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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-30 Daily Xml
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Federal Labor Cabinet

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (15:01): My question is to the Attorney-General. How has South Australia benefited from having South Australians in senior positions in the Albanese Labor government, and how has this benefited legal services in South Australia?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:01): I thank the member for her excellent question that specifically relates to how South Australia has benefited from having so many senior members of the federal Labor government from South Australia. I will give just a couple of examples.

The honourable member particularly talked about access to justice. Last year—and I think I have outlined some of this in previous answers to the chamber—South Australia signed up to the National Access to Justice Partnership. This agreement provided more than $300 million for South Australian legal services, including things like community legal centres, women's legal services, family violence prevention legal services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services and the Legal Services Commission. It was a significant increase on what had been provided under the previous NLAP agreement.

If you think about some of the other areas where South Australia has benefited from having the input of many senior cabinet ministers from South Australia, you need to think no further than something that the Hon. Robert Simms mentioned in a question yesterday, and that is the Whyalla Steelworks. It is an exceptionally significant partnership between the South Australian government and the federal government that no doubt has benefited from having so many senior people from South Australia in the federal Labor cabinet.

You need to think no further than Senator Penny Wong, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate, and Senator Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism and Deputy Leader in the Senate. It is quite remarkable that we have both the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Senate hailing from South Australia as exceptionally senior ministers in the government. You also have people like Mark Butler, the member for Hindmarsh, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care, or Amanda Rishworth, the member for Kingston, who is the Minister for the NDIS and Minister for Social Services.

We have extraordinarily senior people in the federal government, and I think it stands in stark, stark comparison to what would be offered and what benefits South Australia would have from having a Liberal government. They have a single member in the shadow cabinet, Senator Anne Ruston—a single member in the shadow cabinet, not in the outer ministry. One single member from South Australia is in the shadow cabinet, and we well remember how that senator was treated in the latest round of preselections. The Hon. Michelle Lensink would well remember how Senator Anne Ruston was treated in the last round of preselections.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Point of order.

The PRESIDENT: I will listen to your point of order. What is your point of order?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: My point of order is: how is the opposition relevant when it wasn't part of the question?

The PRESIDENT: Minister, I know that you are going to wind this diatribe up shortly.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I am going to wrap up shortly, sir, but I appreciate the honourable member asking me about the benefits of South Australia having so many senior members of a federal cabinet, and I will briefly—and I will take your advice—compare and contrast to what would be on offer if there was a change of government. As I said, before I was interrupted—and I can understand why the Hon. Michelle Lensink would want to interrupt me: the embarrassment of having Senator Anne Ruston, the sole member of the federal shadow cabinet being demoted to number two. Having the hardcore right—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: We had the Hon. Ben Hood try to interrupt, and he knows this too: having the extreme right-wing forces within the Liberal Party demoting the one member of federal cabinet. We are seeing it time and time again. I will conclude by talking about how clever members opposite have thought it is to replicate Trump-style politics in Australia and South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: And South Australia. We saw how that has played out. Let's look at the latest foray into Trump-style politics last year: the Hon. Ben Hood's late-term abortion bill and the way that was campaigned for. We saw how that worked out, didn't we? We saw how that worked out, that extraordinary right-wing extremism.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Attorney, that was sort of on the edge of the time limit you are allowed to have for a Dorothy Dixer, alright?

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