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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-21 Daily Xml
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Waite Electorate

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (15:22): It has been two years since I was given the honour of becoming the member for Waite. It has been an incredible experience engaging with our local community, meeting so many wonderful people who do so much. With the most diverse and incredibly active community groups, sporting groups and individuals who work hard to create opportunities for so many, I have enjoyed working with them and for them.

I can say that all of my election commitments have been pretty much delivered. We were very happy to support the Blackwood Recreation Centre in establishing a master plan for future expansion. Our rec centre supports so many in our community. Thousands use it every single day, or every week I should say—it would be huge otherwise—for gymnastics, trampolining, group fitness, basketball, netball, taekwondo and everything in between. I was really happy to be able to help them with this.

The Bellevue Heights Oval has undergone partial regeneration and development, including new car parking and landscaping, and we await council's commitment to fix the drainage so that the oval can go from being a bog in winter as well as a dried, cracked paddock to a decent oval for our sports teams to play on.

I was very happy to support the local Upper Sturt CFS. Before the election, I wrote to the then Minister for Transport to ask for some flashing emergency lights for when cars come flying around the corner and our trucks are trying to exit. Sadly, I never received a response to that but I, too, was able to commit to being able to do it if I was elected and, sure enough, I was and we installed the lights within the very first year. They work so effectively that the cars slow down and they keep our volunteers and our motorists safe.

In terms of other things we have been doing since then within the community, we have our beautiful Anzac fence line at Glenalta train station, which is over 80 metres long and, through the artwork of Adam Poole-Mottishaw, it depicts the Anzac story which is so important to my community. It was home to a lot of returned servicemen after the war.

Across the road at the train station, we have just finished painting the train station's shelter, and I thank Nicky Create for her work of native birds and flowers. It looks incredible. You can see it from the street. Everybody drives past and it is just stunning.

At the Belair train station, late last year, we unveiled a mural that absolutely paid respect to and acknowledged the work of the Friends of Belair Train Station. It is a beautiful mural of all the volunteers, and it is so sweet to see them continuously turning up every single Friday morning, from 6am, to do the work around the station. For a really long time, they have been asking for the heritage shelter to be refurbished. It is an incredible shelter, built back in the late 1800s when the Belair train line was first opened, and it has been sitting there withering away. I was really pleased to be able to work with Keolis Downer to deliver restoration. That work has started, and I cannot wait to see it when it is finished.

The residents of Parham Road have for years asked for easy access onto Shepherds Hill Road, and we were really pleased to easily paint 'Keep Clear' there. They are so happy with the outcome: they can get in and out safely. I cannot quite understand why that had not happened already, but I am glad to have been able to help them.

Our poor friends at Blackwood Forest started work to fix up the manager's cottage. They had replaced all the floorboards and the architraves, and sadly a team of termites moved in and undermined their work. It was really lovely to work with the Deputy Premier to be able to help them get that floor replaced and fixed so that they could finish that refurbishment. It is looking wonderful.

Early last year, at Hawthorndene Primary School, Mr Mac's year 5 and year 6 class contacted me. They wanted to bring in some bus shelters near the school. We worked together, and they created the artwork. Then, with the help of Adam Poole-Mottishaw, a local street artist, we delivered them two bus shelters that have their own artwork, with a plaque that says that they delivered that for their community. It was lovely to be able to help them and teach them a little bit about advocating for something that they want.

Main Road in Coromandel has been resurfaced, and it is so much more of a pleasure to drive on. We have also started work on the Main Road section between Black Road and Cherry Gardens, which is windy and very narrow. It is great to finally get some work done there. The school crossing in Coromandel Valley has been upgraded and more work will be happening there soon. Belair Primary School's major refurbishment was nearing completion, but they did not quite have enough money, and I was glad that the education minister assisted when he did. Further work is set to start on Monalta Drive soon, which will see a safer crossing.

We have helped the Jean Bonython and Coromandel Valley kindergartens with earthworks they required. We established parkrun, which has had 2,083 finishes, and the community absolutely loves it. We established the Mitcham wellness education sessions, and so many of our community members come to that. I work hard to bring our community together every single day, and I cannot wait for the next two years.

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