Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The appropriations bills—these being Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020—are always great opportunities to talk about what we as a government are doing prosecuting our national agenda. I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about a few projects that are taking place in my electorate at a really local level that are very important for the people in those communities.

I'll start with the Sturt Reserve at Murray Bridge. Our government is investing in our regions. We're making our regions better places to live and work, and this of course includes Murray Bridge in my electorate of Barker. Murray Bridge is in fact one of the largest communities of my electorate. It's indeed known as a rural city. The township centres on the Murray River. It's a river that in this place we're quite familiar talking about because of its importance to so many communities dotted along the length of that mighty river, communities which rely on that water for their economic, social and environmental benefits. It's the lifeblood of many communities and towns in my electorate, and Murray Bridge is no exception. Murray Bridge is a beautiful part of the river, but over the past century-and-a-half the town has grown, shopping centres have been built and the river bank has not, in my view, been developed to its full potential.

Sturt Reserve is a wonderful open area that facilitates enjoyment of the river. It's home to the Murray Bridge Rowing Club, the Murray Bridge community club, the Murray Bridge Lawn Tennis Association and the popular Riverscape café, but it's in need of upgrade to realise the full socioeconomic potential of the riverfront. That's why our government has invested $200,000 that will support the new Murray Bridge war memorial, which is to be located at the Sturt Reserve. Interestingly, Murray Bridge has never had an appropriate war memorial, and it's our government, in partnership with the rural city Murray Bridge and the Murray Bridge RSL, that will deliver that for this community. This is important because it's obvious that we need to continue to recognise the contribution of our local veterans. In partnership with the local RSL and council, this new memorial will provide that opportunity at this improved location. The new memorial will be a place of peace, tranquillity, reflection and commemoration where future generations can pay their respects to those who have served our nation.

Our government is investing in this council project upgrade to the Sturt Reserve Precinct as well. We recently provided $1.35 million from our government's Building Better Regions Fund that will help deliver a $3 million project to reinvigorate the recreation precinct, which will include a new boat ramp and parking areas. This will help unlock tourism and community potential at the site and improve access to the Murray River and the heart of Murray Bridge.

The Building Better Regions Fund has also delivered funding for the Murray Bridge Rowing Club, located at the Sturt Reserve, for a regional rowing facility to be built there. This will not only be a regional rowing facility but I hope will become our state's rowing centre of excellence. And our government's Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program has helped see upgrades to the Murray Bridge Lawn Tennis Association clubrooms, located—you guessed it!—at Sturt Reserve.

These individual projects all contribute to an improved lifestyle in the Murraylands. They all find themselves at Sturt Reserve, because that is becoming very much the beating heart of Murray Bridge's social infrastructure. It's projects like these that make regional communities even better places to live, work and raise a family. I'm excited about the vision that the rural city of Murray Bridge has for Sturt Reserve, and I'm doing everything I can to make their vision a reality.

Our government is supporting community infrastructure through the Community Development Grants Program to promote stable, secure and viable local and regional economies. This program is funding a number of projects across local communities making a real difference to the lives of Australians everywhere, including in the small timber town in my electorate of Nangwarry. It's a town of roughly 500 people 30km north of Mount Gambia, and, although small, Nangwarry is large in community spirit.

The Nangwarry Saints footy and netty club are significant assets to the Nangwarry community. Once a powerhouse, winning four flags between 1993 and 1999, I'm disappointed to report to the House they haven't won a game for a while, but it makes no difference to the club's spirit or the importance of those clubs to that town. Understandably, community morale took a hit when a fire destroyed the Saint's clubrooms, chaired by the netball club, on 9 January 2019. It was an arson attack, and anger was raised. That being said, support from not just the Nangwarry community itself but the whole of the south-east region poured in. In fact, it came from across the state. There were funding programs, there were fundraising events and there was even a joint training session, with rival clubs coming to the Nangwarry oval to support their fellow teams.

Without clubrooms, members have used the Nangwarry swimming pool's facilities and the Nangwarry Forestry Museum for larger functions. However, I'm pleased to confirm our government is contributing $200,000 to the rebuild through our Community Development Grants Program, because our government knows how important this club is for that town and the south-east region. Like many regional towns, footy clubs are the central part of local communities. Nangwarry is no different. It has a 54-year proud history and is critically important to the future of Nangwarry. I am very much looking forward to the finalisation of those plans and shovels going in the ground.

I want to take this opportunity also to talk about work that I'm doing to support the local Limestone Coast Foodbank, which is based in Mount Gambier. Deputy Speaker Georganas, you know, as I do, that Foodbank is an exceptional organisation with locations all over the country. Its core concept is a simple one: to supply food to those in need, redistributing surplus goods that for various commercial reasons can't be sold or are surplus to requirements. In short, it's the perfect solution to a very real problem for many people struggling to put food on the table.

The Limestone Coast Foodbank began with the late Barry Maney OAM some 15 years ago. I'm proud to say I knew Barry, and he was someone who I very much looked up to in the community. Barry and his wife Shirley were instrumental in the establishment of the regional Foodbank. In my view it's Barry's greatest legacy to the city of Mount Gambier. Foodbank in Mount Gambier was first opened in 2005 and, since then, has distributed over a million kilograms of food to the residents of the Limestone Coast. In March last year our government announced funding to help Foodbank purchase, expand and renovate the premises they're currently in.

Foodbank SA continues to play a vital role in the Limestone Coast community as it grows its presence and distributes more and more food to people than ever before. Our government funding will be used to expand the coolroom and freezer capacity to accommodate more fresh fruit and vegetables as well as frozen products, including meat. We all know how important fresh fruit and vegetables are to all our diets but particularly for those people who are struggling to make ends meet.

To help offset the facility's operating cost, additional solar panels will also be installed using this funding. Not only is the federal government funding ensuring the Limestone Coast Food Hub remains a sustainable part of the Limestone Coast community but it will be able to increase the services offered by dint of the fact that we're providing this funding. This is yet another example of the Community Development Program promoting stable, secure, caring and giving communities. I congratulate all the volunteers at Foodbank Limestone Coast. I look forward to continuing to work with them to deliver for people in need.

Finally, I want to speak briefly about the Riverland Dinghy Derby, which takes place every year in the Riverland town of Renmark. The Riverland Dinghy Derby is a highlight on the social calendar for those living in the Riverland. It brings visitors from all around the country to compete or, as I did this year, to take the opportunity to watch. The event is said to have begun in 1981 when a few mates made a bet about how fast they could race some tinnies. I said recently, at the opening of this year's event, that I can't think of anything more Australian: blokes racing their tinnies, an event which has come to great heights but started as a bet between mates, no doubt over a beer, with one mate boasting to another that he was he could drive or navigate a tinnie faster than his mate.

In any event, that's when the dinghy derby started. Forty years later the event now attracts huge crowds of spectators along the creeks and river to watch drivers and navigators peel past snags, hidden logs and various course obstacles. One of the particular bends is called Carnage. There is Carnage 2, or New Carnage. It gives you an idea of the event. They are very brave drivers and navigators.

If I look at the club today it's hard to imagine whether anyone had an idea of what it was to become. This year over 100 competitors joined the race, which I was pleased to attend and officially open. The full weekend event has six rounds, from the Dash 4 Cash to the Hunchee, with five classes of entries, from standard to sports. A team of officials overseas each event, with the weekend culminating in the presentation of four trophies. I'm pleased to report that river safety is taken very seriously.

This is the kind of regional event that is great for local communities and their economies. It's why our government is investing in projects that support clubs like the Riverland Dinghy Club. On behalf of the government I was pleased, in the lead-up to the election, to announce $100,000 that will go towards the building of club rooms for the dinghy club. This increasingly popular event will benefit from the new infrastructure and have wider benefits for the Riverland community, helping to promote stable, secure and viable economies.

By highlighting these four local projects across a broad range of endeavours, for anyone who may be listening and those who subsequently may take the opportunity via Facebook post or other things, I hope to highlight that good government is about providing leadership at a national level but also at a local level. My electorate is a complex patchwork of communities. There are communities within regions, communities within communities. For example, the community of Renmark is a particularly strong one, which you're familiar with given your cultural links, Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, but there are those within the Renmark community who are part of the dinghy derby community. That's so strong, in terms of community links, that it's almost a family. It is important that we provide support to these organisations because the volunteers who run events like the dinghy derby do it in their own time. They don't ask much in return. It's a particular boon for the Riverland and Renmark communities during the weekend of the dinghy derby. It fills the hotels; the bars are full; accommodation is brimming. They do it and ask very little in return. The very least we can do in support of these endeavours is to provide them with the infrastructure they need to make the volunteering they do so much easier.

That's exactly what the $100,000 for the Riverland Dinghy Club will do. It will provide the capital they need to redevelop their club rooms, which means that the current tin shed they're operating from—I visited it, but unfortunately we couldn't get inside because it was so full of the kind of equipment you need to run the event—will be laid out correctly. It will be a place for them to meet. It will be social capital for that community. This facility will be available to be used by other members of the Riverland and Renmark communities. A small investment from that capital means their volunteering is made easier, they're more likely to volunteer and the event is likely to be sustainable. It is exactly the sort of project we need to be investing in as a government.

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