Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike my friend the member for Forrest opposite, my glass is half full rather than half empty. I am very pleased today to be able to announce that a future constituent of mine in the Braddon electorate is in the gallery today—Taya Cropper, from St Brendan-Shaw College. I welcome Taya and her colleagues in the Rotary-parliamentary education exchange. Congratulations to you all. I hope you are getting everything you wanted from this and that you are finding it interesting.

I will use my time, if I may, to congratulate this government and the community I come from on achieving some important funding grants which are going to make my community even better than it is now. Just to remind you, I come from the north-west coast of Tasmania. It is a beautiful place. My communities are united and yet at the same time my electorate is divided into lots of different little towns, all the way along the coast and all with their individual character.

The good news I was able to announce last Friday, particularly through the work of the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, the Minister for Sport and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet—and not forgetting the Minister for Health and Ageing—was the resurrection of $1 million that went missing, hidden somewhere in the system since 2004. I give recognition to the former government for dishing out a bit of dough, but the money went missing and we never knew what was going to happen to it. They tried to resurrect it in the last week of the election campaign, but, of course, like everything else it was all form and no substance and we had to find it and use it.

So we have used it and we were able to offer $1 million to the Burnie City Council to enhance the programs that they have been progressively introducing since the mid-1990s, when, as members might remember, we had very serious issues with the closure of our pulp mill and the downgrading of the paper mill. In fact, rather than just being depressed as they were used to being depressed, as manufacturing was closing down, Burnie—along with the north-west coast but particularly Burnie—decided to invest in itself, to have faith in itself and to look up and out rather than down.

They developed a strategy for rejuvenating their community that involved some fundamental principles that have been applied broadly to the city’s development, which I would like to share with you: valuing Bumie’s unique places, upholding the arts and people’s ability to express their creativity, rebuilding a strong sense of community through events that embrace the whole of the community, engaging youth as the future lifeblood of the region and investing in significant infrastructure to help people feel proud of their city again.

To enhance that, to support people who are already helping themselves, the $1 million was used in a way that was determined by that community. It was shared as follows. $450,000 went towards the redevelopment of the Burnie United Soccer and Sporting Club facilities. This is a great soccer club with a great tradition but, let me tell you, its facilities really are second-rate. In actual fact, because they have to share the same change room, the girls team will come and hold the change room door so the girls can change. When they have finished, the blokes will come and hold the door so they can change and then out they trot. That is over 150 club participants in a sport 1,000 strong in that region. I would say they are very much in need of these funds.

$350,000 has gone towards the development of an indoor sports facility at West Park. This is the first stage of a long-term development of sporting facilities at the city’s premier sporting arena and it is complemented by the $3 million we have committed to developing the Burnie waterfront precinct and sports area. Finally, $200,000 has gone towards the relocation of the Burnie Bowls Club to Les Clark Oval. This will, again, complement and enhance the sporting facilities of the Burnie region.

It is great to be able to announce good news, it is great to have one of our fellow citizens here and it was lovely to meet her earlier today.