SPEAKER of the South Australian House of Assembly Vincent Tarzia spent an evening chatting about his parliamentary role, and discussing local issues, at a low-key event in Gawler last fortnight.

The Member for Hartley arrived at the P/A Hotel on Murray Street at around 4.30pm on Wednesday, April 17, and told The Bunyip he was looking forward to the meet and greet prior to it starting.

“It’s a real pleasure to come up here and talk about the role of the speaker, and also talk about the parliament,” Mr Tarzia said.

“I love coming up to Gawler, it’s a great part of the world.”

Mr Tarzia also took the opportunity to promote some of the Liberals’ parliamentary reforms since winning government last year, including introducing live streaming of sessions such as Question Time for public viewing.

“Now, people are not only able to log in online and watch the parliament via the website, but also on Facebook live,” he said.

Arguably the biggest infrastructure initiative under way locally, at present time, is the Gawler Rail Line Electrification project, of which the State Government has committed $395 million towards.

Asked whether his government had done enough for Gawler, and the north, in the past year, Mr Tarzia said the electrification project remains a priority.

“I know that the minister for transport and infrastructure (Stephan Knoll) has that as a real focus, and as speaker of the house I know that he’s very passionate about that area, and will continue to get on with the job and deliver as much as he can out here,” he said.

“I certainly want to see those works come to fruition as quickly as possible, we’ve been talking about these things for years now.”