I start my contribution by thanking the Hon. Carmel Zollo for her stewardship over the last five years. I have been on this committee for my entire parliamentary career and she has had this committee in her control over the last five years. I believe it is a very good committee that serves the people of South Australia and this parliament.
Can I also thank the staff. I will not mention everybody, as the presiding member (Hon. Carmel Zollo) has just been through that and, given that it is going to be a long night, I will not go down that path. I thank the members of the committee for their work. It has been a pleasure to serve with Hon. Carmel Zollo, Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, Hon. Ann Bressington, Hon. Rob Lucas and, of course you, Mr President, for that brief period before you abandoned us for the richness and chocolates of the presidency.
I will say that I appreciated, in particular, working with the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars on this committee and seeing the Hon. Rob Lucas and the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars working on the Funds SA inquiry, in particular. Both have a breadth and depth of knowledge that is impressive and I have enjoyed participating and watching those two members bouncing off each other and, I think, pulling apart what is a very interesting issue.
Whilst we have not finalised our report, I believe that it has been a very interesting inquiry. Of course, we travelled to Melbourne and Sydney, and I must thank the Hansard staff who travelled with us.
The Hon. Carmel Zollo: That was after June.
The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: It was after June, but I would like to say that we did spend quite a bit of time together and it was a very interesting exercise.
The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Do you want to tell us more?
The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: No. As you know, Mr Chairman, it is one thing to spend a couple of hours on a committee, but if you are travelling away from home you do spend a period of time together, so it is always good to learn from other members of parliament, and in particular it is great that the Hansard people come along and support us.
With those few words, I would like to support the Hon. Carmel Zollo and thank her for her service, other members of the committee and, as I said, the staff. I look forward to the continuation of the two very worthwhile inquiries we have been reporting on. The new SARC that will come into
play after the next parliament will certainly have some interesting stuff to go on with in regard to the inquiry into the Procurement Board. I commend the report to the council.