Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, the Prime Minister visited my electorate of Swan, in the great state of Western Australia. It was a fantastic morning. The first stop was a visit to Kent Street Senior High School to launch National Science Week, which is running from 11 to 19 August. National Science Week is an annual celebration of science and technology and provides an opportunity for us to recognise the contributions made by our Australian scientists. One of those scientists is Kent Street Senior High School's very own science teacher Susie Urbaniak. In 2016 Susie was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools. Two years on, it was great for them to catch up and for the Prime Minister to meet her enthusiastic class of science students.

The next stop was Lathlain Park, to check out the progress of the redevelopment. In 2016 the coalition government provided $13 million towards the $68 million development of the park, to support jobs and economic growth in the Victoria Park area. I've spoken about this key development within my electorate a number of times in this chamber, and I'm pleased to update the House. It is looking fantastic, and I know the Swan community are eager to see the finished product. While at Lathlain Park, the home of Perth Demons, the Prime Minister and I met up with the Perth Football Club CEO, Marty Atkins, and the club president, Daryle Mann, and inspected the Perth Football Club grandstand, which is anything but grand. The existing grandstand is worn and decrepit and riddled with concrete cancer. The structure is well and truly in need of replacing. It was built in 1959—not a bad year, but it's something that we need to replace and bring into the 21st century.

The final stop on the tour of Swan was to a local business, Thermo King West in Welshpool—believe it or not, just streets away from where I started my first business, back in the 1980s. Steve Da Rui owns and runs his family business and last year was a recipient of a $20,000 grant under our government's Entrepreneurs' Program. The Entrepreneurs' Program provided Mr Da Rui with access to a business mentor who came in every week for a year to work with him, to get the processes right for his business. Steve explained to the Prime Minister that he'd struggled initially, but, with the enterprise part of the business, they've been able to develop not only their apprenticeship scheme but also their senior technicians, every week. It's allowed them to streamline their processes and come back 12 months later with a far more effective structure. I'd like to congratulate Steve on his success and thank him for hosting us last week.

I'd also like to thank the Prime Minister again for joining me to see just three of the exciting things that are going on in Swan. While we were at Perth Football Club, we managed to meet with the local butchers from Exclusive Meats, who are running the 'Every butcher needs a farmer' program, which will be launched on 1 September, with barbecues outside the independent butchers, to raise money for drought-stricken farmers in New South Wales.

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