Hutt St Centre

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:19): Last night, I had the tremendous privilege of attending a special event to honour the Hutt St Centre. Last year, the Hutt St Centre marked its platinum jubilee: 70 years of incredible service to our community. The Hutt St Centre was founded in 1954 by the Daughters of Charity, mainly to assist people who were experiencing disadvantage or homelessness, particularly in the south-east of the CBD. It has grown into the modern Hutt St Centre that we know today that assists hundreds upon hundreds of people in metropolitan Adelaide.

Last night, those various jubilee celebration events culminated in the premiere of a new documentary, Homefulness: 70 years of the Hutt St Centre, which was screened for the first time at the Piccadilly Cinema. I want to give a huge congratulations and thankyou to the person who pulled this incredible documentary together, Lyndal Redman. You could see last night the emotion that she experienced from seeing her documentary screened for the first time to a larger audience in a cinema. To be honest, she was joined by so many of us who felt the extreme emotion that comes from hearing the stories of the Hutt St Centre, its clients, its workers and its volunteers.

I was joined last night by our human services minister, Nat Cook; the federal member for Adelaide, Steve Georganas; and also Senator Marielle Smith. We are such huge supporters of the Hutt St Centre and the work they do. Thank you to its CEO, Chris Burns; former CEO Ian Cox AM; members of the board, including chair Tim O'Callaghan; and in particular Eloise Abraham, who has pulled together all of these various platinum jubilee events.

Amongst those who spoke in the documentary was an absolutely incredible woman, Dulcie Boag. She is 90 years young and has just clocked up 45 years volunteering for the Hutt St Centre, which is really quite remarkable. She attended last night's screening along with her husband. She is an incredible inspiration. Last year, she won the Joy Noble medal, which is the highest distinction for an individual volunteer. Her passion to give back to the Hutt St Centre over these 45 years is truly remarkable. Her stories and her experience in the documentary were amazing.

Also incredibly powerful were the stories of its clients. Among them was my dear friend Robert Eckert. He is a local artist, and the Hutt St Centre was a place for him to get a hot meal and also follow his passion for art. For those who may have heard Robert Eckert's name before, it is because I met him quite a number of years ago at a market in Hutt Street, where I pointed out that I loved one of his artworks. He told me that he made the artwork by sitting on the free City Connector bus. That was his way of getting around the city.

I told him that day: 'One day, Robert, you will see your artwork covering the free City Connector bus.' Just over a year ago, we were able to wrap all of the free City Connector buses in Robert's artwork, as a celebration of what an important service that is for Robert to be able to connect to the services he needs and his social networks and get around the city safely. It was wonderful to see him appear in the documentary.

The documentary did touch on some of the highs and lows of the Hutt St Centre. Obviously, when some of its funding was cut by the former Marshall Liberal government it was a very trying time for the centre—$1.2 million. Many of us rallied around the centre, and upon being elected the Malinauskas government restored funding to that centre, along with other services like Catherine House. In the recent state budget last year, there was a $5 million boost to the Hutt St Centre, to continue its important work around the Aspire Program, which takes people from homelessness to homefulness.

I experienced the true meaning of Christmas when I went to the Hutt St Centre just this Christmas gone and spent my Christmas morning and lunch serving Christmas lunch to the clients of the Hutt St Centre. I do not think there was a better way to really celebrate the true meaning of Christmas that day than being able to serve all the wonderful clients and ensure they got a hot Christmas meal on Christmas Day. Congratulations to everybody at the Hutt St Centre. I very much encourage you to watch Homefulness: 70 Years of the Hutt St Centre.