Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Women's Memorial Playing Fields Upgrade

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:03): Perhaps I had deluded myself that the Cregan hour had high ratings; nevertheless, all present now. I move:

That the 122^nd report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Women's Memorial Playing Fields Upgrade Project, be noted.

The Women's Memorial Playing Fields are a large sportsground of around 10.9 hectares. They incorporate three playing fields in total and are located, as members are aware, on the corner of Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road, St Marys, in the City of Mitcham.

The Women's Memorial Playing Fields incorporate the fields I have mentioned over two levels, and they are also the site for the annual Bangka Day Memorial Service. The grounds are dedicated to the South Australian servicewomen who served in World War I and World War II. The total project budget is $9.237 million, including substantial funding by the state government and $500,000 funded by the Australian government's Community Development Grants Programme, for which we are grateful.

The Women's Memorial Playing Fields upgrade will provide upgraded facilities for tenants, including the Sturt Lacrosse Club, Cumberland United Women's Football Club and the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Field Trust.

For the benefit of members, the scope of works for the memorial playing fields upgrade includes construction of a new clubroom, providing kitchen and clubroom facilities; construction of new change rooms; sports field renovations, including levelling, drainage improvements, irrigation system upgrades and returfing; the supply and installation of new sports field lighting; and the construction of a new plaza memorial space. The project works will be staged, with construction expected to have already commenced and be completed in October.

The committee examined written evidence from the Department for Education in relation to this project, advising that the proposal had also been subject to the appropriate agency consultation. The committee is satisfied that the proposal has been subject to the appropriate consultations and does meet the criteria for the examination of projects as described in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991. Based on the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the scope of works that I have outlined to members.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (11:06): I rise firstly to commend those who are working on this important project and, obviously, I hope that it will deliver greater amenity to those clubs that are part of this project. It was a Labor commitment before the last election, which was then met by the Liberal opposition, which I certainly welcome, and I am looking forward to seeing it completed.

However, I rise to put on the record what is not in this report, and there is a fairly glaring omission. There has been a major alteration since the original scope of this project, since it was originally announced to the public and to my community in Badcoe. Nowhere in here do we see the words 'Forestville Hockey Club', which is a sporting club in my electorate, the oldest sporting club in my electorate and the oldest hockey club in the Southern Hemisphere. The club has a very proud history, many hundreds of members and for quite some time has been based at the Goodwood sports precinct in Millswood.

For some time they have been searching for a new home. They have essentially outgrown the facilities that they are currently at, and also the sport has really moved on and now synthetic pitches are played on, but that cannot be accommodated at the current Goodwood sports complex. For several years, the Forestville Hockey Club has been working on proposals to relocate.

Before the last election, there was certainly a bipartisan approach and both Labor and Liberal committed that the Forestville Hockey Club would be part of this new project at the Women's Memorial Playing Fields—that was excellent. The club obviously welcomed it and even other sporting clubs that are currently using the Goodwood facility welcomed it too because it will free up some facilities at the very well-utilised Goodwood sports complex for other clubs that are either there at the moment or that may wish to have sporting fields to potentially be able to move into that sports complex.

There were long and detailed conversations involving the Forestville Hockey Club for them to be included in this project. They were an equal partner with the two other sporting clubs in this new development. That was what was put to the electorate and that is what was promised by Labor. Then, of course, the Liberals, who won government, promised that the Forestville Hockey Club would get a new home in this new $9 million state-of-the-art facility at St Marys. But, of course, that has not happened. The Forestville Hockey Club has been excised from this project and is no longer part of it. That is a great shame and something I think this house should be aware of.

Most galling is the treatment then of the Forestville Hockey Club. Instead of being provided with some other facility, some other clubhouse, some other place they can call home after this long battle that they have had for a new home base, nothing really has been provided to them. Yes, they have been able to keep the million-odd dollars that was promised to them by the former Labor government for a new synthetic hockey pitch. They can take that with them, but that is not much good if they do not have a home base. They cannot put that synthetic hockey pitch at the Goodwood sports complex; they need another home.

Unfortunately, although they were an equal partner in a $9 million project, they have not been able to take any of that funding with them in order to realise their dream of having a clubhouse, whether that is with other clubs as a collaborative arrangement or out on their own. That has left them in a very difficult position. As this government has made the decision to boot them out of this project, after promising them a new home base, they owe it to them to deliver that home somewhere else. They owe it to them to deliver on the promise that this Liberal government made to the Forestville Hockey Club, that they would get a new home.

I am aware of new plans for a new clubhouse at Unley High, and those plans are fairly well progressed, as well progressed as you could expect a club of Forestville Hockey Club's resources to put together. They have had quite high level and productive conversations with Unley High School and other people in the community to try to make this new dream a reality. Unfortunately, they have been told by this government that there is not funding and that they will not be able to move to Unley High and create a new clubhouse and use that million-odd dollars that they already have in the bank from the previous Labor government's synthetic pitch fund, and be able to have a new home base. That is a huge disappointment but there is, of course, something that this government can do, and that is to help them out.

They do not need another $9 million. In fact, they only need a fraction of that to build what is a very modest clubhouse at Unley High which would then be available for the entire community, including the educational community to use and, of course, they will then be able to construct the synthetic pitch as well. This would be a great project for the hockey community and also for the wider sporting community, and I call on this government to fund that new clubhouse or at least enter into discussions with the Forestville Hockey Club about what can be done, considering that they have been excised from the project that they were promised at the last election.

That is all I want to say on that topic, but I might just make one other small point. I am not sure about the procedure and how these things work, but I noticed that unfortunately there is an error in the report in terms of the spelling of Ms Gladys Elphick's name. These things happen and I am sure it is an innocent mistake. It is on page 6.

I am not sure if there is any way that it can be remedied but, considering that Ms Gladys Elphick is a leading light in the Aboriginal community and did so much for our community in advancing the rights of Aboriginal people but particularly Aboriginal women, and considering that this project is at the Women's Memorial Playing Fields, I think it would be great if we could correct that small error. To get her name spelt correctly is the least we can do to honour her memory. I am happy to help the drafters if there is some sort of process that can be gone through to correct it before it goes into the formal record.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (11:12): I rise to speak on the final report of the Women's Memorial Playing Fields upgrade, issued by the Public Works Committee, and I thank them for their work. May I just briefly address the matters of concern raised by the member for Badcoe in her plight for the Forestville Hockey Club, and her assertion that this was a commitment given to be a tenant in the facility.

I am concerned to note in the report that unlike local members who are invited to actually give evidence on these matters, I see that her name does not appear. I just remind members, including the member for Badcoe, that if there are—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —matters of concern, this is exactly the forum which we, as local members, go to and give evidence to the Public Works Committee and outline the allegation of some alleged arrangement to—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —submit that. Liberal and Labor and other members have utilised this on a regular basis. I have done it myself, and I just remind the members that this is why it is so important that they bring to the attention—or at least even alert the members of their own political party who sit on these bodies. The Hon. Tom Koutsantonis and Mr Joe Szakacs I notice are two members of the Labor Party. I hope that is helpful to the member to understand that that is where—

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Mawson!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —she can of course make sure these things are raised if she has a legitimate point. I commend the committee for taking up what has been a development—

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Point of order: the Deputy Premier has been here long enough to know that you use the title of the member of parliament and not their name in this place. I thought you might have pulled her up on it.

The SPEAKER: I take that as a point raised in accordance with standing order 123—

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: I was referring, sir, on page 3 of the report—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Can you allow the Speaker to rule?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: I'm sorry.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The fact is, member for Mawson, that when it comes to references in committee participation I understand it is the practice that members are described by name in the document. It may be that a direct quote has been the cause of the inappropriate reference. I uphold the point of order; it is a point of order that is conventional.

I take the opportunity to remind the Deputy Premier and all members of the requirement to describe members in accordance with that standing order. It is a standing order I have already referred to in the course of this sitting week. I uphold the point of order. The Deputy Premier will refer to members according to standing order 123.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Thank you, sir. It is an important point, and I refer members to page 3 of the report, which outlines the composition of the membership. I think that will make it clear how they are described.

In relation to the project itself, the late Tom Playford—whose picture adorns the wall behind me here in this chamber and who was the architect of his government—ensured these women's memorial grounds were provided with a parcel of land on which there would be a permanent memorial to the courage and commitment of women during conflict, in particular in recognition of the disgraceful murder of nurses at the Bangka Strait.

An annual memorial service takes place, and many members would have been to that. I have been on a number of occasions, and have spoken in this house about it. It is an important memorial; it is a testament to the courage and a symbol of the extraordinary contribution, including their lives, of those nurses. One surviving nurse, Sister Bullwinkle, was a resident of South Australia, and it is important we commemorate that.

I am very pleased that in all the time I have been here in the parliament the member for Waite—the Hon. Martin Hamilton-Smith was the local member for a long time covering this area, and he, too, presented pleas to the previous government, which he ultimately became a member of—presented pleas to provide a significant upgrade to these grounds to advance the contemporary purpose of the grounds, which is to promote women's sport.

I am therefore extremely pleased that some $9.5 million, including some money from the commonwealth, is being presented to this facility. There will be new clubrooms, new change rooms, sports field renovations and the installation of new sports field lighting. There will also be construction of a new plaza and memorial space. Again, this will enable the annual memorial of this important occasion to take place.

The Governor of the day has attended these on many occasions, and there are longstanding people on a committee that actually provides for the perpetuation of this memorial. I am immensely pleased—and I am sure if Tom Playford were here today he would be immensely pleased—that finally this government, with some support from the commonwealth, has committed millions of dollars of funding to facilitate this upgrade. I hope it will be a facility for another 30, 40 or 50 years for the advancement of women's sport.

I conclude by recognising the advance of women's sport in this state, not only the well-publicised area of women's and girls' participation in football. I am proud to say that we have an outstanding team at the Old Collegians Rugby Union Football Club for the women's team. Women's rugby is very popular in the whole of the competition and, in particular, it has been advanced in my electorate. I am extremely proud of them. We recently had an afternoon tea to support them—these are really courageous young women, who are taking up different and new sports and breaking barriers for other girls to follow—and to provide alternate sport options for our girls. With that, I commend the report.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (11:20): I am really pleased to see this report presented by the Public Works Committee. The Women's Memorial Playing Fields, as has been mentioned, is an incredibly large sportsground of around 10.9 hectares and it is on the edge of my electorate. It has three playing fields in total and a clubhouse that has desperately needed upgrading. It is home to the Cumberland United Women's Football Club, the Sturt Lacrosse Club and the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields Trust.

They are two incredible clubs. I meet with the volunteers and the sports committee quite regularly. They were so excited at the time of the election. I know that comment has been made that those opposite made some commitments to upgrading the site. We certainly made similar commitments because we knew how important it was. The players, the volunteers and committee members of those clubs did not really care who was making the promises. They were just so excited that it was on the agenda and, most importantly, that when we got in we got on with the job of delivering the project.

The South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields Trust is located there, and they are an integral part of the site. They hold the annual Bangka Strait Memorial Service ceremony every year. It is an incredible memorial service where we can reflect and honour the women who have served and, of course, the 22 nurses who were horrifically gunned down in the Bangka Strait, Vivian Bullwinkel being the lone survivor of the massacre.

When I read and learn more about that, it moves me and brings me to tears. I think about the character that Vivian must have had to lie in the water after being shot, pretending to be dead, waiting for them to go so that she could take herself to shore and enduring what she went through in the coming days. It shows incredible courage. It is so important that we acknowledge women who serve our country. It is an incredible memorial service that is held at the Women's Memorial Playing Fields. This upgrade will include improving the facilities so that they can host the memorial service each year.

The project also includes the construction of a new clubroom, providing kitchen and clubroom facilities, and the construction of new change rooms. The daughter of one of my very good friends played at the Cumberland United Women's Football Club; she would be there on a Sunday morning. Long before even coming to parliament, I was familiar with how terrible those change rooms were for the young girls in that part of the football club. It is so great to be able to see that they will get the facilities they deserve. It is similar for the Sturt Lacrosse Club: their facilities were just horrific. This is a project that is really needed. It is exciting that it is happening. It is exciting that the Marshall Liberal government has got on with the job and is doing it.

In terms of the Forestville Hockey Club, I know that the member for Badcoe made mention that they were originally in the plans for the upgrade, which was fantastic. The Forestville Hockey Club have some great members. They are a great club, and I know they so desperately want a home base where they can really strengthen their great club culture.

It was going to be great to have them at the fields as well. It was unfortunate that as it worked out, the size of the hockey pitch that was required could not easily be accommodated in the right north-south orientation to meet the requirements for hockey, so the decision was made that they would be better placed at another club. I think that is a shame, and it is probably a good reflection of how important it is when you are in government—and I know the opposition was in government at the time when they originally made that promise to do the work—to really make sure that clubs are well looked after.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

Mrs POWER: We are working really closely with them and, as the member for Badcoe mentioned, we have left the funds that were allocated to that club with them. We want to support them, we want to find them a new home base.

I was very fortunate at my last street corner meeting that a couple of members from the club came down and very kindly had a gift for myself and for Dr Rachel Swift, the Liberal candidate for Boothby. We were both holding street corner meetings and they had this box, and we opened it up and inside was a beanie from Forestville Hockey Club, so Dr Rachel Swift and I will be wearing them proudly. As we said to them at the time, we look forward to continuing to work with them to find them a home.

I know conversations are already underway and they are exploring the possibility of basing themselves at Unley High School. I know that Greg, the principal at Unley High School, is very supportive of that. There is some more work to be done and, obviously, I understand that they need some more funding to be able to bring that vision to life. I really look forward to continuing to work with them to support them and do all that I can to help them realise their vision.

It will be an exciting day when they are opening up their clubrooms because we know it is really important. One of the things that we consistently hear from clubs is it is really important that they do have a home base, that the clubrooms have appropriate facilities for men, women and families to change, and to come together and to gather. It is really in those home bases that club cultures can be formed and strengthened and thrive.

As we come off the back of the COVID pandemic, local sporting clubs play such an important role in our sense of community, in our sense of connection. We have known all along that sporting clubs are about more than just sports and physical activity; they are about fellowship, they are about sport, they are about those sorts of intangible and interpersonal skills that you learn when you are part of a team, so it is important that we are supporting all of our local sporting clubs.

As I said, it will be an exciting day, and I hope it is not too far off in the future when we open a clubhouse for Forestville Hockey Club, but also importantly, when we open the Women's Memorial Playing Fields' new clubhouse with Sturt Lacrosse Club, the Cumberland United Women's Football Club and, of course, with those from the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields Trust all there, it will be quite incredible.

Another thing we have talked about in relation to this site is the potential for it to house other clubs. It is a big site and we want to see our sporting fields used to their maximum, so there are a few opportunities there that I think we should continue to explore. One other thing I am really interested in personally is working with those services in the women's sector, those women's organisations that might be interested in connecting with the Women's Memorial Playing Fields Trust in some way so that we can continue to keep that history alive and share the stories and pass them down.

I know that Cumberland United Football Club do an incredible job of honouring the history and the story of women who have served when they have an annual women's memorial Bangka Strait round. They do that with the other soccer clubs and bring people together and, as a part of those days, have a minute's silence. That passing of stories and remembering and honouring those who have served in our country—particularly the women given that the Women's Memorial Playing Fields stands in their honour and was gifted with that purpose—is so important.

To the Public Works Committee, I want to acknowledge you. Thank you for your due diligence with this project, making sure that it was subject to the appropriate consultation. You examined all the written evidence and you made sure that it met all the necessary criteria. We do really appreciate it.

We do really appreciate it, so thank you to all the committee members and to all those involved in this project I say a heartfelt thankyou. I know that it has been a journey for the club members, even in the consultation when you had multiple clubs coming together, how you came together to work out meeting everybody's needs. They have certainly gone through that big process. To everybody involved in this project, thank you. I look forward to enjoying these incredible new facilities at this incredible place on the edge of my electorate with you.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (11:30): I would like to make a contribution about the opportunities that projects like this give South Australians and young South Australians in particular. There is no doubt that we are seeing a surge in apprenticeships and traineeships in South Australia. The state government has a program of $17.9 billion on infrastructure. We know that the partnership with the federal government, the $25,000 housing grants, has seen a surge in the need for more skills through apprenticeships and traineeships in the building sector as well. It is pretty hard to walk down any street in my electorate in Unley and not see an extension or extensive renovation going on.

One of the differential factors about this particular project and many like it is that we have also seen, since the formalisation of a paid traineeship in this sector by the Marshall government, a surge in traineeships in landscape work. There are two Skilling South Australia programs that come to mind and $560,000 that has supported 70 participants. This is important because one of the key issues that came out of our consultation with various different industries, and particularly the landscape sector, is the cost of on-the-job training, the support for on-the-job training supervision and the confidence of the supervision.

One of the very enthusiastic users of apprenticeships and traineeships in this sector, Outside Ideas, were very keen to increase the number of apprentices and trainees throughout their sector. Consequently, we were able to bespoke design a program for them that gave their supervisors the confidence to deliver the on-the-job training. Once that was delivered, once the supervisors who were working with those students on the job were comfortable and confident they were delivering the right training, the right supervision, we saw an increase in apprentices and trainees in that particular business.

We have seen some of the pre-apprenticeship or pre-traineeship programs in this sector transition into landscape construction, horticulture landscape design and civil construction, and the Master Landscapers have led these projects. When Skilling South Australia became available, they were very keen to get involved. They identified, quite rightly, that there were skills shortages, there was a lack of supported pathway into this sector, so we worked with the sector.

Of course, one of the key areas where we are seeing the off-the-job training being delivered is a partnership at Urrbrae High School with TAFE and ITECA, which are the independent providers for off-the-job training. I was just speaking with the principal of Urrbrae High School, Joslyn Fox, at dinner last night. She was telling me how there has been this significant growth in both the school-based sector and the other activity that is there training people in the landscape trades.

This is extremely important for South Australia because we did start from a very low base when it came to skills training in South Australia. From about 2014 we started to see the rate of decline in commencements of apprenticeships and traineeships. I think there were—just from memory—around 19 per cent fewer commencements year after year until 2018. We made a commitment that we were going to increase the number of commencements of apprenticeships and traineeships by 20,800, and I am very pleased to report that, three years into that four-year program, we are right on target in order to do that.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: standing order 128 prevents a member from indulging in irrelevance or tedious repetition from a previous debate. This is the opportunity for reports from the Public Works Committee, which, by convention—

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Point of order—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I have not finished speaking.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: You have made your point of order—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: No, I have not finished speaking.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, take your seat.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: This is the opportunity for the Chair of the Public Works Committee to present reports to the chamber on projects occurring around South Australia and which, by convention, is an opportunity for not only the Chair of the Public Works Committee but for other interested members to speak with specific relevance about that project.

That is not what the member for Unley is doing. Yes, he is the Minister for Innovation and, yes, he has portfolio responsibilities for this area, but they are not relevant to the current topic of the debate, and I ask that you would either sit him down or draw him back to the Women's Memorial Playing Fields project.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Given that I referred to standing order 128 just yesterday evening, I actually uphold the point of order. Minister, thus far I think you have been drawing quite a long bow in relation to the topic, which is the Women's Memorial Playing Fields upgrade. So, even though you have been talking enthusiastically about skills and training in relation to landscaping, I would ask you to bring your contribution back to the topic at hand.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: It is not surprising, after Labor's record on skills training, that the member for Lee—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —would describe apprenticeships as tedious.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, no.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Tedious. They are the words he used: 'tedious' and 'not relevant'.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, minister. Sit—

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: The elitism from the member for Lee is extraordinary.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down, minister. I have given my ruling. The topic of the day is the Women's Memorial Playing Fields upgrade. It has been considered by the Public Works Committee. That is the debate we are having at the moment.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: I refer to their report, which speaks about the estimated net effect of the work on its use and on public funds, and of course a lot of those public funds these days is going into delivering the skills industries need to build these projects that are examined by the Public Works Committee. I think that is a difference in emphasis between this government and the previous government; that is, we are focusing on making sure this work is viable, is quality work, because we have the skills here in order to deliver it.

The report refers to construction and existing upgrades from December 2020 through to October 2021, and this is, of course, happening at a crucial time when we are recovering or planning the recovery, starting that recovery, past COVID. There is no doubt that a lot of the work the government is doing at the moment is about stimulating the economy, delivering jobs. We know that there are many more jobs for South Australians who have skills than there are for South Australians who do not have skills. Only 56 per cent of South Australians have a qualification from certificate III to university. That leaves 44 per cent of South Australians who do not have a qualification beyond high school, if they have completed high school. So this is a massive skills gap.

Projects like this simply cannot be done without the skills here in South Australia, unless of course we do what used to happen often under those opposite: people from interstate came to South Australia to deliver those projects that the Public Works Committee approves. We do not think that is good enough, and that is why we have been making those investments in skills, to enable projects like this to be delivered by South Australians.

The fact that there is now a paid pathway into the trades and the skills that are needed for the landscape type and civil construction-type projects that come out of the Public Works Committee shows the commitment this government has to ensuring that we continue to deliver for the people of South Australia public works of a high standard that are delivered by South Australians.

There will be those who think that apprenticeships are tedious or they are not relevant to the modern world, and I quote the member for Lee—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: No, that was about you, David, not apprenticeships.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: That is exactly what he was implying: that my contribution—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Mr Deputy Speaker—

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —because I was speaking about apprenticeships and traineeships, was tedious and not relevant.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a point of order, minister. The member for Lee has a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I will not have the member for Unley make a personal reflection on me. That was unparliamentary and prevented by standing orders, particularly standing order 127. My point of order was very specific, and you upheld the point of order—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —that his comments were irrelevant or tedious. I did not even say that he was tedious, let alone that apprenticeships were tedious, so I will not be misrepresented by somebody seeking only to run down the clock.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Lee. I have taken your point of order. I upheld your previous point of order. I am not upholding this one. I did not think the minister was being at all unparliamentary but, given that we are nearly three-quarters of the way through what has become colloquially known as the 'Cregan hour', I am going to ask the minister to conclude his comments.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Done.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:41): I acknowledge the contribution made by all members in relation to the noting of this report, and I also emphasise the importance we continue to place as a parliament on the Women's Memorial Playing Fields and the war crime that they continue to ensure we commemorate appropriately in this place.

Motion carried.