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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-16 Daily Xml
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Heysen Electorate

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:37): I am very glad to have the opportunity to rise to highlight that businesses are getting back on track and reopening in the Hills in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic, notwithstanding the very real privation that many local businesses in the Hills have been through over recent weeks and months.

I can think of no better example than Sue Pryor's swimming school at Strathalbyn, which last Tuesday reopened and, very happily, reopened at a time considerably sooner than it might otherwise have done, notwithstanding that restrictions have been lifted so that swimmers can return to the pool. I was very pleased to be poolside with Sue and her manager, Tabitha Lewis, last Tuesday, 9 June, to see the first of the aquarobics classes coming to get back into the pool. Sue warmed the pool up to 34°C, and those attending the class were getting into the warm water for the first time in a very long time.

Sue is particularly passionate about delivering these services to the local community at Strathalbyn. It is all about fitness and health and wellbeing, but it is more than all the feel-good benefits of those services: it is a very real example of how the government's intervention has made it possible for the business not only to see it through this struggle but to get back on track sooner than they otherwise would have.

Sue illustrates the point very effectively. She is quick to point out, as so many businesses have, that employees have been in receipt of the federal government's JobKeeper assistance over this time, and that is undoubtedly core to keeping the show on the road. However, Sue has made the point that the state government's $10,000 emergency business grant—which Sue Pryor Swimming has received—has made it possible for the business to reopen a lot sooner than it otherwise would have.

She says, 'We might have survived this, but we might not have opened the doors until a couple of months from now—two or three months from now. As it stands, we have JobKeeper assistance together with the state government $10,000 grant. That means that we can reopen albeit in somewhat constrained circumstances. We can get classes back up and running, and we can be on a steady trajectory back to normal operations.'

It is a wonderful illustration of the resilience of local small business in coming through this. It is a wonderful thing to see the joy on the faces of those who were coming back to the pool and to see Sue and Tabitha so satisfied that their business was providing services once again to the local community. We know that local sport and fitness and wellbeing activities are hugely important.

I have worked throughout this period also, for example, with Don Cranwell, the President of the Hills Football League, who has worked with the different clubs that participate in that league. Some of them are highly organised and well resourced, others are very much working on maintaining the basics of the footy club to keep operating—different needs but all with a common goal to get back on the field just as quickly as possible, to get the community back to the grounds enjoying that activity of being able to follow football matches as soon as possible, and ensuring that the fabric of the community is supported by the return of sport.

Don has been in close cooperation with the SANFL and with their community people, and they have in turn been in close dialogue with the government and the Transition Committee to make sure that, as soon as the restrictions can be lifted to the extent feasible to make games possible and the attendance of crowds possible, we will do that just as quickly as we can.

Whether it is Sue Pryor Swimming at Strath and her classes and community leadership or Don Cranwell and his leadership of the Hills Football League, I very much applaud those who contribute in the community to keeping up the wellbeing of both business and community activities.

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