Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I begin by congratulating the member for Oxley on his appointment as a chief of the Samoan people. I think it is a very distinguished honour and I wish him well in that regard. On Monday night, when I was speaking in the adjournment debate, I referred to a petition which my office had passed on to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions. I said at the time that, once the petition had been considered by the standing committee on petitions and had been cleared for presenting and returned to me, I would formally present it to the House. The petition was in fact considered yesterday by the Standing Committee on Petitions. It was cleared and I today take this opportunity to formally present it.

The petition takes the form of two petitions, but in total there are 4,576 signatories to it. It relates to a promise made by the Howard government to fund, to the tune of about $2 million, the facilities at Tilley Reserve, in the electorate of Makin, and a place referred to as Harpers Field, which is the home of the Golden Grove Football Club, also in the electorate of Makin. The promise was made in the lead-up to the last federal election but the money was never delivered. The community, quite rightly, had their hopes built up, their expectations built up, that they would be receiving those funds. They are now petitioning the federal government, asking whether the new federal government will fund those much needed community facilities.

The petitions read as follows—

This petition of: Members of the Golden Grove football club & Supporters.

Draws to the attention of the House: Are you aware of the withdrawal of promised funding for clubrooms at the Harpers field sporting ground, home of the Golden Grove Football club. For the past 12 years this club has been using an unfit temporary transportable club house. Being one of the biggest football clubs in South Australia. This is devastating news for over 1000 players &parents. WHO IS TO BLAME?

And what is going to be done to get our children a safe and much needed facility?

We therefore ask the House to: Please join our fight to honour promises made to our community.

from 2,389 citizens.

To the honourable members of the House of Representatives

The 2008 Federal Budget revealed the $1.2m Regional Partnerships funding to help upgrade The Golden Grove Football Club’s homeground at Harpers Reserve has been scrapped. Budget papers also reveal the Rudd Government will not honour the previous governments promise of $687,500 to revamp the Tea Tree Gully Soccer Club, Golden Grove Tennis Club, Fairview Park Netball Club and Golden Grove Little Athletics facilities at Tilley Reserve. This petition makes the following request:

The Federal Government reinstates the Regional Partnerships funding of $1.2 million for the Golden Grove Football Club and the $687,500 to upgrade the Tea Tree Gully Soccer Club, Golden Grove Tennis Club, Fairview Park Netball Club and Golden Grove Little Athletics facilities at Tilley Reserve.

from 2,187 citizens.

While I am on my feet and talking about community organisations and organisations associated with recreation, I take the opportunity to speak briefly about the KD Dance Centre in Adelaide. The KD Dance Centre is run by Mr Keith Willshire and his son Daryl, as well as Katherine Geister. On Sunday last, I attended the winter mid-year studio ball of the KD Dance Centre, where they also present awards and results of exams to their students. I have been to a number of presentations of the KD dance studio and I am most impressed, not only by the quality of the dancers that I see on the night—and I am referring to children from around five years old right through to senior adults. That is one of the wonderful aspects of what I see. Here is a recreational, a social and a healthy activity that people of all ages and from all walks of life are participating in. For those of us who go to the presentations it is also a joy to watch them as they present their different performances. It is most entertaining. They present performances in all of the different dance styles, whether it is classical, modern, social, theatrical, Latin, new vogue and so on.

One of the other interesting aspects of the KD Dance Centre is that one of the young ladies who has been with the centre for some years, a very charming young lady who is also a wonderful dancer, Victoria Letheby, has on occasions competed in national dancing competitions and, more recently, was a finalist in the Miss Australia quest. Again, this is an example of the outcomes when people commit themselves to a particular activity, persevere with it over the years and, in so doing, develop their confidence and their ability to enter championships—whether it is state, national or, in some cases, international. I also found it interesting that the examiner for the dancing was Miss Meredith Solly, who runs Dancecorp Australia, which has a branch here in the ACT.

Congratulations to all of those people who were involved in that activity. I would love to see more of it and more people involved, and I certainly look forward to attending more activities and more presentation nights of the KD Dance Centre.