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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-27 Daily Xml
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Members

Valedictory

The SPEAKER (16:12): I might seek the indulgence of the house, if that is okay, just to make a few comments on this final day of parliament for a few of us. I want to begin by thanking my 28,000 bosses. They are the people of Mawson who have backed me in for five elections since 2006. They are the people who I absolutely love and adore. It is an area that I love and adore, all the way from McLaren Vale, where I live, to that western end of Kangaroo Island—the place that was so badly devastated in those 2019-20 bushfires.

Each part of it has its own personality, each part of the electorate has its own character and, within those towns like Second Valley, Rapid Bay, Parndana and Penneshaw, there are so many characters and personalities as well. It is so good just to hang out with those people and listen to them and find out what is important to them—what are their aspirations, what do they think is going well, what is not going so well—and then be able to go in and fight hard for all those people. I am going to miss that bit, but I will still be out and about in the local area. I might get one of those 'Not My Problem' T-shirts.

I came to politics from journalism. If you look at being a kid—I am still maybe a kid—I spent 20 years as a journalist and then 20 years in this place, so it is a third of my life and it is definitely time to go and do something different.

I grew up in a little town. I have four things on the mantelpiece in my office. One is my school photo from grade 1 at Glencoe West Primary. There were 39 kids in that class. We merged with Glencoe East. Dad was the chair of the parents and friends. From those little schools, good things happen with kids. I have a mate, Tony Tassell, and we started out as copy boys together at the Adelaide News. He is now the opinion editor at the Financial Times in London.

I was brought up in a very Liberal-voting and National Party-voting family. Towards the end of my schooling when I was 16 years old I wanted to go and see Bob Hawke. He had just become the leader of the Australian Labor Party. It was 1983 and he was doing a speech at the Festival Centre. I got dad, who was a stock agent, a former dairy farmer, to drop me off there. I got one of his little Elders pads that the stockies all have and I had a ballpoint pen.

When I grew up my great-aunty Girly used to sit in front of the TV. Bob Hawke was the ACTU president and every time he came on the telly Aunty Girly would be going like this, pretending to shoot him through the TV. So we did not have that great an opinion of Bob Hawke in the family.

I went along. I was blown away by his leadership and the message still resonates today, and I was a 16 year old. He said it was time for the bosses and the workers to get together and talk things out and come up with some results that are for the benefit of everyone in Australia. As I walked out—and I only had that little pad—I wanted to get his autograph. I jumped under the security thing in my Blackfriars uniform and the only thing I could get, because the Greens were there with their Vote for the Franklin flyers, was Bob's autograph on the back of that, so that is in my office.

I have got something to remind me of my journalism career and this is from the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, in 1994, standing alongside Cathy Freeman and our great Marjorie-Jackson Nelson as they were all about to march in for the closing ceremony. This was at the start of my political career. It is me and two Whitlams having lunch, the great Gough Whitlam and the other one is Tim Freedman, the lead singer of the Whitlams, in that classic photo. They are the timelines of my career and my time at school.

I have a few people in here I really want to thank today. I want to thank my wife, Karen. When I was minister for food, wine, tourism, agriculture, recreation, sport and racing, Jay Weatherill was the Premier and he said, 'You've got one job, you've got to be our number one salesman for South Australia, you've got to travel the world,' which I gladly did, selling all things South Australian. There was another person doing that at the same time and it was Karen Raffen, CEO of Brand South Australia. We were at a lot of events together.

Brand South Australia was a really, really good institution. We have brought it back in some ways but we can never replicate what was there, because it was paid one third by the government (about $1.3 million), $1.3 million in memberships, and then the rest was all free advertising from the Nine, Ten and Seven Networks and The Advertiser, and we cannot bring that back.

It was a really sad day when the new government decided to get rid of Brand South Australia and I never really knew whether it had anything to do with our relationship. We got together in 2016. I always felt really sorry for Karen that she had to give up so many things. She was the chair of the equestrian event and because the government gave some money to that and I was the Minister for Tourism she gave up being the chair of that wonderful event that I love so much, and then she had to get off the board altogether a few years later when I became the chair of the Major Events Committee.

We all talk about the sacrifices that our families make and, Karen, I am really sorry for everything that happened to you. I know the RDA took you on and there was a minister who would not let state public servants meet with you and you said, 'Well, I can't do the job because I love the RDA and I love what they do and I do not want to hold anyone back.' It was very big of you to do that, and I do not think it is right that anyone does not get a job because of their time in parliament or because their spouse is in parliament. I will leave it there because I know you will be really embarrassed about me talking about that.

There is a big swag gap if you look at us: beautiful Karen and then me, who looks like Detective Columbo or something just dragged out of the bushes backwards, and she is like Posh Spice. But we are so together and aligned on everything that we do. We love South Australia. We love everything about South Australia. We are proud ambassadors. We love travel. We love music festivals, concerts and sporting events. I have got 18 teams and she has got one, the dirty Hawks.

People say, 'I never see my spouse,' because they are always busy out doing stuff. Karen is there pretty much by my side. In fact, with most people I am the plus one, because they go, 'We don't really want you here, we just want Karen, but come along if you have to.' So, Karen, thank you very much. I love you so deeply and I look forward to whatever the next chapter has for us.

My first election was 2006 and I was preselected in 2004. The guy who has been the responsible adult in our relationship since he could talk, which was at about 12 months, is my son, Conor. He had a fish called Megawati Soekarnoputri at the age of 2½ and could say it better than most radio people at the ABC. He had another one called Big Kim Beazley and another one called Little Johnny Howard. Big Kim Beazley kept dying all the time and Little Johnny Howard, he lived forever, and we thought there was a bit of truth in that.

I will quickly tell the story about being preselected. This is the thing when you do not write speeches and you just talk from your heart. I was Pat Conlon's chief of staff and we were driving to the airport to go somewhere. Pat said, 'I reckon we should run you for Mawson. You'd be up against Robert Brokenshire. He is a dairy farmer and you come from a dairy farm.' He was in the front seat, the ministerial chauffeur was driving the car and I was sitting behind him. He looks around and he goes, 'Well, what do you think?' I said, 'I was hoping you were talking to the driver.' But Pat backed me in and I am mostly forever grateful about that.

Anyway, Conor was six years old when that happened and I did not live in the electorate, so I raced down there. It was the end of 2004. I had to find a house to rent. We were driving around and the six year old was in the front seat of my amazingly good two-door 380SEC gold coupé Mercedes. I had to swap it out for a Mitsubishi Verada once I actually got preselected. We were driving around and I said, 'Old Noarlunga looks really nice. Look at that, the Onkaparinga River goes through there.' Conor is six going, 'Dad, it's not in the electorate.'

I said, 'What do you mean? It's got to be in the electorate. We've got Woodcroft at one end and we've got McLaren Vale at the other. You can't go from one end of the electorate to the other without driving past and over that bridge where Old Noarlunga is.' He goes, 'It's not in the electorate.' I go, 'Yes, of course it is, mate. Let's just go.' He goes, 'Dad, pull over, I'll show you the map.' The six year old was right and Old Noarlunga was not in Mawson for that 2006 election.

Thank you, Conor, for all your love and support. You are a beautiful person. I remember my parents dying and my grandparents dying and the way you held their hand, from when you were very young to last year with my mum. You were amazing, and that is not something that you can act. That is something that I saw. It was just a beautiful thing that you did. But you were a little shit stirrer sometimes with Nan Bignell. She was very funny. Both my grandmothers made 100.

We would go down and stay at Millicent with Nan Bignell and we would all be out for a big family dinner and he would be scooting around behind her at the table and pulling her ears. She would go, 'You little…' like this. One night we were staying in her little unit at Millicent and I heard, 'You little…' and it was nan having a go at Conor. He came running out—he was about five, I reckon—and he goes, 'I dakked Nan Bignell, I dakked Nan Bignell.' She was in her pyjamas washing her hands and he came up behind her.

I want to thank your mum, Susy, as well because it takes two parents to produce a kid as beautiful as you. Susy and I split up when you were two and half. She has done a remarkable job. And your mum's parents as well, Margaret and Neilo, who did much of the heavy lifting when you were a young fellow, so I want to thank all of the Rusalens for their amazing work. You have turned out to be a fine young fellow.

Conor has got a job but he is no nepo kid. He got a job on his own merits as the Minister for Trade's media adviser. When he was in year 10, so 15 or 14 maybe, he went to China and lived in Shanghai for three months with a Chinese family that we had never met, and went to high school there. He came back. He kept paying for his own trips to go back to China. He did Chinese and Mandarin all through high school. When he went to uni, he did international studies and economics and kept his Mandarin studies up. Last night we bumped into some people as part of the Shandong province visit, and he just started belting away in Mandarin. That's the X-factor, mate. Lots of people can get the degrees you have—international studies and economics—well, I couldn't, I could never go to uni. I didn't finish year 12. I think I have told that story. So that is the X-factor.

I didn't know this story until last night, but two years ago Conor wrote a media release that had my name and Joe Szakacs's name on it. He managed to get Joe's name right and then called me 'Lefon Bignell'. Somehow he put an 'f' in the Leon. That is pretty funny but it was Adam Todd, the media director in the Premier's office, it was his thing in the media adviser WhatsApp group the next day that caused all the laughter in the group and lots of smiling emojis and laughing emojis. Adam said, I think we can all agree, if anyone was going to make this mistake, we are glad it was Conor.'

I don't think you have made too many mistakes, mate, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything. To my sister Toni and her husband Roger, thank you for all that you do. You are amazing and particularly in those last five years of mum's life. You did the heavy lifting down at the nursing home where she suffered dementia and saw out her final days, in September last year. They are beautiful people. I reckon if the AFL came around to our place on card night we would probably be banned for ten weeks at a time just because of some of the banter that goes on between us. Thank you very much.

To my staff who are in the offices now, the Speaker's office and the electorate office, thank you so much for everything that you do and that you have done over the years, and also people from the ministerial office as well. We have Ruth here, who was chief of staff then, and Kerry, who started in the electorate office in 2007 and then came into the role when I was assistant minister for health, assistant minister for infrastructure and, when I became tourism minister, was my tourism adviser and then came back again last year to run the Speaker's office. Thank you, Kerry, for everything that you have done. It has been a long journey. Sorry about how frustrating I can be to work with; that goes for everyone. Sometimes they have to take my handwriting down to the chemist to get it deciphered because no-one else knows how to read it.

We have Janine up there. Janine and I started out as copy kids together in 1984, at the Adelaide News. Janine's dad was Mick Young and going around to the Young's house was a huge eye-opener for me, down there at Tennyson. Like it was with Bob Hawke, when I went and saw him in 1983, especially if you were around there Saturday morning and Bob would be out in his shorts and no top on—he was the Prime Minister of Australia—maybe on a cigar and laying on the sunlounge.

Mick was the first person I ever saw with one of those big Telecom commander phones at home. I was thinking, 'Well, he is the special minister of state. He is the immigration minister.' And he goes, 'No, no, it's for Three Way Turf talk on a Saturday morning.' They had all of these people in Bart Cummings's stable, everyone who gave them all the tips in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and that is what they needed the Commander for.

To Mel, who looks after our Kangaroo Island office, thank you very much. You have been an amazing part of our team. It is really good to have you in here today to join in. To Jessie, thank you for everything. Jenny Mitton is the only person in Mawson who knows more people than I do. She ran the Willunga Farmers Market for seven years and before that ran lots of different organisations, either as a volunteer or as an employee. Jenny, thank you so much for everything you have done. I tried three times to get Jenny to join my office, and, when I finally did, it was like the Crows getting Darren Jarman, like those players who are game changers. I go somewhere, and Jenny, as I said, knows as many people as I do, quite often because we have got kids at different ages, and stuff, and she knows different people than I do.

Bridget, it is great to have you here, a second-generation Black to work in the Mawson electorate office, obviously your mum Shauna and now you. Thank you for all the work that you have done in the Speaker's office. It has been terrific. I wish you well for the next part of your career with the federal government and hope that goes very well. To Jo, literally the heavy lifter in the office, representing Australia as a powerlifter, we are all very proud of you going off to the tournaments and stuff like that. Jo writes all the letters, and we all know how important that is, to have someone in your office who can keep up with the communication and do it so well. Thank you very much, Jo.

Jerry is here. Jerry drove me for five years, when I was a minister and since I became Speaker. We have a very special relationship. The member for Unley was lucky enough to be with Jerry for four years when he was a minister. Jerry and I have as many laughs as anyone I have ever hung around with. He does everything that you could possibly want except toot the horn at bad drivers. He also refused to put a horn in my side of the car, which I had been asking for for many years.

There is a woman here, Marg Ralston. I have worked with Marg a few times. She was the first woman sports editor in Australian newspapers, and she was one of my first bosses. When I became sports minister, Marg had gone off after The News closed and worked for Greg Crafter. She ran the South Australian Olympic Committee. She has got the best black book in sport in terms of knowing everyone from the IOC to local sporting federations here in South Australia and nationally. Marg was 78. I rang her up and said, 'Marg, I need you to come and join the team,' and she did that for five years. I am forever grateful, Marg.

In that role and in the role as sports editor, you taught us to cover men's sport and women's sport equally. One of the proudest things that I did as a minister was to get equal prize money for the Women's Tour Down Under and the Men's Tour Down Under, to get rid of the grid girls at the car race and to replace the models on the podium at the Tour Down Under with under-18 state champions, boys for the men's race, girls for the women's race, to give them an insight into a major bike race. Maeve Plouffe was one of the first intakes. She was a state champion, and she said she got to talk to the best riders in the world and learn so much. Not long after, she was out there competing with them at the Olympics and on the road circuit as well.

Marg, you are a great inspiration to me. In fact, I was at Willunga primary a few weeks ago. I always love going to the schools because the kids ask you questions that make you think about what it is that drives you and why you put your hand up to do the job. They said, 'Who's the most important person you have met in your life?' I am thinking, I have met the Clintons, Ayrton Senna, a bunch of people being a sports journo covering the Olympics and footy and all that sort of stuff. I thought about it. I do not think anyone had ever asked me that question. I love those inquisitive grade 6 kids. I said the most important person I have met in my life is Marg Ralston. Marg inspired me, Marg taught me about equality and how to make sure that we delivered that.

Karen and I were in Madrid in 2019 and we were having dinner with Charles, the Deputy Director of the Vuelta, the Tour of Spain, and he said to Karen, 'Do you know why Formula One MotoGP don't have the women on the podium anymore? Do you know why the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain do not have women on the podium anymore? It's because of your husband,' and the ban that happened here. The Spanish media and the French media all covered what South Australia did, just like we did in 1894, giving women the right to vote, giving women the right to run for parliament. We can make change on a global scale right here in Adelaide.

I would not necessarily have had the ability or the foresight to do that, Marg, without you and I am so glad that you are here with us today. You mean the world to me. You have been like a second mum and I just wanted to pay a huge tribute to you. So, you can change the world and you can save the world as well.

One of my other proud moments was when we came up with legislation to stop urban sprawl and gutter-to-gutter housing in McLaren Vale. It was such a good idea that Marg Lehmann, up in the Barossa, said, 'Biggles, we love what you're doing down in McLaren Vale. Can we join in and get the same sort of bill?' I said, 'Of course you can.' It actually gave us more power. I was talking about saving McLaren Vale. Mike Rann was the Premier at the time and Mike was pretty easy to read and you could see in the corner of his eye he thought, 'Well, if we lost McLaren Vale, we still have the Barossa,' but when we joined together we were unbeatable. We can have all the jokes we like about McLaren Vale wine being better than the Barossa or whatever, but when we joined together we did that.

I have a lot of people to thank in McLaren Vale: the business association, the Grape Wine and Tourism Association, the environmental groups, Friends of Port Willunga, and Friends of Willunga Basin. Everyone came together with their ideas and we sat around with butcher's paper night after night saying, 'What is it that we love about our area? What is it that we want it to look like in 10 years', 20 years', 30 years' time?' We did that.

Mike wanted me to do this as a private member's bill. I am not sure how keen he was on it at the start because he knew I had no idea about legislation, and planning is its own language, but at the end, he was terrific. He came on board, and Paul Holloway initially and then John Rau. We got it through caucus and then we got it through both houses of parliament. The only way those protections can be weakened is if both houses agree to change that legislation. If anyone ever thinks of doing that I am coming back in to haunt each and every one of you. I might even run again. Is that enough of a disincentive to change that legislation?

Mike was an incredible leader. I was at Channel 10 and interviewed Don Dunstan on the night of the 1993 election. We were at Greg Crafter's electorate office where they were having a bit of a wake. Don was great. I asked if I could do an interview—that was the State Bank election—and he said, 'We may not see a Labor government in South Australia for two or three generations, if we ever see one again.'

The fact that Mike led a disciplined opposition and got back within striking distance in 1997 and then with the help of the then member for Hammond, Peter Lewis, that helped get Mike and the Labor team into minority government in 2002 was incredible. I want to pay tribute to those people who did that because it was an enormous effort. Then when we did win government in 2002, we knew that we had to tell a story and point to the fact that we were going to be responsible with the economy. I think Mike, Kevin and Pat Conlon did a very good job of doing that. They brought in Robert Champion de Crespigny. They started up an economic development board. They got one of the biggest Liberals and biggest business people in town to chair that, and I think that was a masterstroke.

Mike was basically saying that you cannot rely on one side of politics to run the state all of the time. He saw the public perception was that running the Treasury was an Achilles heel and he brought the right people in and we got that credibility back. Mike also started with zero in terms of wind energy. There were no turbines here. The first ones went in at Starfish Hill. I was working for Pat Conlon at the time. Those 23 turbines kicked off what is now a world-leading renewable energy story for our state and one that everyone is rightfully very proud of.

So that was 2002 to 2006. I came in in 2006 in what they called the 'Rannslide' and Mike and everyone were riding high, but as we got closer to the 2010 election, we were starting to hear on the doors and in the local pubs and places like that about the arrogance of the government. One of the clear things that does not matter which side you are from is that you have to be a little careful that that does not creep in because people do not like it. I was kind of reporting a little bit of that back to the party, but I do not think it made much of a difference.

Even with the 2010 election result, where most of the ministers got double-digit swings against them, the member for Light and I got swings to us because we were out there working on the doors and doing all that stuff and it kind of continued. I got the feeling that people had had their ten years in power and they did not really necessarily care about those of us who were still in the party and wanting to make a difference and win more elections and stuff like that. I was a bit publicly critical and suggested that Jay Weatherill would be a good Premier and events unfolded that Jay took over.

I want to thank Mike because I think he did a really good job. He diversified the economy of South Australia. He made a big difference. At that time, someone asked me on radio if I knew I was actually speaking out against my own Premier. I said, 'Look, I can't have one conversation in the front bar of the Woodcroft tavern or the Alma Hotel at Willunga and then come on the radio and tell a different story.' I am hoping that bridges are mended. It was a long time ago. Jay was a different sort of leader and he took us to that 2014 election and we formed government again with the help of the then member for Frome, now member for Stuart. Brocky has been terrific for the Parliament of South Australia and for the people of Port Pirie.

Jay, as I said, entrusted me to be in the cabinet for five years. When I think of all the portfolios, tourism was the one that I saw could really grow this state and it employs people in the regions as well as in towns. We have Sean Keenihan as the chair of the South Australian Tourism Commission and Sean is a terrific guy and razor sharp. He and I sat down and he explained to me that, if you put more money into marketing, if you put more money into this area, you will see the growth. Then we sat down with Jay and Tom Koutsantonis, who was the Treasurer at the time, and it did make a difference.

We set a goal at the start of 2013 to take our visitor economy from $4 billion to $8 billion by 2020. I remember Ridgy afterwards being critical and saying it was a pie in the sky dream and we could not ever achieve that. We did not achieve it between 2013 and 2020, but we achieved it by the end of 2018. It just proves that, when you set high targets and you aim for those targets and you talk about those targets at every function that you go to, you can achieve the targets.

So they get to $8 billion and we have done it in five years and then the Liberals are in government by then and Ridgy is the minister and the Liberals come out and say, 'Right, we have got there. We have hit this target ahead of time. The new target is to take it from $8 billion a year to $12 billion.' So we have doubled it in five and their ambition was to increase it by 50 per cent in 12 years, maybe 11. That target is still sitting there and there are still people in the Tourism Commission patting themselves on the back saying, 'We are ahead of target.' Well, of course, you are. It is like limboing into an aircraft hangar. It is not that hard to hit low targets.

My great passion is the tourism industry and the visitor economy because all of these operators out there who have mortgaged everything they have, who have to make beds and clean, stay up until the people arrive, put up with bad reviews on Tripadvisor and all that sort of stuff are the ones putting their money and their house on the line every day to run a business and employ local people. I think it is such a terrific sector and one that is huge for South Australia. It speaks to who we are and the confidence that we have.

On tourism, I want to thank the current Premier—I will get to him in a little bit—for the hard work you have done on the major events and for putting me in as the chair of the major events committee. That was terrific. LIV Golf would not have happened without you, Gather Round would not have happened without you, the Matildas at Adelaide Oval would not have happened without your support, and the British and Irish Lions would not have happened without your support.

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Yes, but you had to sign off on it; I just got to make recommendations. Other people were saying no; you were saying yes—although you drove a hard bargain. I would do a deal and he would say, 'What's the president's name?' and ring him up and hit him for a little less cash each time.

After we lost that election in 2018, I managed to hang on in a seat that had been redrafted and was now a 4½ per cent Liberal seat on paper. We went into opposition. I think that four years was as good as any four years we had in government. Everyone says, 'Your worst day in government is better than your best day in opposition,' but it gave us the time to do a reset: all these things that had been put in place since 2002. I will never forget the hard work and the leadership team that we had.

I did not put my hand up to go into cabinet because I had won by 115 votes. I said, 'I have all these new people to meet, I have six or seven new pubs and I have 20 new bakeries—I like the sausage rolls. I have to get out and meet as many people as I can.' I rang Pete and said, 'I won't be putting up my hand for the shadow ministry.' But I had so much admiration for those who did, particularly Peter, who was out there introducing himself to everyone and showing everyone what his capacity was. He was extremely convincing and charismatic and won people over.

To Susan Close: I have never seen anyone do as much policy work as you do. I think you are, in so many ways, our unsung hero. It was just incredible what you did. There are people for whom that is their schtick; it is not my schtick—as Jay said, 'You're the guy from sales. Get out there and sell, sell, sell.' But I have so much admiration for people like you who do that really hard work and that consultation with everyone. Stephen was the shadow Treasurer and was very generous to me and the people of Mawson, and I want to thank you. Tom Koutsantonis: I love Tom. Tom is one of my favourite people in the whole wide world. He was there and any infrastructure stuff that we needed, he got it.

I have some special people in with us today: Craig Curtis, who ran the Main South Road Action Group, and Fred Shields. We worked together: the opposition leader, the shadow treasurer and the shadow transport minister. We would come down there time after time and do press conferences with Fred and do press conferences with Craig. You are the faces of the reason we do what we do. We announced the Main South Road duplication in 2017, in that budget that Tom brought down and Stephen was the transport minister. We had the money in the budget and we filled it up with stage 2 in the Mid-Year Budget Review that following December.

Fred had a head-on collision on Australia Day in 2003. I first met Fred in 2004 when he and his family were running a road safety unit down in Aldinga. That crash resulted in Fred being in hospital for 47 days. He was discharged in a wheelchair, unable to read, walk or talk. Fred has that red roadside marker that indicated where he had his near-fatal crash. Fred: you are the reason the Premier, the former Treasurer, the current Treasurer and all of us come in here each day, because we need to make our roads safer and we need to make our roads more efficient and productive. You are worth every cent of that $840 million that we are spending on Main South Road. I am so glad you are here today, Fred.

Craig should be running some big lobby group. He is a local who is so passionate and he just knows how to push the buttons of MPs. He had a direct line through to Rob Lucas and he would stir him up a little bit. He called Peter Malinauskas the PM. I said, 'He's the Premier, mate,' and he said, 'No, PM: Peter Malinauskas.' He wore a big hat and a big heart, and never ever gave up on fighting for a better Main South Road.

We went in December 2016 and had a community cabinet down there. All the members of cabinet went out doorknocking, and the word that came back was that everyone in Aldinga wanted this road and everyone in Aldinga wanted a new high school. So we put them in the budget and we took both of those as funded packages to the election in 2018. The reason I won that 2018 election by 115 votes had a lot to do with you and it has a lot to do with my colleagues in here, and I am so very grateful for all of that.

The people of Kangaroo Island experienced a devastating bushfire in 2019-20 that burned for 30 or 40 days, killed two people and destroyed so many houses. I knew the people who lived in so many of those houses. Some were already friends and some have become dear friends, like Margi and Geoff, Ben and Sabrina, Lucy and Josh, Priscilla and Geoff, and Shane Leahy. We all know Shane; he had the garlic farm on Kangaroo Island. He had everything destroyed: his house, his sheds, his farm machinery, his boat melted. He was sure that his seven five-week-old kelpie pups were going to be dead as well. He went up to where they were near their mum at the kennel and, somehow, the mum and these pups were still alive.

We asked if we could have Dusty—well, I had to ask Karen first, and she said, 'Will you walk it all the time?' 'Yeah, yeah.' 'Will you clean up its poo?' 'Yeah, yeah.' I have done nothing; I am the worst. But Dusty has played a really important part in our lives. I had not had a dog since I was on the farm, and we left there when I was 10.

Dusty has been so important, not just to our family but to so many people. He started up Facebook and Instagram pages straight after he came to live with us, after the fires, and then of course we went into lockdown with COVID. He had 1,500 or 2,000 followers and they would be sending him direct messages saying, 'Dusty, you're the only thing that keeps us going. We can't see our kids. We can't see our grandkids. We're so lonely. You make us laugh with stories about the old boy and Patrick the cat.'

When things opened up, we went out and talked to Probus Clubs about Dusty being a symbol of survival. We went to every school in the electorate and spoke to the kids there about how out of devastation, hope can come. Survivors can flourish again. New blooms can follow. It was then that I realised that this role can play a hugely important pastoral care role, and I really drew closer to a lot of people in the electorate through those interactions and out of that bushfire.

I do not want to be too critical of anyone or any government, but I think we need to put it on the record; we cannot just sugar-coat everything. With the Wangary bushfire in 2005, Mike Rann, Patrick Conlon and I flew into Port Lincoln the day after that Black Wednesday fire that killed eight people and devastated so much of Eyre Peninsula, and Mike said, 'We're going to have a minister on the ground every day that it takes until you people can start getting back on your feet.' He left me there for six weeks, and Vince Monterola was appointed the person in charge of recovery. The opposition leader at the time, Rob Kerin, was on the phone to us all the time: 'We need to do this. We've got all this hay. How do we get it up? How do we devise a plan?'

With the bushfires on Kangaroo Island, I was really disappointed that the government would not take my calls and were not looking after people. I get it. I grew up on a farm. I get Liberal Party philosophy that says, 'We want small government, we want people to get down there, we want the trickle-down effect through the economy.' But when you have a natural disaster, you want the very biggest government you can find. You want that government to be wrapping their arms around you, knowing what you are going through and finding solutions for you.

We had gone through it in Wangary. We would come up with solutions to get people back on their feet. What I had to do was to go out and hit up corporate donors to get two-way radios so that we could keep our farm firefighters safe so they could talk to each other, and then the government refused to listen to me about, 'Well, let's get people generators,' because we know that even if you've lost everything, you've still got your bit of dirt and you can get out there and sit on your piece of dirt and start reflecting on how you rebuild your life, but there was none of that.

The AHA and Bank SA, and my dear friend Dr Michael Reid, from the McLaren Vale practice, all put in tens of thousands of dollars. We had $120,000, and we bought generators from the businesses on Kangaroo Island. Our dear services people, who did so much for Kangaroo Island during the fires and after the fires, delivered those out to people who really, really needed them.

I want to single out a guy called Dudley Brown. He moved here from the US 22 years ago. His now wife moved here from Brazil 15 years ago, and they have Inkwell Wines and a boutique hotel called Hotel California Road. When we were doing that legislation to save McLaren Vale, because everyone agreed it needed legislation, they said, 'Well, what happens when you are not the local MP or Labor is not in power?'—because we had knocked back 8,000 houses on Bowering Hill—'What happens then?' It was Dudley who said to me, 'Go to Napa Valley. They brought in an act in 1968 and learn from them.' I want to thank Dudley for putting me onto that; I want to thank the people of Napa Valley for showing us the way.

I want to thank Cathy King, but I am going to go back to Marg Ralston. She rang me in 2001 when I was at the ABC. It was February, and I had covered the Olympics in Sydney four or five months earlier. She said, 'Biggles, I don't know what your politics are, but would you be interested in working for the federal Labor Party on the 2001 campaign?' I said, 'Certainly.' She put me in touch with Cathy King, we went and had a meeting, and I took on that job for six months. We did not win that election—we had a lot of things like Tampa and September 11, and other things—but Kim Beazley would have been a great Prime Minister of Australia. Out of that, I worked on Paul Caica's campaign for Colton, his first campaign, and then Patrick Conlon wanted me as his media adviser. So I am ever grateful for Cathy, for Patrick and for everyone else who believed in me and took me on board.

I am sorry to have taken up so much of your time. It is always a risk when you start speaking from your heart and not reading a prepared speech. But it is an emotional day for me, it is one that fills me with gratitude and love for the people that I have represented for the past 20 years in this place, and for the people I have worked alongside both present and past on both sides of the chamber. Thank you one and all. It has been a magnificent ride. Thank you.

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