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

Address in Reply

Debate resumed.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:18): It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak to the Address in Reply. I have been fortunate to have been elected five times to this place. Cognisant of new members and their initial speeches, I will make sure I do my best to work around those time frames.

It has been a real privilege and, I guess, the biggest privilege. Sadly, I have only had one of those terms in government—I served three terms in opposition, and some of my friends served four terms—but it was pleasing to have that opportunity, even if only for too short a time, to help run this state.

Notwithstanding what happened at the recent election, I am very proud of what the Marshall Liberal government achieved right across the state and right across regional areas, and certainly in my seat of Hammond. A massive uplift of $17.9 billion was allocated for infrastructure, and there has been a massive spend on schools, roads and health right across the state. I am very proud of what we did in those four years, and there is still work ongoing right across the state from commitments that we made that will go on for quite some time—into the years, in fact—especially when you look at the South Road modernisation and the tunnelling that has to be done there.

I want to reflect on some of the money that was spent, some of the investments that were made across parts of my electorate. Obviously, things change as time goes on. We have redistributions all the time. In fact, at the moment, it is the first time I have been redistributed outside of my electorate. I live 50 kilometres from the Murray Bridge council boundary between Murray Bridge and Coorong council at my farm at Coomandook but, be that as it may, it is a bit hard to just uplift to 1,200 acres.

I would like to acknowledge some of the funding that we put into the electorate of Hammond in those four years, including $20,000 for the Milang butter factory facade restoration. That went alongside a lot of federal money that came in as well. I must admit that people come to me and say, 'We need to get a grant, we need to do this,' and I say, 'Well, you need to talk to Karen down at Milang because she knows how to write a grant application because she knows how to get money.'

The Hon. K.A. Hildyard: She does; she's excellent.

Mr PEDERICK: Absolutely. That is a great restoration happening down there. We invested in a couple of wineries, including Bremerton Wines ($400,000) and Lake Breeze Wines at Langhorne Creek. Langhorne Creek is often the forgotten wine sector in the state, but as soon as people go there they remember it and always come back. It is a beautiful area. Both wineries have done some magnificent upgrades. I think about a million dollars odd was spent at Bremerton, and close to $2 million was spent at Lake Breeze with their wine barrel room. They did a magnificent build there.

There was a $3 million upgrade to the Eastern Fleurieu school at Langhorne Creek. This will be ongoing, with near-new transportable rooms put in as classrooms to update the rooms. When you visit the primary school children there, you could put a pencil on one corner of a desk and it would just roll down the desk because the stumps of the room have sunk into the ground. So they are having a massive change there with buildings replaced, which is going to be great.

The Callington Recreation Community Centre received $197,500 for a build at the Callington Oval. It is a great community centre encompassing a clubroom-style atmosphere for the football and cricket that is played there, and obviously for the Callington Show. It has bar facilities and meeting rooms, and a great kitchen. Alongside the member for Barker, Tony Pasin, former premier Steven Marshall put $4.55 million into the $16.8 million new visitor Monarto Safari Park Visitor Centre, built on Monarto Road. It is a fantastic design and the architects did a great job. I know that builders do not like building around circles, because everything is square usually, but they did a magnificent job of incorporating in a circular style the architecture of the new visitor centre and kept it on time and on budget.

The Old Murray Bridge upgrade has just begun in the last couple of weeks, with $36 million to refit pylon work, drainage works, light works—a whole range of works—to make sure that bridge serves us for decades to come.

With the Thomas Foods infrastructure, which is very vital to the community, we put $14 million into community infrastructure, alongside $10 million of federal funding for road infrastructure, for power infrastructure, gas infrastructure and water infrastructure. I know that the 2.2 kilometres of road that is the public road that leads off the Murray Bridge-Mannum Road and the road train access that was built on that road cost $14 million in itself. I am very proud of that: for those 2,000 jobs that are coming, alongside the 4½ thousand jobs behind that, and the many, many hundreds of millions of dollars that Darren Thomas and his team are investing in our area. It is so pleasing to see.

We have invested another $7.5 million into facilities at the Gifford Hill Racecourse, Murray Bridge. There is going to be an equine swimming pool and a private vet clinic built there and we have done some upgrades of the tracks with the inside running track. Murray Bridge is becoming a real centre in the country. Anyone who visits the racecourse really gets a good look. New training stalls are going in. A South African trainer is coming in; he is going to have 80 stalls there after they have got through all the kerfuffle with planning laws, as you do. Everyone blames each other: the councils blame the state government, whichever colour they are at the time, and the government—well, as the local member I get frustrated with some of the planning decisions that come out of councils, but that would be an endless conversation. However, they are finally building these training stalls.

One I am really proud of is one I campaigned with for four years: the Murray Bridge Soldiers Memorial Hospital emergency department upgrade, which was $7 million. While that was going on, there was $3 million spent on the operating theatre upgrade. It is a great uplift in emergency consultation. I sympathise with the story that the member for Adelaide told about having basically a fabric screen between patients, and that was the emergency department in the old days. It was quite dangerous, in fact. There are now many separate rooms, making it a lot safer for staff and an excellent place for patients if they do need that vital health care.

We invested $20 million in the Murray Bridge High School. I know members on the other side were in Murray Bridge the other day. Of the $20 million, I think $12 million was spent on new school facilities and the high school bringing year seven into high school. It has magnificent rooms and a magnificent approach to learning. We spent $5 million upgrading the Murray Bridge North Primary School opposite my office. We put $360,000 into the Murray Bridge Regional Rowing Centre, alongside about $500,000 of federal money, and the local council put in about $1.7 million. We put $1 million into the Murray Bridge swimming pool upgrade.

We were also funding a greater Adelaide freight bypass planning study for $5 million. Certainly, freight and where it goes is a much-discussed issue, but we do have to remember that the South Eastern Freeway is a freight route. At Truro, everything above a B-double literally has to go up the Sturt Road bypass for heavy vehicles. I know there are thousands of tons of freight that are going around the top road, as I call it, through Mannum, Sedan and the Halfway House corner to go up that road. I acknowledge the $200 million that has been set aside by both federal and state governments to work on the Truro bypass. Anything above a B-double—B-triples, B-quads, AB-doubles and road trains—has to go that way because they will not let them come down the hill.

The Murray Bridge South-East links business case, which includes the duplication of Swanport Bridge, was $5 million. I will take note of the current government to see if that planning still goes ahead, because that is vitally needed. We put $2½ million into the Jervois Plant upgrade at Beston Foods to assist with their lactoferrin plant which is great value-adding for that works. Tailem Bend netball courts: $99,350. I am going to have to push through this a bit out of respect for the next speaker. We also funded:

the Tailem Bend new CFS station, $1.061 million;

the Karoonda Swimming Pool, $1.6 million, and I could do a 30 minute speech just on how we got that, but I do not have time today;

the Karoonda Districts Football Club upgrade, $258,000, and it was great to see my boys have a win there the other day;

the Lameroo Swimming Pool regeneration, $850,000;

Zerella Fresh and the Pye family at Parilla, $2 million for a new packing facility to be included in a $40 million to $50 million plant;

the Browns Well Highway and the Ngarkat Highway upgrade, which I am really proud of, bringing them up to 110 km/h between Loxton and Bordertown, $42 million;

the Kalimna Hostel, Strathalbyn, redevelopment, $3 million, and I will be watching closely what the new government does with the allocated $3 million;

the Strathalbyn and District Aged Care Facility upgrade, which was 36 beds, 24 of them being memory beds, $16 million. It is fantastic from all reports. I have not had the opportunity to go there;

the Mannum Community College's new STEM building, CAD lab and senior school upgrade, $3.9 million;

the Eastern Fleurieu School Strathalbyn Campus upgrade, $1.8 million;

the Mid Murray Murraylands Road upgrade, $1.5 million;

the Coorong District Council high-risk intersection upgrades, $900,000;

the Murray Bridge Basketball Stadium, $1.5 million;

the Swanport Road recycled water pipeline project, $540,000;

the Knights Well Road upgrade project, $300,000;

construction of a tennis court at the Borrika Tennis Club, $25,200;

construction of a multiuse clubroom at Purnong Road, Caurnamont, for the South Australian Barefoot Waterski Club, $17,900;

assistance in building the new drag strip at Tailem Bend, $2 million;

the Bowhill township power upgrade and other facility work, $347,000;

the Karoonda Business Park, $125,000;

the Big 4 Caravan Park at The Bend, $500,000;

the Tailem Bend Netball Club, $99,000;

the Mannum Harbour tourist grant, $105,000;

Murraylands Multisport, $200,000;

Sporting Shooters at Tungkillo, $171,000;

the Imperial Football Club, $49,750;

the new Strathalbyn SES station, which is being built, $2 million;

the Strathalbyn Ambulance Station, which is currently being built, just off $4 million;

the Kanmantoo Copper Mine, $2 million;

the Pinnaroo Electric vehicle charging station (wow!), $1.3 million;

the Mallee Community Playground trial project, $648,000; and

the on-farm emergency water infrastructure rebate scheme, $449,917.

The total in just that list—and a few were missed—is more than $214 million. In the interests of time, and acknowledging that there is another speech about to be made, I just want to acknowledge everyone who worked on my campaign to get me here: my campaign team, my volunteers, my supporters and my family. Thank you.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Hammond for assisting with time for a member's first speech. Before I call the member for Newland, I remind the house that this is the member's first speech, and that she should be accorded the normal courtesies and respect afforded to new members on this most important occasion. The member for Newland has the call.

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (12:33): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I congratulate you on your re-election to the role. It is a great privilege also to speak after the member for Adelaide, and I congratulate her on her resounding success.

It will be the greatest honour of my life to have been elected the member for Newland, and I would like to acknowledge former members for Newland, particularly Tom Kenyon and Richard Harvey, for their service to the people of the north-eastern suburbs and the Adelaide Hills. To Dr Richard Harvey the outgoing member for Newland: Richard was an incredibly warm and fair opponent in the campaign period, and he has been gracious and humble in defeat. Richard and I have a similar sense of humour and we have always got along.

As South Australians, we live in the best state in the best country on earth. Dr Harvey and I also live in the best electorate on earth, and I believe that the civility of our democratic process is a true testament to that fact. Dr Harvey's personal kindnesses, however, are a testament to no-one but himself, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

I would like to congratulate Her Excellency the Governor on her opening of parliament yesterday and thank her for her service to South Australia. Her Excellency outlined Labor's ambitious policy agenda, one that I am so proud to have campaigned for. I congratulate the Premier on his astounding success. We were elected by South Australians with a clear mandate to deliver that agenda, and that is in no small part thanks to the Premier and his steadfast leadership.

On a personal note, I would like to thank both the Premier and the Deputy Premier for not only their leadership but their warmth. I have felt supported by both Pete and Susan every day since my preselection, and I thank them for their unwavering endorsement of not only me but my agenda in the north-eastern suburbs. Pete and Susan are kind and compassionate and two of my biggest fans, and to me that is true leadership. I am so proud to be part of their team, and thank you for allowing me the privilege.

The seat of Newland was created in 1976, replacing the abolished district of Tea Tree Gully. I would also like to acknowledge the first and only member for Tea Tree Gully, who was also the first female Labor member in the South Australian parliament, Molly Byrne. It is an incredible privilege to stand on the shoulders of not only a giant of the Labor Party but a giant of suffrage in SA. Thank you, Molly, for your service to our state, our movement and the people of the Gully.

Newland is now an entirely metropolitan seat in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. We take in half of Modbury North—we had to give the other half to the member for Wright—as well as Modbury, Hope Valley, St Agnes, Ridgehaven, Yatala Vale, Banksia Park, Fairview Park and Tea Tree Gully, right to the edge of the Adelaide Hills near Houghton. The entirety of the seat of Newland is in the City of Tea Tree Gully council area and includes the Tea Tree Gully historical precinct.

In 1907, Modbury was described as a quiet little country village with a store, machinist's shop, chaff mill, Methodist church, schoolroom and hotel. In a book named The History of Tea Tree Gully, it was remarked that the reporter might have written an identical report at the end of another 50 years, as in 1957 there were still only 62 houses in Modbury. In the years that followed, our community was built. Today, there are over 7,000 houses in Modbury and it acts as our business precinct. The council's civic centre was built in 1967. In 1970, Myer Tea Tree Plaza opened, and in 1973 Modbury Hospital, our hospital, was proudly opened by Premier Don Dunstan.

All three of those locations are cornerstones of our community, and all of them play a role in my story as well. Tea Tree Gully is my home. I grew up in Highbury and today I live in St Agnes. In year 8 and year 9, I attended Kildare College in Holden Hill. My best friend Ashleigh and I spent our Thursday nights on the 506 bus to Tea Tree Plaza and our weekends at her family home in Modbury North. I got my licence at Modbury Service SA—albeit it took me multiple attempts—and I have been to Modbury Hospital for a burst appendix, a concussion and not one but three anaphylactic reactions. My brothers learnt to swim at Paragon Swim Centre, which is still right next door.

Through uni, I worked at 42nd Street Cafe, Tea Tree Plaza, which became my second home. Throughout the campaign, I was reunited with so many of my old customers, and even on polling day had not one but three residents tell me that they recognised me not from the campaign but from serving them at the Plaza some eight years ago.

In 2018, I was elected as a ward councillor for Balmoral ward in the City of Tea Tree Gully. Balmoral ward includes the Newland suburbs of Modbury, Hope Valley and St Agnes, and I thank those residents who have continued to support me from my council campaign. I am lucky to have had the support of Tea Tree Gully council staff and councillors throughout the campaign as well, and thank CEO John Moyle, as well as my former colleagues and elected members. Particular thanks go to deputy mayor Lucas Jones, his wife, Chloe, and my surrogate niece, Charlotte. Lucas, you have taken me in from the day we first started working together at the Newland electorate office and made me part of your family. I thank you for your support.

My time on council gave me a particular understanding of, and appreciation for, the Tea Tree Gully CWMS network. The city is home to 4,700 septic tanks, with around 76 different systems of septic pipework. Out of the 4,700 tanks, roughly 4,000 are in Newland.

I was recently gifted a book from a resident, titled From Settlement to City: a History of the District of Tea Tree Gully by Ian Auhl. The book was gifted to me by John and Pat Wilson, local authors from Banksia Park, and I thank them for joining me online today. The book was published in 1976 and discusses the issues of deep drainage, common effluent and sewerage in Tea Tree Gully. Forty-six years post publication we are transitioning the Tea Tree Gully CWMS network to SA Water management.

It was Labor who fully committed—and first committed—to a transition to SA Water, and only Labor who ever committed to scrap the CWMS levy. On 1 July this year, thousands of residents in the seats of Newland, Wright and Morialta will no longer pay a $745 service charge to the council for their sewerage services. Our government will continue to deliver the Sustainable Sewers project for our community.

It is by far my proudest commitment. It is one that affects over a third of electors in the seat. Residents have been on the CWMS network for upwards of 40 years. There are septic tanks in people's bedrooms, under their swimming pools and, at one beautiful house that I doorknocked in Banksia Park, at the bottom of a creek beneath a bamboo forest. I thank the Tea Tree Gully councillors for their work on this issue, as well as the CWMS Action Group, particularly Rose Morton and Adla Mattiske for their years of continued advocacy.

I come from a long line of strong, independent women. Each one of those women has been a single mum with an insecure job, with insecure housing, and has lived with the traumas of mental illness, addiction, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Despite all of that, each one of those women is loud, intelligent, vivacious, hardworking, charismatic and, best of all, inherently political. In our family we do not let our experiences define us. We were bred to be fighters, and no-one tells us what to do.

Today, I thank my village of strong women, in particular my mum, Rachel Koopmans; my nan, Sarah Courtney (who joins us today); my aunties Catherine Zengerer and Fiona Killick-McKinnon; my cousins Isabelle Zengerer (who also joins us); and Courtney Oswald. I also thank Matthew Zengerer and Stewart Henderson for often being the sole males in a pack of very strong, loud women. My family means the world to me.

My mum is no stranger to adversity. When I was three my mum and stepfather were married. My younger brother, Benjamin Isaac Koopmans, was born on 24 September 2000 at 24 weeks' gestation. He was born awake but later that day died in my mother's arms. His death changed the course of our lives entirely, and I say his name today for the record to acknowledge in this place the identities of babies born still and the gap left in families like mine by their passing.

His death shaped my childhood and, unfortunately, my memories of being a four year old are somewhat tarnished by memories of alcoholism and domestic violence that followed. At one stage my mum, older brother and I moved into a shelter run by the Lutheran Church. I still remember getting ready at the shelter for my first transition day to reception, and my brother telling me that I could not tell the other kids where we were living.

Many of my beautiful cousins have also lived with the perils of addiction. My mum and my beautiful Aunty Bianca acted as kinship carers to my cousins on and off for many years. I worry every day about their opportunities post those placements in foster care, residential care and kinship care. I know I cannot change their circumstances and I cannot write their stories for them, but I can stand in this place, even when it is incredibly difficult, and use my experiences to guide my decision-making.

I am a member of the Australian Labor Party because I believe in equal opportunity no matter your circumstances, and I will fight for those equal opportunities for the rest of my life. My mum is the pillar of that belief system. She has taught me always that our experiences should not dictate our opportunities and that our traumas do not define our worth.

My mum has chased every single one of her goals. She is smart, she is dedicated and she would do anything for anyone. She is a small business owner, a theologian, an archaeologist, a collector of any bird that flies into her garden and the life of any dance floor. To mum: you are the strongest person I know. At times you have suffered greatly, but you light up every room with your charm, wit and enormous heart for others. You have made me strong and that has not always been easy, but I owe you so much and love you dearly.

To my dad, Michael Savvas: my dad is a truly gifted academic and wordsmith. He makes everything sound beautiful. My dad brings magic to everything he touches. He finds beauty in the otherwise banal and can make anything into an adventure. If my dad finds out something strange is happening, he has to be there for it, which makes him the best and most interesting person you will ever meet. My dad has been known to watch court proceedings for fun and to set out on the solo task of solving otherwise unsolved mysteries.

He is smart, he is dry, he is charismatic and he is my very best friend. Weekends with my dad and my sisters were always like a holiday. My dad is the dad who took us for outings to the Elizabeth Ageing Festival and the Kilburn Dog Show, making sure every weekend with him was filled with activities. He made incredible sacrifices for me and my sisters and continuously pushes us to be the best versions of ourselves. My dad is my biggest fan and our connection is so special.

It brings me great sadness to know we are not joined by my grandma today, Carlene Savvas, but I feel her presence in everything we do together, dad, and I hope that you do too. To my stepdad, David Koopmans: when I think of you, I think of Neil Young playing in the back shed at Windsor Gardens or teaching me the words to Chuck E.'s in Love by Rickie Lee Jones on the drive home down Grand Junction Road.

You were the one who took me to McDonalds every Friday for a small fries reward if I got 10 out of 10 on my spelling test, to which I always did, and the one who stayed up late into the night helping me study for my year 12 exams. You have always told me how proud you are of me. You have been affronted by a terrible affliction and that, at times, has been unspeakably hard but I want you to know that I think of you with nothing but love.

To my siblings Michael, Zachary, and Elijah Koopmans and Chelsea and Taylor Fernandez: nothing makes me prouder than being your big sister. My brothers and sisters are the most important people in my life and every day I continue to marvel at their intellect and their strength. I love you all dearly and I thank Chelsea for joining us today.

To my extended family on my dad's side, most notably my great-auntie Lesley Murphy, who joined me yesterday and Uncle Bob Murphy: they have taken me in as a surrogate granddaughter and never looked back. To my cousins Robyn and Chris Hambour and their kids Grace and Henry, and to Bec and Steve Murphy and their kids Sarah, Zac, Billy and my beautiful goddaughter Abbie: thank you for your love and your laughter.

There are a number of people I would like to thank from my second family, the South Australian branch of the ALP. I first got involved in Labor as a bright-eyed 17-year-old at the 2013 federal election. I officially joined the party in October 2015 and I have never looked back. To Reggie Martin, Aemon Bourke, John Bistrovic, Rik Morris and the entire team at CHQ, winning an election off a first-time government is no easy feat and your team ran an incredible, united, relatable campaign. I thank you all for your tireless efforts and unending support.

To all my parliamentary colleagues in both places: I thank you. From the other place I would like to make particular mention of Emily Bourke for her love and friendship over many years, Clare Scriven for all her support, as well as Tung Ngo for personally letterboxing half my electorate with addressed mail.

In this place, I congratulate each of the newly elected members on both sides, especially the members for Elder, Waite, Davenport, Gibson, Adelaide and King. I would also like to mention Michael Brown, Zoe Bettison and Lee Odenwalder for their assistance during the campaign. To Nick Champion: for 2½ years I sat in the front desk of your federal electorate office in Munno Para. Not too many years later, we stand here together as colleagues in state parliament. Nick, I will never be able to thank you enough for everything you did to ensure I could enter this place. You had so much faith in me when I had little to no faith in myself. You are a true friend and I thank you.

To Blair Boyer and his beautiful family: Blair has spent the last eight months campaigning across not one but three marginal seats—well, at least he referred to Wright as marginal, though the verdict is out on that one—and also doing everything he could to ensure the north-eastern suburbs were back in Labor hands. I am so proud to see you become a minister and so lucky to have had you on my team.

To the newly minted member for King, Rhiannon Pearce, not many people go to work every day with their very best friend, but I get to seven days a week. Rhiannon started as a colleague and became a sister. She is the most selfless person I know. She checks in every day and never complains about herself. Just this morning, she texted at about 7am randomly offering to go to the chemist and pick up some medicine for my nerves. She is fun, she is fearless and she is a bit of a dag. The people of King are lucky to have her represent them and I am lucky to have her in my life.

To my federal colleagues, particularly Senator Marielle Smith, Amanda Rishworth and Tony Zappia: I thank you for all your support and your advice over the campaign period. To Senator Don Farrell and Nimfa Farrell, I thank you both for your service to our state and our movement over many decades. Senator, I am incredibly cognisant of your role in the Labor Party and thank you for paving the way for so many others. Your personal support of me means the world. Nimfa, you have a heart of gold and I am so lucky to have you in my corner. Thank you for joining me today.

To the Newland campaign team, Peter Geytenbeek, Alex Pados, Suzanne Kellett, Eloise Atterton, Ulian Cox, Sean Hill, Victoria Brown, Mikaela Wangmann and many others, every day of the Newland campaign I was astounded by the incredible belief you all had in me and the lengths you were willing to go for our cause.

To Peter Geytenbeek: it was nothing short of a privilege to have been given you as my campaign manager. Over the last eight months you managed my campaign as well as my personal life, social calendar and occasional emotional outbursts. Managing a marginal seat campaign with an eight-month lead time is no easy feat, and the work you put in, particularly in those first few weeks of my preselection, was flawless. Every day I woke up in awe of the work you were doing for me and for our movement. In fact, for the majority of the campaign I felt quite guilty for not working anywhere near as hard as you were and feeling as if I did not take on the burdens of the campaign in the way that you did. I now know that that is because you were not letting me, and I thank you for that.

Running in a three-cornered race without an 18-month campaign like the other marginal seats, we often felt the odds were against us. Despite that, we were always on the same side and you always told me you knew we could do it. Whenever anyone asks if we worked well together, I answer by saying this: we did not have a single argument from my preselection to election day. That is not a testament to me, because there were certainly times when I was worth arguing with, but to you and indicative of your enduring patience and commitment to our goal. Everything fazed me in the campaign period, so your response was to let nothing outwardly faze you.

I will always remember a particularly stressful campaign meeting in Parliament House. I was really struggling with the enormity of the task ahead. You took me across to La Moka for a coffee and sat with me while I cried. You showed me immense kindness for a minute or two, and after I finished my coffee I remember you distinctly saying, 'You're okay now. Go knock on some doors.' That is Pete: all hard work and no fuss.

Pete, you are an asset to our group and we are all better for knowing you. I wish you so much goodness in your career and would like to offer a special congratulations to you and beautiful Millie for your wedding a few weeks ago. In addition to taking on a marginal seat campaign, you were planning a wedding, and I am so glad Millie still likes me even so. Thank you both for being here with me today.

To Alex Pados: you are one of a kind. You are the most loyal soldier I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I hope that every late night spent doing mailouts and exporting data in a very particular way was worth it, not only so that we could see Newland represented in this place but so that each and every doorknocking letter I sent out was addressed to the household's dog. I met many a constituent at the pre-poll and on election day who thanked me on behalf of their dog for those letters, so from me and those dogs, I thank you.

To Sean Hill: you are bright, strategic and have the biggest heart for working people of anyone I know. Sean is the kind of guy who will message you out of the blue just to tell you he thinks you are brilliant. He has an incredible eye for detail and ran my corfluting expeditions with military precision. Sean, I thank you for your friendship and your tireless work in the labour movement.

To Ben Rillo: anyone who knows Ben knows he is incredibly dedicated, unbelievably hardworking and a brilliant, strategic, political mind. More significant than that, however, is his painstaking loyalty. Ben puts himself second to the needs of the party always and seeks no recognition or reward. I truly believe that our branch of the ALP is a better place because we have a loyal soldier like Ben in our membership and I am incredibly lucky to have him in my corner as not only a colleague but one of my very best friends. Ben, I thank you.

To Jennifer Allison: you are the sort of friend who shows up at 8pm with a bag of groceries and stays listening to you complain until 3am on a Wednesday morning. Jen calls every day. It does not matter what is going on in her own life, she will always find the time to check in with me. At Christmas time, when I was struggling more than ever, she bought me a print entitled Sunshine After the Rain. Jen loves and loves and loves, and I think of Jen as my personal sunshine on hard days, so thank you.

To Tara Fatehi: particular thanks go to you and your family for acting as a corflute home base for many months. Tara, you are selfless, you are fierce, you are strong and you are brilliant. I hope one day to see you in a place like this one. To a number of Labor women who have backed me from day one: I cannot name you all but thank Meagan Spencer, the true definition of a woman who backs a woman, Amy Ware, Sarah Huy, Ella Shaw and many others. I cannot wait to see where the movement takes you all. To my staff, Sav Ly, Ulian Cox and Ella Corcoran: thank you for bearing with me in the transition period. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do and what we can achieve in Newland over the next few months.

A number of my personal friends provided both campaign support and emotional support throughout the campaign too. To Ashleigh Bradshaw: you are a sister to me and my biggest ally. I would not have got through the last eight months without you and I will be forever grateful. To Elizabeth Stankevicius, Sam Green, Isabel Bollen, Giulia Sciancalepore, Edwina Lane, Ciara Fanning-Walsh, Jack Dart, Lucy Lokan and Miranda Traeger: I thank you for not giving up on our friendship, even when I was absent. I cannot assure you all that all of a sudden I have more free time, but I can assure you that I am incredibly grateful to have you in my life and I will try my best.

Finally, to the union movement, to the Transport Workers Union and the Financial Services Union who supported me during my very short period in the corporate sector: I give my thanks to TWU secretary, Ian Smith, and FSU secretary, Jason Hall. Next, I want to thank my union and the union of over 200,000 retail and fast-food workers across Australia. Working in the union movement grounds a person in a certain kind of way. It not only taught me the value of secure well-paid work but instilled in me the inherent dignity of the opportunity to access stable working conditions.

Throughout my life, my relatives have fought their way through insecure jobs. Almost every person on my mum's side of the family has relied on Centrelink at one time or another and tried their hand at casual work or insecure contracts for short periods of time and little pay. Permanent secure work was a foreign concept to me, as was home ownership, my mum being the first and only person in her family before me to have purchased a home.

Not only did working at the SDA teach me about the dignity of secure work through our members but it gave me dignity in what I did as well. Before I worked at the SDA, I was working 30 hours a week in hospitality for $10 an hour. I was studying full time and often struggling with my subjects, unable to keep up with uni and, having to pay my own way, often being unable to pay for petrol, car registration and my phone bill.

The SDA gave me a job and they gave me a chance. They gave me dignity in my profession and the opportunity to be more than I thought I could be. Becoming a union rep at the age of 20 defined the rest of my career. I had a secure well-paid job and because of that the ability to succeed. They supported me then and they continue to support me now and I would like to thank Josh Peak, Sonia Romeo, Tom Carrick-Smith and the entire SA/NT branch of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association for giving me the great privilege of joining the shoppies family. Without that family, I would not be standing in this place and I thank them for everything they have done for me and the retail, fast-food and warehousing workers across the state.

Today, I stand beneath a tapestry celebrating women's suffrage and can see the words, as mentioned by the member for Adelaide, 'A woman's place is in the house'. I am incredibly cognisant of the privilege to be the youngest woman ever elected to this place and the responsibility that comes with that privilege. I am someone who often feels she had to grow up too early. I would do anything to go back and tell a very scared four-year-old girl that in 21 short years she would be a member of parliament, but I cannot. Instead, I will make it my mission to tell every other young boy and girl that, no matter their circumstances or their postcode, they can.

So, to the many young girls and boys who have shown an interest in my campaign, this is for you: to Amelia of Tea Tree Gully, who made it her mission to meet not only the three Newland candidates but the Premier as well; to Shubh of St Agnes, who made a Labor corflute in his year 4 class; to Emily of St Agnes, who felt she could run for school president because I was elected; to Suzanna of St Agnes, who made me a picture that said, 'Olivia is the government'; to Patrick of Tea Tree Gully, who asked me to ask the Premier and Scott Morrison if we can have three-day weekends; and to Aaliyah of Tea Tree Gully, who wrote to me saying, 'I'm glad Labor won. I know with more hospital beds we will have a good state'.

To each and every one of you, and every other young person in this state who wants to represent their community, you can, no matter where you come from, and I promise to do everything in my power to ensure that you do.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Cowdrey.

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