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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-06-21 Daily Xml
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Member for Elder

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (15:54): Ten examples of how Annabel Digance has failed her community:

1. She supports the sale and closure of the Repat Hospital.

2. She supports families and businesses paying higher emergency services levy bills.

3. She opposes the Liberal Globe Link plan to take freight trains off the Belair line and freight trucks off Cross Road.

4. She failed to support public ICAC hearings for the Oakden investigation.

5. She ran a filthy, racist campaign at the 2014 state election, it has been reported.

6. She thought about leaving Elder and running in another electorate

Annabel Digance is part of the Weatherill Labor government team that has delivered:

7. The highest priced, least reliable electricity in the country.

8. The highest unemployment rate in the country for the last 30 months.

9. A health system in crisis.

10. They have failed to protect South Australia's most vulnerable, with consecutive Families SA child protection and Oakden disasters.

Annabel Digance says she is putting you first, but I think she is putting you last. The people of Elder deserve better representation. Annabel Digance is unscrupulous, untrustworthy and has failed to deliver for her community. How can we ever forget the filthy, racist campaign she ran against Carolyn Habib? The thinly veiled racist flavour fired was nothing short of disgusting. This act alone demonstrated that she was unfit to be a member of parliament. This act alone demonstrated that her community could not trust her: a person with no morals, no scruples and no sense of remorse.

At the last election, Annabel Digance stood in front of the Repat Hospital, advocating for it, handing out flyers, taking photos, using it in all of her promotional material. On election day, volunteers were saying, 'You can trust Annabel, she's a nurse.' The moment she was elected, she failed her community. She supports the sale and the closure of the Repat. Annabel Digance's hypocrisy is immeasurable. She unashamedly stood up in parliament earlier this year and attempted to defend her Labor government's closure of the Repat. Annabel Digance is failing her community, refusing to stand up to her Labor colleagues and to fight to save the Repat.

As a local member of parliament, she is ignoring the will of the vast majority of her constituents. In what could yet be the biggest slap in the face for constituents, Annabel Digance tried to abandon her local community and thought about running in the new seat of Badcoe. Any member of parliament knows it is an honour and privilege to represent your local community in parliament—not Annabel Digance. She said, 'Elder is just a name,' and she confirmed that she was contemplating crossing the invisible border to contest Badcoe. Does this sound like a person who is passionate about their local community?

Annabel Digance's favourite pastime of failing her local community continues as she now opposes the state Liberals' Globe Link plan. This policy will directly benefit local community by taking freight trains off the Belair line and freight trucks off Cross Road. It will ease traffic congestion—

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway, I have just had some advice. What you are doing is having an injurious reflection on a member of another chamber of this parliament. Based on that, I would ask you to sit down.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: That is the advice I have just been given.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: He has got two minutes. He can continue on in another flavour.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I can continue in another fashion and refer to them as the local member?

The PRESIDENT: Continue on another stream or another fashion, if you wish, but not the injurious reflection on a member of parliament.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The government has failed to support the Liberal Globe Link plan, which will take freight trains off the Belair line and freight trucks off Cross Road. The Labor government continues to ignore the will of the people in the electorate of Elder. Many of the residents of Elder would be interested that the Weatherill Labor government continues to increase the emergency services bills. Every time a business owner in South Australia pays their emergency services levy bill they will—

The PRESIDENT: Sorry, 193 is the standing order, if you want to read that after this.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: This is just about the Labor government.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I am just telling you.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I understand that—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: We are taking up his time at the moment.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The massive ESL hikes and huge electricity prices continue to be a massive burden for the households of the electorate of Elder and South Australia. With regard to the unemployment record that this government is responsible for, and all of the members in the parliament who have been elected as part of the Labor government, we have led the country for the last 30 consecutive months with the highest jobs unemployment rate in the nation. In the past 12 months to September 2016, some 6,500 of South Australia's best and brightest have moved interstate to find a job.

These statistics alone should send shivers down the spine of any parent and they know that the Labor government's failed policies mean that South Australians cannot even generate enough jobs to retain our youth. This government is a disgrace and they do not deserve to be supported at the next election.

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