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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-22 Daily Xml
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Narungga Electorate

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:22): I rise today in follow-up of a previous grieve I made celebrating the visit of the government and the cabinet to my electorate. I think I speak on behalf of the community when I say that it is a really uplifting feeling that we have a number of things moving in the right direction and the receptive ear that we received upon their visit.

However, on this occasion I want to raise a few things that, as the budget takes place, as it is formed behind the scenes, I hope the government are considering for Narungga. These are things that may have been considered at country cabinet but also things we might not have had the opportunity in the course of those two days to touch on properly and that I want to get on the record as priorities for the electorate of Narungga.

First and foremost is the provision of a new rescue vessel at Point Turton. I have reached out to the minister about this and he has leant a wonderful receptive ear about it. In the course of his investigations, he has discovered that the Volunteer Marine Rescue Vessel Replacement Program, which is administered by the VMR Council, has not included a new vessel for Point Turton within its current program, which is incredibly disappointing.

In the course of my five years as the member for Narungga it has been an issue. It just so happens that the vessel currently in use at Point Turton is limited to, if memory serves, two nautical miles off shore, which is, of course, not where boats tend to break down and need rescuing from. With that boat limited to that distance off shore, it means there is a gap between Port Victoria all the way around to Edithburgh in terms of sea rescue. I have written to the government expressing this, and I will certainly be following it up with Volunteer Marine Rescue to make sure that the Point Turton flotilla have their need prioritised a bit higher and that they find themselves on that program for a new vessel sooner rather than later.

Another thing that came up quite frequently at country cabinet, at the community forum we held, was the need to accelerate the replacement of an outdoor swimming pool for the community in Wallaroo. It was actually quite extraordinary; if I had placed a bet on what would come up most often at that country cabinet, I am not sure that pool would have reached the top of the list, but reach the top of the list it did. It came up on a number of occasions.

It has been some years now since the previous iteration was destroyed by a storm. We have not yet seen any progress made on replacing it. It is such a wonderful community asset. So many kids do so much of their swimming training and Royal Life Saving at that pool—or they used to, anyhow. Its replacement needs to be accelerated and prioritised. Council need to be empowered to replace that facility as soon as possible. Again, I have written to the government, imploring them to include some sort of funding for that in this upcoming budget.

As well as that, and this was touched on at country cabinet as well, the Yorke Peninsula Field Days, which are being held again this year—every second year—have a desperate need for a replacement admin building. A number of years ago, perhaps five years ago, there was an arson attack which burnt down their admin building along with all their records and memorabilia and a whole lot of valuable stuff. To date, that has yet to be replaced.

We were very close in a grant program, which was unfortunately then altered to suit other needs. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find one since. They have a plan drawn up to build a new admin building in the shape of grain silos, which will be a wonderful addition to the field days, which draw in a huge crowd every other year to our community and which is being run out of a tent, basically, at the moment. That is very much on the list for YP as well.

Another really important thing, which I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to show the relevant ministers when they came and visited recently, is there is a unique opportunity for a tourism promotion venture at Port Wakefield. As we all know in this place, Port Wakefield has just completed a huge redevelopment, which has left the town looking a treat but has also provided an opportunity in terms of space and more parking and stopping opportunities for those travelling through to have a tourism promotion venture.

Wakefield council have drawn up plans to have an interactive digital precinct, which would promote all those council areas and all those tourism areas to the west and north of Port Wakefield. I think that would be a wonderful addition to our tourism landscape. I would love for the government to help with the capital costs of installing those digital tourism advertisements, and I think it would be a real asset to our tourism ventures at large.

Once again, in conclusion, we are very thankful for the government visiting over country cabinet recently. As the budget is built over the coming weeks and months, I hope those things get due consideration by those who have the power to make decisions.

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