Adelaide Electorate

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:31): I rise to talk about a very busy past week in my beautiful electorate of Adelaide. Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of going along to the Piccadilly cinema in North Adelaide as the keynote speaker for the North Adelaide Precinct Association. What I talked about on the evening was the really exciting future that we have the North Adelaide, whether it is the brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre that is really going from strength to strength—we are really seeing the structure take place at the new centre with the arrival of 52 large wooden beams that will form the structure around the brand-new pools—or whether it is the new businesses that are going to be opening in the Eighty Eight O'Connell precinct that are going to give real life and vibrancy to the street.

Of course, there was the recent announcement that we will be working to bring LIV Golf to the North Adelaide Golf Course, which I think will bring so much economic activity and excitement to this wonderful suburb in my community. So thank you to the North Adelaide Precinct Association for having me along last Wednesday.

On Friday, we were able to launch the Adelaide Festival. It is a truly incredible festival, which has the most incredible acts and operas. Of course, Writers' Week is happening and everybody would have seen the large crowds coming past, down King William Street, to attend those various events.

On Friday, I had the privilege of going along to Innocence, which is a Finnish opera, based around the events of a school shooting and then a wedding held 10 years after that tragic event. It is directed by Australian director Simon Stone and it is a modern opera. The beauty of it is being able to get different audiences—perhaps those who may have never considered going to an opera before—to try out this incredible art form. It really was incredible. I think everybody who left was definitely touched by the subject matter, the incredible opera, the incredible performances and the amazing revolving set that the opera was held in. So congratulations to the Adelaide Festival, artistic director Brett Sheehy AO, CEO Kath Mainland, and also welcome to the recently announced new artistic director, Matthew Lutton, who will take the reins from next year.

The next day, we had Mass Movement, which was a thousand dancers coming down on the river bank to do a choreographed performance. A shout-out to Jenny from Prospect, who was part of that massive dance, and congratulations to all of those involved. Of course, we have the Fringe on and we have WOMAD coming this weekend. It really is Mad March, so get out there and buy tickets and enjoy everything that our beautiful city has to offer at this very busy time of year.

On Sunday, I was able to hold a stall at the Prospect Road Autumn Fair. A big congratulations to Blackfriars on putting on another successful event. I was able to make friendship bracelets with all the little kids and families in my community and host a little local entrepreneur, Olive. She has a little business called Hey Clay Play Earrings, so I was able to buy a few of those for myself and my daughter Audrey. The idea was that we have all these little local entrepreneurs in our community, and isn't it wonderful that they can come along and join our stall without having to pay the costs of a stall and insurance, as they would if they were doing it on their own. It is a great way of encouraging little business owners in our community.

There was an array of things that we could do at the festival. There was a wool and fibre exhibition that attracted a lot of people, bake sales, music, games, and it was a really wonderful community day. I want to give a big shout-out to Steph in our community. She is our absolute market queen. If she is not holding markets at Blackfriars, she is holding them in Vine Street Plaza and, of course, getting organised for the huge Christmas fair that we also hold at Blackfriars at the end of the year.

Finally, a big happy 60^th wedding anniversary to the Wiadrowskis. I popped in during the week to wish them a very happy 60^th wedding anniversary. They were married at the North Adelaide Baptist Church. They were going to be celebrating with a beautiful dinner at Lenzerheide and then also at the new Cottage Kitchen on Tynte Street, with family. Thanks for inviting me in for a chat, to look at the wedding photos and to share all the beautiful cards from the Prime Minister, the King, the opposition leader and the Premier wishing you a very happy 60^th wedding anniversary.