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

As I was saying earlier in the adjournment debate, I would like to pay tribute to Mr Mark Osterstock. As I said before, he is another outstanding member of our local community. He has also been a police officer for 15 years and police prosecutor for three years in the Holden Hill criminal justice system. As I said when we ran out of time, Mark is also a local Tea Tree Gully councillor. As Mark Osterstock is standing as a Liberal candidate for the seat of Newland, these are the issues that he stands for: increased police presence, a better mental health system and improved bus services.

This now takes me to the current government and state of affairs in South Australia. The current state Labor government is a government that cannot manage. The Rann government is the highest taxing government in this state’s history. In this financial year the Rann government will have collected $2,200 million more—that is $2.2 billion more—than in the last year of the former Liberal government. This brings me to my next question: where has all this money gone? You would think that with all this extra money things would be a lot better than four years ago. Sadly, we all know that this is not the case. It seems that the only thing the Rann government is trying to manage is the media and not the huge problems that our state has to face.

Mike Rann pledged before the last election that he would fix the electricity supply problem, and he promised cheaper electricity. The year after they were elected, they approved a 32 per cent price increase in electricity costs in peak periods, and it has risen year after year—not to mention the fact that half of Adelaide does not have electricity when it is hot. In fact, our elderly who cannot afford their electricity bills sit outside on their mattresses next to water tanks to keep cool.

We have the national airport saga, which has now become not only a national but an international embarrassment for the state. This has gone on for too long, and the Labor government should have stepped in a long time ago to fix the problem.

Adding to that, the most vulnerable in our community, those with mental illnesses, have been betrayed. One day the Rann government is going to shut down a residential treatment facility for those with severe mental illnesses, at Glenside. The next day it is going to keep it open. How can we trust anything it says? Rob Kerin, the Leader of the Opposition, has promised to keep this facility open and provide further support services for our people with mental health difficulties.

The other most vulnerable people in our community, those with disabilities, are completely ignored by the Labor government. I have a young mum in my electorate with a child with a severe physical disability. She can no longer carry her child around, and she desperately needs a wheelchair but cannot get one because there is no money in the bloated coffers of the Labor government for people with disabilities.

Add to that the debacle of wasting $51 million on the extension of the tramline, and the trams that do not have airconditioning in the heat. Without consultation with our community, the state Labor government turned our bus service into an absolute shambles, especially for our children and elderly. Our elderly now have to walk many more metres to catch a bus. They are catching not one bus for their important medical appointments but two and, in some cases, sometimes, three buses.

We have the government wasting $70 million to $100 million on opening bridges that will barely be used. We have the wasting of taxpayers’ money on ads that are trying to convince us that everything is fine and dandy just before the upcoming election. This is a government that cannot manage, and the people of South Australia need to be made aware of the failings of the state Labor government. Our egg industry is going down the tubes. The state government refuses to help in any way.

Finally, there is a question my constituents need to ask of Frances Bedford, the current Labor member for Florey; Jennifer Rankine, the current Labor member for Wright; and Lea Stevens, the current member for the seat of Little Para: ‘When they voted in 2000 for the legalisation of prostitution and legalising of brothels in the community, which suburb or street in my electorate would they like these to be in?’ I cannot imagine that Jennifer Rankine, Frances Bedford or Lea Stevens would like to have a legal brothel operating in their street or next-door to them. But be rest assured: if you vote for Frances Bedford, Jennifer Rankine or Lea Stevens, a local community brothel is coming to a street near you. That is what they stand for.