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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-01 Daily Xml
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Forestville Hockey Club

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (14:49): My question is for the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Who is responsible for providing planning approval for the Forestville Hockey Club's proposal at Unley Oval? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: I have been advised orally by government officers that the City of Mitcham is the relevant body; however, the minister has not responded to requests to confirm this.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:49): I have been patiently awaiting a question from the member for Unley about the Forestville Hockey Club, and I am generally pleased to finally get one.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: I will, of course, answer the member's direct question around the planning approval, which is an important question, but perhaps I could provide little bit of background to members first around how we have got here.

The SPEAKER: Yes: context.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: This is a much sought-after commitment from the Forestville Hockey Club for a new synthetic pitch, which of course is essentially the base level of infrastructure needed to compete at a high level now. All those high-level competitions don't operate on grass anymore, they operate on synthetic turf, and Forestville Hockey Club have been able to provide that. They are a growing club, hockey is a growing sport, and of course we want to promote any opportunities for people to take part in sports like that.

What the Labor government (then in opposition) committed to after some fantastic advocacy from the member for Badcoe and the member for Elder, amongst others, was to move and provide that synthetic pitch—a multi-use pitch, I might add, which is not just for hockey, but for touch football and for soccer as well—on a piece of land next to Unley High School. Of course, the school has very much supported this proposal.

I spoke to the principal Mr Greg Rolton just a week or two ago after an interview that was done by the member for Unley on 891 during which he changed his position entirely on support for the proposal, which was very interesting indeed, and has done everything in his power over the last few weeks to walk away from the commitment that was made. I have in front of me a letter that was sent by the former minister on 7 December 2020—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe! Member for Elder! Order, member for Taylor! Order, member for Hartley! Your colleague has a point of order.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: 137, sir.

The SPEAKER: Very well. I will listen carefully. As I understand it, the minister is about halfway through his contribution. Minister.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Thank you, Mr Speaker, but I think it is important that I refer to this letter because it goes to the heart of the question that the member for Unley has asked about this very important election commitment from the Malinauskas Labor government. I think it also would be remiss of me not to reflect on the kind of casual attitude that those opposite have to the delivery of election commitments: that they would propose halfway through an 891 ABC interview to completely change their position.

That is not the position, of course, that this government takes on election commitments. We make commitments and we meet them. As I was saying before the member for Unley's point of order, I spoke to the school recently, and the principal Mr Greg Rolton, just to say, 'I understand the local member has now changed his position on supporting the project. Is it the case that the school and you and the governing council have also changed your position?' He said, 'Absolutely not. We are still completely in support.'

That really goes back to the letter sent by the former minister on 7 December 2020, in which he offers in-principle support for it. It's a very detailed letter talking about what will be there:

The school has advised it is supportive of the proposal in line with the government's wish to promote community use of school facilities, and schools as community hubs.

I am supportive in principle of providing the club with a long-term occupancy arrangement over a portion of the site should the proposal proceed.

Which I think is the key thing here.

The member for Unley would rather us get caught up in the semantics now around where planning approval rests. It is a legitimate question—and the piece of land that we have committed to putting the synthetic turf pitch on is a piece of education land, so there is a question around whether planning approval will be handled by the local council or the education department. But I can say that there is absolutely no question that this has incredible support from the local community, incredible support from an enormous school, and I think it is a very bold local member who would be out there proposing to take away an incredible piece of shared-use infrastructure like a synthetic turf pitch from the biggest high school in their seat.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Badcoe is warned for a final time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Hartley, you are on three warnings. Member for Hammond, too—also on three warnings.

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