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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-24 Daily Xml
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Tea Tree Plaza Car Parking

Ms LUETHEN (King) (16:22): I rise today to put on record the fact that, on behalf of my King constituents, I do not support paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza. While Labor's Tea Tree Plaza petition stunt has been designed to grab attention and at the same time capture people's phone numbers and email addresses so they can send more Labor messages out to people in the future, I have been listening closely to my local community's views on the Westfield announcement, and because I take my role representing my constituents very seriously, I have proactively been asking local business owners from King if they support paid parking and the answer has been no.

I have asked my constituents who work at Tea Tree Plaza businesses whether they support paid parking and they have also said no. Firstly, they are concerned at the proposed extra cost of attending work and, secondly, they are concerned they will be required to move their cars during a shift at work to minimise the cost of the proposed parking.

There is a lack of general support for paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza and, as I said, I do not support it either. Tea Tree Plaza is a local shop. It is a meeting place. It is where we celebrate dinners with family and friends at Zitto, Bangkok Boulevard and The Bavarian and it is where we go to watch the movies. It is also where a huge, amazing Tea Tree Gully mall walking group meet twice a week to exercise and socialise. Tea Tree Plaza has been more than a shopping centre for many years since I was younger; it has been a community meeting spot for all ages. In fact, I had my first car accident on the first night of my Ps at the Tea Tree Plaza car park.

To be clear, the majority of my constituents have told me they do not support or want boom gates and paid parking, so we need to explore how we can most effectively influence the Westfield proposal so our local constituents' views are heard. There is then the question of whether this paid parking solution is even needed, given the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to building a new Tea Tree Plaza park-and-ride at this same location.

We will be adding another 400 parking spaces at Modbury, and of course in King we are doubling the size of the Golden Grove park-and-ride. Therefore, I think we should see how much the pressure on car parking at Tea Tree Plaza is relieved when these Marshall Liberal government projects are delivered. On top of this, we are making the commute from Golden Grove to the plaza faster on buses with the Golden Grove stage 2 upgrades, which will encourage more people not even to drive but to jump on the bus.

I agree on one thing the leader said this morning, and that is it would be great for community members if their representatives from both sides of politics could work together to best advocate the community's wishes on this matter. I wish the leader was genuine about this because, if he was, then we would be collaborating on our public transport and car parking changes that will create more choices and capacity for people living in the north-east. Sadly, this is not the case. This grandstanding by the leader this morning was just another Labor stunt.

The Labor Party have socialised a proposed solution that they have been told is flawed. I sought advice from the Attorney-General on their plan, and she outlined the flaws to me. The Local Government Association has socialised a response to Labor's plan, outlining the flaws. The Local Government Association has stated it is unclear as to how it would work in practice. The Local Government Association has said there is a potential cost burden for councils, and that would flow on to ratepayers if the Labor Party's plans go ahead. My constituents, I can tell you quite clearly, do not want increased council rates.

Today, the Leader of the Opposition suggested to this house that if the member for Newland and I do not support their plan then we are not standing with constituents. This is rubbish. This is not true. We simply want a car parking solution that works for our constituents, and increasing parking spaces might be the answer. I have requested a meeting with Westfield to discuss their plans, how they will impact my community and how we can support staff working there. Unlike Labor, I have not gone to the media; I have just got on with the job of advocating, and I will continue to do so.

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