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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-27 Daily Xml
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DESLANDES, MR T.

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:43): Today I rise to commend and congratulate one of the true champions of our community in the southern parts of Adelaide. Mr Tim Deslandes, for the past 15 years, has done a wonderful job at the Hackham West Community Centre not only by bringing members of the community together and giving great service to the community but also providing hope to so many with so little hope in their lives. It is amazing to see the number of people's lives he has turned around. He has done it by getting a great team of paid staff, volunteers and committee members together at the Hackham West Community Centre and providing programs through the centre for children and the adults in the area.

It really has become a focal part of Hackham West, and Hackham West would be much the poorer without this community centre and without the great contribution of Tim Deslandes during the past 15 years. Last Monday, many of the local community gathered at the community centre to farewell Tim, who 15 years ago to the day started the community centre and built it up to the wonderful centre it is. Obviously, Tim did not do it on his own: many other people have played a role in that time, including Eric Bennett, who has just stood down as the chair of the Hackham West Community Centre, and I also congratulate Eric on his tireless work.

Both Eric and Tim have often been on to me to help them get grants to get more programs into the Hackham West Community Centre to teach people about adult literacy or to get kids learning about computers or in fact keeping primary school kids at school, which has been a really difficult thing over many years, and getting some of those children fed before school has also been a priority for both Eric and Tim. I congratulate them on their determination and the way they have stuck at making Hackham West a better community through all their efforts.

Last Tuesday, I went to a morning tea with the Minister for the Southern Suburbs, John Hill. We went to Copeland Industries, which is one of the beneficiaries of the structural adjustment fund which the federal and state governments put in place after the demise of Mitsubishi. On the old Mitsubishi-Lonsdale site, many great companies have been able to expand because of money that they themselves have put in but also money from these government grants. We are seeing a lot more people employed in the south in these smaller industries, and people who lost their jobs at Mitsubishi are now getting on with a job in a new workplace.

I am very pleased to keep monitoring the unemployment figures in the south. In June we had an unbelievable 3.3 per cent unemployment rate which, given the backdrop of the global financial crisis, is quite amazing. The latest figure I saw was just over 4.1 per cent, which is still very good, and employment is at record highs.

On Sunday, I was in McLaren Vale again, in the electorate of Mawson, where we had the launch of the Piazza Della Valle, which is a square that is going to be built in the main street of McLaren Vale with local and state government money and also money raised through the community. It is in recognition of the Italian community in and around McLaren Vale. When you look at names like Joe and John Petrucci, Steve Maglieri, Vicki Vasarelli, Joe Di Fabio, Michael Scarpantoni and the like who were there on Sunday or have been involved in getting this project together, I think it is a great thing to honour these families and other families in the area.

It is going to be a great thing for McLaren Vale to have a focal point for its people because it used to be two towns when the area was first settled. Anyone who has been down the main street realises that it goes for about two kilometres without a real focal point, so we are hoping that the piazza will in fact give locals a place to congregate and celebrate and have fun together and maybe even have a few games of bocce and things like that.

I also want to congratulate Woodcroft Primary School students who made the grand final of a statewide soccer tournament at the end of last term. Unfortunately they finished runners-up, but it is just such a great thing for those 16 kids at Woodcroft Primary. Not only have I presented each of those 16 boys with a 'Leon Bignell scoring for the South' soccer ball (so all 16 of those students have them) but also I have put in another 16 for the school to keep on behalf of each of those 16 students, so Woodcroft Primary has 32 soccer balls with 'Leon Bignell scoring for the South' printed all over them.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

Mr BIGNELL: I will sell the member for Hammond one as a bit of a fundraiser. Another school doing a great job down there is the Sunrise Christian School at Morphett Vale, which I visited last Thursday. They were filling two big shipping containers with school equipment which they will take over to Papua New Guinea to set up a demonstration school where they will not only teach the students but also teach other teachers from Papua New Guinea how to teach in a class environment. I congratulate them on their great fundraising efforts.

Time expired.

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