King Electorate

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:35): People in our electorates do expect us to come in here and stand up for them. That is why I rise today to discuss an important issue that has developed within my electorate of King and is affecting constituents in the north and the north-east. I am extremely lucky and proud to have a number of fantastic, high-quality schools within my electorate. However, following conversations with many local residents, a distinct issue has arisen surrounding the areas of my schools. There are more traffic congestion issues developing around school pick-up and drop-off times.

Around Pedare Christian College, Gleeson College and Golden Grove High School, which are three schools co-located and accessible across one large campus area, each school utilises many of the same learning facilities. These co-located schools partner together to use these facilities, and they do so in such a productive way that people come from all over the country to see how these facilities are shared. These three schools have a wide catchment of students from across the King electorate and beyond, with many students coming from outside the local area to attend.

The road infrastructure in the immediate vicinity in this area has suffered from the success of these schools. Traffic flow along the Surrey Farm Drive—a small, council-controlled road within Golden Grove—is a primary access point to kiss-and-drop zones. It has become extremely congested and a solution needs to be considered in this area.

Following calls received from many concerned King constituents, I visited Surrey Farm Drive on a recent Monday morning to understand the extent of these concerns. Naturally, as it got closer to the start of school time, around 8:15, the area became full of parents and cars dropping off their kids at school, and cars were queued up along Surrey Farm Drive for almost 100 metres. The issue became apparent at the intersection of The Golden Way and also at the other end of The Grove Way.

The line of cars waiting to turn left from Surrey Farm Drive onto The Golden Way, and the queue turning right from The Golden Way onto Surrey Farm Drive, was extremely long. The issues were much the same at the exit of The Grove Way, with cars held up in many directions. Residents who live nearby in Surrey Farm Drive have also raised their concerns about being able to leave their houses and safely navigate through this traffic.

I felt this concern firsthand as I myself found great difficulty in being able to turn right out of the nearby streets. As I am a local and have had a child going to the Golden Grove schools, this has certainly been an issue that has been around but has built up as the success of these schools has increased. Surrey Farm Drive is on the electoral boundary of both the King and the Wright electorates. I hope that, rather than discussing politics, my nearby neighbour, the member for Wright, will work with me, with the schools and with the council on a solution.

I have outlined some concerns raised by residents to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure about this particular situation, and look forward to working towards finding a solution. I have also written to the City of Tea Tree Gully chief executive to better understand measures being taken locally which may address these congestion issues.

I am also planning to meet in February with each of these school heads and will bring this up as a key point of discussion. I want to thank all the community members who have provided me with valuable feedback in relation to their issues but also their ideas to address this issue, and I continue to encourage anyone affected by this traffic issue to contact me and share their views. The King community is full of so many people who care about their local area and who are always willing to speak up to provide excellent feedback.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for King, there is a point of order.

Mr BROWN: Mr Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for King, I do apologise, but the point of order has been made. It has been brought to my attention that there is not a quorum present. Ring the bells.

A quorum having been formed:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Quorum present. The member for King.

Ms LUETHEN: Thank you. I will just finish off by saying that I will always come in here and stand up for the people in my electorate. That is why I am bringing this particular issue here and asking for some support from nearby members to work on listening to what people are telling us is a problem in our local adjoining area.

I have held many listening posts, and just yesterday I mentioned the excellent feedback we have received from people in the north and the north-east speaking up about issues. I encourage them to continue to do that at coffee catch-ups with me, on Facebook, by email and at the community forums I will be holding. I will certainly be advocating addressing this issue for them.