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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-02 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

Adjournment Debate

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. R.I. Lucas (resumed on motion).

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (17:21): In my very quick words to this motion, I seek to move an amendment to the motion that is before the chamber:

Delete '3 May 2022' and insert '8 February 2022'.

In speaking to the amendment and the motion I wish to very quickly thank everybody who makes this place happen, as other members have, acknowledge the very long service of the Hon. Rob Lucas to this place, acknowledge the service and effort to the broad labour movement of the Hon. Russell Wortley, and of course you, sir, for your dedication to this chamber and all the work you have done on issues that you are so passionate about.

The PRESIDENT (17:22): Before we allow the Treasurer to sum up the debate and go to a vote, I have some remarks I would like to make. Firstly, it has been a wonderful privilege to be the President of this chamber. There may be further opportunities early in the new year, but today is the day for thanking people who have contributed not only this year but in my time in this chamber directly, but specifically of course in my role as President.

I thank all members of the Legislative Council. We have a way of doing things here that we should be proud of. I think sometimes there is an attitude towards the way we operate that might mean that we can improve. I think we certainly have improved some of that in the last 14 months. Certainly today, we had 18 questions and 20 supplementaries, which I think is probably one of the highest levels of questions, which has given everybody a fair go and I am very proud of that.

When we look at the way in which some other places operate—and I have had the ability this year to watch the House of Representatives and to sit in on the Senate chamber right next to the then President—I think we hold our heads pretty high. I compliment all members on that. Obviously, the clerks, the clerk assistants and all the chamber staff, are the most fabulous people I have had the privilege to work with. I think Chris in particular as the secretary of the JPSC this year has had, along with me as the Chairman, a number of difficult issues to deal with and I thank him for his stewardship of that role.

Obviously, we all rely on our own staff but also those who serve us in so many ways across this building and beyond. Others have made mention of particular people but I will refer to the wonderful staff who work for Hansard, catering, the library, building services and the cleaners, who are never here when we are here (except for one or two), parliamentary counsel, the chauffeurs, the security officers, PNSG and many others.

I particularly give my thanks to the whips. As the Hon. Mr Hood indicated earlier today, I spent 16 years as a whip so I think I have life membership of the whips union—and the Hon. Mr Ngo gives me the thumbs up. The Leader of the Opposition was also a whip alongside me. The whips play a really important role in the way we operate. Until you have filled that role I do not think people understand the breadth of it. I also thank my personal staff: Tegan, Tom, Claire and Dave. I know I am not supposed to do this but Tegan is up there keeping an eye on me right now.

I also thank my past staff. On 12 October, a day after I went 24 years in this place, I had a dinner for my former staff. While I have not had a great turnover, you have a number of trainees—and I have had the privilege of having some extra staff as whip and as the Premier's advocate—and it was great to gather those people together in this building back in October. None of the things we do in this place we can do without our staff around us, the people who support us.

As I said, I think we are also very privileged that in this place we have members of parliament who have good relationships with each other across the divide. As many have heard me say before, when new members have come to this place—and I have served with I think 57 different members in my 24 years—I tell them that if you think you are not going to make friends on the other side of the aisle or with the crossbench, then you are making a great mistake because the friendships you develop here are very valuable to the way you operate in this place but also outside the building just as much.

I will say a few words to respond to the words that were said earlier in relation to my service here. I came here in the middle of October 1997. I walked up King William Road and, in a humble manner, came through the Legislative Council door and met the Hon. Rob Lucas, who introduced me to Jan Davis. Rob told me that he did not know where I would be housed where my office would be, because we did not have a President and we were not going to have a President I think until probably early December. Rob allowed me to use the minister's office for that period because he was not using it while parliament was not sitting, so I remain grateful to him for that.

I am not grateful to him for referring to the fact that he has been here for a hundred years because that would mean I have been here for 85, and it is not quite that long. In relation to Rob Lucas, I think one of the things we have lost in this place is the annual parliamentary cricket match. I have to say that we were all ready to go but the media copped out of it. But it was one of the great days that we had every Maundy Thursday every year. Visions of Rob Lucas opening the batting with Kevin Foley remain very much in my mind and the fact that, I think at the age of 43, I was asked to open the bowling—and the fact that I got four wickets—was a bit of a surprise to me and probably to Rob Lucas, I think.

The other thing I will say about the Hon. Rob Lucas is that, for the first five years I was whip, Rob was the leader and we worked together very well in that regard and that served me very well for the next 11 years when almost all of those responsibilities fell on my shoulders. I am very grateful to the Hon. Rob Lucas for helping me to develop that work as a whip, which was very useful given that I served with five different Labor whips in this place, seven House of Assembly whips in the Liberal Party and under five different leaders of the Liberal Party overall in that time, so I do appreciate that.

I also recognise that the Hon. Rob Lucas gave great credit to, as he described, 'my party', 'his party'. The fact is, very few of us get elected into this place without the great support of many volunteers, people who do not aspire to come to this place but will work very hard to help others get here. While I am in suspension from my party I think, at 48½ years of membership, I still have more membership of the Liberal Party than anybody else who is currently in the parliament and I look forward to resuming that membership when I am no longer the President.

I also give great acknowledgement to the Hon. Mr Wortley, who served in this place. Firstly, I think we were on a committee together. We were on a committee together when I went through some tough times and he was very supportive of me at that stage. Even as a minister, or President, he always called me 'my boy' and I think I am much older than the Hon. Mr Wortley, so I take that as a compliment. I did enjoy serving as Acting President while the Hon. Mr Wortley was in this role. Even though he still tests me out with his mobile phone skills over there, we have a friendship that will remain and I appreciate that.

I know the Hon. Mr Lucas referred to the fact that we do not know whether the Hon. Mr Darley is standing again or not, but I give great credit to the Hon. John Darley. I do not know that too many of us would have launched a parliamentary career after having been retired for 15 years, and having dabbled in selling cattle and doing all sorts of things like that, but he has his great passions and he has been a great supporter of mine and I give him great credit for his service to South Australia in this place. For the fact that at his tender years, which are much greater than the Hon. Mr Lucas, the Hon. Mr Pangallo or myself, he was still here bright-eyed at 1.30 in the morning the other week, I give him great credit.

There are just one or two matters that I would like to cover. People have mentioned my work in suicide prevention. I recall the fact that there have been a number of members of this place and the other place who have had issues of suicide or attempted suicide in their families while they have been here, while I have been here, and in some small way I know I have been able to help them.

I think a number of times in recent days, and particularly since the bill came back here yesterday, I have had a number of comments right around this state and beyond that that action will save lives and that Suicide Prevention Australia and many others are urging other jurisdictions to follow the lead not only of legislation with some words in it but the fact that we have in this state in the last 3½ years put the structures there. I give credit to the government for allowing me to go and do a lot of that work, and the health minister has been very supportive in that regard. I think those structures are there, they are working really well and we have now put them into legislation, as they should be. I am very grateful for that.

I am very grateful for the work that Karen McColl and Tanya Malins did in my office as the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention. They have been in that office throughout its existence since the middle of 2018 and they have worked passionately with the community, but particularly in relation to the development and passage of the Suicide Prevention Bill.

On another note, many people have made some very generous references to my wife, Sheila, today. Without my work in suicide prevention, I would not have met Sheila. I was in Manchester University in 2014—some know this—I went to see one of the leading professors in the world in relation to suicide prevention and he took me to lunch at the Manchester University library restaurant. I must say that not everybody I have been to see about suicide prevention has taken me to lunch, but he did.

While we were there, a lady came up and asked me, 'Excuse me, but where in Australia are you from?' I was shocked because I could not believe she had picked up on my very softly spoken voice, but she did. I told her I came from Adelaide—she of course has two grandsons who live here— and that is how we met. She came out here a year later and most people know the rest of the story. So I would not have met Sheila without my work in suicide prevention, and that is one of the different ways, I suppose, that things happen in life.

I did come here, probably, with some things in mind that did not include my work on suicide prevention and certainly did not include doing all the work I did for some 15 years on legalising and advancing surrogacy legislation in this state, but those efforts, and also my efforts for the best part of 24 years as an ambassador to Operation Flinders, have focused very much on changing people's lives in this state. I feel very proud of that because I think we have changed people's lives in those areas—probably many more—but I am particularly proud of that and I am very grateful for the support I have had right across the political spectrum for that work.

A couple of things I remember well: one is that in the days of the Hon. Diana Laidlaw as Minister for Transport, I persuaded her that we ought to not go down a path of putting lots of numbers on highways in South Australia. The Highways Department—I am not sure what it was called at that stage—were very keen on the British system and so they were rolling out the B82s and the C35s and all these different things.

I was very keen that we expand the number of roads that were actually called a highway and used some of the historical names. I remember a well-meaning public servant drafting something, which the Hon. Diana Laidlaw showed me, which was basically telling me that, 'The honourable member should get out of the way; don't be a pesky MP.'

I am very pleased to say that in the time since then, as much as most of the roads in South Australia do have a letter and a number—and most people could not tell you what they are—what we have experienced is a great expansion in the names of highways around this state that recognise many of the pioneers of this state or the geographical features of this state. I am very pleased to have had a very minor role in that.

There is another one much closer to home. I had to fight a few people on the JPSC. I am not sure that the Hon. Rob Lucas was a fan of mine in this endeavour, but the changing of the dining rooms is one that I passionately fought for for a number of years.

I felt it was bizarre that the then Members' Dining Room was such a large room, a beautiful room only available to members, and then, of course, when we were busy we would partition half of it off for strangers. We worked for a long time to get the JPSC to agree to swap the dining rooms over. We now have a wonderful large room which is the Strangers' Dining Room, which visitors thoroughly enjoy, and the smaller room is a much better place for members who just want to dine with members privately. I am pretty keen to remember that one as a little achievement in the life of this place.

We may or may not be back in the new year, but I would like to acknowledge the great support I have had, particularly in the last couple of years, from my daughter, Leah, and my son, Tom, who are known to many here—their support for their old man has been terrific—and to Sheila, of course, who came here telling her friends in England that politicians in Australia were not like the ones in the UK. I think she has worked out that there is probably a fair bit of similarity to some of it. She has been a great support to me, and I am very privileged that she was happy to marry me about 2½ years ago.

There may be another occasion, so I reserve the right to say a little bit more, but on this occasion—and the Hon. Mr Maher will well recognise the relevance of this—I have been here long enough.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (17:42): Mr President, I was unable to be here a while ago when all the nice words were being said, but I would just like to make a couple of comments in regard to yourself and the Hon. Mr Lucas. When I came here 16 years ago, I actually did not like you. I used to sit where the Hon. Ms Jing Lee is, and you were sitting here, and we used to throw barbs across the—

The PRESIDENT: Did we?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Quite often—and, honestly, you made your views about me quite plain when you tried to throw me down an opal mine up at Coober Pedy.

The PRESIDENT: I saved you from going down the opal mine.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: No, you did not, you tried to throw me down it! That was the real story. But getting to know you on these committees, you get to realise, and this is why committees to me are so, not important for that reason but so handy, you actually get to know people personally who you are often fighting against across the chamber.

I found you to be a very decent person, easy to talk to. Your commitment to mental health and suicide prevention was quite spectacular and something you should be quite proud of. My views changed about you many years ago. As I said, it is amazing how you can have a view about somebody, but once you get to know them, if you have an entirely different understanding of these people, you realise that your views really were wrong.

I wish you and Sheila a great life after politics. I have no doubt it is in your blood—the Liberal is in your blood—so no doubt you will be out there, active in some of the rural areas in the years to come.

The Hon. Mr Lucas, all our political careers are dwarfed by your contribution to this parliament. Naturally, a lot of the things you believe in I am at the opposite end of, but you are committed, you believe strongly in what you like and what you do and you are a very formidable opponent in this chamber.

You are probably one of the most formidable opponents but the amazing thing is that when you come outside the parliament and you come out of this chamber, the Hon. Mr Lucas is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde—such a different person. You would not know it was the same person to meet with and have a talk with. I wish the best for you and your family. Enjoy your retirement. I am sure you will be quite active in retirement, or you may just be sitting on a La-Z-Boy somewhere taking in the sun. It has been a pleasure working in this parliament with the both of you, and I wish you all the best.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:45): I will keep this brief. I was not going to make a contribution but I am struck to make one, and also to remark upon the amendment. I want to start by saying that when I first came into this place, my former boss, Natasha Stott Despoja, came in for lunch to celebrate my election and she looked around this chamber, which was a very different red chamber to the Senate where I had worked for her, and said, 'Wow. It is so intimate in here.'

It is a small chamber. It is an intimate chamber. We often come back to this building not just for our daily work but for committee meetings and the like, and there is only so far you can go when you have to face each other the very next day, day in, day out. It is a very different environment to either the other place or Canberra. It is a place also that I have noticed many more female faces in since I started, but I have noticed that every single time we lose somebody from this place and gain another person it shifts markedly because of that intimacy.

I want to commend the work of the Hon. John Dawkins, the Hon. Russell Wortley and the Hon. Rob Lucas. I was struck by something the Hon. John Dawkins said when he rose just now. Mr President, I commend you for your work on suicide prevention. But it was actually the Hon. Rob Lucas who, when my brother died by suicide, showed me a kindness that has stayed with me, and he in fact sent me home as well because I was not really coping at the time, and that genuine compassion and concern for my wellbeing is something that has stuck with me so thank you for that. I will not remember fondly the three-hour speeches but I do remember that fondly.

I also remember the strident debate over the work, health and safety laws when Minister Russell Wortley fought valiantly to finally get those through after a year of opposition—a year-plus of opposition—from the Hon. Rob Lucas.

I want to say that there was another member of this place until recently who did carry coins and used them in the members' bar and that was the Hon. Mark Parnell, the former founding parliamentary member of the Greens. I want to remark that he is a big loss in the parliamentary representation of our party but it is a generational and continuity change that we must and should have, and I certainly have very much welcomed the Hon. Rob Simms and his team to this place. I do believe that the Greens continue to bring our brand of politics in a way that epitomises our four pillars.

I also look forward to the soon to be, hopefully, honourable Yesha Joshi one day joining us. She used to take part in those cricket matches as a staffer and is a keen cricket fan, and should we be able to increase the Greens' membership of this place to three people perhaps those cricket matches will be back on again. Until then, I do look forward to returning to this place in February to continue to do the work. In fact, only half of the members of this chamber are up for election, should there not be any more unusual occurrences for the year, lest I jinx it.

We have work that we continue to do. There are several committees continuing to meet and I think they are doing quite important work, not least being the COVID committee. In these extraordinary times, I think the parliament and the democratic processes should be cherished and respected. I think we are actually in a time where the work we are doing is deserving of us returning in February to ensure that what needs to be done is being done and that the democratic processes are reflected in these quite extraordinary times.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (17:49): I rise to conclude the debate. I thank honourable members for their kind words in the earlier stages of the debate. We are about to vote, however, on an amendment to the main motion. I indicate the government will be opposing the amendment. The amendment is to bring back the Legislative Council on 8 February.

Since the commencement of this particular debate, the House of Assembly has now voted to adjourn the house until after the election, consistent with the position adopted by the former Labor government prior to the last two elections. In 2017, prior to the 2018 election, in the first week of December, the Leader of Government Business, the Hon. Mr Koutsantonis, moved the adjournment of the house until May. Prior to the 2014 election, in the first week of December, the then Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly moved a similar adjournment motion to adjourn the house until May.

So the precedent established by the former Labor government on two occasions was to adjourn the house at the scheduled end of the sitting for the parliament and for people then to, in essence, sell their wares to the people of South Australia in terms of their worth or otherwise for the election. All this government has done is follow exactly the same precedent as the two Labor governments, in terms of seeking to move a motion—that has occurred.

My understanding, from informal discussions with the Labor Party and crossbenchers, is that there is support to bring back the Legislative Council for 8 February. I indicate that government members will divide on the first motion to make it clear as to who voted which particular way, but if the amendment is successful we do not intend to divide on the second vote.

The other point I would make is that, given the other house is not sitting, there can be no legislation passed in the next sitting of this parliament because there will be no House of Assembly. There will be no government business to transact. There will be question time and whatever non-government members wish to apply themselves to during that particular period.

So we should make it quite clear that this is not a choice of further legislation, further bills being processed and the parliament being able to vote for or against anything. It will be merely the Legislative Council sitting by itself, asking questions, I guess, in terms of question time. I think 8 February is approximately 10 days before the scheduled start of an election period. If the election period is 28 days, the election is on 19 March, so it is approximately just on 10 days prior to the formal start of the election period.

I do not intend to delay, because the numbers seem to be there to support this, but for all those reasons I place on the record, as I said, that it is extraordinary. I have not had a chance to track back through the records to see whether it has ever occurred before in terms of the Legislative Council continuing to sit 10 days before a scheduled election period. Certainly, we have had fixed-term elections, I guess, only for 20 or 30 years. I do not think it has occurred during that particular period of time, but if the majority in this chamber votes a particular way, the majority votes a particular way, and it is what it is, as I am oft quoted as saying. We will oppose it and we will divide on the first motion.

Ayes 10

Noes 5

Majority 5

AYES
Bonaros, C. Bourke, E.S. Franks, T.A.
Hanson, J.E. Maher, K.J. (teller) Ngo, T.T.
Pangallo, F. Pnevmatikos, I. Scriven, C.M.
Wortley, R.P.
NOES
Centofanti, N.J. Hood, D.G.E. Lee, J.S.
Lensink, J.M.A. Lucas, R.I. (teller)
PAIRS
Darley, J.A. Wade, S.G. Hunter, I.K.
Girolamo, H.M. Simms, R.A. Stephens, T.J.
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