PHILIP KENNEDY CENTRE

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (15:30): I rise to speak about the Philip Kennedy Centre in my community—not in my electorate, but in my community due to the vagaries of the boundary that divides the Lefevre Peninsula in half. The Philip Kennedy is an aged-care institution of some 170 beds located in Largs Bay, with a hospice service for 12 beds at present. For many years, people in my community have farewelled loved ones in the centre. It is a place of peace and care that enables people to die with dignity and in as much comfort as possible. It is a dearly loved place for that reason.

At any given time there will be people with connections across the community who are receiving care in the centre. I have a friend with a mother who is receiving support in the centre at present and another friend who is, with clear-eyed courage, planning to avail himself of services there should receiving care in his home no longer be possible.

Recently, there was a proposal to transfer the funding provided to the Philip Kennedy Centre to a centralised palliative care team, and that became the source of much concern in my community. While well intentioned, in my view the proposal underestimated the importance of the service to the western suburbs and its irreplaceability for many families facing the most difficult of times. I am very grateful to the Minister for Health for his intercession in this matter and for recognising that the community support for the Philip Kennedy and the merit of the services provided there were worthy of consideration. His commitment to continuing the service has been very well received.

I thank the community for being clear about what it wants and for doing so in a respectful but consistent way. Crystal Millikan established an online petition that had at least 5,000 signatures within a few days, and locals like Hanna Grant and many others made sure that no-one was in any doubt about what the community felt about the proposal. Stephen Mulligan, who is the preselected ALP candidate for Lee, and I worked together, meeting with the management of Southern Cross Care, the owners of the Philip Kennedy, having multiple meetings with the health department and discussions with the minister.

We made sure that the concerns of our community were heard within the health department and that the Minister for Health was in a position to make a decision about the proposal that adequately assessed the importance of the service to the community. I thank him for the decision he made, and I pay tribute to the community for working with me and with Stephen to make it clear just how special the Philip Kennedy Centre is to us.