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

At the beginning of Carers Week 2009 it seems fitting that I rise to talk about Southcare, a community based organisation in my electorate of Swan which provides caring services. Last Tuesday I attended Southcare’s AGM and was pleased to hear about the progress being made on a project that I feel privileged to have played a part in—the construction of a new building to help Southcare expand its services to frail and Indigenous people. Members may recall that in Labor’s first budget in 2008 it revoked $273,000 worth of funding which had been allocated to Southcare by the Howard government under the Regional Partnerships scheme. At the time Southcare was informed via a letter in the post that they would have to do without the funding. That was after they had purchased the land for $640,000 from fundraising and donations, had $490,000 committed from Lotterywest and had outlaid $20,000 themselves in architect fees, planning approvals and project proposals.

I immediately wrote to Minister Albanese to express my concern and lobbied extensively Gary Gray, the member for Brand, for funding to be reinstated. A couple of months later the lobbying paid off, with Mr Albanese announcing that Southcare would be provided with funding for its project. At Tuesday’s AGM we saw in the annual report the sound financial position of Southcare and the state of the construction project as a result of this funding. Last financial year $75,000 was provided to Southcare by the Department of Transport and Regional Services, and the project:

… has completed up to the installation of footings, concrete slabs for office and garden stores and the completion of brickwork for ground floor to plate height.

At the request of Southcare, asking which government member they should have at the AGM, I suggested they invite the member for Brand, Gary Gray, to be the guest speaker for the AGM. The member for Brand had been influential in getting the funding. I suggested the member for Brand so he could see for himself the results of the funding and the good work that it will do in the local community.

The member for Brand, to his credit, recognised the worthiness of the project and congratulated the Howard government for initially providing the funding. The member even gave me credit for getting the funding reinstated. His honest and non-partisan speech was refreshing and appreciated by the audience and I would like to publicly thank him today for attending. The member also reminded us of all the hit songs from 27 years ago when Southcare was first formed. Thankfully, the member only spoke about them and did not actually sing them!

I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Inge Dahners, who I nominated for a senior’s award last year for her outstanding work as a director of aged-care programs. She was recognised as a runner-up in her category. It was good to see Vice Chairman Kevin Trent, CEO Graham Hope, Volunteer Coordinator Vicki McBeth and Chief Financial Officer Gordon Chong also in attendance. I will continue to support Southcare as I believe it is important to support the organisations that care for our older people, particularly in the midst of an aged-care crisis in Western Australia.