Adelaide Electorate

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:38): Every late afternoon on a Friday, you will find me at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre with my two little ones, Audrey and Ned, for our weekly swimming lesson. As a former swimming instructor and lifeguard, I am very passionate about making sure that our kids learn to swim and are incredibly safe around the water, and I know that my little ones look forward to Fridays after school for their weekly swimming lesson. I want to give a shout-out to all the swimming instructors and lifeguards at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre.

We want a brand-new facility that is going to be able to teach our kids to swim for generations to come, and that is why we have committed to a brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre, which I am very excited to see get underway this year. But at the moment we do have an expression of interest process that is open to our swim school learn-to-swim families to make sure that they have an alternative location for their children's swimming lessons whilst we build a brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre.

That expression of interest process is open and what we are encouraging families to do is go online and fill out the expression of interest form. We are asking them to provide their alternative locations for their children's lessons. We offer a range of different locations. Provide us your preferred location and then we will go through a placement exercise and place you and your family at an alternative location.

We have set aside 3,000 learn-to-swim places, which will be unlocked for those Adelaide Aquatic Centre families. So there are the spaces there, we are just asking people and families to provide that alternative location. We will undertake that placement exercise in April. Families will be informed of the alternative location for their children's swimming lessons, and then we will undertake the transition to that new location in July. After that, we will be getting on with the job of building a brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre that is going to be an absolute game changer for that area of our community.

Importantly for families, if you have been enrolled at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre since November last year, then you will be entitled to a $150 sports voucher per child, all ages, to ease the transition to an alternative facility while you have swimming lessons while we build the brand-new Aquatic Centre. As I was saying, it is going to be a game changer. We are actually going to have indoor and outdoor pools. It is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy. We have a dedicated learn-to-swim pool. We have a dedicated rehabilitation warm-up pool. It is improving accessibility and inclusion for people of all ages and all walks of life.

We are also returning 1,000 square metres of Parklands, which I call a big win-win. I really cannot wait to get on with the job of delivering a brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre and seeing that facility provide lots of fun and entertainment and, importantly, teaching people to swim for generations to come.

In regard to another couple of election commitments in my community, I am very excited to inform the house that next month we will start work on a brand-new roundabout for the Rosetta and Howard streets intersection in Collinswood. This is a notorious crash corner and we have never really been able to get our heads around why there are just so many accidents at this intersection or cars flying through and heading into Tom's fence, who lives on the corner. He has had to rebuild that fence too many times to count.

I committed to a new roundabout at that intersection to improve safety for Collinswood locals, and I am very excited to see that the City of Prospect has awarded the contract. The works will start next month and, once construction is complete, landscaping will occur. This will provide a much safer intersection for Collinswood residents and their families, and particularly young children who walk around the area.

Just down the road in D'Erlanger Avenue in Nailsworth we have the RL Pash Park. I also committed at the election to an upgrade of that park and I am partnering with the City of Prospect to deliver that upgrade. It is going to provide new exercise equipment, new playground equipment, nature play and, importantly, activities for older children. What I noticed from doorknocking around that local community is that there are a lot of kids who are starting to grow up and they are wanting activities for themselves.

The new park will include activities for older kids like a boulder for climbing and also a table tennis table. I am very excited to know that the contract for that has also been awarded by the City of Prospect. Works are expected to begin in April and, importantly, will be retaining the open grass space areas in that park as well, which is what we heard back from the community. So, these are three very exciting election commitments that I am delivering my community and I cannot wait to see them come to life.