Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

More than 200 people attended a Defence community information session about the Woodside Barracks, and I'm very pleased to see the assistant minister is here in the chamber. That's how important this site is to us as a community. The message from my community was very, very clear: we want to know what is happening and be involved in the future of the site. Many people, including me, are disappointed in the sale, particularly as the barracks are approaching their 100th anniversary next year, but now it's about what we do with this important piece of land into the future.

There's been strong community feedback. A survey that I ran found that 94 per cent of residents did not support housing on the site, so I'm very pleased that we've had assurances from the state housing and planning minister, Nick Champion, that there are no plans for residential and employment lands on that site. What do we want to see as a community? Now, we're going to create a working group and really articulate and form together what that vision looks like, whether that be recreation users, environment, wildlife value. We need to come together, because we want to ensure that our children's grandchildren are proud of what becomes of the Woodside Barracks a century from now. I thank the state minister, the Hon. Nick Champion, and I thank the departments, both Finance and Defence, for coming to our community.

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