Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to update the chamber on a number of things. One, the Casino Drill Hall is a very important historical and cultural building in the town of Casino. It was formerly used by the 3rd Platoon A Company of the 41st Battalion of the Royal New South Wales Regiment, which now parades in Lismore, and was used by numerous cadets and other Defence groups during World War II and World War I and at other times in our history. This was an important gathering place and training place. It is on a very prestigious piece of land in Casino. Five or six years ago, the hall became surplus to Defence requirements and the council were approached at the time to see if they wanted to buy it at a favourable amount, which at that time they did not. The Defence department, from that moment, started preparing the site for sale. It had some things that needed to be decontaminated—there were some chemicals, lead and such things in the soil and that was done. It went through a different planning process to take it through the hurdles so that it could be ready for sale.

The majority of the population of Casino were actually quite oblivious to all this. A lot of people did not realise the council had been approached and that the Defence department were in fact planning on selling it. That is, until last December, when the majority of the population were very aware that the Casino Drill Hall was up for sale because the auction signs went up. There was a community meeting held only about two or three weeks before the proposed auction, which I attended. There were well over 100 people at the meeting—probably more than 200 people—and the overwhelming will of that meeting was for me to come to Canberra and try to at least defer the auction so that the community could rally together and come up a proposal whereby they could buy the Casino Drill Hall to keep it in community hands. In fact, a proposal was put at that meeting for the drill hall to be turned into a historical museum—war museum or Army museum with artefacts et cetera.

I was in Canberra literally the week after that meeting and I went and saw the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Darren Chester, and put to him a proposal that the sale be deferred. I thank him for his cooperation. We were able to defer the sale and take the drill hall off the market just a matter of days before it was due to go to auction. Since that time, I have been in contact with a number of community groups in Casino. We are doing everything we can to secure the sale of the hall to the community as the deadline approaches. We were given a six-month extension to come up with a proposal. That actually passed a couple of weeks ago. I was able—again, with the cooperation of the parliamentary secretary—to get a one-month extension of our proposal to take back to the Department of Defence. Again, I am just updating the chamber that we have two or three weeks to go before we need to get a proposal to the Department of Defence and obviously, indeed, to Finance. Things are progressing well and I am very confident that as a community we are going to be able to put a proposal forward to both the defence department and the finance department that they will find satisfactory, and that this hall will stay in community hands and be turned into a military museum to recognise the region's contribution to the nation's defence forces.

Another issue I want to raise concerns the Casino saleyards. I am looking to obtain infrastructure funding for a number of things in my community and one of them is the Casino saleyards, otherwise known as the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange. It is the regional facility for the Northern Rivers and provides business opportunities for the local industry weekly. Council recently conducted a strategic review, which identified a backlog of significant workplace health and safety and maintenance issues, which were placing pressure on the financial viability of the facility. The continual minor upgrade/renewable approach funded by council was inefficient and ineffective in addressing the longstanding issues. The business plan shows the facility will be financially viable once existing improvements and the backlog of workplace health and safety issues are addressed. The financial modelling shows that the facility will be economically viable on the projected cattle sale numbers over the long term following this work, providing the workplace health and safety and animal welfare issues are addressed.

The council have put up $3.5 million for this upgrade and are asking for federal funding of $3.5 million as well. The greatest community benefit is the support of the widespread cattle industry of the Northern Rivers region. The Northern Rivers is known as a reliable source of young cattle, with the Casino saleyards acting as the primary exchange centre for this extensive cattle breeding area. This much-needed project will provide jobs in the primary beef production industry, supply chain and logistics. The project will address the capacity increase, the workplace health and safety issues and the animal welfare issues of the saleyards to reinforce the Casino saleyards' position as the pre-eminent exchange in the Northern Rivers region.

The works needed include roofing of the facility to permit soft-floor selling pens, which greatly improve the presentation of cattle and thereby returns, reducing the risk of cattle injury currently experienced on the concrete floors. The laneway gate and latch modifications will provide separation of cattle and workers, improving worker safety and processing speed. This project is essential for the modernisation and promotion of the region's strong cattle industry and will provide support to related local industries. I can inform the chamber that I am working to make sure that this much-needed infrastructure spend is provided so that we can improve the infrastructure for that facility in our region.

Also, last week I had one of the most enjoyable days at Heartfelt House in my community. Heartfelt House aims to provide an environment where adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse feel heard, nurtured, understood, validated, supported and accepted. Heartfelt House provides an 18-week course to help survivors in their healing process. The Alstonville based Heartfelt House has been providing support to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their family and friends in our community since 2005. I had the absolute honour to have been in contact with Vicki and Heidi and many other people who work there, a lot of them on a volunteer basis, with participants in the program. I heard sobering accounts when talking to participants of the program and from reading some of the accounts of survivors. As we know, most childhood sexual abuse occurs within the family unit. Many of their stories are quite harrowing and traumatic. Heartfelt House provides a wonderful, safe, nurturing facility where, once they have the courage, survivors can start to confront their issues. Heartfelt House takes them through the healing process.

The recent government announcement of $300,000 in funding for Heartfelt House will allow them to continue offering a wide range of services to adult survivors, including its 18-week Taking the First Steps program. It was due to run out on 30 June.

Again, I was very happy to secure the ongoing funding for this and announce it last week. Under the government's Strengthening Communities program, it will now have funding security which will allow it to develop sustainable plans to ensure the services it provides are always available to those in need. Again, I thank Heidi and Vicki for that.

The last thing I would like to mention is that the Kyogle local government area has many wooden bridges. I have been speaking to the mayor, Danielle Mulholland, recently. They urgently need money to replace Minneys Bridge on the Clarence Way, which has been closed to traffic since March last year. I am working and hoping to secure that funding.