Newland Electorate

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (15:10): Today is a wonderful opportunity to update the house, and of course my constituency, on the progress of election commitments made in and around the electorate of Newland. We are very lucky in Newland to be something of a hub seat there in the north-east, and I know that the number of the commitments we have made in my electorate will benefit surrounding electorates as well, particularly King, Wright, Torrens and Florey. A lot of the residents in those seats come to Newland for a number of services.

One of those, of course, is Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, which is a beloved centre not just for residents of my electorate but from all around the place. One of the first election commitments we were able to deliver in my electorate was legislation to stop Westfield from bringing in paid parking. That has been incredibly successful, and I still hear all the time from residents and workers who are very pleased that we were able to commit to that and deliver it.

We have also had a number of commitments at Modbury Hospital, and earlier in the year—I think it was the first day back after the Christmas break—we made some announcements at Modbury Hospital showing off the designs of the work that is going to be taking place there commencing this year. We had a look at the mental health beds that will be put into Modbury Hospital, noting that the former government wanted to close down mental health services at Modbury Hospital altogether. Not only did we commit to keep them, we are rebuilding them and doubling the capacity: it will go from about 20 beds with the final number, I believe, being 48, including an older persons' mental health unit as well.

We are also building a cancer centre there, so that there are treatment spaces for cancer patients in the north-east for the first time in history. That is really important; we all know just how much cancer affects the lives of our loved ones, and I have heard from many residents who have spoken about just how pleased they are to know that they will be able to receive that treatment closer to home.

Something else at the hospital that is really interesting—and again, part of that parking plan—is a new car park at the hospital, which has been called for for many years. That, alongside the new park-and-ride that we opened just behind Tea Tree Plaza a few months ago and the free parking at Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, will go a long way to easing congestion in the precinct, which we know is building.

We also had a sod turn at the Golden Grove ambulance station just up the road in the seat of King, with works commencing there. We know there have been a number of paramedics who came online last year in anticipation of that station being built to service the community, and that has gone a long way to assisting the paramedics based at Parafield.

We have had numerous sporting commitments as well. We had a big commitment at the Modbury Hawks Football and Cricket Club, which will be going ahead—I believe work should commence this year—and a commitment at Tea Tree Gully Gymsports, an incredible facility servicing gymnastics not just across the community but across the state. There are not many large gymnastic clubs here in South Australia, and Tea Tree Gully Gymsports well and truly pulls its weight there.

We have a commitment at Tea Tree Gully Tennis Club, which is not just the home of the tennis club but also of a number of other clubs, including my beloved netball club, the Strikers Netball Club. They will be seeing a commitment there. We have also seen a master plan at the Tea Tree Gully Football and Cricket Club which will incorporate that entire Banksia Park sports area, incorporating gymnastics, Little Athletics, the tennis club and the two netball clubs that are based there as well.

Those are just some of the commitments we have made in and around my electorate, but one that is incredibly relevant, incredibly important, and that affects over one-third of my seat is the CWMS commitment, the commitment to transition 4,700 homes onto SA Water mains but also to transfer the management and ownership of that system into SA Water hands even before the physical homes have been transitioned to the network. That was a huge commitment that we made in my electorate that meant that residents stopped paying the Tea Tree Gully CWMS levy of $745 even before they were physically transitioned onto SA Water mains, which was a huge difference from the lack of commitment made by the former government in that space.

We have seen some wonderful works going on with the CWMS, not without hiccups of course with such a major infrastructure project. Overall, we are really happy with the progress, watching houses transition and continually getting our residents contacting us to thank us and let us know just how professional the work has been. I am very much looking forward to seeing continued work on my commitments in the months and the year to come.