Newland Electorate

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:57): Today, I rise to speak about the wonderful north-east community that I am privileged to represent and the work we have done as a government to ensure that our community is the best place to live, work and raise a family.

A key part of any community, and this is particularly the case in the north-east, is its sporting clubs. Sport is the lifeblood of any community and I am proud of the work we have done to support projects and community groups to improve our clubs as these are critical to keeping people active and healthy, and boosting their self-confidence.

This ranges from new multipurpose courts for Tea Tree Gully Tennis Club, which were in fact an election commitment, to new change rooms at the Hope Valley Sporting Club and everything in between, including a new roof at the Modbury Bowling Club, a new change room at the Tea Tree Gully Sportsman's Club and the lights at the Tea Tree Gully BMX Club. The Modbury Jets will be getting new change rooms and stands, Hope Valley Tennis Club has got resurfacing, Modbury Tennis Club is getting support for lights, Tea Tree Gully Golf Club is getting support for their lift, and there is much much more. These types of projects aim to enable these clubs to grow and thrive for years to come.

We also delivered on our election promise to open the Hope Valley Reservoir to the public for the first time, giving residents in the north-east and neighbouring communities a wonderful place to explore and exercise in. In fact, I would say it is another practical policy championed and delivered by the Minister for Environment and Water, allowing people in our community to enjoy the great outdoors.

There are fantastic views across the dam and over 4.9 kilometres of trails—and not just trails, in fact. We have picnic spaces. There is a Nature Play space now and there is also exercise equipment. It is really a great space to spend a day out.

I always look forward to my visits to the reservoir, and we will continue to listen to community feedback and look for ways to further improve and grow the experience. With many thousands of visitors since the reservoir opened to the public, the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to the project has been embraced and welcomed by the local community.

As a government, we have listened to concerns over the difficulty of parking around Tea Tree Plaza for people using the O-Bahn, and I am delighted that we will be investing $48.5 million to build a new multistorey park-and-ride at Tea Tree Plaza. The new Tea Tree Plaza park-and-ride will provide an additional 400 car parks, augmenting the 700 existing car parks at the current facility and delivering better services for public transport users. The project will create 215 jobs and address significant concerns about the current capacity, making the commute into work a whole lot easier.

On top of this, we are delivering a stronger public transport system to the people of the north-east. The Marshall Liberal government is investing significantly in a stronger public transport network and is committed to delivering increased connectivity that is faster and more reliable for public transport users. Currently underway are works to install priority bus lanes at four key intersections along the route between Tea Tree Plaza and Golden Grove.

We are spending $373 million on resurfacing and vital maintenance works on our roads. While there may be short-term inconvenience—and it certainly can be frustrating at times—these works will lead to a smoother experience for all road users, in particular including work that has just started on Hancock Road between Burns Street and Grenfell Road, but also, of course, on other projects in the area like Reservoir Road, Smart Road, McIntyre Road, Golden Grove Road and so on.

Many schools around my electorate are also receiving much-needed upgrades, including the Banksia Park International High School, Modbury High School (which I visited with the Minister for Education just recently) and Ardtornish Primary School, as well as a whole range of projects of maintenance works and smaller projects across other schools.

Another really important project is the government's commitment to fix the Tea Tree Gully Community Wastewater Management System, something we have already planned. We have allocated funding to commence these works with, as we speak, properties being transferred to SA Water sewerage. Our plan will see all properties on this archaic system transferred at no cost to the households, delivering a solution to a problem that has been ignored by many for decades. Our plan works because it is built on the principle of always engaging the community, being open and transparent and making sure that, when there is any disruption to their home, SA Water will work with them.

Of course, I could not talk about our fantastic community without mentioning the most important institution in our community, Modbury Hospital. I can remember campaigning on this issue, and I am really pleased that in the 3½ years we have been in government the hospital has undergone the biggest upgrades in its history. There had been a lot of talk for years prior, a lot of talk by many people, but we are actually dealing with it. We are actually delivering an upgraded hospital, and that is what the community wants.

I am proud to be working as part of the Marshall Liberal team to deliver for the north-east and look forward to continuing to do this well into the future.