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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml
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Forestville Hockey Club

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister update the house on the future of the Forestville Hockey Club at Unley High School, and is he aware of any alternative views?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (15:00): I thank the member for Badcoe for her excellent question. I want to take the opportunity, first and foremost, to congratulate and thank the member on the fantastic advocacy she has provided in her local community along with the members for Elder and Waite, who have helped as well.

I know we have already seen one petition lodged in this place today with I think 756 signatures from local residents who are in favour and committed to the government's election commitment to deliver a multi-use synthetic turf pitch adjacent to Unley High School, which, for those unaware, I think is in the top six largest public high schools in South Australia. It boasts some very famous alumni, including former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former Premier Dean Brown.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: And, of course, the Minister for Health—how could I possibly forget? The reason that the petition has been necessary and has come about is that the then Malinauskas Labor opposition made a very clear election commitment before the last election to support and fund the relocation of the Forestville Hockey Club from its current location. I might add, I have had many conversations with the member for Badcoe, and it is obviously a growing club. We want to promote opportunities for people to go and play sport, and so on that basis we committed to funding and supporting the construction and establishment of a new multi-use synthetic turf pitch adjacent to Unley High School so there would be space for the Forestville Hockey Club to be able to go along, expand and operate in brand-new facilities.

For those who follow hockey in this place, all high levels of hockey are basically now played on synthetic turf, not traditional grass. That is another very important factor, and we supported the club to do that. We were of the opinion or the understanding until recently that we had bipartisan support for that, but then of course, lo and behold, tuning into 891 radio in the last few weeks and listening to David Bevan's program—as I know many people in this place do—we had the local member, the member for Unley, come on and out of the blue do a 180 about-turn and call on the government to start looking for and investigating alternative solutions and locations, which was very interesting indeed.

We acknowledge and understand on this side of the house that there are some local residents who do have concerns about putting the new synthetic turf pitch where it is and, to the Premier's credit, he agreed to meet with those local constituents. I was part of that meeting; it went for at least an hour. We heard all the issues raised by those local residents, and the Premier gave them a very firm commitment that we would go away and look at the alternative proposals that were put to us by those residents and see what could be done. It is just simply the case that they are not feasible.

Although we may have a different position when it comes to meeting election commitments on this side of the house—and I point out that this is a government that is reminded by the Premier every single day that this will be a government that meets its election commitments—we will not have the same kind of casual attitude to the meeting of election commitments that those opposite have. In that vein, I am very pleased to be able to update the house—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: I am very pleased to be able to inform the house that this commitment will be going ahead. We will make good on the election commitment that we made before the state election. We will stand with local residents, and we will stand with the Unley High School, which is still very much in support of having this turf co-located on this school. I look forward to updating the house as this project completes.

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