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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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PARKS COMMUNITY CENTRE

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:50): Today the Premier has announced that he is not going to cause all of the Parks Community Centre to be sold or the services at the Parks to be removed. He made a statement to parliament today, and I quote:

The community made it clear that they wanted to keep the services at the Parks. We heard this message loud and clear and we listened.

The announcement suggests that there is going to be a sell-off of a portion of the area of the Parks, a new facility built, and instead of having the current substantial welfare facilities and accommodation for government departments, meeting halls, etc., it is to become a sports hub. He detailed the swimming pool, basketball courts and other facilities, that he says, as the social inclusion minister, the report of Monsignor Cappo has set out, in the terms of his report that has been launched today.

This is a report prepared in April this year by Monsignor Cappo, provided to the government at least by 2 May. I am not sure why we did not hear about this during the budget speech by the Treasurer, the new family-oriented Treasurer. Nevertheless, we had the announcement today that the Parks is not going to be sold completely; it is only going to be half sold.

May I just remind the house that, in 2005, local members—the current Attorney-General and the current Minister for Education in the neighbouring electorate—stood arm in arm with Monsignor Cappo to preserve and continue to maintain the services, espousing the virtues and high demand in the location for these services to be maintained. That was published in the housing trust newsletter, I think, at the time. Obviously, they were suggesting that this reflected the importance in their community and the need for that to be sustained.

Then we had Monsignor Cappo, via his position on the Sustainable Budget Commission, put a number of recommendations to the government, including that they sell off the Parks. The announcement at the time was that it was really surplus to requirements, the general community profile had changed and different services would be required, and that, in any event, what services were there could be sent off to the Port Adelaide Enfield council, which, without any adequate funding from their perspective, would be expected to pick up the load.

The public were outraged, it is fair to say. People came forward to say that that was not the case, they did need to have these services maintained. People who had used the service, like Lorraine MacMillan, bravely came out to say that this was not acceptable. I was proud to stand by her at the Parks facility, to espouse the significance of the services that had been provided to her. There were people like Tara Nicholson, who is the community development coordinator for the Parks Community Centre, who was very well apprised of the significance of the services that are provided at this facility. These people came out, notwithstanding, to say that it was important for this to be retained.

We had the Sustainable Budget Commission say this should go. All those people in the cabinet had signed off in last years budget to say, 'This has to go. We don't need the services any longer. The profile's changed, this is what we are going do.' But, when the public continuously spoke out about this matter, the government, the Premier, now says to us, 'We listened. We got Monsignor Cappo to do another report.' So he went from standing arm in arm with the two members of parliament—ministers Rau and Weatherill—saying that it was important to keep it to a Sustainable Budget Commission saying that we do not need it, flog it off. Now they are going to flog off half of this facility. They are going to transfer it into a sports hub, and what inadequate provision is left for the poor people out there who are left with having to travel either to Port Adelaide or other council services to try to get access to those services is anyone's guess.

They made it very clear to the Premier last year that this was not acceptable, they needed these services. The Port Adelaide Enfield council made it very clear that it did not have any funding to pick this up. So, what does the government do? The Premier comes in here and says to us, 'We've listened to the community. We are going to follow the vision of this report,' and we are left in exactly the same position. It is totally unacceptable for the people in that region.

Time expired.

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