House debates

Monday, 19 June 2017

Constituency Statements

Swan Electorate: Westralian Centre

10:33 am

Photo of Steve IronsSteve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the city of South Perth's proposed Westralian Centre, a multipurpose interpretive facility, public space and major tourist attraction on Sir James Mitchell Park. I understand that the proposed centre will be used to celebrate, commemorate and remember moments of local, state and national significance. The initial designs include an internal interpretation and exhibition space, an outdoor recreation interpretation space, a small theatrette, a cafe and restaurant, an office, public toilets and a gift and souvenir shop. The city plans to seek both federal and state funding for the project, currently estimated to cost $7 million.

As with all council projects, the City of South Perth has undertaken community and stakeholder consultation to seek feedback on the proposal. After receiving a petition from the City of South Perth Residents Association, the City of South Perth scheduled a special electors meeting, which was held on Thursday 8 June. The residents association also wrote to me to voice their concerns about the proposal, noting that they also have questions about the necessity for such a centre in this location, the rationale used to develop the concept, the impact planning, the capital and ongoing costs and a lack of consultation.

I attended the meeting along with about 450 residents and members of the South Perth community and the South Perth MLA, John McGrath. At the meeting it was obvious that there were many residents who were strongly against the current Westralian Centre proposal as it stands. Members might wonder why they were strongly against it. To start off with, when the project was first announced the wife of one of the councillors in that area put out misinformation and lies in a piece of literature and letterboxed it to the whole area—it sounds like a Labor Party campaign—which created a lot of angst in the community about what was going on, until the facts came out, but by that time it had steamrolled to a fairly anti-project stance. George Jones and Graham Miller, who are local identities, stood up and spoke for the project at the meeting. There were interjections and resident disapproval of what they were talking about. The City of South Perth has put forward proposals for this site in the past and each time it has faced organised opposition from the community. The people who live near the foreshore definitely do not want anything on their foreshore except open spaces.

A feasibility study was completed in May 2015, which the federal government funded, for a nine-lane-pool component of the aquatic centre, which has been costed at $8.9 million by the feasibility study. But that is not for the foreshore but for the George Burnett Park area. I would suggest to the City of South Perth that it pull that out of the archives and put that forward to the community, because that is what they want.