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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-18 Daily Xml
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Gibson Electorate Schools

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:29): I would firstly like to discuss some recent visits to local schools and education facilities in my community over the past few weeks. I have had the pleasure of visiting Oaklands Estate Kindergarten, Hamilton Secondary College and Seaview High School with the Minister for Education, as well as the Marion Primary School and Somerton Park Kindergarten. This was a fantastic opportunity to see firsthand the significant progress of capital works underway at the two local high schools, Hamilton Secondary College and Seaview High School.

The centrepiece of the Seaview High School is a $16 million development, the construction of two new multilevel, multipurpose, creative design buildings, which include an impressive performing arts facility. At Hamilton Secondary College, the state government investment of $9 million goes along with an additional $165,000. I am looking forward to visiting the Hamilton Secondary College later this year and seeing the completed 150-seat theatre and full dome planetarium. It will be an incredible addition to the school's already strong focus on STEM and space education. Can I say what that school is doing around space is truly exciting for the young people who attend that facility.

That brings me to the two principals of these schools: Penny Tranter at Seaview High School and Peta Kourbelis at Hamilton Secondary College. I would like to acknowledge their brilliant work and dedication, especially over the past 12 months. I say to all our educators that we know how tirelessly they work, and we know the great work they do, but over the past 12 months dealing with COVID they have been absolutely outstanding. Their commitment, advocacy and support, ensuring that their students have access to world-class education and facilities are admirable.

In addition to these major capital works developments, the state government has also invested in the new maintenance grants so that schools can continue to improve critical infrastructure, creating a better learning environment for our children. I had the pleasure of visiting Ali McKenna, the Director of Oaklands Estate Kindergarten and Emily Wilkins, Director of Somerton Park Kindergarten (where a couple of my kids went) to discuss their upcoming plans for the new maintenance grant.

I was also able to meet the new principal of Marion Primary School, David O'Connell, and welcome him on board. He has moved down from Murray Bridge to take over a very important role. Accompanying me throughout the school tour were two incredibly enthusiastic year 7 SRC representatives, Jess and Tate, who updated me on their big plans for 2021. Ali, Emily and David are dedicated educators, as I have said, and we thank them very much for their work on the frontline.

Secondly, I would like to speak about my Coffee with Corey initiative. Each month, I host a coffee meeting at a different local cafe, an opportunity not only to support local businesses but also for residents to pop by, have a chat and have a coffee, just to say hello or share what is on their mind. This month, I hosted my March edition at a popular local cafe, the Kushu Cafe. There I caught up with Johanna Saffari, who is an active member of the Hamilton Park Reserve Social Neighbourhood Group.

We first met in 2018 and worked closely with residents on improving the community amenities at Hamilton Park Reserve. I have spoken about that reserve in this house on many occasions but, just quickly to recap, we worked with the residents and the Marion council to deliver a $180,000 new automated toilet block, which has really cleaned up that park. The council, to their credit, also contributed $150,000 towards a new multipurpose court. The activity I see when I drive past there just warms my heart.

I always like to make sure that I am aware of special milestones in my local community. Recently, I visited Alwyndor Aged Care, where I had the privilege of wishing two residents a happy birthday: Mary Prettejohn for her 100th birthday and Cliff Lee for his 101st birthday. These are absolutely amazing milestones. These two people were a delight to chat to, and I can only hope I can make it to that sort of milestone in my latter life; if I do get anywhere near it, I would love to be travelling as well as they are.

I also hosted an afternoon tea at the Norfolk Estate. I would like to thank Diana Jackson, President of Norfolk Estate Residents Association, for her assistance in organising this event. It also gave me the opportunity to present some flowers to Keith and Valmai Schuster for their 60th wedding anniversary, which was wonderful. They met back in their 20s, when Valmai came to work on Keith's family farm. That was a lovely moment as well.

Engaging with my local community is very important. I caught up with the Vietnam vets again the other day: Mal Thiele, the president; Bob Day, the vice-president; and Phil Scroop. We worked with these guys really closely back in 2018. The Marshall Liberal government gave them $550,000 towards relocating their facility across to Marion. They have done an outstanding job. They have their Battle of Coral and Balmoral commemoration coming up, and I look forward to joining them for that. I thank them for the great work they do in their community.

I look forward to hearing from people in my community about their local issues and discussing how we can make our community even better.

Time expired.

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