Address In Reply

Thursday 21 May 2026

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (11:01): Thank you, Speaker. I would like to acknowledge your elevation to the role of Speaker, and to note how pleased I am to see a woman back in the chair.

I would like to take this opportunity today to thank the people of Gibson who have now put their faith in me for a second time. We all understand what an enormous privilege it is to have people endorse you as their representative and their advocate. As someone who has watched politics for a long time, I actually never thought I would be in this role. Being a member of parliament was not something I particularly aspired to, but when the opportunity came I absolutely grasped it.

One of the things that I was never really convinced of was the workload. There is a remarkable amount that has to be done to be successful, and to make sure that you are engaging with your community at every opportunity. It is true that I have never worked harder in my life, but I love it. It is a real privilege to meet the people of your electorate, to understand who they are and what they care about, and what is important to them.

Whilst I like to spend my weekends getting out to community events and sports events to meet with people, I have found—as I think we all have—the virtue of doorknocking. I did not stop doorknocking over the past four years. We all know how long it takes, but I think it is so important because whilst people come to our electorate offices when they need support, as they should, you only get a glimpse or a sliver of what is happening in the community and what is important to people. By going to meet them in their homes, I think you get a much better sense of what is going on in the community. I would like to thank the people of Gibson for endorsing me.

I would like to congratulate everyone in here. Putting your hand up as a candidate is no small feat, and even though my head was telling me I would be okay this election, and other people were telling me I would be okay, my guts were not. All of us worked incredibly hard to get here, and I would like to acknowledge that.

Gibson is an incredible electorate. I am fortunate I have a flat electorate so I do not have any hills to worry about when I am out doorknocking. If it is a really hot day you go doorknocking by the sea and if it is a cool day you go doorknocking inland because Marion council has had one of the highest rates of urban infill in metropolitan Adelaide so it is warm—it is not great, but it is warm. We have a beautiful coastline.

We also have lovely wetlands in Oaklands with beautiful parks and reserves and the Sturt River going through it—we have a real diversity. There is quite a different group of people who live in Sturt and Dover Gardens. There are lots of new migrants and it is an absolute joy getting to know them and understanding their journey to Australia and how they long to contribute to our community, as well as getting to know the people who live along the Esplanade who live quite different lives. Of course, every electorate is diverse, but it is a real privilege to understand it.

There is no way I could be in this role without the incredible work of my staff in my electorate office. I am often out of the office and so the people who call our office needing support need to know that their voice is heard and that is absolutely what my staff do. They take time to listen to people, offer compassion and also search for solutions. The great beauty of being a member of parliament is that more often than not you can help find that solution. You can navigate the Public Service and you can contact ministers and find answers for people's concerns.

I would particularly like to acknowledge Abbey, who was my first office manager. It is well-known within the party that my office was considered the best run and that is because of Abbey. I threw her into the role. She started off as an electorate officer, but I quickly asked her to become office manager. She is as cool as anything and not super expressive, but she really held her values tightly. I would like to give a special tribute to Abbey for all the incredible work she has done. Unfortunately, she could not stay in the role.

So Victoria came along and, boy, was that a baptism of fire. I really thank her for coming in to help because it happened really quickly that we needed to fill the role. We were an office that was just about to hold some forums in the community. We were just about to hold fundraising events back when we still could and there was a lot going on in the office and Victoria took it all on board. I am so pleased that I have now been able to offer her the position of adviser because I know how much I can trust her.

For the last four years, Macey was on reception in my office part-time while she was studying at university and all the people who interacted with the office would often talk to me when I was out in the community about how lovely Macey is and that is absolutely true. She is a real delight. If you want to go into an electorate office and meet the front-facing person and have someone who genuinely cares and is bright, happy, engaging and intelligent then Macey is just who you want. What is also great is that she has now been able to take on the position of my office manager.

Then there is Alex, who is a real stalwart. He is the guy who is there through thick and thin and I would like to acknowledge his work in the office. He has worked in electoral offices for so long that he can navigate all of the systems and that is a real help in an electorate office.

I am really pleased that I have been able to offer Jazmin part-time work now. She came to me last year interested in getting involved. I said, 'There's an election coming up, so there's a couple of things you could do.' She took to it with gusto. We ended up employing her as a casual and now is she is in my office part-time, so it is a real delight to have that team. As Lou referred to yesterday in her speech, the staff of an office are a deal breaker and you really want them to be performing well.

I would like to acknowledge as part of the campaign all the volunteers who came out. We do some ridiculous things when we are campaigning, such as wobbleboarding. I do not know who came up with that idea, but we all do it. To get up early in the rain and the heat to stand on the side of the road waving signs at people driving, who are mostly nice—they are not always, though. You do question these activities, but they are worth it because of the amount of people who say, 'I saw you,' and it is important to be seen. We did a lot of that. I would like to thank all the people who came out wobbleboarding and doorknocking, of course. We know how important that is.

To those people who came into the office and made calls, particularly Kathy, who regularly came into my office—personally, I find making calls the hardest part of this job. I find doorknocking much easier. I feel you can read the room a lot more and get a sense of where people are at. Calling people I find more difficult, so I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to make phone calls. I would like to thank the sub-branch, who have supported me for over four years now in this role and I really appreciate that. A lot of them came out for the campaign as well and I would like to thank them for their efforts, particularly at pre-poll and on election day.

I would also like to thank Abbie Spencer from the Australian Services Union, Demi Pnevmatikos from the United Workers Union, and Senator Karen Grogan. Their support means the world to me and they do really important work. As someone who spent 20 years working in the union movement, to have my comrades with me means a great deal.

Speaking about volunteers, I think my number one volunteer is my husband, Tom. He is literally asking for letterboxing. 'When are we going to be doing more letterboxing?' 'There will be something next week; it's fine.' 'I'm ready.' He would letterbox every day. He is such an incredible supporter. He is not an extrovert, but he put his hand up to do the training for doorknocking, so he would come doorknocking with me as well. I would be on one side of the road and he would be on the other.

To have that kind of support is just unreal. We all know that; I think many of us have referred to the support of our partners, our family or our friends to get us to this place. Tom is incredible. As we know, we all work a lot of hours, and many times I will call to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm not going to be home when I thought I would be,' and he will say, 'That's fine. You just do what you have to do.' He would never once make me feel bad, never once make me feel guilty, never once make me feel like I should be at home.

He absolutely understands the requirements of this job. He actually retired four weeks after I was elected in 2022, which was really good timing because I have not cooked dinner since, and I do not have that mental load. We all know that mental load, when you are driving home and thinking, 'Right, I've got to cook the dinner, got to put the washing on, got to walk the dog, got to sort the kids'—I do not have that, and that is a remarkable weight off my shoulders. So I would really like to thank my husband, Tom, who I love so much.

My kids, of course: Sam, who is a lot quieter and a lot more in the background but absolutely backs me no matter what; and my daughter, Lucy, who lives in Melbourne. She flew over for the last few days of pre-poll to stand on the booth with me and for election day. She has got my back; she is incredible. It is one of those situations where the roles really reversed. She was looking out for me. She was making sure I had food and I had water. She was going to the shops and getting me things. I would say, 'No, I'm fine,' and she would say, 'No, you need things,' and she would just go and get stuff. She is just so incredibly positive and someone I know I can turn to for anything. So I would like to thank Sam and Lucy as well for their enduring support.

There are a couple of campaigns that we have run during the course of the last four years that I would like to touch on. My favourite thing to do in an electorate office is run a community campaign. I think it is really important, when an issue pops up in the electorate and then you start hearing it and hearing it again. It might be in a pocket, it might just be a few streets of people that have a very particular concern, or more broadly. It is a real opportunity to bring people together and work alongside them and engage with them to find solutions for what they are concerned about.

One of the campaigns I am really proud of is our Sink the Rink campaign. Some years ago, Marion council had agreed with an interstate for-profit developer to build an ice rink right on Sturt Road—which seems insane in a climate crisis—in a big sports precinct. For those of you who come down south, Sturt Road is insanely busy, and that is because everyone wants to go to Marion shopping centre and so it is always backed up, so people were concerned about increasing traffic.

As someone who spends a lot of time at sports clubs and particularly there, I can tell you there is bowls, there is football, there is soccer and tennis and basketball. All of those clubs want to grow, and this was space that was no longer used. It was an old croquet club. The 11 members had folded and so there was space, green open space, right next to other sports clubs that they were going to build on. I knew that it was actually sports clubs that wanted that space.

Importantly, too, there were two significant gum trees that the council had agreed to cut down as well. So we held a rally at the site and, ultimately, the ice rink did not go ahead. But at the same time, the South Adelaide Basketball Club needed more courts. They had been, for a long time, in courts that were not fit for purpose. Many of you will know that basketball is an ever-growing sport in our community and they just did not have the facilities they needed. They had funding from the federal government, thanks to Louise Miller-Frost, to expand, as well as support from the Marion council.

It was great that they had the opportunity to expand, but the decision was made by the Marion council that, so the basketball club could expand, they would bulldoze the Marion Tennis Club—a tennis club with over 90 years of history. I met with the tennis club the night that they found out about this and said that I would stand by them. It has been a long couple of years of campaigning to save the Marion Tennis Club, but we got there.

As part of that site that we saved for community sports clubs, it was agreed that four of their courts would go onto that site. We still had the problem of finding space for two extra courts. The Marion council were not initially going to do that. Unfortunately, it is a six-court club that is growing and the biggest tennis club in the council, so they were actually going to make the resources of that club smaller.

I am so pleased that the Marion council have agreed that the final two courts can go next to the old bowling green, next to the Marion RSL, which is only over the road. So the club is not being split. What is fantastic is that I regularly go to the Marion RSL on a Friday night for knock-offs. If you want to know what people think, go to an RSL. They will tell you, and I love that they do. The facility will be right near there, so I am really hoping that it will bring new membership into the Marion RSL as well.

Another campaign that I worked on that I am so pleased became an election commitment and now is able to be delivered is at Brighton Primary. Brighton Primary has a school hall inside the school grounds that only fits half of the school community in it. I actually went to Brighton Primary for a couple of years, and the hall has not changed. What is important to note is if you cannot fit in the whole school community for an assembly, then you miss out on the opportunity to build culture. You miss out on the opportunity to bring parents or grandparents to watch an assembly when a child has a particular role in the assembly. For that reason, it was important the hall grow in size.

When they did want to hold whole-of-school assemblies, they would do it outside, which is really problematic because this is a school that is also for the deaf and hard of hearing, and it has been for as long as I can remember. If those students are taken outside and they have to handle the sun or wind or any of the elements, their ability to engage and communicate is incredibly diminished, so it means that a lot of students are not able to participate. I have also been to a school assembly when half of them are in the hall having the assembly and the other half are streaming it online in their classroom so they can participate. If a storm happens and the internet cuts out, once again half the school cannot participate in the assembly.

I met with the school on numerous occasions. We had a petition running for a really long time. I walked around at a sports day, meeting all the parents, getting the petition signed. I stood outside the school gates—all the things that you do—and met with the governing council on multiple occasions. So I am really pleased that that is now able to go ahead.

Importantly, too, the hall is not taking up any space that is currently used for sports. It is going alongside the car park on Highet Avenue. It no longer being inside the school and being right next to the car park means that community groups, like yoga groups who want to hire the hall, are no longer walking through the school in order to access it. I think that is really important. We want community groups just to come straight in off the street and not go wandering through the school.

Also, it is right next to the Brighton sports precinct, where we have the lacrosse club, the rugby club and the footy club. I am hopeful that, being a multi-use hall which has all the facilities, it means deaf and hard of hearing students can participate and be actively engaged and not have to be sitting by themselves at the front and that they can participate wherever they are in their classroom. The school community, sports groups and community groups will have a hall that is useful for everyone to get involved in.

Another campaign that I am still working on—I have not won this one yet—with the governing council and the school community and doing all the petitions is to get an upgraded pedestrian crossing on Bowker Street for Paringa Park Primary School, which is another school in the electorate that I went to. I went to a few of them. Bowker Street is a really long road. It is a cut-through. You end up at Brighton Secondary at the other end of it. People speed, and there are little kids crossing the road. Whilst they have students out in their high-vis putting the stop sign up, it is not enough. People still speed through it. In fact, there are teachers who experience such anxiety by the thought of standing out there, because they are so concerned that someone is going to get hurt or worse, that they actually will not do that task anymore.

We have written to the council a lot about this. I do know that there are councillors who support an upgraded pedestrian crossing so that people can actually see that there is a crossing coming. We are working on that. We are still keen to get that going.

A small one that we found a solution for last term was finding a new car park for the Oaklands station. When the tramline was shut down for the upgrades of the overpasses, lots of people, rather than using the substitute bus, would come to use the train, because I think we all like an express train more than we like buses that stop. It meant that the residents near the station were seeing an incredible increase in the amount of cars parked near them, and I think we all understand, from all of our doorknocking, what parked cars on residential streets mean to people. So we were looking for a solution.

One of the candidates rang the radio and suggested that maybe the express trains should start stopping at Warradale and Hove stations. Well, that would have messed up the timetable. Actually, it was in talking to a resident—there was a disused car park right nearby. So we were in discussions with the minister and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, and I am so pleased that they revitalised that car park and made it available. It was just going to be used for the duration of the trams being shut down for the building of the overpasses, but in fact it has been so popular—it is almost full every single day—that we are aiming to keep it open. It was just disused bitumen on the corner, so it makes perfect sense to be using that.

Another one that I am pleased we have recently won is the getting of a new electronic scoreboard for the Marion Rams. The Rams are a club with a really proud history. I would like to acknowledge the success that they have had recently, starting with the women's team. Last year they won the flag, which of course is great, but in the season prior they won the flag and were promoted. So last season they won the grand final and the league above, which is an incredible feat and a real shout-out to the women of the Marion Rams.

For the men's A grade, I went to their grand final on the other side of town to support them last year and, oh my God, it was a hell of a grand final. I can see why they enjoyed themselves that night. They were losing during the entire game, it was dreadful, and they finally got to an equal score at the siren. So it was drawn and went into extra time—and they won. It was an insane grand final and one that will go down in club history, no doubt.

Anyway, we have this club that has a lot of junior teams as well, and women's teams and a lot of men's teams, and they still have a scoreboard where some poor volunteer has to sit in the weather to physically change the scores. We now have a commitment—well, the money has been handed over—so that the club can use an electronic scoreboard. But it is not just about showing the score live—actually for the cricket as well; they use that space—it also means that the club can promote sponsors on the scoreboard, which is good for them to attract more support for the club, and it also means it can hold community events. These scoreboards are often used for showing films, so it is a great opportunity for the community to come together. I might close my remarks there.