HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-03 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Federal Election

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:12): While the federal election was called last week, the campaign was already underway in Boothby. I was doorknocking recently and a number of residents drew to my attention a flyer that had landed in their letterbox that used very convoluted language so that, at a glance, the reader would be misled into believing that both Nicolle Flint and I, according to this Labor propaganda, supported, via tricky wording, the Holdfast Bay council's recent rate rise.

This, in fact, is the polar opposite of the truth. The truth is that Nicolle Flint and I have publicly and strongly opposed such a rate rise during both state and federal Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Reassuringly, of course the residents saw right through this fabricated Labor lie that was designed to deceive voters. Quite rightly, they pointed out and understood that both Nicolle and I had in fact opposed such a rate rise, and they knew that we had both been very vocal since May last year. That led to us writing to Holdfast Bay council in July 2024 asking the council to, and I quote:

…immediately pause the proposed rate rise to support $30 million in Council expenditure until the current State and Federal Labor government cost-of-living crisis is under control.

And to:

…prepare, cost and release the proposed designs and conduct extensive community consultation.

Pensioners and young families have been raising with me that they could not afford this rate rise during this cost-of-living crisis. They had already seen power bills go up by 45 per cent, the highest on record. Their grocery bills are up, their insurance is up and their housing is up. Of course, these same concerns would have been raised with the Labor federal member for Boothby. However, all they got publicly from Louise Miller-Frost, hidden away in her office, was deafening silence—nothing at all. There was a complete lack of support for them during Labor's cost-of-living crisis.

In March this year, the council finally conducted community consultation—as was requested by myself and Nicolle—and it is fair to say there is concern amongst local residents and some of the long-term business owners about the impacts on car parking and traffic on Jetty Road and the surrounding suburbs. It was pointed out to me by companies that have experience in shopping precincts that the loss of anywhere between 29 and 60 car parks, depending on the design, will have an economic impact on the precinct unless there are replacement car parks.

As a result, Nicolle and I again wrote to the council requesting an urgent meeting between ourselves, key Jetty Road stakeholders and the council. This requested meeting would have allowed further questions to be asked, including why the funding agreement with the Albanese Labor government has caused a reduction in car parks and has shut down streets in the proposed Jetty Road upgrade plans.

In parallel with this request, I also attended a community forum where these concerns were ventilated. The request from this meeting was for the council to provide modelling of the traffic and parking analysis for each of the designs. The Labor federal member for Boothby, silent since May last year, was an unsurprising no-show at this meeting; instead, she put out a letter saying that if the council wanted to, it could 'make a request to change the project scope or details with the federal government.' This is an admission that the Albanese Labor government's requirements placed on the council to deliver the Jetty Road project are the reason for losing car parks and shutting down streets and the inevitable traffic congestion.

You would have thought a hardworking MP responsible for the funding would have been getting regular briefings on the local project and meeting with key Jetty Road stakeholders to ensure that the plan would produce a win-win. Instead, what do we have? A lose-lose. Instead, what do we have? We have a cover-up for Louise Miller-Frost's lethargy and absenteeism.

Labor put out a flyer designed to trick people about Nicolle and me. This is the type of dishonest, negative campaigning that, sadly, Boothby has become accustomed to. A truthful flyer would have stated that Nicolle Flint and Stephen Patterson opposed Holdfast Bay's special rate rise during state and federal Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Instead, this shady and deceitful episode just reinforces that if the voters of Boothby want a hardworking representative in Canberra to stand up for their best interests and to deliver results, there is only one choice, and that is to vote for Nicolle Flint for Boothby in this upcoming federal election.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT