The Government’s Desalination Pipeline Project has left residents of five Sheidow Park homes exposed to the noise and pollution of the Lonsdale Highway.

A thick belt of decades-old Pine and Gum trees were removed from a section between the homes and the highway to make way for the desalination pipe. These trees previously acted as a barrier to highway traffic noise and pollution.

In return, residents have been offered potted trees instead of the barrier wall they had reasonably requested as compensation. The construction company admit the trees acted as a visual barrier, but deny noise attenuation!

Residents say their $400,000+ homes have been devalued and their back yards ruined. To add insult to injury, residents received letters from the construction company offering replacement fences instead of a wall.

The residents’ treatment has been nothing short of outrageous.

I spoke personally to the Minister for Water Security, Karlene Maywald and met with senior managers from SA Water and the Department of Transport. Neither SA Water nor DTEI were willing to bend on the issue.

I am calling on the Minister to personally intervene in this decision.

There is a basic principle at stake here: if the Government wants to go and off and build a pipeline, residents shouldn’t be made worse off by the project – especially when a two-metre wall would offer an easy solution.

In Parliament yesterday, I moved amendments to the Government’s Correctional Services legislation. The amendments were agreed to by the Government.

This will put an end to the automatic early release of prisoners with a head sentence of less than five years.

Currently, prisoners in for less than five years are automatically released after serving just two years – even if they misbehave in prison or act violently.

My amendments ensure that all violent offenders must now face the Parole Board before being given an early release back into the community.

I first raised this issue in Parliament in November last year, and the Government has finally come around to accepting community concerns about the early release of violent offenders.

I welcome the Government’s acceptance of my amendments, which will help ensure greater justice for victims and make prisoners more accountable.

Reynella Primary School parents have voted to reject a State Government plan to move the school’s music program.

The parents met with school principal Steve Freeman and Governing Council Chairperson Amanda Carne last night, voting to reject the plan outright and write letters of opposition to Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith.

I attended the meeting and was told that DECS created the plan without any direct consultation with the school’s principal, leadership team, music students or their families.

Under the plan, 45 music students at Reynella Primary School will have to travel out of their way to attend their lessons.

Who is supposed to drive these students to and from Reynella East High School? Most parents work during the day and can’t afford to take the time off.

DECS wants to take away the school’s program and operate the program for eight different schools out of Reynella East High School.

The schools expected to travel are Reynella Primary School, Happy Valley Primary School, Braeview Primary School, Reynella South Primary School, Woodcroft Primary School, Coorara Primary School and Hackham East Primary School.

DECS should supply music programs to all of the schools that want them AT their own schools, especially if those schools already have successful programs in place like Reynella Primary School has.

Let the four music teachers spend a day at each school. Doesn’t this make more sense than moving hundreds of children?

I introduced a Bill in Parliament today to help stop addiction to gambling (poker) machines.

The insidious thing about this form of gambling is the way the machines are designed to promote addiction.

Free spins and unbalanced reels are giving people the false impression that they are close to a win, so they keep pumping more and more money into the machines – even though their chances of winning don’t change.

My proposed law would change the way these machines are programmed. It would force the owners to get rid of free spins, and will limit the betting to 20 cents a line or 60 cents a spin. At the moment people can throw away more than $200 a minute.

I’m also proposing a display every half hour to show gamblers how much they lost, asking them if they really want to continue. It gives people a cause to pause.

The Bill will get rid of the crooked system of unbalanced reels. Every reel will have to have the same probability for each symbol. Most gamblers don’t realise they are being tricked because they assume that all reels are the same. At the moment they need not be.

Above all, my proposal would make it mandatory to keep to the National Guidelines to which stakeholders have agreed. At present machines are being approved by our Gambling Commissioner that don’t meet these guidelines!

Hundreds of Adelaide families a year are affected by problem gambling. In some cases pokie addicts resort to selling the family home or turn to crime to fund their addiction. I call on the Government to support these measures to reduce the harm being done.

Suburban mums and dads could be targeted under Labor’s new Unexplained Wealth laws.

It’s “guilty until proven innocent” legislation.

I’ve been contacted by a couple who stand to lose their house under the existing Criminal Assets Confiscation Act because the husband grew some marijuana plants - despite the fact the house was paid off 15 years prior to his offence.

The man’s wife was not convicted or charged with an offence at all, but still stands to lose her family home, which she jointly owns with him.

These aren’t bikies. These aren’t drug lords. This is a retired suburban couple who live quite modestly. They could both end up homeless.

Now Labor is trying to extend these laws with the introduction of additions to the Serious and Organised Crime (Unexplained Wealth) Bill.

The Labor Government are justifying the legislation with anti-bikie propaganda spin, but it’s not just bikies who stand to lose.

We already have laws in place that allow the Government to confiscate the profits from crime if profits have been obtained illegally and the offender’s guilt proven.

Now the Government wants a public servant to be able to point the finger at anyone they suspect may have profited from crime, demand receipts for all their assets and these suspicions will be non-reviewable.

This should put a chill down the spines of every suburban mum or dad, or small business owner who may have not kept their receipts for the last 10-20 years. They stand to lose their business, their houses, everything under this Bill.

I drafted amendments to the Bill when Parliament resumed sitting last week. My amendment confines confiscation of personal assets to those who are proven to have benefitted from crime.

The idea of a public servant, who could be a political appointment, being given the power to point the finger of suspicion at anyone, and then take away everything they’ve worked for, is a recipe for tyrannical action.

Our legal system works on “innocent until proven guilty”. I happen to think we should keep it that way.

I’ll be discussing this issue on ABC’s Stateline tonight. Tune in at 7.30.

The State Government’s Upper House Bill is nothing but a deeply flawed political stunt.

The Bill is being debated today in Parliament.

I suspect Premier Rann and Attorney-General Atkinson don’t really expect this bill to succeed. They are using John Howard Republic referendum tactics to maximise the chances of a “No” vote. They have loaded several contentious questions into one, and few people will agree to every part of it.

The Upper House is elected on a proportional system, making it much more democratic than the Labor-loaded House of Assembly, but Labor want to take this away. I wonder why?

I’m not sure what Labor is after here, but it surely isn’t more democracy.

Cutting the number of upper house MPs by about a quarter will probably not change the balance of power in the Upper House, but it will place an impossible load on the MPs who work the hardest – Independents and minor party MPs.

Their ability to scrutinise Government proposals will be severely limited.

The Labor proposal for an elaborate Senate-style process for overcoming Parliamentary stalemate is also flawed.

There is already a very clear provision in our constitution for Bills of special importance. If they are not passed by the Upper House, it can be a trigger for an early election.

A joint sitting of both houses would be a cheaper way of resolving deadlock situations, if reform is necessary.

However, I do agree with Labor’s proposal four-year terms for the Upper House.

This concept was backed by the Constitutional convention held in 2003. It also won substantial support in my own polling of local voters. This reform not only has the backing of the public, it also has a democratic justification.

Why shouldn’t every MP have to face the electorate at every general election?

The news that South Australians spent $6 million more on Pokie machines in the last three months is a real concern.

What makes it worse for gamblers is that eight gambling machines – approved in the last 18 months – pay out less frequently, and this is being kept a secret from the public.

The identities of these games are kept secret for so called commercial sensitivity reasons.

I sought the data via a Freedom of Information request.

Out of a total of 134 games that have been approved since December 2007, eight of these have nominal standard deviations in respect of volatility over 15. In fact the FOI reveals games that have been approved or only tested with deviation rates that go up to 21.

These games have been approved despite the Australia/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard, Revision 9 stating the Nominal Standard Deviation of a game must be no more than 15. Revision 9 applies to new games being approved. However the fact that eight games were approved that had deviations over 15 shows that the rules are simply not enforced.

Furthermore, there would be many older SA gambling machines which don’t meet current standards.

Volatility deviations relate to the payouts from the machine. If the deviation is higher the machine pays out higher amounts but less frequently.

While some gamblers receive higher jackpots there is less return to players in between payouts.

Gamblers should be allowed to know which gambling machines pay out less frequently.

Read what I had to tell The Advertiser about the issue by clicking here.

Are there any issues you think I should know about? Are you concerned about crime, health, heritage, education, jobs or public transport in our area? I’m more than happy to speak up on your behalf. Sometimes a bit of pressure from an MP helps gets things fixed.

I’m holding a Local Issues Forum at the Reynella South Kindergarten at 28 Thames Drive, Reynella on Sunday, September 20th from 2-3pm. I hope you’ll come along and share your ideas so we can work together to make this a better place to live.

Tea and coffee will be provided.