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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-04 Daily Xml
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Parliament House Tours

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:58): One of the great things that has happened this week is we have been allowed to bring tour groups back onto the floor of Parliament House, which is terrific. I remember coming in here as an 11 year old when I was at St Michael's College down at Beverley, which was in the seat of Albert Park, and Kevin Hamilton brought us in here. I remember sitting in the Premier's chair and thinking, 'I want to be on these benches one day.' It is a great motivator to get kids in here and to teach them about leadership and things like that.

This week, for the first time in two years because of COVID, we had a group of school students here from my local area. They were the Kangaroo Island kids in year 10 who are doing their careers week. Every year, they come over to do careers week, and they have to find their own accommodation with families in Adelaide. It is their responsibility to make their way in to meet at the pigs in the mall by a certain designated time every day that they are here for that week. They go off to the Zoo together, they come in here and they learn about careers and about the parliamentary process.

It was a great pleasure for them, sir, to meet up with you when we were in the chamber on Monday. Of course, Callum was sitting in the Premier's seat. He actually got to sit in the Premier's seat before Peter Malinauskas got to sit in the Premier's seat, so he was pretty pumped. Later that afternoon, we had another group of residents in. We had the Adams family—not that 'Addams Family', but the Adams family from McLaren Vale. They got to sit in there as well with their two young daughters, so that was terrific.

The really interesting thing about the year 10s from Kangaroo Island was that the very last group I brought through who were able to be on the floor of the house was the same group of students when they were in year 8. They came over on the year 8 camp and I brought them through. It was in late March/early April 2020, just weeks after the bushfires had devastated Kangaroo Island. Many of these students had completely missed out on a summer holiday because their houses had been burnt down or because they had been evacuated. They came here and for many it was the first time they had ever been away from their parents, and they were all a little bit emotional.

I had my little mate Dusty the Kangaroo Island kelpie with me in the parliament; he was in the Old Parliament House. Three of those kids who came in as year 8s two years ago had sisters or brothers of Dusty, and he just worked the room, as he does—a great little pup. He worked the room and was getting lots of cuddles and pats.

These kids turned up on Monday, two years later, and their first question was not, 'Hello, how are you? Great to see you, human being, local member of parliament,' it was, 'Where's Dusty?' I had to break the news that a former Speaker had actually banned Dusty and all pets from parliament. They said, 'Well, that's not fair. Why is that?' I said, 'Listen, you are on careers week. The first job that I'm going to give you is to learn how to lobby for things. At 12 o'clock, the Speaker is going to be in doing a rehearsal for the opening of parliament, so we will be in there.'

Callum was sitting in the Premier's seat, we had people filling up all the seats and of course the Speaker innocently walked into the chamber and we said hello. I said, 'I've got a group of students and they've got a few questions for you.' They went hard, too, on the Speaker. We think we have seen some combat in here over the years, but there is no denying those year 10s from Kangaroo Island Community Education. They were straight onto it. They wanted to know why Dusty, the Kangaroo Island kelpie—their hero and one of the greatest living things ever to come off Kangaroo Island—is not allowed in parliament. I thought you gave a very good answer, Mr Speaker. You said that you love dogs and they took that, and then we moved on and went to the Legislative Council and had a look around over there.

It is really important that we get people into this house because it is not our house: it is their house and it is every South Australian's house. This was the second time this group of students had been in here, what surprises me when I get people in here who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s is that it is their first time into the house. So I pass on my recommendation to all members of parliament, particularly the new ones, to invite as many people as you possibly can to come in here and visit their house, particularly now that they can get in here and feel the comfy green seats. Who knows? There may be an 11 year old out there who will be motivated to work their way up to be elected as the representative of their local area, to be a state member of parliament, because I can tell you it is a very good and rewarding thing to do.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Mawson. Of course, it was an honour to join you and students from Kangaroo Island and to hear their concerns in relation to Dusty.

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