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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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SALVATION ARMY COMMUNITY CENTRE, PORT AUGUSTA

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:22): I rise today to inform the house of an absolutely outstanding community event that I went to on Saturday morning in Port Augusta. It was the official opening of the Salvation Army's new community centre on Carlton Parade. The Salvation Army (along with many other organisations, of course) does a lot of very good and important work in Port Augusta, and it was truly a pleasure to join with them in this celebration. They have struggled with regard to different places around town to sell their goods, to have worship, to provide counselling and other important services, and they now have an absolutely outstanding modern facility all in one place on Carlton Parade.

It was wonderful to be there with Commissioners Aylene and Raymond Finger, Lieutenant-Colonels Ron and Robyn Clinch, Major Gordon Jones, and Lieutenants Claire and David Jones (the last two of whom are new arrivals and very welcome to the Salvation Army staff in Port Augusta). Mr Lindsay Thomas did an outstanding welcome-to-country. He is a very proud Nukunu man who always does a lovely job, in my opinion, with his welcome-to-country because he always finishes by saying, 'This is where we started but, today, we are all here together, and we all have to move on together in Port Augusta to make the best of this place.' I think that is the right spirit.

Deputy Mayor, Phil Gregan; the member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey; and quite a few local church leaders were there to support the event. There were lots of other supporters, including, of course, Salvation Army volunteers. There would have also been, I estimate, well in excess of 100 community members who all came along to enjoy the day, and a wide range of community members—people who I know are relatively well off and people who I know are relatively poorly off, and many people in between. It really was tremendous to have everybody come.

The Salvation Army put on a very good day and the weather was fantastic, which was great. They made it a real family affair and a community event. There was a jumping castle, a sausage sizzle and a bake sale. Their shop did an absolutely roaring trade. They have an impressive facility there, which includes the shop, a beautiful worship room, some administration offices, some counselling rooms, a food store and many other services.

I think every member of the community, who got to look through every single corner of this facility—nothing was closed off and inaccessible to the public on Saturday morning—was, first, very impressed with the facility and, secondly, pleased that the Salvation Army has now one central community centre from which to work. Most importantly, they are very pleased that this service is there for people in Port Augusta.

We have a wide range of people in Port Augusta. The community is made up of people whose families have been there for thousands of years. We have people from European heritage whose families have been there for up to six generations. We have migrants and descendants of migrants from more than 30 different countries. Of course, the vast majority of people who now live in Port Augusta and the district are far more recent arrivals, and everybody calls Port Augusta home.

It is a community that is improving all the time. It has always been a fantastic place but social cohesion in Port Augusta, I believe, is improving enormously. That is supported very well by the Salvation Army and other organisations which support us. I congratulate the Salvation Army for this significant step forward for them, this significant step forward for Port Augusta, and thank them for the work that they do. They are a very professional structured organisation, as their name implies, but they are also a wonderful, caring and flexible organisation when that is appropriate, too.

One of the things that really impresses me about the Salvation Army is that they help people the very best they can and after the immediate needs have been met—whether they be food, shelter, clothing, counselling or whatever it might be—then they go on to try to support people with regard to addressing the causes and the reasons why they have that immediate need. As I said, they are not alone in this area, but it was their day to celebrate. It is a great pleasure for me to recognise their success with regard to the establishment of their new community centre and also to thank them publicly, as I did on the day and as I do now in a very heartfelt way here in parliament, for the work they do for the entire community in Port Augusta.

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