Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to raise the concerns of residents that live in Maslin Beach. I think Maslin Beach is a beautiful part of the southern suburbs with one of the most stunning coastlines in Australia and the world.

I was recently doorknocking in Maslin Beach to hear the concerns of the local community. As a result of that doorknocking, I issued a survey to find out what local council infrastructure is of real importance. People raised with me a whole lot of infrastructure issues and 90 local residents completed the survey—which was a very big response—covering a range of areas where they believed action needed to be taken.

People in Maslin Beach do feel like they are second-class citizens when it comes to basic things like footpaths, kerbing and guttering. This is something that many other suburbs of Adelaide enjoy but that has eluded the residents of Maslin Beach. For a lot of people wanting to get around the suburb easily—not only older people who may have difficulty walking but also people pushing prams or with young families—it is very difficult.

In addition, there are no shops in Maslin Beach. There is no little corner deli where people can go and get a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread, so they have to go to the Moana shops. Unfortunately, there is no safe way for them to get there. Even though it is not a huge distance, there is no walking track or pathway which allows them to walk there and this is of particular concern. For example, Mr Payne said:

Maslin Beach doesn't have any shops anymore and so you have to go to Moana if you want to do some shopping. The problem in a nutshell is that there is no safe path to get there at the moment. It's not very far but I know from walking with my wife it can get quite dicey because you basically have to walk in the road …

You have got to walk along Old Coach Road, which is very dangerous and there are a lot of cars travelling very fast along that road. This is an issue for the people in Maslin Beach, along with the other infrastructure issues, and I do call on the council to pay some attention to this suburb. They do not want to be second-class citizens; they do want to have the basic amenities. In addition, we need to look at what can be done on the local foreshore—not just for local residents but to attract tourists because, as I said, it is a very beautiful part of the world.

One thing that residents did show a lot of support for was the NBN. The rollout of the NBN is happening within a year. In Maslin Beach residents have a lot of trouble getting a good phone connection or a good internet connection and they have welcomed the fact that this government is rolling out the NBN to Maslin Beach sooner rather than later.

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