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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-02 Daily Xml
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Country Cabinet

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:54): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the minister tell the council about his recent visit to the South-East as part of the government's country cabinet?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:55): I am most pleased to be able to talk more about our recent country cabinet that was held in the South-East of South Australia. There is much to talk about, going to country cabinet. It's something that people in regional South Australia very much appreciate. I know my colleague the Hon. Clare Scriven has shared with the council a number of times already this week the many meetings that she has held as an exceptionally hardworking member and a minister who is so often out in the country areas.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ben Hood!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: There were a number of very important forums as part of the country cabinet. Probably the ones that I think many of us get the most out of and are often the most important to the community are the public forums that are hosted, where any member of the public can come along and ask a question of the ministers and the chief executives who are there on the night.

There were hundreds of people who packed the Naracoorte High School gymnasium to hear from the cabinet. Before that, there were many hundreds who packed the high school gymnasium at Mount Barker for that country cabinet. There will have been thousands of South Australians already in the first less than two years of this new Labor government who have come along to community country cabinet forums. That compares with a total number of zero people who came along to Liberal Party country cabinet forums, where they did not hold a single one in the whole time that they were in government.

Perhaps if the opposition didn't take this so much for granted, they wouldn't have found themselves in opposition for 16 of the last 22 years if they simply took the opportunities to give a voice to people from regional South Australia.

I might reflect on something we have talked about in months gone by in this chamber—a secret report into the Liberal Party's performance at the last state election. It is a secret report done by a former President of the Liberal Party nonetheless, where it talked about country cabinets. It specifically talked about country cabinets and their importance. It said:

In 2000, the Olsen government began a process of taking country cabinet to the regions. This involved holding country cabinet at site visits, town hall gatherings and regional community consultations. In opposition the Liberal Party continued these. Disappointingly, the practice ceased under the Marshall Liberal government.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I am watching the clock.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I will have more to say about this in the next sitting week, but we are committed to country cabinets and listening to regional people in South Australia.

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