Lee Electorate

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:36): I rise today to talk about some happenings in the electorate of Lee, starting most recently on Friday night with Westport Primary School's absolutely wonderful event, FringeDigenous—a fringe event put on at the end of Reconciliation Week to celebrate Aboriginal culture at Westport Primary School's campus in Semaphore Park.

It was a wonderful event. There were two stages for performances, including performances not only by the children at Westport Primary but also by invited Indigenous artists. It was MC'd by Kevin Kropinyeri, the Welcome to Country was done by Major Sumner, or Uncle Moogy as many people know him, and Ben Davis, the Crows footballer who designed the Crows Indigenous guernsey for this year's AFL Indigenous round, was also present.

It was a really wonderful turnout by the community and an absolutely extraordinary effort by the Westport Primary School community, led by their principal, Rebecca Huddy, the teaching staff, parents and volunteers. It was a wonderful event. It was also great to see the leadership of the education department there. Western suburbs local Rick Persse was working the stalls that were available for merchandise sales, and arts and crafts were offered there as well.

Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend did not continue in the same vein, because on Sunday the Premier stood up and announced in Seaton that $8.2 million would be spent on renewing Housing Trust stock, which on the face of it sounds like a good idea. However, when you learn that 35 Housing Trust houses are to be bowled over, to be replaced by only 16 public houses, then that is not a good outcome for public housing tenants and people of the western suburbs.

What is even more galling is that the remainder of the land to be developed is to be sold off as lots, not even as completed dwellings. A further 85 lots are to be sold off by the government in an effort to make a profit of more than $7 million. This is not about a redevelopment to replace ageing Housing Trust homes with the same number or even more dwellings. There is an overall cut.

In fact, land will be sold off for profit in order to go back to the Housing Authority for other projects in areas other than Seaton. That is not how you redevelop houses. That is not how you support the renewal of public Housing Trust stock. This is a bad project. It is not in the interests of the electorate of Lee or the people of Seaton, and I will continue to not only oppose this project but also look forward to proposing a much better way of doing this in the near future.

It was also bad news from the Deputy Premier. Of course, we are used to that. This time, in her role as Minister for Planning, I finally received some correspondence back from her about why the government for the last three years has stalled any progress on the Coast Park project, finishing the linear coastal path section in my electorate between Semaphore Park and Grange. The correspondence I got back from the Deputy Premier unfortunately now says that one part of the Coast Park is still being progressed by this government—the section between Semaphore Park and the Tennyson Dunes reserve—but that another part of it, between the Tennyson Dunes reserve and Grange, is now merely a possibility.

This government is walking away from completing the Coast Park project. This was a project that the former Labor government committed nearly $4 million to so that the council could complete it. When a small group of wealthy, vested interest landowners took the council to court in an effort to stop this project, the former Labor government changed the law, changed the Linear Parks Act, so that this project could be declared a linear park and the government could get on with it and finally get it delivered after nearly 30 years of delay.

All the power has been placed back into this government's hands. The Liberal government have access to the funds committed by the former Labor government and they have access to the legal power to deliver this project, and now the Deputy Premier and the Minister for Transport are walking away from delivering the Coast Park project. The overwhelming majority of the community supports this project.

I did a survey of my electorate, and of just under 500 respondents to that survey only in my electorate 490 supported it. The government's own consultation on the Coast Park showed that out of 650 respondents less than 10 per cent opposed this project. This government should not walk away from the Coast Park project. It should stand next to those Labor members of parliament, like me as the local MP, who are committed to delivering this Coast Park project and finally get on with the job of delivering it.