Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to update the House on a very exciting project in my electorate of Swan. I have spoken about this before, but I thought I'd update the House. The Lathlain Precinct redevelopment of Lathlain Park is a $65 million project which will provide state-of-the-art training facilities and administration for the West Coast Eagles. The Eagles will be landing at Lathlain in my electorate.

The project is a major economic development in the electorate and will provide world-class facilities to our local community and also to the great state of WA. The upgrades include the construction of an interactive sport and cultural centre, two multi-use public ovals, barbecues and a playground and will also be the brand-new home of the Wirrpanda Foundation. I'm very proud to be part of a coalition government that invested $10 million into this redevelopment and committed a further $3 million to help relocate the Wirrpanda Foundation.

Just before we returned to Canberra for the parliamentary sitting a fortnight ago, the Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science joined me at the West Coast Eagles sod-turning event, a major milestone for this development. It was great to see the assistant minister don an Eagles scarf and get a few snaps with some of our legendary footballers like Nic Naitanui and Shannon Hurn, despite being GWS's No. 1 fan. I know the Eagles are up against the Giants in the finals this weekend, so it will be great to see the assistant minister daring to put the Eagles scarf back on when the Eagles pull off another great win against his team on Saturday night. Regardless of the result, it was great for him to see the community spirit in the club and, more broadly, how this development will positively impact our Swan community.

The federal government's contribution to the construction costs of the new Wirrpanda Foundation headquarters and the West Coast Eagles training, administration and community centre has enabled forward works to be completed and construction to commence. In January this year, the design development was completed, and oval 1 was ready for use by the Perth Demons football club for all of their home games in the 2017 season. I understand the club is now also training on oval 2, and I must mention that both ovals are at AFL standard. I know that the member for the Tigers is here, and he'd be interested to know that one is exactly the same size as the new stadium and the other one is the exact size of the MCG, so they're thinking ahead.

The completion of the entire project remains on schedule and on budget. I'd like to highlight the importance of infrastructure projects such as this, not only in creating jobs and growing our economy but in giving back to our local communities. The federal government's contribution to the project is enabling the West Coast Eagles, the Town of Victoria Park, the Wirrpanda Foundation and the Perth Football Club to come together and partner and engage with the community, government and the private sector to help address a range of social issues.

The Wirrpanda Foundation and the West Coast Eagles have been very active in engaging community through the forward works and preconstruction process. We've already seen this collaborative approach result in highly positive initiatives being undertaken to benefit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. This is an excellent result, and the Wirrpanda Foundation have been cited by all involved as a very professional organisation who are adding real benefits to the process of personal engagement.

The tender process for the main contract required applicants to detail their level of engagement with the Wirrpanda Foundation and their Indigenous commitment. Many of these companies prior to this process acknowledged that they could be doing more and, despite not being appointed as the main contractor, have continued to engage with the foundation. A few examples include the successful contractor, Perkins, which is now developing a reconciliation action plan. Another tenderer is investigating broader engagement with the foundation, while it is considering Wirrpanda Foundation in a larger scope of works. In addition to this, the Town of Victoria Park has employed an Indigenous person to the position of youth development trainee officer and is in the process of amending its tender process to include an engagement section.

Another key part of this project is the inclusion of the SAS Resources Trust. The West Coast Eagles have had a long and close relationship with the SAS Resources Trust, which I know the Minister for Veterans' Affairs would be interested in, so the club have committed to making state-of-the-art recovery and rehabilitation facilities available to them in the new complex. This is a great example of corporate social responsibility and what can be achieved when communities, clubs and government work together.

Mr Speaker, I'm sure you can tell that I'm very excited for the completion of this project and look forward to working closely with the West Coast Eagles, the Wirrpanda Foundation and the Town of Victoria Park throughout the remainder of the works on the Lathlain Precinct redevelopment. As I said before, the West Coast Eagles are playing GWS this weekend in Sydney. We're looking forward to a positive result for the West Coast, and I know that all my Western Australian colleagues will be supporting West Coast strongly. I know that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs is the strongest Tigers supporter in this place, and I'm sure he'll be looking for other victories from the Tigers as well, but hopefully we might meet in the grand final.

House adjourned at 20:00

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