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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-26 Daily Xml
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GLENTHORNE FARM

Mr HANNA (Mitchell) (15:40): There are three matters I wish to bring to the attention of the house today briefly. First, in relation to Glenthorne Farm, that is, the wonderful historic farmland in the electorate of Mitchell, the white heritage of that area goes back to Major O'Halloran's settling on that land in about 1839, and his story is a very important part of South Australia's history. During my time as member of parliament I have fought for that area to be retained as open space. It always seemed a shame to me to have the prospect of that land being covered in houses and thus spoiling the vista from South Road or Majors Road as one drives through the area. It is treasured by local residents.

Recently, the university, which holds the land on trust, sought to have 950 houses built on the land. Because of the deed under which the university holds the land it needed the approval of state government, and I was genuinely pleased that the state Labor government saw fit to reject that proposal. I believe the way forward is for all of the stakeholders to sit around a table and talk through the ideas. I believe the stakeholders would include industry, community, political representatives, council representatives and, of course, the university. I hope that a spirit of cooperation will lead to some positive and realistic ideas for the future of Glenthorne consistent with the open space principle which is so valued by myself and many in the local community.

I turn to the topic of the Reynell Business and Tourism Association, and I mention it for the reason that on 14 February this year Geoff King, one of the members of the RBTA, resolved that the RBTA should collect money for the Victorian bushfire victims. Within the space of a few days he rallied the members and organised on that Saturday to hold a barbecue and elicit donations from the local community, and most of those people are from the Reynella, Sheidow Park or Trott Park areas. They raised $3,000, and I find it very impressive that from a Saturday's collecting at a local shopping centre so much money could be raised to go to such a good cause. So I salute Geoff King and the members of the RBTA. The other person of particular mention is Councillor Rod Brown, who was instrumental in achieving that financial target as well.

In the time remaining today I want to reflect on the racism that is out there in our community. One of my constituents passed on to me a letter that he received recently that stated:

Merry Christmas. This country has given you a safe peaceful place to live and what do you do? Bring your rotten corrupt culture with you and attempt to steal govt money. This country is generous but we do not like scum like you and your friends making a fool of us. Go back to your 'dog eat dog' country! You and your sort do not deserve to live here.

It was anonymous. This man is, indeed, a Muslim, originally from Pakistan. He has lived in Australia for 11 years with his wife and has a child. Unfortunately, another child died here at birth. He has been a bus driver and has never had to draw on social security in his time in Australia. He is a hardworking, family-loving man who does not deserve this sort of rubbish.

I mention this is because so many people are misguided in their racism and make all sorts of wrongful assumptions, whether it be about Muslim people, Aboriginal people or people from other ethnic backgrounds. I can only ask every member of this house, and every decent person in the country, to do their bit and talk to the ignorant to try to overcome that sort of racism. It is not only hurtful but it is also unnecessarily hurtful because it is generally based on completely wrong assumptions.

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