Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight in support of Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2009-2010 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2009-2010. I would like to talk about some of the economic activity that is happening in my electorate of Franklin. Of course, I am referring here primarily to the economic stimulus package and the money that is coming into my electorate. I was at a school, at a breakfast club, last week and, after the breakfast club, one of the school association members was so excited about the works going on at the school that she wanted to show me the latest update and she took me around the school and showed me the works that were underway there.

It is the same for every single primary school in my electorate that I visit. The school community, the parents, the children and the teachers are all saying that this investment in our schools is long overdue and that it is needed. But, more than that, when I talk to the contractors and work men and women on site at these schools they all say that the stimulus package supported jobs during the global financial crisis and they are all saying that it is helping the Tasmanian economy.

I have been going along to some of the projects. I went to a stimulus housing project just last week where there were six units on one site in one of the suburbs in my electorate. The contractor there told me that there were 20 jobs involved in building just those six units. We are getting at least 23 social housing units built in my electorate. It is a very significant investment in my electorate. We are expecting 23 social housing units in stage 1 and 88 in stage 2, with over $22 million being invested in Franklin’s social housing through the economic stimulus package.

We are seeing improvements around the schools from the National School Pride Program. There are many schools that have already completed some of those maintenance works. We also have defence housing. We have quite a few black spots in my electorate and as you drive down through the south of the electorate through Kingston and Huonville, as I did last week, you come across the projects and you can see the vast improvements that are being made to our roads as you go through.

We also have the community infrastructure projects. It was my great delight just last night, with the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the captain of the Australian cricket team, Ricky Ponting, to turn on the lights at Bellerive Oval which are being funded by our community infrastructure program through the economic stimulus package. These lights would not have happened without this federal government stimulus package. The state government is also funding half of the lights. The four towers are 56 metres high. People may have watched on TV the spectacle at Bellerive last night. It was indeed a great game. I certainly enjoyed the spectacle, and the lights added to the event. Not only that but they have also secured for Hobart and for Tasmanians future international matches which may not have happened had the lights not been installed. Not only were there 50 local jobs involved in erecting the light towers at Bellerive Oval but there are ongoing jobs with the economy from those games continuing to be played at Bellerive in cricket seasons to come. It was a great delight. I would like to congratulate the Tasmanian Cricket Association, the Australian cricket captain, Ricky Ponting, the state government and the federal minister for coming down and participating in that great event last night. It was certainly a great day for the punters at Bellerive Oval. It was a sold-out match. It was sold out two days beforehand. It was great to see that.

Also through our economic stimulus plan we have received $6.4 million for a trade training centre—which was an election commitment—in the Huon Valley in my electorate. It will be built at Huonville. Again, I was talking to local residents just last week and some of them were as yet unaware that the trade training centre was going to be built and they were absolutely thrilled that locals will be able to progress past year 10 in their local community. It has been a great project in my electorate.

We also have some election commitments that are being delivered on this week. I was very pleased to turn the sod on two election commitments in my electorate. One of those was the Kingston bypass, which Minister Albanese, the state minister and I turned a sod on just last evening. The Kingston bypass is a $41.5 million project, $15 million of which is coming from the federal government and the remainder from the state government. We are expecting that the Kingston bypass will be finished towards the end of 2012. We had a lot of locals at that announcement yesterday. In particular, I would like to mention the Kingston Bypass Action Group, who have been active in the local community and have been talking about this project in the community for some time. But it has only come to fruition since the Rudd Labor government delivered on their election commitment. There had been 12 years of talk and inaction by the Liberal Party and it was great to be there to see the state government, the local council and the Rudd government working together to actually deliver on this election commitment. I know the residents of Kingston, Blackmans Bay and the channel area are going to be really thrilled that this work is underway. I look forward to its completion towards the end of 2012 or early 2013. I think it will be 2.2 kilometres, but they have to build bridges, underpasses and overpasses, so it is quite a short time frame for such a project.

Early last week it was my privilege to also turn the sod on the GP superclinic which is being built in conjunction with the state government’s integrated care centre at Clarence in my electorate, just near my office in fact. The Parliamentary Secretary for Health, the member for Port Adelaide, came down to my electorate and I would like to thank him for doing that sod turning with me and the state minister for health. We are in the process of talking to local residents to make them aware that the GP superclinic is underway. We have certainly done a lot of consultation on the GP superclinic. The state minister and I conducted a community consultation. The state government has also been in many discussions with professionals and clinicians in relation to the services that will be at the GP superclinic and the integrated care centre. It is $5.5 million from the Rudd government for the superclinic and some $12 million from the state government for the integrated care centre, which will be co-located on site. So it is an $18 million investment in the local community, taking health services out to the local community so that the local residents in the area can come and access their health needs very close by indeed.

Just before Christmas I was at the opening of a local community centre. This was delivering on an election commitment, involving some $156,000 for the redevelopment of the community centre at Dennes Point. That redevelopment was made in conjunction with local council—again, the Kingborough council—and building is now complete. We have seen a lot of new services delivered to the local community of Dennes Point on Bruny Island in my electorate, which is certainly one of the beautiful places of the world. At Dennes Point the community centre now has an art gallery, a restaurant—and I understand that is up and running now; local residents have been emailing me little updates about what is happening at the centre—and I certainly look forward to returning there at some point to see all of that activity underway.

I have also delivered on the $10,000 promised for our local Rokeby Cricket Club. I went to see some of their practices over the summer at the Rokeby High School. They were practising in their new nets and it was fantastic to see. I am also in some discussions about the Huon Valley water scheme, which was another election commitment, with our new southern regional water board. I hope to be talking to them next week in relation to the Huon Valley water scheme. Work is underway already on the $10.5 million stage 1 of the south-east Tasmania recycled water scheme, which is another election commitment that I have delivered on in the electorate of Franklin.

As can be seen, the theme here is that the Rudd government has made election commitments in the electorate of Franklin. We have delivered on all of those. We have our trade training centre coming. We have our economic stimulus happening. What we have is a huge investment, unseen before in the electorate of Franklin, that is being relished by the local community and is employing local residents. Without this investment we would be in a much direr situation when it comes to employment in the electorate. I have been calling on the Liberal Party, who are saying that the economic stimulus package should be wound back, to say exactly which projects in the electorate of Franklin they intend to scrap. The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Warringah, has been quite vocal in saying that he thinks the NBN is a waste of money. So I hope for the sake of the residents of Tasmania the NBN is not going to be scrapped should the Liberal Party actually win the next federal election.

There are a whole range of activities going on in southern Tasmania and in my electorate, and we have seen even the state Liberal opposition leader say that he supports the economic stimulus package and that he is at odds with his federal colleagues over it. In fact, he has been on the record writing to support projects that are being funded under the economic stimulus package. It is quite interesting that all the local senators in southern Tasmania are silent in relation to the economic stimulus package. They are not saying which projects will be wound back. They are not saying which projects they will pull. They are not talking about scrapping the NBN. In fact, all you get from them is silence because they are too afraid to tell the people of Franklin what they will actually do should they win the next federal election. But what I have done is delivered on our election commitments. I am delivering on the economic stimulus package in the electorate of Franklin. The Rudd government is employing local Tasmanians because of these projects and I know that the residents in my electorate are very pleased that these election commitments are being delivered on and that the economic stimulus package is reaching the residents of Franklin.

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