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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-26 Daily Xml
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Members

Valedictories

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (18:00): I will be brief. I think my kids are probably getting hungry. It is a little unfortunate, for me at least, to be exiting this place at a time when some people who have made some very considerable contributions to this place are also exiting. The members for Torrens and Colton have all made significant contributions to this place and in the member for Torrens' case, of course, to the Australian Senate. The members for Unley, Morialta and Kavel have also been effective advocates for their communities, as well as serving as ministers in significant portfolios.

But I am thinking particularly of the member for Lee and the member for Port Adelaide. These two exceptional people, who I am proud to call friends, have achieved so much and through their contributions have made this state better for working people. In that context, it is a little daunting to be standing here closing off my career in this place. I am proud, though, of the contribution that I and, importantly, the members of my team have made to the community of Elizabeth over the last 16 years. Indeed, as I reflected on my more modest achievements in my community, it was not lost on me that two of the contributions I worked on in the previous Labor government that had a huge positive effect on my community were directly due to working in collaboration with the members for Lee and Port Adelaide in their roles as ministers for transport and education respectively.

The first of those is the extraordinary success of the Northern Connector Jobs Taskforce, which I served on for the government and which saw hundreds of locals and northern suburbs' workers employed and trained in the wake of the shameful Holden closure. The second was the huge investment in my old school, which the member for Port Adelaide might remember, Playford International College. Susan and I were both approached by the new principal, who told us in no uncertain terms that we would be better off closing the school and sending all the kids to private schools, rather than continuing on its current course. I am pleased to say that we did not take his advice. These were truly outstanding ministers and I wish both Stephen and Susan the best of luck in wherever the future takes them.

I have always tried to heed the advice of my predecessor, the Hon. Lea Stevens, whose approach to being a leader in the community was to embed oneself in the networks of that community to encourage collaboration, be constantly aware of the challenges and needs of the community and then to advocate.

So whether it is advocating for more school funding, sports and recreation clubs, road safety measures and the ongoing work of tackling cost of living and housing pressures on the individual and family scale, or larger projects like the work I have done with local church networks on the winter shelter program for homeless people or the sustained and intensive response to the closure of Holden which so devastated our community, I have always been committed to working as part of a team and as part of successive Labor governments to make real change for the people of the northern suburbs.

There is always work to be done, of course, and I would never presume to tell a future member for Elizabeth what they should or should not do, but there are things to keep an eye on. Australia Post recently announced a $500 million investment into a state-of-the-art parcel sorting facility on the old Holden site. This is a huge opportunity for the community and I have already spoken to Australia Post about the importance of employing local people in such a facility. The reality of course, is that this site will not employ anything like the number that Holden did, but we need to impress upon Australia Post that employing locals and having a policy of employing locals just makes sense.

I do not have many regrets, but I do regret that certain changes have happened in Elizabeth that I have not done enough to prevent, chief among them being the encroachment of some pretty ugly architecture on public land. I will not dwell on this here, but the member for Taylor, I am sure, knows what I am talking about. If you know, you know, and the community certainly knows.

In recent months, I have been talking to the member for Taylor about revitalising the idea of Elizabeth as the garden city that it was when I first arrived in 1981. Thanks to that minister, we now have the excellent Northern Parklands legislation, and my hope is that we can build on this by protecting and enhancing what is left of the windbreaks along Main North Road between Salisbury and Munna Para and work towards a linear park that truly serves as a gateway to the city and to the Barossa beyond. I will be watching with interest both the Parklands establishment and the revitalisation of the garden city.

I know that should Ella Shaw, the candidate, be successful at the next election—and I do not want to jinx it by saying that I firmly believe she will be—I know that our community will be in safe hands. Ella is young and local and brimming with fresh ideas that I think will benefit the community we both love and will also ensure that she has a long and illustrious career in this place. I sincerely wish Ella the best of luck and I will be doing whatever I can to ensure that she is the next member for Elizabeth.

I hope that in my own way, and always surrounded by an amazing team, I have been an effective and committed advocate for my community and a conscientious member of this place, contributing to making South Australia better and safer. I will not dwell on these contributions but certain things stand out. I was Chair of the Economic and Finance Committee's inquiry into the state's labour hire laws, a significant body of work which led directly to legislation being enacted and subsequently repealed by the Marshall government, which protected some of the most marginalised and poorly paid members of our community. I am very proud of the work the committee did and I am very proud that the Malinauskas government has, indeed, passed legislation to reintroduce these measures just today.

As a backbencher I first introduced the concept of a domestic violence disclosure scheme to the parliament, and to the government led by Jay Weatherill. This is a concept which, as the Minister for Child Protection will know, while extremely worthy is legally complex and for whatever reason it never found expression before the 2018 election. I have always believed in giving credit where credit is due and the domestic violence disclosure scheme was introduced by the former Attorney-General Vickie Chapman, and she was gracious enough to acknowledge me publicly on several occasions. By all accounts, the scheme has been a success and is helping to keep women safe in South Australia.

Finally, as the shadow minister for police I had the unenviable task, which I know the member for Bragg is so enjoying, of having to criticise the government without criticising our excellent police service, many members of which remain friends of mine to this day. While it was a hard slog, as anyone who has been a shadow minister knows, it had moments of real satisfaction, such as forcing the then government to accept amendments which ensured that our police and other emergency service workers have the best legislative protections from assault in the country.

But the unexpected highlight of my career in this place has undoubtedly been my role as Government Whip.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Mr ODENWALDER: It was not my first choice—well may you laugh, member for West Torrens—but I decided early on that I would make it my own, and I think I have served my party and the parliament well. I have leaned into values that I think are important: loyalty, building relationships and always keeping my word when a commitment is made. But, of course, I did not do it alone, and I want to acknowledge the staff that I have had along the way who have also been instrumental in the smooth running of this place over the past four years, and the delivery of this government's significant agenda.

Many of you will know these names: Rebecca Vandepeear, Will Cheffirs, Shaylee Knight, Isaac Solomon and, of course, Billy Zimmermann. Each of these young people have an enormous future in front of them. They will take different paths but they are each outstanding in their own way, and I want to sincerely thank them.

My two young boys are particularly grateful for the old collection of Pokemon cards which Will Cheffirs bequeathed them and, just quietly, may well be more valuable than Will knew when he let them go, and, of course, my friend and yours, Corey Harriss who works for the manager of government business. He has been a constant companion on this journey.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Whether you liked it or not.

Mr ODENWALDER: Whether I liked it or not. Corey is something of an institution on this side of the house. He throws himself into countless tasks which most of us are blissfully unaware of—at least that is what I assume he is doing—but I think they have real importance to the continued success of the government.

Working with the member for West Torrens as the manager of government business has been really something. There is a reason Tom is Father of the House. He has seen countless people like me come and go from this place. He is a brilliant strategist, a brilliant tactician, a man who lives and breathes Labor Party ideals. He could honestly do anything in the world that he wanted but I just cannot see him doing anything else but this.

As I said before, I have truly enjoyed working with the member for Unley as Opposition Whip. Together we have established enough trust and goodwill, not only to work together on the smooth running of this house but also to make significant changes to the standing orders which are of benefit to everyone here. I wish him all the best into the future. I want to also thank the clerks and the parliamentary staff for their assistance in all of those things. Being the whip has also given me the chance to get to know and work with our enormously talented backbench. As time goes on I do not envy the Premier of managing the expectations of such a large group of truly exceptional individuals.

Then there is the Premier himself. It is worth repeating what many people before me have said, that this man is a once-in-a-generation leader, and we are just so lucky on this side of the house that he is a once-in-a-generation Labor leader. I can honestly say that in my 30-odd years in and around the Labor Party I have never seen the party so united, so full of purpose and positive energy as it is under Peter's leadership.

It would be a futile exercise to list here all of the achievements of this government and this Premier, but I do believe that one enduring legacy will be the instigation of the social media ban nationally for children, and I want to echo the comments of the member for Adelaide; I think she was absolutely on the money. I want to thank the Premier for taking a chance on me as an untested shadow minister and the trust that he has put in me as Government Whip over the last four years.

I have also been blessed over the last 16 years to have worked with a series of incredible people, and I hope that if I have any legacy at all it is as a supportive boss who always respected my staff and always encouraged them to move onward and upward. I know that I have had some future giants of the party pass through my office on their way to greatness, and I also know that there were some very good people who saw politics up close and who, perhaps wisely, have sought career satisfaction elsewhere.

I will not name everybody, for the obvious reasons, but there are some people who must be mentioned, and no-one is more important than my office manager, Chantelle Karlsen. Many of you will know Chantelle. She has worked in the office of the member for Elizabeth longer than I have, having been the trainee to Lea Stevens when I first started there in 2003. Chantelle is incredibly smart and tough and loyal and, truth be told, is largely responsible for any success that I might claim as the local MP. I am pleased to say that Chantelle was just last night re-elected to a second term as the deputy mayor of the City of Playford. I have no doubt at all that she is just getting started in terms of her contribution to the community that she loves.

I want to sincerely thank my current staff: Mary Kaspersis, Troy Davill, and also the many excellent people who have come and gone, including some names that are very familiar to everyone on this side of the house: Amy Ware, Wendy Gee and the irrepressible Chad Buchanan. It was always a team effort and it is the community that benefited.

I also want to put on the record my thanks and appreciation to the members and leadership of the SDA and of the broader Labor Unity faction. I have never laboured under the illusion that I was destined to be an MP, and I only came here with the support of a group of people who, like me, value unity, value discipline, and always put the working people that we all represent ahead of their own interests. I have always tried to conduct my professional life by those values.

There are too many to name, obviously, but I want to particularly thank Don and Nimfa Farrell, Josh Peak, Sonia and Dan Romeo, John Bistrovic, Senator Marielle Smith, Tom Carrick-Smith, Ben Rillo, John Atkinson, Amanda Rishworth, Reggie Martin, Aemon and Emily Bourke—who is here; hello, Emily—and of course, many, many others, including the member for Ramsay, of course, who is one of my oldest friends, and the member for Florey and the member for Taylor, without whom, it is fair to say, I would not be standing in this place today. I am truly grateful.

I leave this place with no concrete plans, but with two very clear intentions.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: Well may you laugh, member for West Torrens. The first is to always seek out roles, whether in the public or private sector, where I can continue to find a way to make my community in South Australia a better place. I have always been committed to public service, whether as a police officer working in Elizabeth, as an electorate officer at the coalface of an MP's work or as an elected member of parliament itself.

I always wanted to give back to the community which has given me so much. My parents brought me and my sisters to Elizabeth from London in 1981, and it is the best thing they have ever done. I want to thank them both for that prescient move and for instilling in me the Labor values that guide me to this day. They are among the dozen or so people who watch these proceedings, and so I hope they are watching now. I love you guys.

The second intention, just as important as the first, is to commit to making my family my absolute top priority. My wife, Ann, has been there for me through the ups and downs of this political life. She has always been my partner, my North Star and my best adviser. Any missteps or strategic mistakes I might have made—I expected the member for West Torrens to laugh again there—have been the result of me not listening to her good advice, and I hope that I have finally learned my lesson.

Jimmy has grown up into a wonderful young man. The member for West Torrens claims he is an average soccer player. I want to put that on the record. I am so very proud of him and my two beautiful little boys, Felix and Miles, the Gallagher brothers in the gallery. They are changing every day. They are best friends and fierce enemies. They are cheeky and funny and brilliant, and I look forward to watching them grow into beautiful young men like their big brother.

It is common to observe that political life is hard on one's family, and it is: late nights, weekend commitments, constant attachment to emails and phones and, in the case of ministers and shadows, the 24-hour attention to the media cycle. But more than that, it is less commonly observed that the simple fact of you being an MP and, even on the backbench, at least potentially in the public eye, can have a stultifying effect on your family. Every decision you make and they make must be made through the prism of this job. So to Ann, Jimmy, Felix and Miles, you have all sacrificed so much, even if you have sometimes been unaware of it, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I feel both very lucky and intensely guilty and I promise I will make it up to you.

As with all of us, I have had disappointments along the way, but I can honestly say that I leave this place with no bitterness, no ill-will towards anybody. It has been the absolute privilege of my life to be the member for Elizabeth, to represent the community I grew up in and have lived in for so long, and it has been a particular privilege to serve in this government with this Premier. There are books to be written about this government and perhaps more importantly about the four years in opposition that preceded it. Who knows, maybe I will dust off my degree and set about writing them.

I want to sincerely thank the people of Elizabeth for putting their trust in me all these years. I have met so many of you in so many different capacities it is impossible to distil it down but I do want to sincerely thank you all, particularly to all the Elizabeth sub-branch members, some of whom I count as lasting friends. There are other people outside this place too who I very much look forward to spending more time with. Kirsten and Brett have given me such good advice over the years, Lisa and Simon, Jason and Susie and so many more new friends.

In closing, I was reflecting on the member for Morialta's remarks towards the end of his valedictory and, if I understand him correctly, he was observing that there is this kind of cultural expectation that we as retail politicians adopt a kind of if not anti-intellectualism then certainly a limiting populism. It is absolutely true. You become used to playing a role. You learn to amplify certain parts of your personality and to bury others and the process is almost subconscious.

So, finally free of these shackles, the member for Morialta leaned into his natural inclinations as a renaissance man and quoted Marcus Aurelius and Plato. So in the same spirit, I want to close with a quotation from another philosopher, Bilbo Baggins:

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

The SPEAKER: Touché.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (18:16): It used to be said of the Labor Party that the cream of the working class would rise to the top and come to the parliament. I have to say the thing about Lee and the way he conducted himself was that behind the very good nature and the very good humour was a fierce intellect. He is smart. He is a very smart guy. He has a big compassion and a big heart and he cares about Elizabeth and he cares about where he grew up. He is able to articulate that in a way that is common and nice and friendly.

The operation of the parliament this term, compared to the operation of the parliament last term needed—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The point I want to make is it could have been very hostile, given the behaviour in the last parliament, but it is very hard to hold a grudge against Lee. He is a good man, a very good man and a very good member of parliament. He has done the Labor Party proud in the finest traditions of the Australian Labor Party.

He might not remember this but there was a fallen police officer and there was a guard of honour. Lee went and stood there representing all of us while we were doing something else. Given he had been a sworn officer and given his connection to the Labor Party, you could tell that the commitment in standing in that guard of honour meant a lot.

I remember here in question time, we had this tactic of focusing on one person, because we had tactics. When we focused on a member of parliament, it was Lee's turn, and he had built up a body of questions and a body of work, and we were talking about it in the lead-up about how he would deliver it. I remember saying to him, 'You've got to be yourself,' and he said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Remain the funny person that you are, with the good humour. Use your natural instincts to interject and deliver it the way you want to.' That day was a devastating day for the government . He was very good at what he did. I am going to miss him. I am going to miss him a lot. It is going to be very hard to find anyone who can do this job as well as he has because he had to fill the shoes of Michael Brown, who was probably the best Opposition Whip in the history of oppositions. Lee has done an exceptional job.

I met Lee, Zoe and Nick altogether, the northern trio, and they are a formidable team and they have done the northern suburbs exceptionally proud and I am sad to see Lee go. I hope you stay in contact with us.

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (18:20): I will be very brief today. I did want to put on the record a few comments about the member for Elizabeth who I have had the great pleasure to know long before I entered this place.

I got to know the member for Elizabeth when I was working for the member for Taylor in his federal electorate office and developed a bit of a strange friendship due to knowing a number of people who worked in prisons around our state when the member for Elizabeth was the shadow minister for corrections.

Interestingly enough, he would often reach out to me and we would have coffee and talk about different things that were going on in Corrections and he would ask for those personal experiences and that sort of thing, which was something that I really valued as a young person interested in politics, that he would take the time to hear from me about such things and that he was interested in what I had to say.

Lee is one of the people who will go down as being one of the kindest people you will meet in politics. He has an incredibly warm heart. He is fair, he is loyal and he is someone who always puts others before himself. I will certainly remember his time in this place for that. He is one of the very few people in this place who has a real interest in my storytelling. Often my stories go on for longer than they should.

What I was going to say was that every time I do have a story, he will ask me to repeat it. I will spend the next 10 minutes going on and then he will look around and tell everyone that I made it all up. I have always enjoyed the grace that he has given me to tell stories, the pretend interest that he has always given them, but on a real note, we have always got along talking about music, pop culture and a shared love for the Beatles. We have had a lot of shared interests and I have really valued the relationship that we have built over time.

He is loyal, he is diligent, he is fair, and I think the thing that I will always remember about Lee is he does what we love most in the Labor Party, he had a relatively safe seat and as a result of that he has always given back to those seats that perhaps do not have those margins. He campaigned in a number of seats in the lead-up to the 2022 election, always showed up for me, was always there not just to doorknock with me but to give advice when I needed it. I am sure that he has been doing that throughout this term in different seats as well. I have been really grateful for his mentorship, his friendship and I will miss him in this place.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (18:22): I have some quick remarks. I first acquainted myself with Lee on a UDA tour in 2017, I think it was. Surprisingly, we hit it off. We got on really well. He was representing the minister and I was the shadow minister for planning at the time.

I have also always noticed how professional he was with his estimates chairing as the Economic and Finance Committee Chair, fair but firm, and I was very pleased when I was appointed the whip after the election that I would be doing that in conjunction with Lee.

Lee has an incredible history. He was an English migrant growing up in Elizabeth. It was a tough start to life and you have done extremely well over your life. You have served the public as a policeman, served the public as a member of parliament and served your party. I know I have sent you a number of text messages whenever there were reshuffles and your name was not being mentioned but the commitment that you have to teamwork for your party and the commitment you had to ensuring that you did your job as the whip properly and responsibly and the way that we were able to work together is something that I really appreciate. You have made this last term of mine back in opposition a much more pleasant one than it could have been, so thank you very much. Enjoy whatever it is you are going to do.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (18:24): I first met Lee 30 years ago because I was dating one of his friends. That boyfriend is long gone but our friendship has remained all this time. I think about what we have achieved. There was a time period in the mid-nineties when youth unemployment was incredibly high. With our newly minted Bachelor of Liberal Arts degrees, Nick, Lee and I were ready to take on the world. But, to be honest, it was really hard and it took the trio of us a long time to find full-time work. Participating in the economy is something that has driven all of us, and I see how far we have come.

Today is a very sad day for me, to not have my dear friend here in this parliament going forward. I thank him for his friendship. I thank him for being there through some times when I had some very deep personal challenges in my life and he was there by my side.

But, more importantly, I want to talk about his role as the member for Little Para and then the member for Elizabeth. I reflect on what has been achieved in your time there. I see investment in health, I see investment in education and I see investment in our sporting areas. So as you leave this place, you can know that you made a difference and you made a difference that can be seen for future generations in the north.

As the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, I spend a lot of time with our migrant community. When I think about Lee and his parents and his sisters who made that decision—when I think you were the age of 10—to come here, they made a choice to have a better life. Coming from the East End of London where opportunities were more limited, Lee's parents said, 'We are going to go to Australia.' If I remember rightly, his dad was a bus driver for a very long time and they worked hard. His parents are some of the loveliest people you will ever meet. They love their son, they love their grandsons and they have given him that confidence to put his hand up to play the role that he has played in here.

But what they are really is the migrant story of particularly our northern suburbs and particularly people from the United Kingdom making a decision to move their families and start a life again. What that means is you are away from your extended families, so your family becomes smaller and tighter. I have seen that influence on Lee as a person, as he is as a father and as he is as a husband. He does that here.

I do think Lee's hardest job has been being our whip. It is like herding cats, but he has done it in such a wonderful way. Each and every one of us has felt that we could talk to him at any time: 'This is happening here, I need to go there,' and particularly as we have an increased level of women—more than ever before—on this side of the house, sometimes there are those juggles of what life is asking of you. Lee never made you explain, he just simply said, 'How can we do this?' I know that we have all valued this.

You are a great person. We will continue to have a deep friendship. You leave this house with your head held high and you can reflect on the achievements that you have had here and, of course, what you will continue to have in the years to come. I will miss you dearly.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (18:28): I have known the member for Elizabeth for a long time, since the days of the Salisbury UniBar where we met at university. I am not going to tell any of those stories today, for obvious reasons, but what was obvious right from the start was that Lee is blood and bone linked to Elizabeth. He was living in the Downs with his parents, as Zoe said. Ken, I think, had just finished up as a bus driver.

If you wanted a picture of the rank and file of the labour movement in Elizabeth, Lee's father, Ken, is absolutely that. He has 'the knowledge'. He studied to be a London cabbie and has what is known as 'the knowledge'—the intricate knowledge of the streets of London—and then made the decision not to become a cabbie but to go to Elizabeth and change the course of his family's life. Of course, Lee is a product of that and a proud product of that, not just as a member of parliament but as a local police officer.

I have an all-time favourite story about Lee when he was a candidate, and he was doorknocking. He knocked on this guy's door, and they were having a bit of a chat, and the guy said, 'I know you from somewhere.' Lee said, 'Yes, I know you from somewhere, too.' At that point, they realised that Lee had arrested him for cutting down a tree in the windbreaks. That tells you everything about life as a police officer in Elizabeth and life as a MP. I have no doubt that that guy voted for you, Lee; it is likely he appreciated you knocking on his door.

Elizabeth is a planned city, a garden city, and I remember Lee telling me—and you must have told me a couple of times when you worked with me in my electoral office or somewhere around that time—that once upon a time there were beautiful parks at the entry to Elizabeth the garden city, which was designed by Henry Smith, the architect working at the Housing Trust. Now they are not kept so well by the local council.

You have put that idea in my head and, of course, you have written to me recently in a more formal sense to return those windbreaks, as they are commonly known, to the original idea of the garden city. I think it is a fitting way of you ending your public life that you are still contributing to the city that gave you so much, to the city where all of your sons were born in the local hospital and are all linked by their birth to that city that we both love so much.

Politics is a tough business. You can have the odd crunching in caucus—it can happen. We all have our regrets about elements of public life, but you can leave yours with your head held high. You have served this house in a very noble way after a wartime whip. We had one who was better able to negotiate the peace, I think, and it is a tribute to your decency, Lee, and to your commitment to your community and to this parliament as an institution. So thanks so much for your contribution to the labour movement and to the parliament.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (18:33): I just want to make a few short observations. I have not known Lee as long as many others in this place. We really got to know each other when we both served on the opposition front bench, and I just want to note that I do not know that it is terribly common that we have had too many people who have had the frontline experience of being a police officer and then coming in and being part of a team developing that policy.

It can be a tough thing being on the front bench in opposition—a very tough thing at times—but I was always in great admiration of the firsthand experience and the insight that Lee brought to that task, and I think that the contribution he made to policy then and to policy we have seen developed in government needs to be recognised.

So I just want to thank him for what is thankless work in opposition. In particular, it feels like it is swept away when you come into government, but I think many of us saw the endeavour that you put into that work. So thank you very much for the influence you had on our law and order policy and how that has translated into government as well as I want to recognise that.

Secondly—and I thank the member for Ramsay for mentioning this as well, I wondered if anyone would—it can be a tough thing being a woman in this place, being a parent, and for me in particular being a solo parent. I have relied heavily on the good graces of our wonderful whip. I was very grateful in the period when I was on leave that Lee went out of his way to keep me in the loop on what was happening in caucus and in this place and ensured that I did not feel excluded or left out at all in that period of time, which can happen. I know that on occasion I have asked more than others in terms of understanding about my family arrangements.

An honourable member interjecting:

Ms STINSON: Did you say, 'You have'? Yes, I have. I am truly grateful for him really thinking outside the box and thinking about how to support me in a new role in my life. Lots of people, not just in this place but in society, say that they support working women or say that they support mothers in the workplace, but then sometimes it is all just a bit too difficult to implement.

Lee, you are a good one and we are so lucky to have you. You have absolutely put those values and the respect you have for women and working families into action. I will be forever grateful for your support. I will miss you a great deal. You have been a very loyal friend and a support when I have had a hard time, too, so I appreciate it. I wish you well.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (18:36): I will just add a few comments in terms of Lee, who, as I think we can see from all the speeches on this side, has meant a huge amount to all of us.

I first met Lee probably almost 20 years ago, but particularly in the last 12 years since I have served here, serving with Lee has been an absolute pleasure. Firstly, getting to know him when we were both in that last term of the Weatherill government—he was Economic and Finance Chair at that point. I remember visiting Playford International College with him for one of the pieces of work that we were doing through an inquiry, and to see his passion for the northern suburbs and for Elizabeth is incredible.

To be the representative for Elizabeth is a difficult job. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. There are a lot of people that need to be helped. It is one of the areas of our country with the lowest socio-economic status, and Lee and his team have gone above and beyond to help people from Elizabeth with any number of issues. That has been a huge amount of work that he deserves incredible thanks for.

As has been noted, a background of having being born and bred in the area and having a background as a police officer as well has enabled him to bring to the parliament a rich life experience, which has certainly helped all of us and has helped us in the Labor caucus.

I also want to note his incredible work in terms of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. That is helping people right now, and that would not have happened if it was not for Lee Odenwalder putting that forward—not on the front bench, on the backbench, putting that on the agenda to make that happen.

I remember when we were in opposition. I had briefly been the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and then Lee took over that portfolio and I spent some time in handover with him. Seeing his determination to get completely across everything to do with that portfolio, to be across all of the issues and to meet as many people as he could, shows his determination and his passion for the people of this state.

His work as whip has been extraordinary. One of the reasons why I believe we have been such a successful government is having a whip who has supported people and having a whip whom people have been able to go to for support and guidance. Thank you, Lee. That has been a really pivotal role in all of our government, and we all thank you for what you have done.

I also want to thank you on behalf of the broader party. You have been somebody who has put your hand up to go wherever, whenever—not only, as Olivia was saying, to be there in marginal seats but to go out in tiger territory. To put your hand up to go out to Murray Bridge, to go to the Riverland, wherever someone was needed to go, you were willing to go and do it without fuss, without rancour, without having to be pushed, so thank you for doing that.

I also want to thank Ann. Thank you, Ann, for lending us Lee for this time in the parliament. I know the impact the work we do here has on all our spouses, so thank you, Ann, and of course Jimmy, Felix and Miles. The only bittersweet upside is that you get to spend more time with them and the dog, which I thought you were going to mention. I did give the member for Elizabeth some advice about getting a dog, which he dutifully ignored, and I look forward to him spending many, many hours having to walk that dog and be up at all hours with the dog into the future. I wish you all the best, Lee.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (18:40): I will keep mine short; I have learned in this place that 'brief' does not always mean 'short', but I will do that. Lee, I just want to put on the record how thankful my hometown of Upper Sturt is to you. As the shadow emergency services minister, you were one of the first to come up and engage in the campaign for me to win Waite and you helped me with a commitment to put up emergency warning signs for our CFS station. You can tell how much it means to me, and it means a lot to our fire brigade: it keeps our members safe and it keeps our community members safe, so I want to thank you.

I also want to let you know that you are the best whip I have ever worked with. You might be the only whip I have ever worked with, but I want you to know that you are leaving massive shoes to fill. Whoever gets the role when we come back has massive shoes to fill, so thank you.

I want to let you know how much you mean to our community. When you drive through Upper Sturt and see those signs in the future and you are teaching your young men how to drive, you can remember that you helped make that happen, so thank you.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (18:41): I will be very quick; I know that your boys are hungry. I just want to thank the member for Elizabeth for being such a fabulous whip. It is scary coming into this place as a new member of parliament, and he was so kind and patient with all of us and was always willing to teach us things. He probably had 30—maybe not 30, but 27 different people come up to him and say, 'Are we sitting late? Are we doing this?' and every single time he would respond and just be calm and chill about it. I missed a text message from him once. I came running into the chamber and said, 'I'm so sorry. I didn't see my phone,' and he said, deadpan, 'It's fine. It's just parliament.' He has always made me laugh. I am really appreciative of him, his friendship and his work, and I am really going to miss him.

The SPEAKER (18:42): Thank you, Lee, for your patience, your professionalism and the way you have gone about everything you have done in your time in here. We are going to miss you.

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