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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-30 Daily Xml
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Motions

Evans, Hon. I.F.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (16:48): I seek leave to move a motion without notice concerning the retirement of the Hon. Iain Evans MP.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I move:

That this council acknowledge the service to the parliament of the Hon. Iain Evans, minister of the Crown from December 1997 until March 2002, and a member of the House of Assembly for the seat of Davenport since 1993.

Today I rise to acknowledge a good friend and colleague and a credit to the South Australian parliament, the Hon. Iain Evans. Iain grew up and still lives in the Adelaide Hills. He was educated at one of the Hills' most excellent public schools and pursued his studies in the building industry before starting a family business.

The Evans family is a political dynasty, from Iain's various relatives in local government, to his father, and at the retirement of Iain the family has served a career spanning approximately a fifth of the entire history of the South Australian parliament. Iain obviously grew up in the Hills, and he had a keen interest in his local community. He was a very keen cricketer, a good cricketer—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I have not got to his football yet; although this is not really a condolence motion, so I do not want to go through his entire life. However, he was certainly a very keen cricketer and was still playing cricket until very recently. He is an excellent footballer, and played reserves football, I think, for Sturt Football Club; so he played football at almost the highest possible state level. He was also a very strong member of the local Apex Club, and I think he became state and perhaps even national president of Apex.

There was something I learnt early in the piece about Iain that I thought was a little strange, although it shows his dedication and interest in politics. His father was the local member, and in those days Hansard was posted up to the member's house; Iain used to read it at night when he was about 12 years old, in bed with a torch so that he did not get caught. That shows a fair dedication and commitment to a life in politics, when a 12-year-old is reading Hansard in bed.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I think the Hon. Robert Brokenshire would have been reading something much more interesting than Hansard with a torch when he was in bed. Iain was very keen to serve his community and, as he said on a few occasions, he saw parliament as the highest form of community service. His father Stan's retirement in 1993 presented an opportunity for him to realise this aspiration and, with a 9.4 per cent swing and 72 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, in December 1993 Iain began his tireless service to the community. It is fair to say that the seat of Davenport, which a few years earlier had engulfed much of the old seat of Fisher, was a reasonably safe Liberal seat.

One thing about Iain is that he was a tireless campaigner and, from the beginning of his career right up until our most recent election, he never, ever let his constituents down and never, ever took one of them for granted. The Hon. Terry Stephens is not in the chamber at the moment, but when he mentioned the name of a good friend of his to Iain, Iain said 'Oh yeah, he lives at Trevor Street'—I think—'up in Blackwood'. He had actually doorknocked the house, and knew nearly everybody—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: He did know the number, but it is probably inappropriate for me to mention the number here. However, he actually did know nearly every constituent in his electorate. He never took them for granted. As soon as the polls closed he was straight back out on the pavement, walking up and down the streets, making sure that the message was delivered personally to those he represented. He made sure he did this at least a couple of times every election cycle.

He also had this very familiar doorknocking uniform, a pair of khaki or taupe trousers and a blue shirt, and that is something he has passed on to a number of candidates since then; that you need to be seen and recognised, and you need to be well trusted in your community—and he has been. The community grew to like him and to trust him, and it is fair to say that Iain continued and built on his father's passions for grassroots campaigning.

As I said, politics and hard work was ingrained in the Evans family, and Iain and his lovely wife Fiona, who herself became a good family friend of my wife and I over the years, were under no illusions as to how demanding a political career could be. At the time of Iain's initial campaign, or at least in the early years of his parliamentary service, he and Fiona had four young children. Any of you who are parents in this place would know that we rely heavily on our partners to do a fair degree of the parenting on their own. So for the four children—Staten, Alexander, Fraser and Alison—their great success, both academically and in sport, is testament not only to the wonderful framework and home life that was laid down by Iain but also testament to Fiona's hard work behind the scenes during his decorated parliamentary career.

I think we often fail to recognise the support of our partners behind the scenes, when we are out in the community and doing the work that we do as members of parliament. I think that often goes unnoticed, so with these few words I am very keen to make sure that we recognise Fiona's support, because over 21 years in parliament it has been a big team effort from the Evans family.

As we all know, the Liberals won government in 1993 and, from the beginning, Iain was no wallflower in this parliament. He spoke passionately on a host of issues affecting his electorate, not least of which were the development of Craigburn Farm, a police presence in the Hills, and traffic and road infrastructure. After the successful 1997 election Iain was deservedly elevated to cabinet under John Olsen's leadership. Then began a period which Iain himself described as the most rewarding and exciting five years of his life.

Iain made real and tangible changes to the state, and I would like to recognise some of them. He was appointed as the first minister for volunteers in Australia and introduced volunteer protection and good Samaritan legislation. He led the ban on mining in the Gammon Ranges National Park. He led the selection for the site of the new state aquatic facility at Marion. He undertook tax reform by introducing the emergency services levy and abolishing the fire service levy that existed on insurance policies.

He won parliamentary support for over 400 families who were victims of the Growdens investment collapse, returning some $13.5 million dollars to the victims. Paying particular attention to that last achievement, Iain did identify this in his press conference as possibly the most rewarding moment in his career. I am not sure that any person in this parliament can claim that they have had such a real and life-changing impact on the people of the South Australian community—from opposition, I might point out, too.

Earlier, when I bought the property I have now in Adelaide, a guy came and did a bit of part-time gardening. He stopped me one day and asked me to support this legislation because he was one of the people who had been wrapped up in that collapse. He was almost on the point of tears because virtually his life savings were at risk. I saw firsthand where Iain's passion and commitment to actually follow through on an issue were going to deliver some benefits to the community.

I said it was from opposition. It was after Iain's ministerial career. He still managed to effectively save the livelihoods of hundreds of South Australians without even having the influence of being in government. It is no surprise then that as I have come to know Iain he has demonstrated an appetite and a motivation to return to government which can only be reasonably expected from someone who has experienced the pleasure of effecting real and positive change for our state.

Unfortunately enough, the Liberals' return to opposition coincided with my election in 2002. From being a cabinet minister, Iain had developed an insatiable appetite again to serve the community at that level. It is that which has driven him through a decade in opposition, during which he held over 20 shadow portfolios. I will not itemise the numerous projects he has undertaken from opposition, but I would like to highlight Iain's exceptional work as our shadow treasurer through one four-year period.

I believe Iain effectively exposed the state Labor government's pathetic economic credentials, our ever-increasing state debt, interest bills, savings blowouts, the onerous cost of living—something he is very passionate about is the impact of government decisions and policy on the people in the street and the people he was elected to represent—our massive failure to meet our employment targets, and a list of other problems that the state Labor government has dealt to South Australia over the last decade.

He was relentless in exposing Labor's economic failures. Since my election in 2002, Iain has not only been a friend and colleague, but an important mentor. Iain is as loyal as they come. I have learned that if Iain gives his word in terms of supporting a particular position, whether that be internal or external to politics, he is true to the letter; he is a man of his word. Loyalty is not always an advantageous trait, especially in politics, in terms of personal gain or career progression. However, in the long term it builds credibility, which is far longer lasting.

Iain has credibility. He has it with the community of Davenport and with his parliamentary colleagues on both sides of politics. In our current state political climate, I believe that real loyalty and credibility are increasingly rare. Iain has kept his feet on the ground and his values intact. They are values which will serve him well as he embarks on the next chapter outside parliament. Iain Evans has so much to offer this state and still has some of his best years to do so.

I greatly respect his decision to seek opportunities outside of this parliament. We are all here for a common purpose of serving the people of the state, but it is no secret that the power to make significant impact comes from within government. I very much hope that I am given the opportunity in the future to make such an impact and hope I can do so with some of the determination and vigour that Iain has shown. I commend Iain on his many and far-reaching achievements from within this parliament and with great anticipation I wait to see what he will achieve outside these walls. I wish him and his wife, Fiona, and their children all the very best for the future.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:59): I will be brief, but I certainly will not be brief in my thoughts of input to what I am about to say in a Hansard valedictory to Iain Evans and his family.

While as relatively young people Iain and I were both members of the Liberal Party, we had other interests outside of the Liberal Party. We actually worked together quite diligently when the Hon. Susan Lenehan was the Minister for Environment because, back in the late 80s and early 90s, she and the then Bannon government decided that they would prevent farmers and landowners from building homes on existing titles in the Fleurieu Peninsula and the Adelaide Hills. Iain and I got together and with some others formed a Hills and Fleurieu landowners action group.

From there we got a real taste—Iain already had it because it was in his blood—for trying to get into parliament in 1993 to make a difference. One of our goals was to be able to give people the democratic right to be able to put a home on separate allotments or titles, which was done very quickly once the Liberals got into office. I was also in the class of 1993 with Iain, and we spent our first year or two sharing an office because at that point in time the offices were all being upgraded and space around here was pretty tight, so Iain and I again came together and shared an office as well.

I want to commend Iain Evans for his efforts. The whole Evans family is an amazing family when it comes to their energy and commitment to community, and it was no surprise to me that Iain followed on in Stan's footsteps and became an incredibly respected member of parliament in his own electorate of Davenport. In fact, whilst Davenport was never a marginal seat, once Iain got hold of it he treated it like a marginal seat. He worked it like a marginal seat and just continued to build up his support and strength to turn it into one of the very strong seats for the Liberal Party.

That was done with a huge effort with things like the Christmas pageant through Blackwood which Iain organised and chaired and which became so much of a benefit to all people, but particularly young people in his electorate, and the fact that he was always available for constituents. He basically worked seven days a week for his electorate, which is to be commended. If anyone wants to see how you really do run a marginal seat, just have a look at Iain Evans and his track record; it is second to none.

Mandy and I had the pleasure of spending time with both Iain and Fiona from time to time. Fiona needs to be commended for her incredible support of Iain throughout the years from 1993 until 2014, because she is just an amazing person in her own right. I also want to acknowledge Iain's children, now adults, who supported Iain in his career.

It was also good to work with Iain as a minister, and one of the disappointing things to me was that I felt 2002-06 was going to be a really dynamic time for the state and for the government and once we had learnt and were mentored by some of the more senior ministers, such as the Hon. Rob Lucas, John Olsen and others, I felt that Iain Evans, some of my other colleagues at that time and myself, to be honest, would have been able to really work very closely together for the common good of the state.

Unfortunately, one person decided that was not going to be the case and the state is worse off for Iain Evans not being able to be part of a cabinet team for that four-year period. The state was definitely worse off for that four-year period when Iain Evans and the rest of us were not able to work in the cabinet. The experience, the youth and the vitality were certainly there. After that, of course, Iain went on to still do everything he could for Davenport. Davenport was not very far away from my own electorate so I knew exactly his ongoing commitment to those people and they could see his genuine desire, whether in government or out of government.

The Hon. David Ridgway has already highlighted many of Iain's achievements. One that I feel should be highlighted is his role as Leader of the Opposition. I believe he did a really good job and from what I am told, not having been there myself, it is the most difficult job that you could ever get. I commend Iain for taking on that challenge as he worked with colleagues to rebuild and strengthen the party.

I was surprised that Iain was finishing his career in here at this point in time. I actually thought that I would probably finish before Iain—maybe he has made a better call than I have—but he can leave the parliament with a lot of pride because he has been a strong contributor. He can be proud of the electorate that he represented for all those years because the electorate is in better shape as a result of his time and a member of parliament. From the point of view of Fiona and the family, they will now be able to get some time with Iain that they richly deserve, and I wish them every success with that. With the experience that Iain has, with his business background, and I am sure with the plans that he has set out for the future, he will still be a strong contributor to South Australia.

As a friend and a colleague, I wish the Hon. Iain Evans, his wife Fiona and their family every success, good health and a long and enjoyable future in the Adelaide Hills with the next part of his career.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (17:05): I will just be very brief, and I will speak because I think I am the only member of this chamber who lives in Iain Evans' electorate and have done so for nearly 20 years. As my local member, certainly our paths have crossed on many occasions, both before and after my parliamentary time.

Iain has been a very active local member in the community. The story goes that he once knocked on a certain door in Eden Hills and when a young man answered it who bears a passing resemblance to me, Iain said, 'This must be Mark Parnell's house and you must be his son.' So, he has got a handle on the electorate; he knows where people are. If he was to see my son now, he looks even more like me, except his beard is darker in colour and longer in length; but that's that.

With Iain and his father having represented the people of Davenport and the Blackwood area for so many years, it is going to be interesting when the by-election comes along. The Greens are certainly looking forward to contesting that. We have preselected a young mother, Jody Moate, who is going to be our candidate, and we look forward to that by-election, whenever it is to be. We had thought it should probably be on 6 December—it certainly made sense to us, but that is not to be.

So I just want to rise to thank Iain for his long service to the parliament, thank him for being my local member for 19½ years, and to wish him and Fiona all the best in what is to come.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (17:07): I rise to make some brief comments today and then I will seek leave to conclude my remarks at a later stage. There are a number of members of this chamber who cannot be with us at the moment who do want to speak on this motion. I think the agreement has been that we will adjourn it to another day and those members can speak at that particular time.

When the Hon. David Ridgway indicated that he was going to move this motion, I racked my brain to try and work out when I first crossed paths with Iain, and, to be honest, I can't remember, and I do not even know whether Iain does either. Certainly, I suspect my path would have crossed with his father Stan and mother Barb in the early 1970s when I was working in the Liberal Party and Stan was the local member.

The inevitable functions raising funds for local electorates would have meant that probably sometime through that period we may well have crossed paths. It certainly would have been through the 1980s, as I entered parliament and as Iain, through his community service, prepared himself for his own parliamentary career, which started in 1993.

I have great respect for Iain's capacity for hard work, as a number of members in the House of Assembly have attested to today, and as the Hon. David Ridgway and the Hon. Robert Brokenshire have alluded to as well. It is a work ethic that I am sure he has inherited from his family. His father looked after the electorate extraordinarily well. Iain learned all of those lessons and then added his own, in terms of community and electorate work. The Hon. Robert Brokenshire has referred to the way he built up the local Christmas pageant.

Others have referred to his work, community service with Apex and other community organisations and his sporting career in the Hills. I have to say that I never saw Iain's sporting career at its peak. I saw him as he was coming off the peak in terms of parliamentary cricket performance, and there is no doubting that, if one looks at the cycle, his skills were still pretty good as he represented the parliamentary cricket team as one of its stars for a number of years. I have to say that he disappointed me on the last couple of occasions, when he kept complaining that his knees were no good and that he was not able to bend over and do anything.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: He didn't like the captain.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I said to him, 'Even if you can't bend over, you're still going to be a lot better than most of the other people who represent the parliamentary team,' such as yourself, Mr President, on occasions. I would have to say that you were not the worst person to have represented the parliament in the cricket: that distinction did go to your former premier, Mike Rann. I think that, together with our former deputy leader and deputy premier, Stephen Baker, you were vying for the title of worst performer.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Marty's bowling—

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Yes, there are a few who have rivalled. That was at one end; at the other end clearly Iain Evans had had a considerable career. I remember the first cricket game we played, and it was not a parliamentary one—it must have been a Liberal Party one at one of the small ovals in his electorate. It must have been a fundraiser—I do not know whether it was state versus federal members, or something—and Iain, a bit younger then, was effortlessly depositing a number of balls over the mid-wicket boundary, which seemed to be his natural arc, for six on a good number of occasions. Sweet timing!

You would have thought that he would be a pretty good golfer, but I have been to his Davenport golf days. When he connects and they go straight, they are very good—that is not often. Certainly as he leaves parliament he may well have more time to perfect that particular aspect of his game. We will certainly miss the February Davenport golfing fundraisers, although we hope that Sam Duluk, who we hope will be the new member, will continue that tradition as a regular February 9-hole fundraiser for the electorate.

In terms of collaboration, a number of members have referred to Iain's time in government. I noticed in recent TV coverage over the emergency services levy that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire was pinching the glory for the introduction of the emergency services levy from the Hon. Iain Evans. ABC TV referred to Mr Brokenshire as, in essence, the father of the emergency services levy and had some wonderful old footage of the Hon. Mr Brokenshire responding to questions. As it worked out, all the heavy work and hard work was done by the Hon. Mr Evans, and once all the trouble started he handed over to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire, and it was then his responsibility to manage it. I do not think ABC TV caught up with that.

Iain got himself involved in a whole variety of interesting issues, including prostitution reform. Again it might have been something he started and the Hon. Mr Brokenshire ended up introducing 215 different bills into parliament to basically say, 'Choose your various option on prostitution reform.' I do not know who's idea it was; it must have been the Hon. Mr Brokenshire's—the Hon. Mr Evans is probably much too sensible for that. But, anyway, whoever it was came up with the idea that we introduce three or four bills, and choose whichever option you wanted for prostitution, and it led to one of the most edifying spectacles of my time in terms of parliamentary process.

Iain got himself involved, as he inevitably had to, with thorny issues like EB and negotiations with the Police Association. They were interesting times in particular through that period. His time as the minister for the environment: I know he has publicly said that his fight in relation to the Gammon Ranges in latter days in opposition has continued in a number of unusual alliances with various people in terms of arguing particular environmental issues in the north of the state. Also his passion for the leafy sea dragon and the second generation Parklands, I think, was an idea that Iain pursued at some particular stage. Even during the most recent campaign, when we were having a discussion about various options he said, 'By the way, there is still this idea of the second generation Parklands that we discussed a number of elections ago that's worth having another look at from an environment policy viewpoint.'

Another thing I have admired most about Iain is not just his community and other work but that once he has teeth into an issue he is like a dog with a bloody bone and he never lets it go. He has been very successful with a number of those issues. I think the Hon. Mr Brokenshire (or someone else) has referred to the battle in relation to Growdens and, in more recent times, the Easling issue—an issue that those who have served with him in our parliamentary party room will know of—I do not know for how many years now, as I have not had a chance to go back and look at it. Maybe when I seek leave to conclude I will be able to find that out. However, for many years, using all sorts of devices, opportunities, motions, ideas, policy options and whatever, he has continued to try to pursue justice on that particular issue—and there have been others like that.

Iain and I have shared confidences over the years, more so I would have to say in recent times. I do not, upon recollection, believe that we were especially close during times in government. Inevitably, he was a new member; I was an upper house member and he was a lower house member. We were colleagues, but the necessity of working together in opposition, particularly as your numbers get smaller and particularly through the period of the last number of years when he took over responsibility for Treasury and for a period of that time I was undertaking finance responsibilities, we worked closely together.

Even when we did not, we worked closely together on a range of issues in terms of campaigning strategy and policy work, as well. I have always respected that Iain has kept the confidences, as I am sure he has understood that I have respected the confidences that he has shared with me over the period of time. We also had some pretty shared views on things like campaigning. I do not think he will mind me saying that we had a very strongly shared view on the effectiveness of negative advertising in recent years.

It is not necessarily a view that has been shared by everyone within our political party but, nevertheless, I am sure Iain will not mind if I put on the public record that some might see it as 'old school'. Everyone says they do not like negative advertising, but I think the Labor Party has demonstrated over a long period of time the effectiveness of negative advertising, and certainly it is a view that Iain and I have shared.

I will conclude my remarks today—and, as I said, I will seek leave to conclude by saying two things. I guess the first thing I should do is to thank Iain for his service to the party, to the parliament and to his community. I also thank him for bequeathing to me half of his electorate office files, I suspect. I hope it is almost finished, although, as I understand it, he still has access (even though he finishes today) to clean out his files.

On a regular basis, for the last X months since his announcement, I keep getting envelopes and things in my parliamentary letterbox or on my desk in the office which is another freedom of information request which he has got back and which he will not be able to pursue, or a file on a particular issue that he thinks I might be interested in, or the policy costings from the last election—a variety of things like that. For those who know my already messy office, I can now blame Iain Evans for it, because it is all his fault that it is a wreck as we speak.

In concluding today, I thank Iain for his service and his friendship. I want to publicly acknowledge Fiona. As other members in the House of Assembly and today in our contributions here have acknowledged, the partners of members of parliament are long suffering. It is the members of parliament if there is ever any glory—trust me; if you are in opposition for 12 or 13 years there is not much glory, but if there is ever any glory—the members of parliament get it.

The partners are partly responsible for that but they are also the ones having to do all the hard work in terms of looking after family and the home, defending their partner when their partner is being criticised in the community or publicly or whatever it happens to be, and being a consoling partner through difficult times, as inevitably occurs. I know without exception that everyone that I have spoken to in the Liberal Party acknowledges that Fiona has been a huge part of everything that Iain has achieved over his 20-odd years and I would like to place on the public record an acknowledgment of her contribution, and the family's contribution to Iain's career and to his success.

I wish Iain well, whatever the challenge; he did tell us that he is moving seamlessly into a new position as from tomorrow, as we understand it. We will all be excited to hear more about that particular career opportunity. We all know that with his capacities and strengths he will make a success of that career as he has of this particular career. We wish him well in the career and we also wish him good health and happiness for not only himself but also for his family. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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