House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-31 Daily Xml

Contents

Hartley Electorate

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (15:17): I rise today to talk about a couple of events that I recently attended. Firstly, I want to talk a little bit about the Glynde Lutheran Homes. They recently unveiled a memorial in honour of Adolph and Metha Schulze, the founding family of Glynde Lutheran Homes in the suburb of Glynde in my electorate. This was established in 1957 by Adolph and Metha, and the Glynde village now comprises—believe it or not—over 100 two to three-bedroom retirement homes, spanning well into the electorates of both Hartley and Dunstan. These homes are now home to hundreds of residents between both seats.

Glynde Lutheran Homes was the first of its kind in Australia to provide both retirement living and a residential care facility. I think it is now in serious demand. It includes memory support and palliative care in the same precinct. There is something for everybody there: they even have their own cafe and their own hairdresser. Can you believe it? They do so well to accommodate the local residents.

Recently, we have seen the Glynde village thrive with people like Barb Hutchinson and others who take very good care of residents. When I am out and about doing some doorknocking or delivering a birthday card, I am always pleased—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Yes, absolutely, we do what we can. I am always pleased to see the very manicured gardens and facilities. The facility really does an amazing job in looking after its residents and keeping the place clean. The precinct even has a community centre where various activities are undertaken. They have outdoor areas and barbecue areas for family visits as well. They have a gymnasium, a library and also an onsite medical centre which provides a GP, a physio and also a podiatrist—how good is that. Like I said, you cannot go past the hairdresser when you go into one of the main entrances.

The facility also provides monthly outings. I think it would be a good idea, again, even to bring them into Parliament House. How delightful would that be. Maybe we could arrange some scones as well that day, if the catering staff are amenable to it. I am looking forward to maybe doing that in the new year.

Coming back to the Schulze family, one of the early migrant families, they really gave their life savings. They were so big in terms of giving back and philanthropy. They gave their life savings, their property and literally everything they had to this Glynde Lutheran home facility, following their passion to ensure that the village and care can continue for generations to come. As I walk through the electorate over time, they seem to be buying out neighbours and getting bigger and bigger. It shows that there is demand for this type of facility in our community.

We love having them there as well, and we love engaging with the local community. The Schulze family legacy continues to live on through the Schulze Cafe, located within the precinct, to allow those residents to not only bond but also interact with each other and enjoy each other's company. I look forward to continuing to visit the village and meet with residents and continuing to see the work that Barb and the team are doing to ensure that their residents have the best retirement and care in their more senior years.

I would also like to take this opportunity to update the house about the 20th anniversary of Co.As.It. Many of you in the house may be aware that the idea for Co.As.It. came from the Hon. Mario Feleppa, a member of the other place, who has known my own family for many decades now. He was national President of the Patronato INCA. I know that he made several trips to Melbourne to the Co.As.It. interstate to study that model there, pick out the best parts and implement them here. I think it was a good initiative that was started here in South Australia.

I believe it also enjoyed the bipartisan support of Robert Lawson at the time and also MPs like Joe Scalzi, my predecessor. It is important that these things are bipartisan. You would appreciate, sir, that there are over 100,000 residents in South Australia of Italian origin, many of them elderly, and there will be many more in the not too distant future. Organisations like Co.As.It. that specialise in running activities to make sure that people can age gracefully, providing culturally sensitive and appropriate services to people in their elderly years, are so vital. I congratulate Tina Taddeo, the President of Co.As.It., and I wish them all the very best moving forward. I know that they will enjoy the support of both sides of parliament in the future.