Hartley Electorate

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (15:36): Today, I rise to update the house on commitments that we took to the last state election. I am able to advise the house that we have listened to our local residents, we have acted and we have been able to achieve everything we set out to do for our local residents.

We know that, for example, the Newton Road and Graves Street intersection has been upgraded. What a fantastic improvement there. It has resulted in a much better outcome for motorists and pedestrians and everybody who uses that intersection. That was actually upgraded in March 2020.

We know that the intersection of Silkes Road and Gorge Road had been abandoned for years and years by the former Labor government. That upgrade is actually happening now as we speak and is going to be finished in a matter of weeks. The Silkes Road and Gorge Road intersection has been quite troublesome for a long period of time. We have listened to residents over an extended period time. We have rallied, we have lobbied the government and I am proud to say that intersection is about to be fully finished.

Lights have also been installed at the corner of OG Road and Turner Street at Felixstowe, which has enabled much better traffic flow throughout the north-east for residents in places like Felixstowe and Campbelltown. Again, it is a multimillion dollar upgrade resulting in not only much better traffic flow but also safety for pedestrians.

While we are talking about facilities, we all have a duty in this place to make sure that we have the best education facilities for our children. I am pleased to say that we have allocated funding for upgrades, completed upgrades or we are in the process of completing upgrades in schools like East Marden Primary School and Magill Primary School.

What about our high schools? Charles Campbell College is getting a magnificent upgrade. Norwood Morialta High School at the moment at the Magill campus is being upgraded substantially with tens of millions of dollars in investment, and of course we have a new school being built on the old Norwood Morialta campus. We are going to be the envy of other parts of the state because we have upgraded education facilities that are going to provide enormous potential for our students to make sure that they can be the best that they can be.

We know that park-and-rides across the state are very popular. Those opposite had the Paradise park-and-ride in the budget. We were elected to government. What did they do? They never fulfilled their promise to fix that park-and-ride, but we have delivered. We have delivered a park-and-ride at Paradise now catering for over 800 car parks. It is a fantastic facility that is being used every single day by not only Hartley residents but also surrounding residents.

When you come to amenity, you talk about development, and we know that from time to time the right balance has to be struck. Of course, we had a former minister who thought that it was a good idea—an outrageous idea—to allow some minimum allotment sizes of 150 square metres in Campbelltown. We got elected to government and we said, 'We're going to fix this.' We fixed it. It took some time, but working with residents that has now been changed to 250 square metres as a minimum allotment. Whilst we are limited by what we can do about the former Labor planning minister's outrageous allowances to allow 150 metres, I am proud to say that working with residents we have now changed that in Campbelltown to 250 square metres.

While we are at it, the Campbelltown sports and community club, the soccer club, has received $1.5 million. I would say that it is probably the most popular local soccer/football facility in the state. There is a new synthetic pitch and there are new change rooms there. It is a magnificent site and we have now futureproofed Campbelltown City Soccer Club. Max Amber is getting a fantastic upgrade as well: lights have been delivered, and new change rooms and facilities are being delivered as well.

Last week, I attended a sod-turn for the Magill Village master plan. This is going to result in much better shrubbery, lighting, footpaths and roads for that part of the electorate. It is really going to breathe life into that part of Magill Road.

All in all, it continues to be an absolute privilege and honour to serve the people of Hartley. I am proud to say that we have been able to deliver everything we said we would locally. Of course, there is plenty more to do, and we will continue to work hard to make sure that we deliver for the people of Hartley now and into the future.