Parliamentary Speeches

The Advertiser Bush Summit

I rise to speak about an event I attended this morning down at McLaren Vale, The Advertiser Bush Summit. It has been touted as one of the great regional platforms in South Australia over a number of years. I would like to thank Ms Rinehart as a sponsor through Rossi Boots. She does an outstanding job not only sponsoring and supporting Australian sport but also in shining a spotlight on the regions of Australia, none more important than here in South Australia.

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Condolence HALL, MR RAYMOND STEELE

I rise on this very important condolence motion and reflect Raymond Steele Hall, aka Steele. He was born in Balaklava on 30 November 1928 and was a former wheat and sheep farmer in Owen in the state's Mid North. He was originally a regional MP representing Gouger. His parliamentary career spanned over 33 years, as the only Australian to serve as Premier and a member of three legislatures: the House of Assembly, Senate and the House of Representatives.

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PRIVATE MEMBERS' STATEMENTS 06

I rise, too, to make a few comments. A few weeks back the South Australian government attempted to pat themselves on the back for establishing Invest SA. In reality, they had re-established a program whose work was already being done by the Department for Trade and Investment. So what has this actually done for South Australia? It has actually taken the investment out of trade and investment, created more red tape and is less streamlined, and it has shifted the goalposts—and this is the alarming part of what the government has done. Previously, DTI targets required facilitating a value of foreign investment into South Australia. The word 'foreign' has now been removed in last year's budget target, which means it's a broken promise.

 

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APPROPRIATION BILL 2024

I rise to make my contribution to the Appropriation Bill. It is my 14th contribution in this place, and I must say that over time I have become quite aware of the different natures of government priorities and what it means to the state, and how the state deals with the government's priorities. Once again, we continue to see that the South Australian Labor government's priority, the majority of it, is in the city. It is a city-centric government because they obviously have a majority of city and peri-urban seats—of course, taking you into account, sir.

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STATUTES AMENDMENT (ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S PORTFOLIO) BILL

I rise to make a contribution. The shadow attorney has covered most of what I wanted to say in his contribution, but I think the member for Bragg has also eloquently put his issues. He did not hear a lot of this when he was on street-corner meetings, nor did he hear a lot about this at his local shopping centre. What we are seeing here today is the Attorney-General's portfolio bill that has raised a number of eyebrows in the legal fraternity. I know the shadow attorney has grave concerns about not only exactly what this bill will mean to our law representatives around the state but what it will mean to the representation we see in the day-to-day legal world.

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PRIVATE MEMBERS' STATEMENTS_HEALTH_WORKFORCE

I want to take this opportunity to thank our frontline health workforce, and this grieve is no reflection on you. Last month, the Labor government's record of the worst ramping in the state's history only continued to climb. Ambulances spent 4,773 hours ramped and, compared to May last year, an extra 200 patients were admitted to hospitals, and an extra 1,500 calls were made to 000. On top of this, the government canned elective surgeries for both metropolitan and regional South Australia.

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LIVE SHEEP EXPORTS

Thank you, Speaker, and it is great to be back. I would like to acknowledge the nurses and the midwifery visitors here today: an outstanding contribution to our society, and I thank all of you for the work you do.

On a different issue, I want to talk about live sheep exports. It is a very important industry, and it is an industry that is now under siege by a federal government that has done a deal with animal activists. It has done a deal that will put the livestock industry nationally, and particularly here in South Australia, at risk. The vulnerability cannot be expressed more than what I am about to talk about.

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PRIVATE MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

I rise to make a contribution, particularly with the announcement of the federal budget last night. If I look at trade and investment, it was very disappointing. What we saw was a lot of renouncement, particularly with the South-East Asia trade strategy. It was a $509 million relationship strategy with South-East Asia, but it was announced in March so, again, this was just another renouncement.

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SUPPLY BILL 2024

I rise to make a contribution to an important part of the parliament, and that is to approve the Supply Bill moving through. It is done in a bipartisan approach that is essential to a steady progress through so that we have expenditure to pay the bills and keep the state running. Over time, I have made contributions in this place and reflected on the impacts to my community in the electorate of Chaffey. I will first touch on a couple of the burning issues that really need to have a continuous spotlight shone on them; in particular, road infrastructure, health and education.

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ANZAC DAY

I rise to speak about ANZAC Day. Obviously, 25 April this year was a very important day of remembrance for all Australians of the many tens of thousands of people, service men and women, that left their loved ones to fight for the freedom that we enjoy today. In Chaffey, thousands of people across the Riverland and the Mallee attended some very moving ceremonies. There were some 15 services across the electorate, three of which I attended. We were there to honour and respect some of those servicemen that never came home to see their loved ones. They showed incredible strength, courage, determination, endurance, mateship and bravery, and they fought for the freedoms we have today.

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