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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-30 Daily Xml
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Supply Bill 2024

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 10 April 2024.)

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (16:48): I am not the lead speaker, sir.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Okay, I am surprised.

Mr PEDERICK: Well, strange things happen. I rise to speak to the Supply Bill 2024 and note that this is to approve $7,706,000,000 so that we can keep the functions of government running until the budget is fully approved and has gone through the estimates process. This is vital for all the Public Service functions in the state, and certainly we will be supporting this bill.

I want to talk about a few things that have happened in my region over the last 12 months or so and some that have been longer term. One project that was completed on 24 September 2023, when it was opened for two-way traffic, was the Old Murray Bridge Refurbishment Project. There ended up being $46 million committed to this project. The Marshall Liberal government committed $36 million when we were in government and then it needed another $10 million to finish the project. This was to give the Old Murray Bridge at least an extra 30 years of life, which was much needed. Various reports came into my office about the status of the bridge so it is good to see that this work went on. McMahons, the lead, and other contractors did such great work.

What was disappointing was the fact that as the local member I did not get an invite to the opening. I had to find on which end of the bridge the ribbon was going to be cut, and I made sure I got there. I would have thought there would not be too much politics in this, but never be surprised at our roles in the community.

The process of revamping the bridge took about 18 months. There were some issues. There were one or two accidents at least over on the Swanport Bridge side which caused some headaches for through traffic. I think some people thought that the scaffolding could come down in a hurry, but it is only when you see pictures later on that you realise how much scaffolding was involved underneath the bridge. This is a great project that will last at least 30 years.

We had the 2022-23 summer flood that came through and wreaked havoc throughout my electorate and other areas right along the river, from the top end of the river, round Renmark, and through communities all the way to the mouth. Different communities put their shoulder to the wheel in different ways. Most people listened to the warnings of where the river levels might get to. I was picking up things from what I was hearing at different meetings and briefings.

At a meeting in Mannum, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mid Murray Council was telling people that unless you build something to about 250 gigalitres a day, which is a lot of water—about half of Sydney Harbour coming past in one day, just for a picture—you are not going to make it. Sadly, some people still did not think they would get wet feet, but they did.

There was a lot of good work done in this time certainly with the emergency management, working with government and mainly working with chief executive officers, and to have their ear at a phone call's notice on their mobiles was magnificent in working through that process. Sadly, that all ended once the emergency protocols disappeared and things went back into good old bureaucracy phase and things slowed down no end.

One of the big things I will remember from my career is when we pushed bureaucracy out of the way for a little while and managed to make things work between government and those of us in opposition—the member for Chaffey, myself, the Hon. Nicola Centofanti, in the other place, and the member for Finniss, in getting things done along the river. Just a bit of reality for a short period.

The issue for me is that since then the actions have slowed right down from any emergency action assisting people with the recovery process with 110 kilometres of levee banks along the river. Only recently there have been some packages of funding announced just for the interim repairs of levee banks. There will need to be a lot more money. I think there is just over $30 million. There will need to be a lot more money into the future. There are people contacting me, wondering where the federal grant process is for desilting channels. I know about that from talking to farmers up around the Wall Flat and Mypolonga area.

The sad thing is that, once the TV cameras have gone away, it seems that the Premier and his ministers have just lacked commitment to the river. One thing that really disappointed me was the complete lack of commitment during the peak flood event by the Minister for Water, who was in London for the whole month of that event. That was vitally disappointing. What is more disappointing is the fact that no-one in the media anywhere thought it was newsworthy to report on that. They were interesting times.

However, I have worked with my community and we have managed to get the select committee up through the upper house, with the Hon. Nicola Centofanti chairing it. We have had hearings out in my region for people to have their say, which was fantastic. Let's hope that we can get the right outcomes for the longer term solutions for the river. It is a bit scary when I have had a couple of people tell me that there is a big flood coming two metres higher than 1956. If that comes down, that could be by the end of 2025. I hope we do not get that, but we have to realise that the storages are pretty full, if not full. The ground is pretty wet in places like Queensland, where they have had some cyclonic activity. It will not take much, once we get that winter break for the cropping season, for things to get wet, fill up and get plenty of water in the system. We will just have to watch this space.

There are a few things that have happened in no particular order around my electorate. I want to acknowledge the work of Neutrog Australia up at Kanmantoo. They unveiled plans just this month to build a $3½ million laboratory and education centre at Kanmantoo. They are a vital service to the community, especially the chicken industry in getting rid of the chicken manure and having it put into fertilisers, such as Sudden Impact for lawns and roses, and that sort of thing. I must admit that I do not grow much in the way of roses but I do grow bit of what I call lawn and it does magnificent work. This is a process that some people have protested against, but people need to realise that when you live in a working agricultural region you are not living in a totally pristine environment. That is exactly how it works. It is good to see that Neutrog is progressing with that project.

Just yesterday I was pleased to receive a message from the Minister for Education's office. I really appreciated that phone call about Murray Bridge South Primary School receiving $1.12 million in federal funding for a toilet facility upgrade and shelters for playground areas outside. Certainly, the south school in Murray Bridge really does appreciate that funding. I was talking to the principal, Michelle, this morning and they appreciate that that came through the process. I understand they had to apply through the department at the state level first and that then progressed to the federal level. To Minister Boyer: thank you. It is good to see that funding being spread not just through suburban communities but through rural communities as well.

Monarto Safari Park—what a gem. This is the one true gem that came out of the failed city of Monarto proposal in the early 1970s. We ended up with a lot of 100-acre blocks instead of farmland, but we got the Monarto Safari Park. We have five elephants coming after raising $2.4 million in donations. It follows investment that we made from this side of the house with the federal government at the time of around $16 million to get the new visitor centre built. That work started in February 2021.

I was very proud to stand alongside my federal colleague Tony Pasin, the member for Barker, about a week after the election in that time. So, from opposition I was there and we opened up the visitor centre. I must say, when Elaine Bensted rang me about the elephants coming she knew I would not be more pleased. I have been lobbying Elaine for a long time about getting elephants up there at Monarto, and I know there is huge work being done building their compound as I speak, putting in watercourses and the right fencing; they use leftover ferry cables and that sort of thing for the fencing.

Elaine always said to me: 'They kill more keepers than any other animal.' I said, 'Well, I think we've still got to have them.' I was so pleased. It was just a bit bizarre that I was heading for Thailand for a bit of leave and ended up on an elephant safari one day, but it was just magnificent. I was glad to donate a little bit alongside many other people. Initially, we were getting three elephants and now we are getting five. I am sure that will just add to the huge attraction that Monarto is. Notwithstanding that, Gerry Ryan, the chief of Jayco, is building a 78-room hotel which I am sure will open in the next few months. It has taken a long time to build it and it will add to the visitor experience in the Murraylands. There are going to be about 22 spots for glamping as well. You can go and live out near the lions—you will not be quite with the lions, because that would not be too healthy—and it will be magnificent.

In the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, Murray Bridge has been identified as a satellite city with up to 8,000 new homes being built. I have no doubt that that can happen. Certainly, with a little bit of internal rezoning a lot of those houses could probably be built as it is. With Gifford Hill over where the new racetrack is, there will be at least 3½ thousand homes and maybe 4,000. We have so much potential with everything that has been going on in the last few years out at Murray Bridge with both the tourist developments and the industry developments. There is plenty of opportunity. From what I have been told, two developers are knocking down the doors to build 25,000 homes in that area, in my area, and that is just magnificent news—but we have to get through all the zoning proposals and processes.

One thing we do have to break the nexus of is this environment and food protection area. I have been banging on about this since 2016 when the flawed legislation went through this place. It just blocks out land that certainly could be set up for housing. There are enough rules and regulations around housing and zoning to make sure you do not get poor outcomes. We have an issue at the minute. People came to lobby me about Mypolonga—and Mypolonga, I can remember growing up, was a huge area for citrus and stone fruit. I can remember going up there as a kid and seeing dried apricots. We had the old cases and half cases of fruit, all sorts of fruit. It is a shadow of its former self. People can see the opportunity to build right next to the river. So there will have to be some adjustments to the environment and food protection area, and I am certainly in touch with Minister Champion and his office with respect to that, but there is so much opportunity there.

The Tailem Bend dragstrip—and sadly Tailem Bend is not in my area anymore—officially opened on 21 October 2023 when the Premier came down, and I made sure I was there. It was unofficially opened on 22 September 2023, and I was very pleased to be part of the Marshall Liberal government that supported that project with $1 million. The drags are just magnificent.

Sadly, I can remember way back when in about 1979, when the initial dragstrip opened, they were a bit short of cash and so it was nowhere near the place that we have there now; the dragstrip ran the other way towards Melbourne instead of away from Melbourne. That is bringing tens of thousands to singular events. I noticed there was a smaller event there on the weekend, notwithstanding the events on the motorsport park. As I have said in this place before, there is nothing like taking out your own cars, or a V8 ute in my case, to have a whirl around the motorsport park. If you are going for a whirl, that is where you do it, and plenty of people do with the self-drive driving.

I want to acknowledge the $600,000 upgrade of the Strathalbyn netball and tennis courts. This is a vital area for sports in the Fleurieu region, a real centre with many courts in place for great big area events, let alone the weekly events that occur in that area. It hosts many teams. I am very pleased to be part of that process and I take my hat off to the people who campaigned for years to get a lot of that funding.

There are some concerns that I have in regard to things around the place like the Strathalbyn and District Health Service with the nurse-led clinic. That is the emergency service that is now in Strathalbyn. With absolutely no disrespect to the nurses at all, it is essentially a band-aid clinic that is hardly an emergency department because you have to book in to go there. The argument is that Mount Barker is 20 minutes up the road and you can just go there, but that is a major concern and we need to have a better outcome into the future.

With regard to the Kalimna Hostel at Strathalbyn, I know the former member for the Strathalbyn area, the member for Heysen, and I worked to make sure there was $3 million put away for where Kalimna was supposed to get to. My understanding is the money is still there. This was an aged-care-type facility or a residential care-type facility in Strathalbyn, and we certainly need to get the right outcomes. This was community land—money raised by the community to buy the land and then money raised by the community to put the buildings in place—and we need to get the right outcome for those people who put their own private money into this building and land over many years.

There is a new shopping centre coming into Strathalbyn out on the Wistow side, out on the Mount Barker side, and that had mixed reviews on who supported it and who did not. I certainly supported it. Some people thought it might upset the heritage value of the town, but it is a long way from any of the heritage area and the simple fact is: people need to travel up the Long Valley Road to get to the new supermarket if they do not want to go to the Woolworths in Strathalbyn, and they have to travel up there to go to the new supermarket there at Mount Barker. I think it will be a great thing for a growing area at Strathalbyn when this shopping centre is built.

Certainly, in regard to the Long Valley Road, I do not know how long the roadworks are going to be there for—I think they are going to be there forever. I think the road crews came into a bit of a shock when they ran into some natural springs that have upset some of the road building on overtaking lanes. We need to find out when that gets finished.

I am running out of time, but a project that I was happy to be part of the opening of because it used to be in my area was the Karoonda swimming pool opening. I was there with the member for Chaffey. It was one of those proud moments, when you have worked with community for almost a decade—very close to a decade—just so that a community can have the swimming pool they deserve, not just for the kids at school but for the whole community. That was a pivotal moment to get that opened up.

I will be interested in other debates during this Supply Bill debate, but we certainly support the Supply Bill so that we can keep the state running into the future until we get to the outcomes of the budget debate and estimates.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (17:08): I, too, rise to make a contribution to the Supply Bill 2024. As of this week, I actually was very excited to let my local sub-branch know last night that I now have all of the election commitments that I committed to our community either delivered or underway after just two years into the role. This is something that I am very proud to be able to deliver because these are commitments that basically were established from going out and talking to my community, listening to my community, knocking on doors and understanding what is important to them. I am very thankful that our budget is able to support the delivery of these commitments.

The major one is, of course, the brand new Women's and Children's Hospital, which I was able to speak about in the house earlier. It was wonderful to be able to join the Premier and our health minister today at the site of the new Women's and Children's Hospital to break ground on the first stage of works for the brand new hospital. The first stage is a $306 million package to deliver a larger car park and also an energy centre for the new hospital. We often hear about the challenges at the current Women's and Children's Hospital around parking for both patients and staff so, importantly, the brand new Women's and Children's Hospital will have a 1,300-space car park, up from the 940-space car park at the current facility.

This bigger and better Women's and Children's Hospital will be a real game changer for health care for women and children. As I was saying earlier in this house, eight years ago next month, I became a mum at the Women's and Children's Hospital. Whilst the staff do an absolutely incredible job, it is a hospital that is effectively almost past its use-by date, and that is why it is so important that we build a brand new hospital.

Unfortunately, a few years were wasted under the former Marshall Liberal government having to um and ah over building a brand new hospital that was actually on a site that was too small and would have only delivered one extra overnight bed. So when you are thinking about the dollars that are going into such a massive project, billions of dollars going into a massive project, to only deliver one overnight bed, it did not make sense. It basically meant that the minute you moved into the hospital, you had effectively outgrown it before even completing day one.

So we did have to make some bold decisions, some difficult decisions, and that is why we are very proud to have been able to break ground on this project today that is going to deliver 414 overnight beds, which is an extra 56 beds compared with the current Women's and Children's Hospital. Compared with the previous government that had one bed, we will be delivering 56 with the space to be able to provide more, so we are very pleased to see that $3.2 billion investment that is going to make sure that the future health care of women, babies and children in my community, but also providing for the entire state, will be well looked after with this brand new facility.

It was wonderful to be down on the site today talking to clinicians. In particular, one of the obstetricians who was on the site with us today worked with the obstetrician who delivered my children, so it was really very special to see that they are so involved in the project. They are so excited. It was so lovely to see them on site with us, celebrating with us as we break ground on this project. Because they have been consulted every step of the way, we have now got another round of consultation underway as of today. Truly listening to clinicians is how we are going to deliver the very best hospital for the future.

That is why when we first came into government we invested more than $30 million in providing extra staff for the current Women's and Children's Hospital because we have to remember that the current hospital is still operating whilst we undertake this massive project to build a brand new hospital, so making sure that we are supporting staff at the existing hospital is also crucial as we undertake this really exciting but absolutely massive project that we know will be worth it.

Also in my local community, we have $135 million for a brand new Adelaide Aquatic Centre. This was also a project that did require some tough decision-making. For those who might not be aware, the current Adelaide Aquatic Centre is operated by Adelaide City Council. It had become quite the political football, pardon the pun. Whether it was the Crows looking at putting forward a bid for a new centre there or the council squabbling over how and why they would pay for upgrades to the centre, it was clear that there was a role for state government to step in and take a leadership role and take over the future of what a new Adelaide Aquatic Centre would look like.

It does not really make sense that, when you look at the numbers of people who do attend the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, around 11 per cent are actually from the Adelaide City Council area, so the ratepayers are effectively paying for an entire centre which only 11 per cent of them actually use. It really is a facility for the whole entire district. It is very important for the west, the north and the east. That is why we stepped in. We showed leadership. We actually put on the table a funded project for a brand new Adelaide Aquatic Centre and now we are getting on with the job of delivering that. I believe it was last month when I joined the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport on the site to see how works are going. We now have earthworks underway for the new centre.

We are really hitting the ground running on that one whilst we very thoughtfully and diligently have our departments—both the Department for Infrastructure and Transport and the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing—work with the users of the facility to make sure they are transitioning to other centres, in particular our Learn to Swim families. I understand that, over the next few days, Learn to Swim families will be contacted with their preferred alternative locations at which they will be able to access children's swimming lessons. We have consulted with over 100 groups to make sure they have access to alternative facilities.

That is the wonderful thing about our city: we do have plenty of other facilities which people will be able to use as alternatives while the brand new centre is built. We obviously have the Thebarton pool which is undergoing an upgrade, we have The ARC Campbelltown, we have Next Gen, we have The Parks Recreation & Sports Centre, we have Pridham Hall pool and we have the Unley and Burnside pools, so there is a huge network of pools which people will be able to access. We know that there will be a little bit of inconvenience during that stage, but we know that the end result will be absolutely worth it.

The $135 million aquatic centre will be an absolute game changer for my community. For those who do not know, the current pool started as a collection of outdoor swimming pools. When Don Dunstan closed the City Baths to make way for the Adelaide Festival Centre, we needed a pool, so it became a collection of outdoor pools on Park 2. So it has been there for over 55 years. It was not until around 1985 that they decided to put a roof over the collection of outdoor pools, so I like to say that the roof of the Adelaide Aquatic Centre is the same age as me, and I am no spring chicken anymore, so I believe that it will be—if I am, too—celebrating its 40th birthday next year.

It is time for it to come down. It was, effectively, a giant pyramid pergola over a collection of outdoor pools, so it was not built for purpose and it is not energy efficient. Over those years, the centre has been falling apart. It is leaking, it is cracking, it has concrete cancer, a huge area of the grandstand is closed off and the diving tower is closed off. It was in desperate need of leadership and for a government to step in and say, 'We're going to build a brand new facility.'

Our new facility will be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy. It will include indoor and outdoor pools, a dedicated rehabilitation pool, a dedicated Learn to Swim pool and community changing facilities. It will be built, where possible, using sustainable materials. I honestly cannot wait for the moment when I see families being able to enjoy a picnic in the Parklands setting, being able to have a swim in the outdoor pool and really enjoying our beautiful Parklands whilst connecting with the community, learning to be safe around the water and keeping fit, active and healthy. That is really what this project is all about.

I know our new Assistant Minister for Junior Sport Participation is incredibly passionate about getting young people off their iPads and active in the great outdoors, and this will be a particular project that I know she will be incredibly passionate about, because it is really wonderful being there every week and seeing people of all ages, not just young people but babies through to toddlers, kids in primary school and in high school through to senior citizens in our community. It really is a unique place where you get people from all walks of life and all stages of life connecting and keeping fit, active and healthy around the water. As a former swimming instructor and lifeguard, I am very passionate about this project because I know it will serve many generations to come.

Another thing I am very passionate about is public education, which I have spoken about a lot in this place as a public schoolkid and a School Card kid as well. The expansion of Adelaide Botanic High means a lot to me. The $98 million expansion will provide for an extra 700 students. It is not lost on me how important that is, that an extra 700 kids in my local community will have access to a first-class public education.

I would not be standing here if it were not for my public schooling, for my public teachers who believed in me and pushed me to become the first in my family to go to uni. It was not something I knew was even a possibility, that it even existed, coming from a family where you grow up in a country town and you stay in a country town. If it were not for my public education, I literally would not be standing here today, so to know that an extra 700 kids will get that opportunity to have a first-class public education at Adelaide Botanic High is a really special moment.

I cannot wait to join the education minister when we welcome new students to the expanded Adelaide Botanic High. It will then house around 1,950 students in total. I think it is really important that they will be in a school in a Parklands setting, close to our universities and close to Lot Fourteen, because the investment we are making in their education is telling them that they are worth it, that we believe in them, that we believe in the fact that they can reach their full potential.

At a more localised level, another area that we are investing in is our main streets. I spoke just the other sitting week about how one way we can connect communities is by investing in our main streets. When you go to the local coffee shop, or you walk into a local IGA or FoodWorks or the local clothing store, it is very special when you walk into a place where people know your name. People stop, have a chat and ask you how you are. Even if it is just, 'How is your day going?' or 'What's the weather like?' it is those little connections that create a stronger fabric of community.

By investing in main streets, I think we can really strengthen that sense of community and connection, so I have my $3 million commitment for Hutt Street. We are investing in the entry statement, new trees, new footpaths, new artwork and a new Parklands trail crossing to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists. In Melbourne Street, there is $1 million to create more colour and vibrancy in that street. It reminds me so much of the high streets where I lived when I lived in London. It has that real village atmosphere, that uniqueness, those independent stores, cafes and restaurants. I am really excited to see that $1 million and $3 million literally being rolled out as we speak.

Further afield in the northern part of my electorate, at Howard and Rosetta Streets, there is a notorious intersection. If you live in that area, you will know it very well. There is actually someone who lives on the corner there who has had to replace their fence a few times. It is a Give Way intersection, and we have never quite worked out why people do not see that there is a Give Way sign and keep going through. There have been plenty of crashes at that intersection. I committed to a $200,000 roundabout at that intersection, and construction is currently underway.

I visited the site around a week ago. It is great to see that works are underway there for a much safer intersection in our community. Just down the road is R.L. Pash park—a bit of an interesting name for a local playground, but it was named after a local family in the area, who gifted the park. R.L. Pash park is getting a bit of an upgrade. It was in need of a little TLC, but importantly, we are keeping the open green space. It was more about providing a bit of an upgrade to the exercise equipment and the play equipment and putting in a fence alongside the busy D'Erlanger Avenue.

I know from taking my own kids there that you have to have a bit of a hawk eye when the kids are playing with a ball and it heads towards the road, so there will be a fence there and improvement in the community space for locals, which is around a $250,000 commitment. I might add that both of these projects I am doing in partnership with the City of Prospect, and I want to really thank them for all of the work that they are doing to make sure that these commitments are being delivered for our community.

It is very exciting that last week I was able to join the Mayor of the Town of Walkerville, Melissa Jones, to announce our partnership to build a brand new recreation community sport hub at 39 Smith Street, Walkerville. Most people in my community know this as the YMCA site. This has been a project three years in the making. I have been fighting to return a community hub to this site for three years.

It first started with the previous council deciding that they would not renew the lease of the current YMCA. We are talking about a facility that has served multiple generations. I believe it has been there since around the 1950s. Whenever I would go doorknocking, whenever I would hold a community catch-up, everyone would have a story to tell about this site. Whether it was that they attended there as a kid, that their kids went there, that their grandkids went there, whether it was for sport or children's parties or vacation care, this is a site that served the community for decades and decades. It was really sad when the INEA—what was called the INEA YMCA—had to move out and their lease was not renewed.

Then began a campaign to make sure that we could retain the community land status of the site when the current council decided to look at an expression of interest to see whether developers were interested in the site. We were able to fight to retain the community land status of the site, and then I worked to secure an election commitment that if elected we would return a community hub to the site. It has been a bit of a long process, given that following that commitment we had council elections, we had a new council elected at the Town of Walkerville, and they had some changes in chief executive officers, but finally we have a path forward, and last week the Town of Walkerville councillors unanimously supported a new build option at the YMCA site.

Using my $5 million contribution, council will contribute the remaining funds, and whilst they will now go out to tender and work with a developer on the final designs, we do envisage that the new facility will actually provide two courts, so double the number of courts. The current old centre has only one court. It does not have the required run-offs or boundaries around the side, so it is great to see it will provide, we envisage, two courts and facilities for all of those kinds of indoor sports that we love—basketball, netball, badminton, gymnastics—and also those really important community programs as well that we often see in various other council areas, such as Strength for Life. I am really thrilled to see progress on that very important commitment.

Finally, there are another couple of small projects that I have already been able to deliver in our community. The Gilles Street school crossing was one of the very first commitments I made upon coming into the seat of Adelaide, to provide a 25-kilometre school zone out the front of Gilles Street, and also invest in our free City Connector with better promotion and artwork of the free City Connector. It is such an important service that not only helps those in our community get from A to B but also really highlights our wonderful cultural institutions in our community. You can go from the Library to the Art Gallery to the Zoo. You can go to our amazing Adelaide Central Market. It is such an important service, and I am so very proud that we were able to invest in better promoting that service using the amazing artwork of a friend of mine and local artist Robert Eckert.

Also, recently, and whilst it was not without controversy, we were able to invest in the Adelaide Comets club as well. Whoever thought a 1.1 metre fence could cause so much drama, but I am very proud that we have been able to deliver on that commitment. I say that because our Parklands are unique, they are beautiful, but all of the commitments that we make are about making sure that our next generation—our kids and grandkids—actually use our Parklands, because if they are not using them, then they are not going to form that connection, that love, that respect that we have for our Parklands.

I want to see more kids in our Parklands, enjoying our Parklands. Whether that be at the brand-new Adelaide Aquatic Centre, whether that be playing soccer for the Adelaide Comets, they are such an important asset for our community, and there is nothing better than actually seeing our people use the Parklands. With those comments, I support the Supply Bill.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (17:29): I am really pleased to stand today to speak on the Supply Bill. I thought I could take everyone on a bit of a journey through the electorate of Elder, moving from the north to the south, and talking about some of the great things that our government has been able to achieve in my community.

Starting off with the most northern point of my electorate in Clarence Park, the member for Badcoe and I worked really hard before the election to get a commitment to upgrade the Clarence Park train station. That is including some beautification of the station, but also ensuring that we get electric pedestrian gates to improve the safety of the area. We do have a kindergarten right next to the station, the Clarence Park kindy, and we also have a community centre on the other side, so it is really important to our community that we improve the safety of that space. That work is well underway.

We have also made the station more accessible, making the northern end completely compliant so that people in a wheelchair, particularly a manual wheelchair, are able to get up there a lot more easily. I am really proud that we are making that station not just more beautiful, not just safer, but also more accessible.

Another thing that people from Clarence Park are benefiting from is the fact that we have restored the Adelaide High and Botanic High school zone. That has happened, and now people in Clarence Park are able to benefit from that change and are really excited to be able to send their children to the schools that they had originally planned to send them to.

Moving a little bit further south we have Westbourne Park Primary School. Before the election I committed to building new toilets there for the school kids. The toilets there were pretty atrocious. I know people do not get excited about toilets—until you need one, right? Then you get pretty excited. That work has been done. I have not been able to check them out myself yet inside, because there is a big sign on the front of the toilets that says 'Students only,' but I have been promised that I will be able to have a stickybeak after the school bell goes one time, so that will be great.

There is also work being done on a new nature playground. They already have one down the eastern end of the school campus, but it is a bit smaller. We are creating another nature play space there as well. I have a lot more to share, but I think that is probably enough for now. I am going to leave you all waiting and wanting. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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