Strathmont Pool

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:40): I am truly disappointed to stand here today with the closure by the government of the Strathmont swimming pool only weeks away. When it was first brought to my attention a number of months ago, I met with the minister and then with the department in the presence of the minister's adviser. I have spoken in this place about it, I have asked questions in budget estimates, and I have not been satisfied with the answers that I have been provided with, and neither have the families who use the Strathmont swimming pool.

I see the member for King sitting over there and, interestingly, I have received a letter from a resident of the member for King's electorate who has raised concerns with me about the pool saying that she wrote to her. I have to say that, given the response provided, it appears as though the possibility is that her grandchildren will not be continuing with swimming lessons. The reality is that I have not heard from any user group—not one user group—that is happy with the closure of the Strathmont swimming pool. They are disappointed, they are angry, and some of them, to some extent, have been silenced, and that is disappointing, too.

The government at this stage will not commit to a $300,000 investment in the Strathmont pool and has decided that January is the deadline date. We have 1,500 people, mostly children, hundreds with one or more disabilities, who will be displaced as a result of the bulldozing of the Strathmont pool. I fear that the minister has been given a script and she is not straying from her script, and it is one that has not been adequately researched. I think it is fair to say that the responses, both in this place and in the other place, we received during question time yesterday were not clear. They were inadequate and, in fact, to some extent, they led us along a path that is not one that the residents have had clearly expressed to them.

There is an engineering report. Is there an engineering report? Has the minister said that there was an engineering report? What we do have is the minister saying that all users—education department schools, Autism SA, SwimSafe Swim School, the Tea Tree Gully Learners Swim School—have been provided with alternative pools to go to. Well, I think it is a technicality here, because perhaps it is what the government is not saying that we need to look at.

How many of the current users who access the Strathmont swimming pool for therapy, water therapy and swimming lessons will continue to have swimming lessons next year? How many of their weekly swimming lessons next year will be cut? How many South Australian education department special needs students will miss out on weekly lessons as a result of the closure of the Strathmont swimming pool, firstly, because of the cost associated with additional travel and, secondly, because of the associated cost of paying for the use of the allocated pool?

I am aware, through having been contacted by another parent, that at least at one school the number of swimming lessons in 2019 for a class of children with special needs has been halved. This is because of the increased cost to the parents, many of whom would not be able to afford to send their kids to the usual lessons.

Is there a plan by the government to perhaps charge a minimal amount in 2019 and then increase it on an ongoing basis each year? It is interesting that the minister noted that $300,000 will be required to ensure operation of the swimming pool beyond the next 12 months but also said that they will not extend the continuation of the pool. We are talking about 12 months. That is still another six months to go, and we are going into the summer swimming season.

Swimming lessons are absolutely crucial to these young kids and yet, right in the middle of summer, the government is going to close the pool. I call on the government to reconsider their decision to close the Strathmont pool and research what needs to be looked into to see that the reality is that $300,000 is not an enormous amount to see the continuation of Strathmont swimming pool into the future.

Time expired.