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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-03 Daily Xml
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Port Augusta

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. Can the minister update the house on cooperation with the commonwealth to support Port Augusta, and is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services, Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well) (15:03): I thank the member for Giles for the question. He is a fantastic advocate for the region around Port Augusta. Port Augusta itself is a critical meeting place, and it has been for tens of thousands of years, for Aboriginal people. Around 40 languages are actually spoken by those people who travel through Port Augusta. The Umeewarra radio station up there has a piece of art on the wall, and it speaks to all of those languages.

I want to point out Umeewarra radio station and congratulate them on their recent music festival that was held up there with the support of a range of government departments and other sponsors. They played host to Senator Karen Grogan—who is a fantastic advocate for the region and who I bump into a lot when I am up there—myself, and many others, and hosted this outstanding music festival. It is true to say that we are trying to do as much as we can to stimulate the activity and the options for entertainment for people in and around Port Augusta.

People might cast their minds back to when we came into government. We promised $150,000 to support the City Safe program in Port Augusta that had been left to die under the previous state Liberal government and council. Over the last few years we have worked really hard with our own team, including the hard work of the Treasurer, myself, local members, the Attorney-General and other ministers, who have travelled up there to understand what it takes to invest in a community such as Port Augusta to help it to thrive.

Over that time, in partnership with the federal government and with advocacy by ministers like Minister Linda Burney and now Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, we have actually committed around $30 million to help Port Augusta to stay safe, to thrive and to provide other activities. I think it is worth noting that every time I have travelled up there I have had the mayor, the council and local elders advocating to me about their wharf.

The Port Augusta wharf is a hub for entertainment and activity for young people. There is free access to the water there. The irony is it is a place called Port Augusta that had no safe access to the water for that activity, and with the excellent advocacy of the local community, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport here has now helped to sign that agreement, and I believe it is another $15 million into the community to actually rebuild and restore the wharf of Port Augusta, which will be excellent for the future. Going forwards, young people will be able to access the water and undertake that free, prosocial, healthy activity. I think it shows what can happen when good governments work together and listen to the people in the regions, and I thank the local members for assisting with that as well.

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