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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-04 Daily Xml
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Badcoe Electorate

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:49): Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking with the house about some of the very big plans that the Malinauskas government has—unashamedly ambitious, is this side of the house—but I also mentioned that there are a few wrongs to be righted, with this incoming government solving some of the issues that were unfortunately imposed upon South Australians and, in particular, my constituents of Badcoe.

I intend to use the brief time I have to outline some of those and some of the progress that has already been made by the Malinauskas Labor government and our very talented front bench to try to address some of those issues that are affecting the people of Badcoe. One of them is the Mike Turtur Bikeway overpass. This is a project that actually started under the former Labor government. The former Liberal government did not manage to get it completed. Basically, the public found out shortly before the election what the plans were for this overpass. To say that members of my local community were dismayed is certainly an understatement.

The very active members of the Forestville community—of which I am a member as a local resident of Forestville—banded together and held quite a large rally to try to draw to the then government's attention the necessity of simply speaking with them, of talking with our local community about plans for what is a sizeable piece of infrastructure that will affect our local community and, in particular, the Forestville Reserve, which people in our community hold so dearly.

It is a little strip of green space that used to be a basketball stadium but was fought for tooth and nail by our community to preserve it as green space after that stadium complex was relocated. The reason people in our community are so passionate about this is it is obviously a large piece of infrastructure that will be serving cyclists, pedestrians, pram users and wheelchair users. It is obviously something that the local community wants to have a say in.

Also, this project requires the removal of around 50 trees, some of which are quite beautiful, along the reserve and along the creek line. If you look up into the trees of an afternoon, you will see some absolutely gorgeous koalas in them. That is not something that the people of Forestville wanted decisions made about without their input.

I am pleased to be able to update the house and say that I had the pleasure of taking the new Minister for Infrastructure and Transport down to the site recently, along with members of the hardworking Public Service, to have a look at the site and see what alternatives could be come up with and also to discuss the consultation that will now happen. I am pleased to say that there is now a community reference group, which is to meet very soon. Nominations for that closed only last week, I think.

The passionate members of the Forestville community, and also our cycling community and members of the community in the City of Unley more broadly, have nominated to take up those positions. I look forward to hearing what that reference group has to say about the alternatives that are available and hearing further input from those groups, in particular the newly formed Friends of Forestville Reserve, which has been formed in direct response to this issue.

I am also pleased to say that this government will combine the Mike Turtur Bikeway Overpass Project and what was to be a separate project of upgrading the Goodwood Railway Station. It really made no sense that those two projects were to be separate. We are really talking about the same users and the same community, so this government has listened to our community and said that we need to put those two together. We need to consult about those two projects together, and we need to find some workable solutions traversing that entire precinct that are going to work for everyone.

I am grateful to the minister for prioritising coming down to my community and listening to local people, and I know he is meeting directly with the Friends of Forestville Reserve shortly. I look forward to continuing to loudly and proudly represent the views of my community on this and many other matters and righting some of those wrongs that were done under the previous government to ensure that our community gets a fair go under this Malinauskas Labor government.

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