Barry Wakelin (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Travelling through my electorate in recent days has reminded me of the wonderful economic climate that we currently enjoy and of the progress that our community is making. I will mention a few examples here tonight. Cabinet Minister Warren Truss was in Port Lincoln on Saturday a week ago and opened a magnificent community centre at Ravendale in Port Lincoln. It was great to have him there and to celebrate the team effort of a whole range of local people who have put this magnificent facility together. It will serve the people of Port Lincoln extremely well in the years ahead.

The day before, after the parliamentary sitting week, I moved up into the Flinders Ranges to share with former Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Tim Fischer, a great celebration at Rawnsley Park, the facility of the Smith family, opening some magnificent ecocabins. They are magnificent structures and will serve the national, the state and the international tourist trade with distinction, I am sure.

Something with a little bit of difference is the community of Yalata. Not many Australians would know of Yalata perhaps. It is 200 kilometres to the west of Ceduna. It is an Aboriginal community. The old Lutheran church was falling down because of a white-ant problem and Lutherans and other denominations from all over Australia got together and built a magnificent structure at Yalata. The construction teams came in at least two waves from all over Australia to construct the church. In a service led by two Aboriginal pastors, we learnt of this great national team effort from those within the Christian community. As a local community leader said to me on the day, ‘Many always expect the government to do everything but we were determined to create this building with our own efforts.’

Last Wednesday evening at Tumby Bay I celebrated the school community skills centre at the Tumby Bay Area School. It has had magnificent leadership from the community and with some support from the federal government in supporting vocational education—to the tune of about $220,000—we are seeing the olive industry value adding and the young people getting alternative skills to give themselves a better chance to remain in their own community.

These success stories are just a small sample of the great achievements of this government—ever active and ever driving our nation forward, giving added opportunity to individuals.

On the aged care front, I had occasion to be in Port Lincoln once again, at the Matthew Flinders Nursing Home with their chief executive officer, Kent Crack, looking at a facility there to the value of about $3.5 million which will serve that community magnificently well. This was once again an example of cooperative effort, supported by a federal government which has seen a doubling in aged care in the last 10 years, from about $2.6 billion to about $5.2 billion.

Can I respond to the previous speaker, Mr Hayes, on workplace relations in the few seconds that I have left. When I listen to this set, stereotyped approach about 2c an hour and about not getting money for weekend work and public holidays and individual contracts, I am reminded of when I was trying to grow wheat as a small business and wondering where the next dollar and the next shower of rain was coming from. The whole marketplace—the whole community, quite frankly—was not interested in whether I was paid an extra 2c. They could not give a damn if I was paid nothing. The idea was to deliver a product. That was what I had grown up with. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.