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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-06 Daily Xml
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Highgate Park

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding Highgate Park, formerly known as the Julia Farr Centre. Can the minister provide an update on the future of the Highgate Park site and how the Marshall Liberal government is ensuring that South Australians living with disability are at the forefront of the decision-making process in relation to this site?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for her question. We are in the phase of moving to that next level. The decision was made many years ago to deinstitutionalise from large institutions, places like the Strathmont Centre and what was formerly known as the Julia Farr Centre (and most recently Highgate Park), to have people in much more appropriate accommodation in the community where they can have much more interaction with everyone else, which in itself is important for them in terms of safeguarding.

We have gone through a thorough independent consultation with the disability sector on the future of that site at Fullarton, and Renewal SA has been engaged to sell the site, with proceeds retained by the trust to benefit people living with disability. The government is seeking expressions of interest for that site. It is my hope that, given that we are in this time of real estate boom, this will be seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These sorts of sites don't come onto the market very often, so it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase that site. Obviously, for the benefit of people living with disability, for myself as the trustee it is my hope that that value is maximised so that the money going back into the fund is at its absolute maximum.

Through the consultation more than 360 people were involved, and it focused on people with lived experience of disability from across South Australia, including some subject matter experts working in the disability sector. That report is available on the DHS website. JFA Purple Orange, which is the not-for-profit disability advocacy organisation formed out of Julia Farr Services, is now facilitating a working group to consider the future focus of the trust. We are seeking people to be part of that working group, particularly people with lived experience and people associated with that site in the past.

We are moving into that next phase, where the way we care and deliver services for people with disability has changed radically, so we want to maximise the value of the trust going forward and ensure that the funds are used for things that people with lived experience tell us they would like them to be used for.

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