Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It may have been quiet in the halls of this place over the midwinter recess, but it certainly wasn't quite in my electorate of Boothby. I was out and about in my community listening to my local residents. In early July, the Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, who's here with us in the chamber this morning, and I announced $145,000 in black spot funding to make the roundabout at the Grange Road Sussex Terrace and Salisbury Crescent intersection in Hawthorn and Colonel Light Gardens safer. I then went doorknocking in my community to find out what other local roads residents would like to see fixed on top of the ones already done at Daw Park, Warradale, Clapham, Seacombe Gardens and Brighton.

We saw milestones for the $620 million Darlington upgrade, with the first major traffic switch over the new bridge, and major excavation works beginning at the $174 million Oaklands Crossing Grade Separation.

I was delighted to attend the annual changeover dinners for our hardworking volunteers at the Rotary Clubs of Hold Fast Bay, Edwardstown and Brown Hill Creek, and the Lions Club of Blackwood, where we welcomed new presidents: Alan Larkin, Rodrigo Gomez-Camacho, Antoinette Lindquist and Chris Martin. Speaking of hardworking volunteers, no-one has worked harder or for more years than Ken Parnell on the Marion RSL's new children's playground, which we recently opened with Marion RSL president Trevor Chapman and the mayor of Marion. This project was supported by a federal government Stronger Communities grant.

I visited more hard workers who really care about our community at our local childcare centres. I met with centre director Natasha Olrich at Goodstart Early Learning, Somerton Park; Carol Carr at Goodstart, Clovelly Park; and Rhianna Hedley at Daws Road Early Learning Centre. There is always more work for elected members to do and I was grateful to my local mayors—Glenn Spear from the City of Mitcham, Kris Hanna from the City of Marion, Peter Hughes from the City of Unley and Amanda Wilson from the City of Holdfast Bay—for meeting with me to find out how we can continue to work together to deliver for our community.

It was wonderful to be able to work with local and state governments to support the many projects that are already underway in Boothby, which will deliver new sporting, community and infrastructure facilities for local residents. This includes the upgrade of St Mary's sports park, where I recently joined Mayor Glenn Spear, Carolyn Habib, John Schulz and the members of the Kenilworth footy club to celebrate the beginning of construction work on their clubrooms, for which I managed to secure $350,000 in federal funding.

These are just some of the things I have been doing since we were last in this place. I attend as many community events as I can and I get out and about to listen to residents so I can continue to deliver for them on the issues that matter.