I remember spending time with the member for Wright in opposition often reflecting on the strength of the performance of the then Minister for Education, the member for Morialta.

I just want to reflect on one thing, and that is the establishment of the Literacy Guarantee Unit. That is a unit within the Department for Education, whose work is ongoing, and I have seen firsthand the profound positive impact that it has had on young kids in our state, but a particularly disproportionately large positive impact upon children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The member for Morialta quite rightly listed other contributions he has made in a policy sense, but that one is enduring and instructive and will continue to play a role for a long time to come.

Indeed, that comes on the back of the phonics check that we referred to, and you generously referred to the member of Port Adelaide's initiative. Indeed, it has led to the Literacy Guarantee effort that we now see being applied in a different context within the department. But your commitment and sincerity and sense of purpose about using the portfolio of education to make a material difference to people's lives, who will not necessarily have much consciousness of the policy decisions that you have made, I think speaks to your earnestness and your determination to use the powers and authorities vested in you to make a difference, and that is to your great credit.

One final reflection I thought I would make is on a personal level. The member for Morialta, in his remarks, quite eloquently reflected on the combative nature of parliamentary politics and the fact that it is adversarial, and that adversarial nature of our system does not always call upon our better angels. In fact, one of the unfortunate features of the system is that it often brings out within us a subconscious assumption to arrive at the worst possible conclusions about our political opponents and what motivates them. That is unfortunate, because the truth is that almost everybody who comes into this place comes in here with the best of intentions to do good work for their communities.

But it has struck me, in my somewhat limited engagement with the member for Morialta, that at every opportunity I have had the chance to engage with him he is not drawn down that path. There is a degree of professionalism. Often when we talk about 'professional politicians' it is a term that is used in a negative or derogatory context. Where we do want to see professionalism amongst politicians is in a degree of not just courteousness but a willingness to be objective and be interested in other points of view.

Every time I have had the opportunity to engage with the member for Morialta, talking about politics or civil society more broadly or the state of the universe, I have always had the sense that there is a powerful force of objectivity that rests within the member for Morialta's thoughtfulness and also his heart, and that is to his great credit. His legacy transcends just the policy difference he has made; it also speaks to his contribution and the way that he has gone about making it in this place over a sustained period of time. That is to his great credit.

On behalf of the parliamentary party in South Australia, I would like to wish him every success in any future endeavour he undertakes; I have no doubt he will do it well. More importantly, I sincerely hope that he does now get the opportunity to spend the time with his beautiful family to whom he is clearly so devoted in the way that he aspires.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (17:46): If the Premier felt intimidated speaking after the member for Morialta, how do you think I feel? The member for Morialta and I had—I do not know whether it was the misfortune or whether it was a fortunate situation; only he knows that. But after eight years as the shadow minister for education, two years out from the 2018 election Steven Marshall thought that maybe Pisoni needed to do something else and we needed somebody who was able to run an education department if we won the election. It was extraordinary how it took me eight years to learn the things that I learned, yet John went into that campaign after just two years knowing everything he needed to know and more about the education system.

We had a great experience together. With skills and innovation, obviously there was a lot of crossover in the work that we did. There were school-based apprenticeships and entrepreneurial high schools, and the restoration of the function of TAFE was a big project that we worked on together. John was very gracious with that work, with us sharing and experiencing that together and working together and getting our departments to work together. Rather than competing with each other, we worked together to get those outcomes.

I think one of the big tasks that we took on together was when the bureaucrats got it wrong about what Glenunga International High School needed for moving grade 7 into high school. It was already a school at full capacity and was in my electorate at that time. We had several meetings with the governing council and the principal before getting it right and finding that extra funding to get those extra buildings done. Unley High School, during John's time, was the recipient of the first state government-funded capital project in 25 years at that school. It is a magnificent building and offers a whole range of new qualities of education for those who attend Unley High School.

I still remind myself of the fact that John was able to make that transition from grade 7 into high school in just half the time that Queensland and Western Australia did it. I thought, 'You are not telling me that you're going to make this happen just a month or two before we go to an election. There is no room for an error in that situation.' Of course, there was not an error and it was done very well. I know that John was very, very focused on that. With the help of Rick Persse, who managed that beautifully with John, it was a transition that we now wonder why we did not do it earlier.

John, thank you for your friendship and your guidance. You are one of the many people who have kept me focused on where I should be in this role rather than where I might be drifting. If it were not for you, whether I would have lasted four years as a minister I am not quite sure. So thank you very much, John, and congratulations.

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:50): I know John likes Roman sayings: 'Let no man curse a capable foe; he is the anvil on which we are forged.' Sitting on our side of the house—whichever side, whether opposition or in government—looking at your political opponents, you never quite know what people think about the ones you rate. It is an interesting dynamic. I have always rated John. I have always thought he is very capable. I always thought he is organised.

John had a sharp political mind. He knew what he wanted to achieve. He knew how he wanted to present himself and how he wanted to present the man he wanted to lead the state, and he went about organising it. He organised it in a very well-disciplined way. It was interesting to watch, and I watched it. I thought that John's value won't be known to a lot of us in this place until he is gone. It is not a criticism of who he is; I think he is an exceptional member of parliament. He is a very good orator, he is very good at what he does and he has been a loyal servant of the Liberal Party, but I do not think you will realise his value until the day after the next state election, then people will realise the real value of John Gardner. He is a very, very capable adversary.

John is one of the good guys of the parliament and he is one of the nice guys of the parliament, but he goes about his business ruthlessly, which is impressive. I do not think I have ever heard him say a bad word about anyone in the parliament. He may have felt it every now and then, but he is one of the genuinely good guys. When you see that one of the genuine good guys is also capable, they do garner a lot of respect. So from our perspective, especially my perspective—and I do not want to speak for your colleagues because I know that they admire you a great deal—you are a capable foe, a very capable foe.

I wish you and your family, and especially your young daughters, all the joy that comes with having their dad around. My daughter turned 15 on the weekend. My wife and I were sitting in bed after this horrific long birthday party we had to organise for her and she was going through Instagram reels. We were sitting there watching them and this bit came on and it said, 'The only person you should envy are those with young children,' and I do envy you, John, because you have got two young daughters. I have two older daughters who are less attentive to me than they used to be, so enjoy the time that you have with them.

John, you have been a loyal servant of your party. You have made them proud and you have given them an exceptionally good career of 16 years. I think you can hold your head up high after you leave this place. You have been a credit to your family and to your party, and congratulations on choosing the timing of your own exit. That is a rare choice for many of us in this place, and you have done it. Well done.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Minister for Police) (17:54): I rise to make just a short contribution. I know there are others who would like to speak as well, but there are a few words I would like to share about the member for Morialta, having got to know him very well over the last few years. Our getting to know each other started, of course, with me rather unexpectedly becoming the shadow minister for education, following in the footsteps of the member for Port Adelaide. John, of course, by that stage, well and truly had his eye in as the current Minister for Education.

Of course, they are kind of rocky grounds upon which to build any kind of relationship as you are trying to claw your way back to government, and you are trying to make your way in cabinet and COVID is happening at the same time. Despite that, John was always very decent to me at that time, in terms of talking to me about sensitive issues sometimes that we knew should be kept out of the political arena. I think that is a hallmark of the way he has operated, and something that people in this place this afternoon have shared. It is part of his nature, part of his decency to do that. It is a very rare commodity in politics, and I feel sometimes it is one that is dying out.

I want to acknowledge the many, many times that John has—and this is not meant in any way as a criticism—elected to pull a punch because it would have done no good to the people out there, often children, who would have really felt the brunt of that particular issue becoming a politicised one. It was not that John was not capable of throwing a good punch in the political sense.

I had a different life working for Jay Weatherill when he was the Premier of the state. I remember one day standing in the Premier's office after a question time. I do not know what the topic was on that day, but Jay would come in and muse to the staff around what question time was like, and he said to me, 'The most dangerous asker of questions on that side is John Gardner.' I remember very clearly he said to me, 'The most dangerous asker of questions. You have to watch out for him because he knows how to set the question up, and you won't know where he is going with the first few questions. It is a remarkable skill.'

I thought, 'That's interesting,' and I put it out of my mind. It was not until about April 2022 that I was sitting here as the education minister and John was the shadow. I was preparing to potentially get a question from John and these words from Jay came ringing back in my ears that I had, indeed, a very, very sharp political operator on the other side. He was, as the member for Unley said, right across his brief, right across all corners of the education portfolio. He knew all the detail, and he had an exceptional passion for it.

There are just a couple of things I do want to mention that I think are notable contributions that he made in his time as the minister:

year 7 into high school, although we had differing opinions on doing it, was a huge exercise. I also did not see how it was possible to get it done in time, but you managed to do that, and that is a credit to you;

flexible industry pathways is something that we have kept that, I am sure, was not without controversy, and not without people saying this is potentially not a good idea to do. We have kept that;

the Literacy Guarantee Unit we have heard a lot about;

Clontarf is incredibly important, and we have sought to build on that as well; and

SWiFT. When I worked for a former education minister and we went out to regional education sites, the part of the department that would often be criticised most was the IT department back then. By the time I came around to do it again, post-SWiFT, as we had that rollout of super-fast internet, it was always the first part of the department that people complimented about the support they get, and a lot of that happened in John's time as the minister.

We had the opportunity to travel overseas together to Lyon and the United Kingdom. It was a very, very enjoyable trip, he was fantastic company, but I will finish just by reiterating what, of course, everyone else in here has noted about his love for his family: Trudi, Emma and Eleanor. On that trip we were catching fast trains, we were in airports, we were driving a car to Barrow-in-Furness from Heathrow. In every spare moment, John had a stuffed toy—I forget its name, but he will probably remind me—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Pizza and—

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Pizza and somebody else. It is not the one that is here today, but a video was done back to the kids explaining where he was, saying that he missed them. It was so incredibly genuine. You could not help but understand instantly his own sense of affection, commitment and love for his family. John, I wish you all the best, but I know we will keep in touch.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (17:58): I would like to pay tribute to John for his great service to the South Australian parliament, but also the service that he has undertaken to South Australia. As has been stated here, it is a great privilege to be part of a representative group that looks after the state. My friendship has been quite extensive with John.

I did not have any political background before coming into this place, and John has performed a number of roles to support me during my time here. Most of it is to keep me out of trouble; occasionally it works, occasionally it does not. John has shown a vast intellect and, as we heard from John's speech, he has eloquently put everything in place on his journey, during his time here and his love for his family.

There are also the people who have mentored him on his journey, no more so than Vickie Chapman—a friend of mine as well as many in this place. I think Vickie's guidance and wisdom and also being his boss for a long time put him in good stead, as did Simon Birmingham who also has a great intellect for the political landscape. The advice that I have received from all three has been invaluable over that time.

As the member for West Torrens so eloquently put it, we do not agree on a lot but what I do agree with is that John's values, his contribution and his day-to-day guidance will be missed significantly and I know that for sure. I had a brief conversation with John in the lift only a week or so ago and I said to him, 'What the hell are we going to do when you're not here?' I think we will rise and there will be people who will fill those gaps. I think John has been a great sounding-board to me and he has been a great mentor, but, as I said, he has also been a great disciplinarian. Along the way I have had very much a hotline on WhatsApp from John telling me when and when not to keep quiet and shut up and all the rest of it.

Where I learned a lot about John was on one of our overseas trips. We went on a trip to China and we shared a room in Hong Kong and along the way I was designated as the gumbay king. I was always put up front to do the gumbay. While on that trip John came up to me and said, 'I am sick of you. I am going to challenge you to the gumbay.' We exited where we were and we travelled to another part of that province where we proceeded to give it a fair nudge. We did a pretty good job, but I did have to drag John out of the gutter and we had to get home all in one piece. I have great memories along the way.

As has been stated, John has done a piece of everything in this place. He has served the party and the parliament well as an MP, a deputy, a shadow minister and as a minister. I think one of his greatest strengths has been the voice of reason. In the joint party room he always has a settling comment and that voice of reason, giving people a little bit more time just to settle, to think and to be more considered with their view without flying off the handle.

John, I did not have any political friends before I came into this place, but I consider you one. We were elected together in 2010 and it has been a wild ride. It has been a great journey and I have had the privilege to serve as a shadow, as a minister and a team contributor, but no more so than you. I must say that your legacy will live on in not only education but also in this party as a great contributor and as a great person and I thank you for it.

I see the people in the gallery and, of course, Trudi and your two girls, Eleanor and Emma. They have travelled and stayed at my home up in the Riverland. We had a great time. I am sure Trudi and the girls thought, 'What the hell are these people on?' when they came up because it was fast action, I had all of my kids at home and it was a great family atmosphere. It gave me a little bit more time to learn a bit more about the Gardner family and the Gardner girls.

John, I thank you on behalf of the party, on behalf of the parliament and on behalf of my family. You are a good person. Thank you.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (18:04): It gives me some pleasure to place some comments on the record about the member for Morialta and what an outstanding job he has done since he has been a member of parliament.

Some of you might be surprised to know that John and I have known each other since 1983 when we first started at school together. In fact, I think John might have started a little earlier than me in the reception year. I hope I am right in saying this, but John is a year younger than me even though we went through the same year for 12 years at the same school. That is a pretty good indication that John was very bright from day one. He was always very well read, even in those very early years of school, very earnest and very clever with his schoolwork which, of course, was some contrast to me during that same journey. So we have known each other all through school.

Of course, as John reflected in his comments before, he started at the University of Adelaide in 1996, at the same time that I did as well. As young impressionable arts students at that university in the 1990s, I think we are both very glad that that was the era before camera phones were in existence, because we had a lot of good fun up on level 5 of Union House in the UniBar.

However, it actually started a period where John and I spent some time in political collaboration because the Labor groups on campus, much like the Liberal group on campus, were by no means dominant groups. In fact, there was a dominant group on campus. It was this huge, overwhelming, unconquerable faction ironically called the Independents. It was the iteration that had grown out of the late 1980s and early 1990s from its forebear, Natasha Stott Despoja. This was the Democrats faction, and I think both sides of politics can agree that the only thing worse than one another, of course, is Democrats.

John and I spent some years in collaboration between the various Labor factions on campus and the Liberal faction. I think we roped in the overseas students association, the mature age students association, the postgraduate students association—this incredible coalition—any support we could muster just to knock them off. I am so glad that we finally achieved that mission together, John. I have not shared that story with Natasha since, but I am happy to place it on the record here.

Then, of course, our journeys continued to be in sync when in 2002 we both started working for newly elected members of parliament. For me, it was the then member for Enfield, John Rau, and for John it was the newly elected member for Bragg, Vickie Chapman—who we are blessed to have here along with former Senator Simon Birmingham. John and I were finding our feet as young and very inexperienced electorate officers.

I hope I will not embarrass us by telling this story: not long after John had started that role, he rang me, and the newly elected government had changed the rules about how many staff could be employed in electorate offices. It went from one full-time equivalent to 1.6. John rang me and he said, 'Stephen, do you reckon you would be interested in coming and working in Vickie Chapman's electorate office?' I do not know if that offer was made with the consent of the member for Bragg at that time, but you will perhaps be unsurprised to know that I politely declined the offer, even though I very much appreciated the sentiment behind its offering.

John was a lot more capable and experienced in politics, which I think is why he entered parliament in 2010 at such a young age and did it so well. As the Premier remarked, he replaced his predecessor, of course, the previous member for Morialta, Lindsay Simmons. John has been a lot gentler on the local hairdressers, as I understand it, than his predecessor. Of course, he has conducted himself very well as the member ever since. I entered parliament a little bit later on, and we have been colleagues ever since.

All of the reflections that have been placed on the record about John's capability and capacity as a member of parliament are absolutely accurate. Few others have had a handle on the detail of parliamentary procedure and a real understanding of the ebb and flow of the business of the house, how to participate in it, if not seize control of it, for the benefit of whatever the particular issue or debate might be, or whatever the particular interests of the government or the opposition at the time. Whomever John was serving, on which side of the chamber, he was a formidable opponent. It has been a real lesson over the nearly 12 years that I have been in parliament—again, a bit shorter than John—to watch John and understand how well he conducts himself in the chamber.

He is also, as we just saw from his valedictory, quite a talented debater on the floor, very good with legislation, even if it is not something that he is deeply familiar with, very capable of picking up a topic and arguing it cogently and quite forcefully for the benefit of the argument. As the Minister for Education said, he was very wily and difficult to deal with during the heat of question time as well.

When John announced that he was stepping down from parliament, I thought he was finally sick of me after 42 years and that he just needed to get away from me, but of course he could make the same allegation about me stepping away as well in the inverse. But, I know that in his time in this parliament and also in his time as education minister he leaves a significant legacy.

John and I have both had the benefit of having Rick Persse as a chief executive. Chief executives, not too dissimilar to ministerial drivers, do not really talk about others that they have worked for or with, but Rick has been a bit of an exception about John, saying just how good he was as a minister, how good he was to work with, how collegial the relationship was with the education department and just the sheer volume and pace of change and reform that was able to be delivered in that period, of course, notwithstanding that half of that term was effectively buggered up by a COVID pandemic.

You do leave a considerable legacy, John, both in your role as a member of parliament and also as a minister. I am very sure that, yes, your colleagues will miss you, but so will the House of Assembly, as well as those of us who have had the benefit of knowing you for very long period of time and had the enjoyment of interacting with you. It is obvious to all of us how genuine and heartfelt you are in your reflections about Trudi and Eleanor and Emma, and they will now get the benefit of a much greater share of your time, and as much as they will I hope you enjoy what is next for you. Like many of us, I look forward to keeping in touch.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (18:12): I rise to share a few words, because the community of Whyalla owes a debt of gratitude to John. I was involved for a long time with various education reviews, going all the way back to not the last Liberal government but the one before that. Our aim was to get one high school. The previous Liberal government just wanted to make cuts and then the series of Labor governments and the education department kept coming up with models for a full-on super school, closing all the primary schools, kindies and high schools and having one. As a parent on these reviews and as a councillor representing the council on these reviews, I thought that was an incredibly bad idea.

A good idea was to amalgamate the high schools. There are three high schools in Whyalla: two junior high schools feeding a senior high school. It was a bad model. In the Weatherill government Susan Close was the education minister at the time and with Treasurer Koutsantonis they surprised me with their willingness to commit to a $100 million high school. That was in a half year budget review. It was not long before the March election.

The money was locked in, but we lost government. I thought there was absolutely no way this was going to survive Lucas. This was an easy cut to make. There were no political consequences for the Liberal Party. I have a safe Labor seat. I never take it for granted, but it is a reasonably safe Labor seat so I thought, 'It is almost guaranteed that it is going to be an easy saving here' because of where we were in the process. It was John in cabinet who went into bat for Whyalla. You were dobbed in by somebody else. I am not going to name who broke cabinet solidarity and dobbed you in, but you were dobbed in. I am told that you argued passionately for this investment.

The implementation left something to be desired, but I was not going to blame the Liberal government. You went with the advice of the education department. All year 7s from seven primary schools and the three high schools put in at the one time every single year—and during COVID. I did not think that was the best way to start. It should have been incremental. I could have been an arsehole local member and got out there and attacked the Liberal government, but I thought to myself, 'Would we have gone with the same advice from the education department?' We might well have done.

I recognise the fact that you did something incredibly good and that school will stand as a testament to both a Labor legacy and your legacy. To have a high school next to a university campus, next to a TAFE campus, which created a whole education precinct, is something that you should be proud of.

The SPEAKER (18:16): I would like to put on the record my thanks for your service in this place, John, and to your portfolio in your time as a shadow minister and minister. We really appreciate it. I want to wish you all the very best in that transition from parliament to life after parliament. I hope it goes very, very well for you. Thank you again for your service.

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