Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would also like to reflect on the first 12 months of the Rudd Labor government. For the people of Newcastle, I am very proud to say that we have been able to deliver on all our election commitments. We have seen $10 million for our stadium, the Energy Australia Stadium. The government has certainly delivered that. The construction has commenced and the building of the new western grandstand, with the cooperation of the state government, is also underway.

We have seen the completion of the $51.8 million Weakleys Drive overpass. I was delighted to attend the opening of that overpass to traffic in October. I acknowledge that that was a project that began with the support of Mr Baldwin, the member for Paterson, prior to my taking over that area of his seat in the redistribution. It has been a good relationship with RTA—one that has delivered a very much needed traffic solution, particularly for the people in the Thornton area of my electorate.

Health has been an outstanding achievement over the first 12 months of the Rudd Labor government for the people of Newcastle. The government not only provided a Medicare licence for the Mater hospital PET scanner; we also gave $2.2 million to improve and upgrade the scanning equipment and the facilities. I must thank Minister Roxon. It was on her visit to those facilities where she observed firsthand the need for them to be upgraded. We are very lucky that people who are suffering from cancer, in particular, are now able to have the benefit of the PET scanner, which makes very good diagnoses for treatment and prognoses.

We have also delivered to the people of Newcastle 50 new mental health nursing places at Newcastle university. Being a regional city, we provide services to the whole region for mental health. There is a critical workforce shortage in this area, and those 50 new mental health nursing places will be well received. We also delivered on an election promise that we would fund the completion of the Hunter Dementia and Memory Resource Centre. We provided $200,000 to complete that facility, and I congratulate Alzheimer’s Australia for working so well with us in the region and also the community who helped to fund that very much needed centre. We have also made sure that the GP Access After Hours service is assured of three years funding. Tenders have been called for a Medicare licence for one MRI machine in the Newcastle-Hunter-Maitland region. The Mater hospital in my electorate is the biggest deliverer of oncology services in the state and I am sure its tender will be competitive.

We have also delivered an education revolution. I know that Newcastle university were pleased to receive $13.7 million to improve infrastructure and student amenities. Our stage 1 computer roll-out saw 2,500 computers allocated to my electorate. We have also started scoping for the new early learning centre that will be built in the Hamilton-Merewether area. I look forward to a further announcement about that before the end of the year, making sure that that is delivered.

On the front of fighting climate change, we are a carbon dependent economy and for two years now the community, industry and I have worked very hard together to shape our economy in the future direction of sustainability and clean energy. There was $25 million for clean coal research at CSIRO Newcastle as delivered in the May budget. Scoping is almost complete for the National Solar Institute, which will have its headquarters at CSIRO, Newcastle. And we have tendered for the Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre—something I would very much like to see located in the Newcastle electorate to give the critical mass to that direction of our economy. So, overall, not only have we delivered wonderful outcomes to the people of Newcastle but also they have also been recognised in some wonderful ways.

I thank the Prime Minister for the community cabinet coming to Newcastle. I also thank him for being part of Andrew Johns’s walk, the Joey Johns walk to Sydney to draw attention to mental illness and to bipolar disorder earlier this year. I also congratulate three people in particular: Newcastle’s teacher of the year, who won the national teacher of the year, Carolyn Hayden; Dr John Wright, who was awarded the lifetime achievement medal by CSIRO; and the young Master Builders Australia national apprentice of the year, Andrew George. A wonderful year for Newcastle.