Trish Draper (Makin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to share with the House a very sad incident that happened to me and my family and no doubt to many others in my electorate of Makin around lunchtime last Saturday. I happened to be in the car with my sons at the intersection of North East Road and Smart Road, Modbury, waiting for the traffic lights to change, when I noticed a young man swaying and staggering near one of the traffic lights and wandering in and out of the traffic on North East Road.

At first I was worried that he may have been intoxicated with alcohol, although it was only just after midday. However, he then put a small bag to his mouth and appeared to be sniffing some sort of substance. It then became obvious what was happening. He was completely off his face and oblivious to the traffic dangers around him. I immediately called the police and informed them that there was a young man who was in need of assistance. While my first instinct as a mother and a concerned citizen was to approach him and attempt to encourage him to sit down and rest and to get him out of danger, I was counselled against doing so for my own safety.

This poor man managed to stumble his way through traffic and across a busy road, at one stage walking head-on into traffic on Smart Road in the direction of Modbury Hospital. He finally managed to get onto the footpath, walking in the same direction. By the time I managed to get the courage up to look for him, ignoring all other advice, I was unable to locate him. When I checked with the Tea Tree Gully police, they were able to inform me that two patrol cars and a foot patrol had been dispatched in an attempt to locate him. Unfortunately, they were also unable to locate him.

What I was able to ascertain was that this man had been found in a state of near unconsciousness earlier in the day at the Tea Tree Plaza interchange, where he had been dispatched by ambulance to Modbury Hospital. After he had been treated there, he was discharged that same morning, which is why my children and I were confronted with this tragedy unfolding before us.

The question that comes to mind is: what has happened to our once beautiful quiet city and community of Adelaide when ordinary people are frightened to assist people in obvious distress and danger because of the fear of drug induced violence against those trying to help them? The police have no facilities and no legislative framework to deal with these matters and with people who obviously and desperately need help. The system needs to change and we need to be able to help these people—after all, this man is someone’s son.

Where is the state government in all of this? Where is the health minister and where are all of the services that were promised at the last election? How dare they leave our most vulnerable to fend for themselves and leave the police to pick up the pieces again and again? What has happened to the so-called memorandum of understanding that was supposed to be implemented between the state government, mental health services in South Australia and the police? The system does not seem to be working very well—or they are once again taking a very long time to implement a promise to look after South Australians in need.

The subject of commitments from the state government brings to mind a whole raft of proposals that are yet to be delivered after more than four years of the Rann government. They were published in the Advertiser on 24 July and include $100 million for the Supreme Court redevelopment; $32 million for a women’s prison; $46 million for a youth detention centre; $50 million for outer harbour channel deepening; $70 million for the Port River Expressway, including bridges; $21 million for the Glenelg tram extension, a project that nobody wants anyway; $30 million for police stations and courthouses; $50 million for the Adelaide Entertainment Centre replacement; and affordable housing.

Following this, we have had recently reported details of the cost blow-outs of current projects, including an $11 million blow-out for the Bakewell Bridge on Henley Beach Road; a $250 million blow-out for the Northern Expressway—and now we have the state government expecting the federal government to bail them out again—and an estimated $35 million blow-out for the Anzac Highway and the South Road underpass.

I think South Australians are starting to realise that they made a mistake at the last state election by re-electing a Labor government, as here we have more proof that Labor has no credibility when it comes to finances and management. I call upon the South Australian Labor government, led by Mike Rann, to do something. I also call upon the mental health minister, Gail Gago, who sits on the comfortable, plush benches of the upper house, to get off her hands and do something. Lives are in the balance and these lives are in her hands.

See this speech in context