House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate Adelaide Electorate Adelaide Electorate Ms HOOD House of Assembly Adelaide Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:31): It has been three years since the Malinauskas government was elected to office and it has been my absolute pleasure over those years to represent the electorate of Adelaide. I am proud to say that over those last three years all the election commitments that I made to our community are either already delivered or under construction. I am very passionate about greening our neighbourhood and we have been able to do that through the creation of pocket parks. One of my election commitments was to create a pocket park in Prospect, on the corner of Main North Road and Da Costa Avenue, which we were able to open in October 2023. I was very pleased to be able to add to that with the creation of another pocket park, the Churchill Road pocket park in Ovingham, with construction currently underway on that park, which adds more open green space to our community and another space for our community to connect and, obviously, as well, increases our tree canopy. Another of our election commitments that I have been able to deliver is an upgrade to R.L. Pash Park on the boundary of Collinswood and Nailsworth. We were able to open that last year, which has retained the open green space in the area, upgraded the play equipment for kids, upgraded the exercise equipment, particularly for seniors within our community, and also added some activities as kids transition from little kids into tweens. I know my two very much love the new climbing boulder that we have been able to place in the upgraded park. As part of my commitment to greening our neighbourhood, I was very proud as well to save Helen Mayo Park. That park was due to effectively be destroyed by the former Liberal government's plan for a basketball stadium on the site. We were able to save that park and fully restore its parklands protection. We are delivering community infrastructure and I am very pleased to see the progress being made with the brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre. That is due to be opened in the summer of 2025-26 and, importantly, will be returning 1,000 square metres of extra parklands to our community. I do say it often, but it will be a game changer for our local area to have both indoor and outdoor pools, to have water slides—another favourite that my kids are very much looking forward to—water splash play areas, a dedicated learn-to-swim pool, a dedicated hydrotherapy warm-water pool and also the main pool for lap swimming, for water polo and for deepwater aquarobics. We are very much looking forward to this incredible piece of community infrastructure opening in the summer of 2025-26. Just a short way away is the brand-new Walkerville recreation centre, which is now currently under construction. That was the site of the former Walkerville YMCA, which was closed by the previous Town of Walkerville council. I made it a commitment to our community that I would return sport, rec and wellbeing services to that site, so I am very excited to see that project underway. Also, growing up in a country town, I have spoken about the importance of our main streets. It is where people know your name, it is where you drop in for a coffee, to grab a loaf of bread or a carton of milk and, even if you are just chatting about the weather, you feel like you are part of a community, a place where people know you, say hello and have a chat. I believe it is so incredibly important, whether you live in a country town or whether you live in the middle of a capital city. So my investments in main streets like Hutt Street and Melbourne Street are really purely designed around supporting those local businesses, creating vibrancy and creating a hub where locals want to come together and connect. In the road safety space for my election commitments I was very proud to deliver the brand-new roundabout at the Howard and Rosetta streets intersection in Collinswood. We were not able to really pinpoint why there would be so many accidents at that site, but I am proud to say, just talking to a couple of locals the other day, it has been such an improvement to road safety by adding in a roundabout at that site, along with new 25 km/h school zones in Gilles Street in front of Pulteney Grammar. We are investing in public infrastructure in my community—the brand-new Women's and Children's Hospital, a brand-new ambulance HQ and Adelaide ambulance station. Also, we have delivered the expansion of Adelaide Botanic High, which is just wonderful. Finally, it was a smaller commitment to invest in our free City Connector, but I want to highlight what an important service this is for so many people in my community to access the services they need, and I am very proud to have delivered those commitments for my community.