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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-26 Daily Xml
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Private Members' Statements

Private Members' Statements

Ms PRATT (Frome) (16:33): I want to join in the celebration and recognition that this chamber has paid to Dr John Weste, director of our library, who marks his 10th anniversary as our director and is also marking 17 years in total in his employ in this building. That story in itself is fascinating. I have the great delight of being on the Parliamentary Friends of the Library committee and in that role for the last 2½ years I have come to know Dr Weste even better.

I think there are many stories yet to be uncovered, but what we have in our midst is someone whose compassion and love for history, current affairs, languages, music, arts and culture really brings alive not just the library itself as a place for us to visit when we bring our school tours and guests through but, of course, brings to life the contents of our library and makes sure that, through his team, we in this chamber benefit from access to the archives and research. In particular, the opposition of the day will always benefit greatly from having access to those resources. I want to commend him for the work that he has done and the work that I hope he continues to do, and I thank him for his service and recognise his 10-year anniversary.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (16:34): I just want to take this opportunity to talk about some of what is going on in health in the southern suburbs, in particular in my area of the electorate of Elder. Recently, my colleagues the member for Gibson and the Minister for Health and I were at the Marion Ambulance Station in Mitchell Park, where we did a press conference around the fact that we would not just be doing a redo, a renovation, of the current station but doing a full rebuild, which is really exciting.

It will be much more fit for purpose and a lot better for the ambulance officers working out of there. It will be up and running by the end of 2026. I am sure some of them, during this period, will happily go to work in our new Edwardstown Ambulance Station, which I was proud to help open just a couple of months ago. That new ambulance station is at the Repat, and it is very schmick. I am sure people are really happy to be working in it now.

Also at the Repat we have opened 32 new beds. Twenty-six of those are part of the GEM Unit and six are part of the care facility. That is part of the 228 extra hospital beds in Adelaide's south that we are delivering across Flinders, Noarlunga and the Repat. Also in the south, we have opened our 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park on South Road. Across the state, we are delivering more than 600 extra hospital beds, and we have already hired over 1,400 additional health staff. I am really proud to be part of a government that is actually getting it done.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:36): I want to talk about the world's best classroom. I am really happy that the Minister for Education is here because it is in South Australia but, even more importantly, it is up in the Riverland, on the banks of the River Murray: the Calperum local jobs program. On Thursday, I visited Calperum Station again to witness the 14 graduates who had been through this local jobs program. They came through with flying colours. It was a great initiative, hosted at Calperum Station.

It gives those who are a little less advantaged an opportunity to upskill and gain some social confidence, to gain some practical skills to help better set them up for going out into the workforce. It is a great initiative as a local to have those students go out locally to get a job. They live locally and they do not want to move away, so to give them the opportunity to upskill, I think, is outstanding. They are bright, they are motivated, and I think they are ready to be part of the workforce in a local community.

What I saw from the beginning when I visited Calperum Station was that they were a shy, humble group of kids. Let me tell you, they have come out of their shell. They are bright and bubbly. They have plenty of conversation. I think they will be a force to be reckoned with with the skills they have picked up through this jobs program. It is a great program. It is on the banks of the River Murray. It is the best classroom in the state, and it is right in Chaffey.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (16:38): I rise to update the house that I am so pleased that the Marion Tennis Club is staying local. You will recall that back in March of this year the Marion council made the decision to bulldoze the Marion Tennis Club, and that was to make way for the expansion of the South Adelaide Basketball Club—a much-needed project in our community, but bulldozing another club was completely unexpected.

I met together with the club and interested community members the very week of that announcement, and I stood with them and committed to fight and stand alongside them to keep Marion Tennis Club in the community. It was actually the council's intention to have them merge with another club outside of the district and away from where the playing members lived.

Marion Tennis Club has been at that location for almost 90 years. It has almost 200 members and this year has proudly welcomed a very large Nepalese community into the club as well. Having successfully sunk the rink as part of this whole precinct, it did mean that the croquet club on the other side of the precinct was available for local sports use and I am so pleased that logic has prevailed and the Marion Tennis Club is able to use that site.

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