Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to congratulate the member for Bonner on his first speech on the second time around that he has come into this House. I am very delighted and very proud to be back in the chamber today, having been elected as a member of the Gillard Labor government and returned as the member for Hindmarsh for a third term. It is a great honour that the people of my electorate—more of them this time than ever before—have entrusted their vote to me and have asked me to represent them in this place again. I thank them sincerely for their vote of confidence. It is with even more energy, determination and passion that I return to this place with the sole purpose to fight for what is important to my constituents in the electorate and deliver what is needed for the community.

If I look back over the last three years at some of the achievements over the last term, I see that among them are that all Australians now have an independent umpire, an airport noise ombudsman. We heard about that in the debate on the airports bill yesterday, and I know that you, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelvin Thomson, made a very good contribution to that particular bill. It is very important for the residents who live in and around airports that they do have an independent umpire, something I have fought for unrelentingly for many years. I wished to ensure that there was an independent person to look at these people’s queries and complaints and to investigate them in an impartial way.

Another achievement in the electorate of Hindmarsh is in Glenelg, where there is a new federally funded King Street bridge and federally funded CCTV cameras for the precinct. There is also a water pipeline, the Glenelg to Adelaide pipeline, which will help South Australia save up to 5.5 billion litres of water per year. And there is money for a new headquarters in the electorate, at West Beach, for Surf Life Saving South Australia so that they can continue to do their important training work. These are just some of the things that I have worked very hard with the community to deliver over the last term of government. But I am humbled, as I said earlier, that the good people of Hindmarsh have recognised that and asked me to do the job of representing them for another term.

Before I speak a bit more about all those projects, I would like to quickly take a moment to thank the people who have supported my campaign. As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker, without the support of one’s family things would be impossible to achieve. It was the sixth federal campaign that my family has been through. The support that they give me—and their patience—is nothing short of miraculous, as those of us in this place with families all know. To all the volunteers who helped put up corflutes, letterboxed flyers, doorknocked, made phone calls and lent a hand for all sorts of odd jobs, thank you for your important and valuable support. Many of the volunteers who helped out have been helping my campaign for a long time, and I thank them very sincerely for their ongoing dedication to the Labor cause in Hindmarsh and Australia.

As I said, for me the last three years have been very rewarding because I have been able to deliver a series of projects which are important to the electorate as well as more broadly. I will take a moment to outline them for the House. Of all the campaigns I have been involved in there is no doubt that getting the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman up and running has been one of the hardest. In opposition I had two private member’s bills in this House that fell on deaf ears, so I am very pleased that the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon. Anthony Albanese, has brought these to fruition.

I started campaigning for the rights of residents living under the flight path well before I was a politician or even a political candidate. I live under the flight path and have lived under it all my life. To ensure that there was a voice for the residents, from the early eighties I have been involved with the community groups that appeared in and around the area. It has taken more than a decade including, as I said, two private member’s bills which I put up in opposition. In the end we finally got a federal Labor government back and we got the common sense regarding an ombudsman as well. As I said, I would like to thank Minister Albanese sincerely for his support over many years on this particular issue because he has applied the sort of common sense to the issue sorely lacking by those opposite.

Unless you have lived under the flight path yourself it is hard to understand how over the years aircraft noise can grind you down when it happens day after day, week after week and year after year. You see the sleep-deprived residents sometimes, and it is something I am familiar with after spending, as I said, my entire life living under that flight path. After thousands of letters, phone calls, emails and faxes to my office over the years about aircraft noise we can finally provide the constituents of Hindmarsh with a place to get the sort of help they are looking for. After this great slog, which has been the longest campaign of my life, it was with great satisfaction that I saw the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman come into effect on 1 September 2010.

I heard the debate over the last few days on the Airports Amendment Bill. It was quite sad to hear the opposition procrastinating and talking negatively about the good things that came out of that bill. I suppose it is sad that the coalition always gives transport to a National, because I think a Liberal Party member would have been more understanding of the thousands of people that live around privatised capital city airports. All you have to do is look at the current minister, Minister Albanese, to see what a contrast he is to the former Nationals minister and look at what a difference there is when we see what is being delivered for residents that live around airports.

For my electorate this matter is very important especially for the community groups and for people like Bob Owen and the Netley Residents Association. The Aircraft Noise Ombudsman is a huge improvement on the old system and will help to maintain the good balance we have between the needs of airports, airlines and communities, especially in the western suburbs in Adelaide. I think we are incredibly lucky to have such a fantastic hub, which is only six kilometres from the CBD, but we need that good balance because there are residents in and around those six kays from the CBD.

Another issue in the electorate was law and order and it is a concern of many people living in the electorate, which is one of the demographically oldest in the country. I was very pleased when the Minister for Home Affairs responded to lobbying from the community and the Neighbourhood Watch groups and announced $350,000 worth of CCTV cameras and other safety measures for Glenelg.

Glenelg is the second most visited tourist destination in South Australia. Over two million visitors come to Glenelg annually and the local businesses are constantly striving to attract even more. I am grateful for the work of the tourism forum in Glenelg. The traders association, along with the tourism forum, are strong supporters of tourism, along with the strong support from the local council. Councillor Tim Looker constantly strives to maintain the vibrancy and attractiveness of the area. It is a never-ending effort, and a major event or a high profile visitor lifts both the income and spirits of local businesses, but with this comes the need to ensure that the area is safe and friendly for visitors and locals alike.

Local groups such as Glenelg Neighbourhood Watch, the Jetty Road Mainstreet Board, the Glenelg Residents Association and the City of Holdfast Bay work together to ensure there is a good balance between the interests of businesses and residents. It was a combination of these groups who as early as 2009 raised the issue with me of the need for more CCTV cameras and safety measures in Glenelg to help combat crime and antisocial behaviour in the area.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone who participated in extensive consultations directly with the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, who visited my electorate three times to personally consult with the stakeholders. Some of those stakeholders were Senior Constable First Class Michael McMorrow from Glenelg Police Station, who brought this need to my attention in his role as the Glenelg Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer as early as 2009. Also I mention the City of Holdfast Bay council, who will be receiving the funding in order to implement the measures. We met with Chief Inspector Les Buckley from the Sturt Police Station, who got up very early on a cold and rainy Sunday morning to come to the meeting with the minister to discuss these projects.

The Taxi Council of South Australia was involved as well and the President, Wally Sievers, had also been of great assistance in providing advice to ensure taxi drivers were protected. As an ex taxi driver, who knows the risks of working late at night, I am pleased that one of the cameras is going to be relocated for a better view of the taxi rank. With this new funding the council will put in several new CCTV cameras to help detect and deter crime, which will be invaluable to our local police station and invaluable for the local community. I look forward to continuing to work with all of these groups over the next term to deliver on other local projects which are important to them and which will help to maintain Glenelg as the second-largest tourism destination in South Australia.

The Glenelg to Adelaide pipeline is another project that is significant not just in my electorate but for the whole of Adelaide, because it will recycle up to 5.5 billion litres of water per year for use on our parks and gardens and will help to protect our precious coastline at the same time. Before the pipeline was in place, billions of litres of storm and waste water was discharged into the Gulf St Vincent, killing sea grasses and diminishing our fragile coastal ecosystems. At the same time, the need to find a way to use water in Adelaide’s parks and gardens sustainably is becoming even more acute. After many years which I spent campaigning for the pipeline alongside the City of West Torrens and its mayor, the Hon. John Trainer, it was funded jointly by the state and federal governments. It cost $76 million in total and was completed in January 2010, months ahead of schedule. It really is something that we can be proud of because it means that instead of letting our beautiful parklands in and around Adelaide’s metropolitan areas die over summer we can now maintain those green spaces using recycled water.

I could not be more pleased that we have overcome the obstacles. We have saved the gulf and secured billions of litres of water for community benefit for many years to come. It is interesting that now they are in opposition the Liberal Party are making a lot of noise about water, because I recall that when I was sitting on the other side many years of fruitless lobbying for this pipeline fell on deaf ears. So I was very pleased to have had the opportunity to attend the opening of the Glenelg to Adelaide pipeline earlier this year with Premier Mike Rann, the Hon. Penny Wong, the Hon. Jay Weatherill, the Hon. Karlene Maywald, who was the then minister for water, and the then member for Adelaide, the Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith.

On a visit to Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant with Minister Burke and the South Australian water minister, the Hon. Paul Caica, earlier this year, I was impressed to hear that the quality of the water they are producing is so good that it is only one step away from being of drinking quality. I know that the City of West Torrens Council is particularly interested in and looking forward to making use of the water from the pipeline and I thank Mayor John Trainer for his support for this project as well. Driving around Adelaide you can actually see the light-purple coloured pipes on taps in various places, and it gives me great confidence in the future to know that we have found and implemented a common-sense solution to what is going to be an increasingly common problem in the future. This project complements another project in my electorate funded by federal Labor for just under $5 million, as part of the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan, for a new stormwater capture project at Adelaide Airport, which is naturally filtering water using a wetland environment.

It is particularly timely that I talk about federal Labor’s commitment to fund the new headquarters of Surf Central, because it has already started to warm up in Adelaide and the beaches are coming alive with families, tourists, athletes and surf lifesavers. Those of you who are familiar with my electorate probably know that we have some of the most incredible beaches, from Semaphore in the north down to Henley, Grange, West Beach, Glenelg and Somerton Park. But they also come with the need for well-supported lifesaving organisations which are adequately resourced to patrol our beaches and to keep the swimmers safe and provide important water safety and first-aid training to the general community.

It is an unfortunate fact that, while South Australia is a leader in humanitarian settlement, many refugees do not know how to swim, and there have been several reports of refugees drowning on our beaches over the last few years. As well as running programs for the mainstream community, Surf Life Saving South Australia has been a leader in welcoming refugees and new migrants into its clubs and supporting them to become leaders in their own right in the community when it comes to surf and water safety. Surf Life Saving South Australia also runs respite programs to give children with disabilities the chance to experience the beach while letting their carers have a break. It was for these reasons in particular that I lobbied hard to ensure it received the $1.5 million it needed to build its new headquarters.

The Roads to Recovery program has delivered real benefits for communities right across Australia, as we know, providing much needed infrastructure upgrades and helping to support jobs through the worst financial crisis. I have been pleased that my local area in Hindmarsh has benefited from the program through a funding commitment which will deliver more than $4.5 million over five years for the new King Street bridge in Glenelg. I have often talked about the importance of the Glenelg tourist precinct to South Australia and the state economy, and it was absolutely critical that the ageing bridge be replaced. That is why it was a great feeling when it was announced that Labor would fund the bridge, with the local council providing the matching funds.

Federal Labor has also been doing fantastic work on infrastructure, and Hindmarsh has seen some wonderful initiatives as a result of that work. In particular, I would like to celebrate the successes of the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which has delivered money for local sports clubs in my electorate, including funding for lighting and infrastructure upgrades for Richmond Oval and Glenelg Oval to the tune of well over $170,000. We also have several fantastic new bike paths which we did not have before, including the James Melrose pathway and the dual use pathway at West Lakes, as well as additional bike lines along the seafront of my electorate. These projects will help get more people out of cars and onto bikes more often, and I applaud the government for their common-sense approach to helping people make everyday changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and increase physical activity.

One of the main reasons I am proud to be a member of this Labor government is its belief in providing opportunities within our education system for children to achieve their very best, including the facilities they need to succeed. That is why it has been so heart warming to receive thanks from parents, school teachers and students for the new libraries, gyms and classrooms which have been built under Building the Education Revolution. I have recently had the pleasure of attending many openings at schools around the electorate, and the sense of excitement about the new facilities is always palpable from the teachers, students and parents.

For me, one of the most exciting parts of Labor’s education commitments has been seeing the opening of trade training centres in schools in Hindmarsh, including at my old high school, Underdale High, which now has an automotive trade training centre. It was great to attend the opening of Henley High School’s engineering and construction trade training centre, which was already buzzing with students working on their projects, and I am very much looking forward to returning to Thebarton Senior College—I was there just last week to see the building progress—when their trade training centre is complete.

Alongside education, there is no doubt that one of the biggest concerns in the electorate, and one which is raised with me most often, is health care, so I am looking forward to contributing to the health and hospital reform set out by the Labor government before the election. Dental care is an issue which I am hugely passionate about and, having seen the Liberal Party block much-needed dental care in the 42nd Parliament, I am hoping that we will be able to find a way forward in this one.

Over the last term, you can see that there has been an awful lot happening in my electorate, but there is plenty more to come. I reaffirm my commitment to the people of Hindmarsh that I will continue to work as hard as I can with the Gillard Labor government towards the things that matter to them—things like a reformed healthcare system, decent dental care, a greater focus on sustainability and the environment, and of course the National Broadband Network, which will help modernise our economy and ensure that we are well placed to meet the challenges of the 21st century and a globalised economy. All of these things are important to the people of Hindmarsh and so they are important to me. I look forward to serving the electorate over the next term and thank them again for the opportunity to be their voice here in Canberra.

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