I condemn the Government for rejecting my amendments to the Equal Opportunity laws which would have banned discrimination against people because of their religious beliefs.

I believe it’s absolutely unfair for Jewish people to be refused employment or membership of clubs, or for Muslim people to be refused housing, simply on the basis of their religion.
Aren’t we yet civilised enough to treat people according to their behaviour rather than their religion?

The Rann Government refused my proposal due to concerns expressed by some Christian Churches.

Yet they are not the ones needing protection!

My amendments also offered ample exemptions that would have protected anyone preaching in good faith in a place of worship.

I query the Police claim that no offence was committed when ‘dodgy documents’ were given to leading Liberal Party MPs.

It is incomprehensible for SAPOL and their advisors to suggest that there is no possible case of criminal defamation arising from the dodgy documents affair.

Consider the facts: someone deliberately concocted false smears and passed them onto Liberal MPs in the hope they would be further published, to the ruin of the Liberal MPs concerned.

Compare this to the offence set out in the statute:

257—Criminal defamation
(1) A person who, without lawful excuse, publishes defamatory matter concerning
another living person—
(a) knowing the matter to be false or being recklessly indifferent as to whether
the matter is true or false; and
(b) intending to cause serious harm, or being recklessly indifferent as to whether
the publication of the defamatory matter will cause serious harm, to a person
(whether the person defamed or not),
is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years.

Given the Police announcement of a ‘dead end’ in the investigation, I expect the Labor source behind the dodgy documents will get away with it. This is a terribly sad day for decency in politics in South Australia.

I have quizzed both Labor and Liberal about which hospital proposal will be better value for money.

Labor’s plan involves spending $1.7 billion on a new hospital. The Liberals’ plans, of which there are three, entail spending of $1.4 billion, $950 million, or $800 million, depending on which option is chosen.

I am in the process of finding out more about the costing and proposals of both of the alternatives.

I have pursued in Parliament a water pricing policy which is both environmentally sustainable and is fairer on lower income households.

I am in favour of a tiered pricing system, but the bottom tier must be extremely cheap so basic needs can be met. Water pricing needs to operate on a user-pays system, where those who use twice as much water as the current average will pay twice as much, and those who use half as much water pay half as much. I would also like to see the supply charge abolished, and extra rebates for water saving devices, such as tap flow regulators, grey water reuse systems, swimming pool covers, trigger nozzles on hoses and even for fixing leaking toilets and taps.

The State budget allocated $833 million towards the total $1.8 billion cost of the desalination plant, but only $52.3 million has been allocated for projects to increase stormwater reuse.

I listed a number of sites for stormwater retention in Adelaide and challenged both major parties to promise to establish 10 of them by 2014.

I proposed action to address problem gambling. The Government collected more than $400 million in gambling revenue in the last financial year, with almost $300 million of that from gambling machines.

For every one person with a gambling problem, there are between five and 10 others who are negatively affected. According to the Government’s own figures, 30% of the adult SA population play poker machines, with 18,000 people displaying signs of problem gambling – 5,000 of whom are classified as high risk gamblers.

My action plan includes reducing the number of gaming machines, banning alcohol from gaming rooms, cutting the opening hours of gaming rooms, and increasing the tax for gambling machines, particularly for hotels.

We need an overpass or underpass built at the Oaklands Crossing. Sure, it will cost tens of millions of dollars, but I think it ranks up there with improvements to South Road in terms of importance. It’s a significant route to Westfield Marion, the future aquatic centre, the Adelaide Airport, the Southern Expressway, Flinders University and the Flinders Medical Centre.

The new aquatic centre and community health care centre, to be built next year, will add to the existing traffic problem. I have called for proposals for an overpass or underpass to be drawn up, consultations made, the tendering process carried out and construction to take place during the term of the next Parliament.

I have been working for more than a decade on keeping Glenthorne Farm as open space and to have it used constructively for the community. My vision for this beautiful stretch of open space next to South Road is something like Belair National Park.

The State Government should take the land back from the University of Adelaide and declare areas of Glenthorne Farm to be a conservation reserve. Parts of the park could be developed as a site for recreation with walking parks, cycling tracks and facilities. We could also explore the option of a natural burial area on a separate section within the site, which would bring in some much-needed income to make sure that the rest of the land can be maintained.