Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The electorate of Mayo is home to some outstanding sporting clubs. One of them is the Onkaparinga Swimming Club whose home base pool is in the Woodside army barracks in the Adelaide Hills. It is a base with an uncertain future, and I would like to talk to you about this club. It has 80 members. Swimmers age from five to 75. There are programs for all abilities. It has members from across the Adelaide Hills and the city. This is a very special club. The Onkaparinga Swimming Club proudly welcomes swimmers with a disability. They are a valued and respected. Head coach, Pat, who has been with the club for more than 30 years, is dedicated to swimmers with a disability, which is important—that's what inclusion is all about.

The Onkaparinga Swimming Club is one of the state's best. Earlier this year, it won the country swimming championships. In fact, they've won 20 out of the last 25 titles. For more than three decades, the Onkaparinga Swimming Club has trained at Woodside Barracks. They've have done this year round, and the reason is that it's the only indoor pool—that I can think of—in the whole of the Adelaide Hills council. Adelaide Hills gets very, very cold from basically the middle of March through to—well, it's still cold even now.

Access to the pool is critical for the club's future, and this base and the facilities must remain open for not only Defence but our whole community. They have no guarantee on the future. There is nothing about a lease past December. They need certainty and they deserve certainty.