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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-27 Daily Xml
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Adelaide Electorate

The Hon. L.P. HOOD (Adelaide—Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:49): With just under four months until the 2026 state election, I have been reflecting on the things—

Members interjecting:

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Wortley): Order! Sit down, member for Adelaide. Members, if you are not speaking, could you leave the chamber, please. For those who want to have a discussion, it is outside the chamber. The member for Adelaide.

The Hon. L.P. HOOD: With just under four months until the 2026 state election, I have been reflecting on the things our community has achieved together since I was elected to represent the state seat of Adelaide in 2022. I would like to update the house on the election commitments I have been working tirelessly to deliver to make our neighbourhood stronger and more connected.

Just last week, we announced that on 27 January 2026, the new Adelaide Aquatic Centre will open its doors to our community, with memberships now available for purchase. This centre is going to be a game changer for our local community and I am so excited to welcome back former members as well as new members and visitors.

The site of the previous Adelaide Aquatic Centre will be returned to Parklands, providing an extra 1,000 square metres of accessible green space for our community to enjoy. The new Adelaide Aquatic Centre will feature incredible facilities, including a 50-metre, 10-lane indoor pool; a 25-metre, eight-lane outdoor pool; dedicated indoor rehabilitation and learn-to-swim pools; a lagoon outdoor pool; entry-level diving amenities; leisure and relaxation spaces with splash zones; water slides (I know my kids are very excited about that one); a sauna and steam room; BBQ lawned areas; a cafe; gym and fitness facilities three times the size than first planned; improved pedestrian and cycle pathways connecting the centre with existing networks; and increased car parking.

We also have The W recreation centre currently being built on the previous Walkerville YMCA site, which will see a vibrant recreation and leisure hub return to the community in 2026. This has been a campaign of many years, and I am so proud that our new centre will return recreational services to the heart of the township. They will include a two-court stadium, catering for basketball, netball, pickleball, badminton and volleyball, as well as other activities such as gymnastic, dance and community events.

Since the late 1950s, locals have relied on the recreation centre to keep them active and healthy. We are all looking forward to getting back into the centre early next year. I want to thank the Town of Walkerville for partnering with me on that important election commitment. The Malinauskas government is also getting on with the job of building a bigger and better Women's and Children's Hospital and recruiting staff to boost our health system.

Other election commitments I have delivered alongside our community include a 25 km/h school zone for Gilles Street Primary School and Pulteney Grammar School; guaranteeing the ongoing tenure of the National Trust in Ayers House after it was booted out; and an expansion to Adelaide Botanic High School, providing an extra 700 local students access to a first-class education. We saved Helen Mayo Park and restored its Parklands protection after it was zoned entertainment under the former Marshall Liberal government. We also scrapped their plans for a $662 million basketball stadium on this Parklands site.

We covered the free City Connector in a local artist's work—my dear friend Robert—to make it easier for communities and visitors to identify the free bus, jump on and explore our beautiful city. We upgraded the notorious intersection at the Howard-Rosetta streets intersection in Collinswood, putting in a roundabout to improve safety, and we saved Prospect Service SA and expanded its trading hours to Saturday to make essential services more accessible for my local community.

We are building new social housing apartments for older women in the Adelaide CBD, giving them a fresh start. I have also delivered an upgrade to R.L. Pash Park in Nailsworth, a new pocket park in Prospect, and an additional pocket park on Churchill Road, Ovingham. We are also delivering two wombat crossings for Melbourne Street, and a new scramble crossing for Archer-O'Connell streets intersection. We secured bus stop V1 on Hutt St as a permanent stop on the free City Connector's route, we brought back the Harvest Rock Music Festival and also returned bus stop 4 to Melbourne Street.

I am so passionate about ensuring our neighbourhood has open green spaces that keep people fit, active and connected to community. It is all about creating a community where people feel a strong sense of belonging, where small businesses thrive, and where families can raise happy, healthy kids. I am so proud to be the member for Adelaide and of the community we are building together. I want to wish my community a very safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

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