Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Sunday I have the honour to join Luke DeLutis, who is the director of Centre One, and members of the Hampton Park Networking Group to officially open the $3.2 million second stage of the Hampton Park Shopping Centre. This Sunday the Hampton Park community is coming together—and probably some people outside Hampton Park as well—to celebrate this shopping centre redevelopment. The Hampton Park community is a very special community. Without insulting other members that are present here, it is the sort of community that you would really want to represent. It is a unique community. Hampton Park was founded in 1920 and its population has grown to about 23,000. They have a lot of pride. This is an old-style community in a growing part of the world that takes its community very seriously. It is a place where you can drop in and have a cup of tea when you have any time. It has a very strong sense of community.

This redevelopment by Luke DeLutis and Centre One management is generating a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of pride within the community. The Hampton Park Shopping Centre itself was developed in 1994. Before Centre One came to the property development area in 2004, it was a shopping centre that had not reached its full potential, but now with this redevelopment it is moving in the right direction and it is certainly very encouraging. I think Luke DeLutis is a person who believes in social capital and the mixture of business working solidly with the community to achieve an outcome, and he has done a great job in this case.

Centre One work hand in hand with the Hampton Park Networking Group, and where would I start with that? Again, it is a great organisation filled with enthusiastic, motivated community members. It has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. It is a group that provides an avenue for networking, and it is a professional resource which proactively supports the local business community. The group organises great community events like the Community Kitchen Rules bake-off, the fashion show and the twilight market, and it is also involved in the Day of Nations, which commemorates Australia Day.

Hampton Park is, as I said, rapidly evolving and developing and has many people from different countries now making Australia their home. So I would like to congratulate Luke DeLutis and the Hampton Park Networking Group for this development, for their pride in their community and for wanting to give back to the Hampton Park community. It is going to be a great day this Sunday, and I encourage all the people in Hampton Park and surrounding areas to come to this shopping centre, which represents the best of what Hampton Park has to offer.