Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Flying from Perth to Canberra on Sunday last week, I was fortunate to share a flight with the great singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. He was on his way home from performing in Perth at the Red Hot Summer Tour. Along with other Aussie icons like Bernard Fanning, Missy Higgins and Mark Seymour, he got to perform to a terrific crowd at the Sandalford winery, which happens to be in my electorate of Hasluck. It is an extraordinarily beautiful vineyard, and I had the good fortune to have lunch last week with Peter Prendiville, the family owner of the winery, and CEO Grant Brinklow. Firstly, I congratulate them for being a recipient of the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program. It's a testament to the investment that they have put in, which is being backed in and matched by federal funding. It was also an opportunity to understand their business aspirations for the area and their ideas on how we can fully capitalise on the value that comes from the Swan Valley.

Whilst I appreciate that Sandalford is one of the larger vineyards in the valley, I have also taken time over these past ten months to meet with a number of different businesses, including the myriad of businesses that support the Swan Chamber of Commerce, whose functions I enjoy regularly. I met with Andrea Romeo of Mondo Nougat, who has been a very strong advocate for making sure that the NBN and mobile phone coverage supports the business needs of the area. Unlike some other parts, particularly across metropolitan Perth and the peri-urban area, this is not a built-up, densely populated area, so it has been neglected for the last 10 years. We want to make sure that they have the support that they need to operate well because, whilst there are few businesses and few residents, the number of people that visit the region—half a million people a year—means they need access to the same services as everyone else. That is particularly so when doing transactions on EFTPOS and when running regular business but also when taking selfies to share to Instagram and TikTok. That's the way businesses are promoted. So we need to make sure that both the businesses and those visiting are able to have the full experience and then share it beyond to grow.

Understanding the value of the Swan Valley as well as the Perth Hills—the two of which have a strong alignment in terms of culture and history and the issues and challenges that we really want to work through—really does require coordinated development. The reality is that there are very few places in the world where just 15 to 20 kilometres from the city you can be amongst this beautiful area to enjoy and recreate. We really want to begin understanding how we can corral the issues together and have a constructive way forward.

Some of these issues are big. We're making significant investments in road and transport infrastructure. The intent is to make the roads more efficient, so people spend less time driving. That is fantastic, but this particular area is essentially a tourist trail. So we need to be sensitive to how we manage and balance the needs of people trying to navigate from east to west and north to south while also being mindful that this is a very precious tourist precinct and we want to keep that experience intact.

I've already alluded to the communications, but, both in the valley and up in the hills, the reliability is very ad hoc. In the hills, it's largely a terrain issue; it's very difficult for the regular towers to get through. So we are increasingly using satellites to address that problem. We are using science and technology to make advances there. Thankfully, the government has got a significant commitment to fix the NBN, so I'll be very pleased over the course of this term to see those issues resolved once and for all.

Public transport is also essential. My own parents, who I'm very pleased are actually here in the gallery with me today, lived out in Ellenbrook around 2006. My parents are very frequent users of public transport; it is their preferred means of travelling whenever possible. Sadly, the funding for the METRONET rail to get out to Ellenbrook was never backed in, to support the state at that time, so the project was continually delayed. Thankfully, it's back on track. The station is being built now, so we do expect the opportunity for people to be able to travel— (Time expired)