Supply Bill 2024
Tuesday 30 April 2024 and Wedensday 1 May 2024
Ms CLANCY (Elder) (17:29): I am really pleased to stand today to speak on the Supply Bill. I thought I could take everyone on a bit of a journey through the electorate of Elder, moving from the north to the south, and talking about some of the great things that our government has been able to achieve in my community.
Starting off with the most northern point of my electorate in Clarence Park, the member for Badcoe and I worked really hard before the election to get a commitment to upgrade the Clarence Park train station. That is including some beautification of the station, but also ensuring that we get electric pedestrian gates to improve the safety of the area. We do have a kindergarten right next to the station, the Clarence Park kindy, and we also have a community centre on the other side, so it is really important to our community that we improve the safety of that space. That work is well underway.
We have also made the station more accessible, making the northern end completely compliant so that people in a wheelchair, particularly a manual wheelchair, are able to get up there a lot more easily. I am really proud that we are making that station not just more beautiful, not just safer, but also more accessible.
Another thing that people from Clarence Park are benefiting from is the fact that we have restored the Adelaide High and Botanic High school zone. That has happened, and now people in Clarence Park are able to benefit from that change and are really excited to be able to send their children to the schools that they had originally planned to send them to.
Moving a little bit further south we have Westbourne Park Primary School. Before the election I committed to building new toilets there for the school kids. The toilets there were pretty atrocious. I know people do not get excited about toilets—until you need one, right? Then you get pretty excited. That work has been done. I have not been able to check them out myself yet inside, because there is a big sign on the front of the toilets that says 'Students only,' but I have been promised that I will be able to have a stickybeak after the school bell goes one time, so that will be great.
There is also work being done on a new nature playground. They already have one down the eastern end of the school campus, but it is a bit smaller. We are creating another nature play space there as well. I have a lot more to share, but I think that is probably enough for now. I am going to leave you all waiting and wanting. I seek leave to continue my remarks.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
(Continued from 30 April 2024.)
Ms CLANCY (Elder) (16:09): For those who were listening, watching and engaging yesterday, we started our little—
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The whole state was watching.
Ms CLANCY: I am sure the whole state was watching. I am going to continue our journey through the electorate of Elder. We started off with Clarence Park and did a bit of Westbourne Park. We are going to do a bit of a zigzag across the electorate, just for those looking in their Gregory's or for the newer generations on Google Maps, and we are going to head over now to Clarence Gardens.
I committed funding before the election to jointly support with the City of Mitcham some work on AA Bailey Reserve, particularly around the Cumberland United soccer pitch. What that work now means is that it is a lot safer when it has been raining because we have done a lot of work around the drainage, so now more cars are able to park around the oval safely and people are able to get to and from the clubrooms, etc., much more easily. It is much more accessible now. What that also means are fewer cars on the surrounding suburban streets, so it is a real little win-win.
Just over in Melrose Park, we have started work on some new classrooms at Edwardstown Primary School. I know the community is really excited about that. It will include an additional classroom within that new build, and I am really looking forward to seeing that work progress.
In Melrose Park, we also committed funding to Rozelle Reserve and that work I believe is underway. I need to have a quick chat with the council. The work was all tendered out and ready to roll, so there will be a new playground there and a new barbecue, etc., which will make it a much nicer park to use for the local community and for people to come together.
Across in Colonel Light Gardens—we are going on the other side of Goodwood Road now—I was really happy last year to deliver on an election commitment for a heritage-style archway at Ludgate Circus that matches the archway at Oxford Circus. It is just a beautiful in and out to a section of Colonel Light Gardens. I was really pleased to see so many people come out to celebrate the opening, including members of the incredibly active and engaged Colonel Light Gardens Residents' Association.
There is also work well underway now in terms of the planning for the upgrades of Mortlock Park, particularly the Gil Langley Building there. That building really needed a little bit of work, so it is going to have work done on the existing building and will also have the addition of women's changerooms. I think it is so important to increase women's and girls' participation in sport more generally and particularly in that location football and baseball. Currently, the women and girls playing baseball are getting changed in the car park because it is really the only option for them, so I am really looking forward to that being built and us making it a much more welcoming place for our women and girls in sport.
Now we are going to jump over Springbank, but before we get all the way over, we did do a traffic study as promised on Springbank Road. There was a lot of community consultation and I do want to thank particularly Andrea and the community and others who did really fight for that traffic study to be committed to because we want to make Springbank Road safer, particularly for people coming across and going to and from Colonel Light Gardens and Lower Mitcham and between Clapham and Panorama, which heads over into the member for Waite's electorate.
We want to make it easy for people to come across to go to CC Hood Reserve, which I will speak about in a moment, to use their dog park and their playground and also for people coming from the south to the north to access local schools, such as Colonel Light Gardens Primary School and St Therese. That traffic study was done, and a recommendation has been put forward for a pedestrian actuated crossing just west of Eliza Place near Daniels Road. There are conversations now happening and I am advocating for the funding for that. The state government has been in conversation with the federal government to try to get funding for a joint project, which will be really excellent.
I did just mention CC Hood Reserve. That was another one of our commitments. One of the first things I committed to as a candidate was a $1 million upgrade to a very well loved reserve in Panorama. What we have going in there is, firstly, some soccer goals, and the next thing will be a mini basketball court with a basketball ring. We will also be having a pump track and an additional dog park for small dogs, which was something the community asked for.
Another part of that upgrade will be moving the playground closer to the toilet. As I am sure you all remember from my speech yesterday, you do not know how important a toilet is until you need it, especially with young children. I am not sure about other people's experiences, but I find that my daughter only realises she needs to go to the toilet when we have left home, despite me always encouraging a good-quality preventive wee as they all recommend in the TV show Bluey. Unfortunately, it does not always work, but I am glad that we have a toilet there and that the playground will be much closer to the toilet, which will be really great for the community.
As we head a little bit west, there is such great work happening at the Repat. There is so much excellent stuff going on, including a new six-bed facility called CARE which helps to divert some people, where appropriate, away from Flinders emergency and they are able to get the support they need at the Repat.
For anyone who drives down Daws Road or Goodwood Road, you have probably seen the ambulance station that is being built there. That ambulance station is going up pretty quickly, as far as builds go—I am quite impressed—and it is looking excellent. I cannot wait for it to open, hopefully by the end of the year, in our community. There are actually paramedics ready to go straight in there. At the moment, those additional paramedics are working from the Marion Ambulance Station in Mitchell Park, but as soon as our new ambulance station is completed they will be moving over there, which will be really great for our community and also really great for those workers, because at the moment they are probably feeling a little bit squishy with the Marion crew, so it will be really great for them to have their own space again.
Also, just across the road behind Springbank Secondary, we have the Pasadena Community Centre. I have spoken about this centre before, and I think it is so important to do this work that is all about connecting community. What happened before the election was the City of Mitcham purchased the old Sea Scouts hall in Pasadena because the community had fought really hard, asking for it to be purchased so that it could become a community centre. I committed, before the election, that our government—if we were successful—would give $500,000 towards that building becoming a community centre.
It has been incredibly special watching that community centre thrive and flourish. It is a little epicentre of the community and they do so many different things there. You can constantly see people on the Facebook page reaching out for help. The other day, they did not have someone to teach chess for the chess afternoon, and someone put up their hand and immediately went there. It is about creating these new connections and new conversations with the community, and making sure people have a sense of belonging that is really special. It not only feels good and makes your day better, it is also really great for our mental health.
What else have I got across Pasadena? We will head over to Clovelly Park now. This was not one of my election commitments, but this is something that our government has delivered, and that is a 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park. It has already been really well utilised in the times that it previously was not open, those late night hours. I spent one very stressful night just after the state election—if only we could have opened it that quickly—when my daughter had a fever of over 40° and she was so miserable.
An honourable member interjecting:
Ms CLANCY: I know! Little baby, she was so miserable. What I did not realise at the time, but I discovered the next day, was that she actually had COVID. Clearly, COVID had affected her tastebuds and she was refusing Nurofen—which normally she loves the taste of, weirdly, but she hated it. She was refusing Nurofen and that temperature was not going down on its own. I was putting messages in all the community groups that I am in, seeing if anyone happened to be awake at two or three in the morning and happened to have children's Panadol or children's Benadryl or something else that maybe she would take instead. It was incredibly stressful. I was also messaging a friend who is a nurse and a friend who is an ambo. They both instructed me to stay calm, not head to the hospital, not call an ambulance, that she was going to be okay, and I could try to bring down her temperature as best as I could until the shops opened in a couple of hours.
I found that support really helpful, but not everyone has those excellent healthcare professionals to talk to when you are worried about something like this. I can completely understand that some people would call an ambulance, which is obviously not something that we want to encourage unless it is absolutely necessary; but when you are a panicked parent, you can understand why people want to do it. By having these pharmacists open 24/7, it enables people of any age, no matter what their experience, to actually go talk to a healthcare professional, a pharmacist, and receive some support without having to go into our hospitals.
Just quickly, while we are talking about pharmacists, I want to mention again the changes that our government has made around UTI antibiotics. It is another great initiative that will mean fewer presentations to the ED. It can be really tricky to get into a GP. When you have a UTI, and you have had UTIs before, you know what is going on for you and you know what you need. If you are not able to get to a GP, it can get to a point where you need to go to hospital because it is spreading to your kidneys.
From personal experience, I can say that that is incredibly painful, and the last thing you want to do is walk into an ED doubled over in pain saying, 'I'm sorry, I should have gone to see a GP. I just couldn't get in,' or 'I couldn't afford it,' or 'I didn't have time.' Having the opportunity to go to a pharmacist and get the medical support you need is great. I am really excited—I think it may have started today or sometime this month—about similar changes for the contraceptive pill.
I got sidetracked by our exciting 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park, but now I will take you to Mitchell Park, where—you will not believe it—I am going to talk about toilets again. I was doorknocking as a candidate, and a number of people in the community around Maldon Avenue and the reserve there raised with me the fact that there were no local public toilets. I made an election commitment. We delivered on that election commitment. We had an opening of the toilet; it was very exciting. It had been christened by someone else, I am sure. We had a barbecue, the City of Marion provided a coffee van, and it was just a really lovely morning of, again, community connection.
The other day, I was back doorknocking in Mitchell Park because my job is talking to our community all the time, not just election time. One person said, 'My wife reckons she's the reason we have this toilet.' I said, 'Well, she is one of the reasons because she is one of the people who raised it with me before the election.' Then, another man stopped me as he was on the way to the park with his little girl and said, 'Local member, thank you so much for the toilet at Maldon Avenue Reserve. It means that we can have our daughter's three-year-old birthday party there in a couple of weeks' time.' It just shows that what seems to be a little thing can actually be quite a big thing for our community.
We are now going to go a little bit over and head to Tonsley. One thing that people raised with me, when I was doorknocking in Mitchell Park, was the fact that there were no toilets or drinking fountains available on the weekends in Tonsley. The Tonsley Innovation District and the precinct is really great. There is a big shaded, sheltered area where a lot of people go to teach their children how to ride their bikes or their scooters. I have taken my daughter there when I know it is going to be a 42⁰ day. I have taken her there in the morning to ride without the sun beating down on her and to help her get a bit worn out before we go and hide inside with the fan on and all the curtains closed. I know it is a really great place where people come together. I have been to a number of kids' birthday parties at the Tonsley, but obviously all of that is only possible now because we have ensured that toilets are available on the weekends and that there are drinking fountains. It is something I am really proud of.
Another thing that I am really excited about with Tonsley is the technical college that will be built there in the very near future. I am really excited about the skills that will be provided to our young people as a great alternative to university. There are more things to come in the electorate of Elder. One thing I know a lot of people are excited about is that, as part of the Torrens to Darlington project, we will be redoing the Raglan/South Road/Ackland/Edward Street area. It is not just one intersection; it is a bit of a dogleg. We will be making significant improvements to that space. Part of that will be a dedicated right-hand turn arrow for traffic heading west down Edward Street who want to turn right onto South Road. I am really excited about that. It is going to make a huge difference to traffic in the area. I believe it will significantly reduce rat-running because it will make it a lot easier for people to use that intersection.
More broadly, I am incredibly proud of other things we are doing across the state. In our healthcare system we have already recruited 691 extra nurses, 329 extra doctors, 219 extra ambos and 193 extra allied health workers. That is not to be sneezed at. That is an incredible effort that has been done by our government. I want to thank Minister Chris Picton for all his incredible hard work. We have opened the three 24/7 pharmacies and we are building and opening 150 more hospital beds this year and another 130 next year.
There has also been great work done in the education space. We have responded to the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. That response has been delivered. We have already built and opened the Findon Technical College with more to come, including Tonsley. We have passed the legislation to establish the new Adelaide University and funded an autism inclusion teacher for every public primary school.
In housing, we got rid of stamp duty for eligible first-home buyers, passed landmark reforms to residential tenancy laws, announced the largest land release in our state's history and announced the first substantial increase to public housing in a generation.
I am really proud of all that our government has achieved in our first two years and I am really looking forward to everything else we will deliver over the next two years.
