Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to give my support to a magnificent community vision for Red Hill. The vision is a very simple one. The Red Hill community have approached me, through the showgrounds committee, through the National Trust and also through community members. Their vision is of a community hub, a building which will operate both as a physical and as a social space for the community. They seek to take the opportunity provided by the sale of the grand and historic Church of Christ. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a community centre in this former Church of Christ property, which is currently up for sale. The church, through no fault of its own, is having to consolidate two of the church sites on the Mornington Peninsula, and therefore it is disposing of the Red Hill site.

What we have on the Red Hill site is a magnificent old building and a very useful major second building, on land right in the heart of Red Hill. The vision that has been put to me, and which I support completely, is of a community hub which draws together the National Trust, community organisations, a site for the Red Hill showgrounds and Red Hill Show Committee, and then a space in which visitors, tourists and others can come and have a sense of this grand, historic area, this town and agricultural site. I think this is a wonderful proposal.

The question then is: how would this work? The elements of the proposal are these. Firstly, the Red Hill show society has Scott House. Scott House is a building of questionable quality. I am told that it has a large fibrocement component to it. There are fears of asbestos. And it is in a space which would allow the Mornington Peninsula Shire to complete playing fields, tennis courts and other elements in the area of the old Red Hill showgrounds. If the council were to purchase the show society’s current building, that would enable the show society to contribute capital to the purchase of the Church of Christ building. In turn, the National Trust would contribute capital, and the council could assist with the fit-out. This is a great proposal for the community, and that is the way in which it can be done. The Church of Christ have indicated that they would give the community the chance to match any proposal made by a private bidder for their site, so they want to do the right thing.

These are the elements that have been brought together, and I urge the Mornington Peninsula shire to consider completing the sports facilities which they have very generously developed in Red Hill. This is a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation, opportunity, firstly, to complete the community sports facility in the Red Hill showground area; secondly, to give the Red Hill show committee the chance to have a permanent base in a facility which would be outstanding; and, thirdly, to give the community ownership, control and use for community purposes of facilities which include a hall and office facilities right in the heart of Red Hill. It is a great example of a very thoughtful community proposal. The players who need to be commended are the different community leaders who have come together to build the Red Hill community hub proposal; the showgrounds committee, in particular, Rob Breeschoten; and the National Trust, in particular, Gillian Tolley.

My strong proposal is to the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. I respectfully ask that they consider the proposal, that they look to complete their showgrounds sports facilities. This will bring all else together. I have made the commitment to work with state and federal governments to access programs under existing budgets which would allow for the fit-out and for the operational funding to be, in part or in whole, sourced from those levels. The Red Hill community hub is a great proposal for a great town, and I commend it to council. I thank all of those who have helped put it together.