Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and what a pleasure to be in the same chamber once more. I rise this afternoon to request that the government commence planning to put a new Centrelink office and associated government services into the new Coomera town centre which is planned to be built over the coming four years in the middle of the electorate of Fadden. There are currently two consortia looking to construct a range of shopping and town centre facilities in the middle of Fadden, being Macquarie Leisure and Westfield. Whilst the outcome of the applications that those organisations have put in is yet to come from the Gold Coast City Council, the council has indicated they are strongly supportive of putting a Coomera town centre or shopping precinct in the middle of Fadden.

Whatever the outcome, Fadden is the fastest growing electorate in the nation. Between the 2001 and the 2006 censuses, Fadden grew by a staggering 31.6 per cent. In the 2006 census, 54 per cent of the people there had actually moved home or moved into the area before or in between the 2001 and 2006 censuses. To highlight the extent by which the electorate of Fadden has grown, the next largest growth area is the seat of Sydney, and the seat of Sydney has only grown by 25 per cent—still remarkable in that time, but even more remarkable is that Fadden has grown by 31.6 per cent.

So, considering this remarkable growth and considering that the council will approve a town centre of sorts in Coomera, we desperately need the services of a post office and a Centrelink office and the associated government services, which include access to Medicare claims. There are currently 95,000 people on the electoral roll in Fadden, and over 55,000 addresses. Twenty-five thousand people access and use the benefits provided by Centrelink. There are two Centrelink offices on the very southern border of Fadden with Moncrieff: one at Biggera Waters and one in Nerang. But the next one with respect to the electorate is 36 kilometres north, at Beenleigh. In between those areas lies the growth corridor of Coomera, Upper Coomera, Stapylton, Woongoolba, Ormeau, Yatala and places like that. This growth corridor is set to grow even more.

Over 75,000 people are calling Queensland home each year as they move into the area. At least 12,000 each year for the last four or five years, with no abatement, are calling the Gold Coast home. Frankly, it is not difficult to see why people would come to Queensland, and it is not difficult to see why the electorate of Fadden is the fastest growing one in the nation. Fadden is beautiful in all its variety. But with 12,000 new residents coming to the Gold Coast—and, I would say, at least half coming to Fadden—each year, something needs to be done in the forward projections with respect to government services. The public transport system is poor on the Gold Coast, no thanks to the Labor state government, which has been in power for 18 of the last 20 years. Routes tend to work well north and south but are no good east and west. With the price of fuel increasing it is difficult for people to get around, and ‘Foolwatch’ will actually make prices go up.

The government is adding four Medicare offices—according to what Senator Ludwig said last Thursday, 29 May, in the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration—in Belmont, New South Wales; Belmont, Western Australia; Warrawong, New South Wales; and Emerald. Yet there is no indication yet of new Centrelink offices going in. I call the government’s attention to the fastest growing electorate in the nation. I call the government’s attention to the new Coomera town centre that is slated. Two consortia are currently moving to put a town centre in. It will become the commercial, financial, shopping and social hub for the fastest growing collection of people moving into an area anywhere in the country. If there was ever an argument for government services to go into a new area to support and service the fastest growing rate of people moving to an area, there is no doubt, and it is absolutely undeniable, that Fadden would win the argument hands down. I call on the government to move within the forward estimates to plan a Centrelink and associated services office in the Coomera town centre, in the middle of Fadden, to account for and to service the growing population in the area.