David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to draw the attention of the House to a community in the electorate of Wakefield, the community of Port Wakefield. Port Wakefield is in the north of the electorate of Wakefield and most people recall it as a fuel stop on long weekends and holidays, but it is a terrific example of democracy working in this country. Many people despair about our democracy and they say that the government is non-representative, that people do not listen and that bureaucracies do not respond. But there have been a couple of examples recently that bear testament to the strength of community engaging with government to get good outcomes.

Port Wakefield is a community that has a Defence establishment nearby, the Port Wakefield proof range, which has been an ordnance testing range for the Australian military since World War II. That is just one of a number of Defence establishments in Wakefield, which also include the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, RAAF Base Edinburgh and a number of Defence industry companies. The thing that has made the proof range stand out from the public’s perspective has been a large naval gun which has stood at the entrance road to the proof range for some 40 years. This gun has become synonymous with Port Wakefield and the proof range.

You can imagine, therefore, the dismay of the local community when they received, at very short notice, notification that the Department of Defence was going to remove the gun from the entrance to the range and that the gun was to go to Sydney, to a military museum. As it turns out, the military museum have a reasonable call on the gun. The history of the gun, which is a six-inch breach-loading gun, is that it was originally mounted on the HMAS Melbourne from the early 1900s to 1929. It was similar to guns which were used in Sydney for the defence of the harbour. Whilst it was never used at the Port Wakefield range, it is of exactly the same type and mark as the guns that defended Sydney Harbour. There is a strong association for the museum there that wished to show visitors to Sydney what sorts of guns protected the harbour, so there is a rationale for it to move.

It was, however, to the dismay of local residents, when they found out at short notice that the gun was going. They contacted my office to express their dismay and to find out what could be done. I mention in particular Mrs Wendy Garvie, who organised local residents and the local council. We helped her with getting a petition raised to express community concern, particularly of the point of view that Defence should, if they were to remove the gun, be looking to replace it. I am happy to say that the Minister for Defence, the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson, was very quick to lend his support, and Major Doug Mallet, the OC of the range at Port Wakefield, was also quick to identify the fact that they did have other guns at Port Wakefield that could be suitable for the purpose.

It is a good example of cooperation between local and federal governments that when this was raised with Phil Barry, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Wakefield Regional Council, he very quickly got on to the state government to make sure that issues such as land use and the liability issues of replacing the gun could be sorted out to clear the way for Defence to provide another weapon. So within the space of a couple of weeks we went from a situation where the gun was leaving with no replacement to one where locals had banded together and raised their concerns. Levels of government were able to work together effectively to find a replacement, and we are now in the position that Defence has identified several options and the local council and community are working with Defence to perhaps even look at relocating the gun into town.

Whilst it is a small thing, I believe it speaks volumes for the strength of the community and the strength of our democracy. It is certainly an indication of the strength of the Port Wakefield community, which is going ahead in leaps and bounds as a number of enterprises and industries realise the potential of the area and look to set up not only additional housing but also additional industry in the area. In conclusion, I congratulate Wendy Garvie and the residents of Port Wakefield and thank the local council and the ADF for working with us to achieve a good outcome for the residents.