Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about a commitment that was made in my electorate of Hindmarsh over the last 12 months, and I am very pleased that the Minister for Home Affairs is here in the chamber, because the commitment involved $350,000 under the minister’s Safer Suburbs program to fund CCTV cameras and lighting in the seaside precinct of the suburb of Glenelg in my electorate.

Those of you who have visited my electorate or know of Glenelg know that it is the crown of tourism in South Australia. If you come to Adelaide as a tourist there is absolutely no doubt that you would visit Glenelg. It offers fantastic shops and beaches, beautiful restaurants, and as I said, attracts thousands of tourists every year from around South Australia, interstate and overseas. I am very pleased to say that my electorate office is also situated in Glenelg and I very much enjoy walking down Jetty Road and meeting many of my constituents at many of the cafes—such as Zest Cafe, the Strand, and Cibo’s—and talking to them about a whole range of things. The Glenelg precinct is also a popular spot after sundown when some of Adelaide’s best bars, pubs, restaurants and nightclubs get going until the early hours of the morning. During summer we have festivals and all sorts of activities that take place. On New Year’s Eve we also have a fantastic party that brings tens of thousands of people to the area.

While it is fantastic to have so many attractions, and it is great to have a very wonderful area in the electorate, many of the local residents, especially a large proportion of older people, have written to me over the past few years and have raised their concerns about a rise in antisocial behaviour by a small group of people during the early hours of the morning, or when the pubs and clubs are closing. They say that while the large majority of visitors to the area are very well behaved and are considerate of the residents, a very small proportion occasionally behave in an antisocial way by leaving bottles and other rubbish in public places and making noises as they pass residential streets on the way back to their cars, and sometimes tipping over rubbish bins and vandalising cars and street trees. Business owners in the main street of Jetty Road are also concerned about this issue, as are taxi drivers, who have a taxi rank located in this road near one of the main nightspots. They are also concerned about their safety because of the lack of CCTV coverage there.

Having heard these concerns from businesses, local residents, the Jetty Road Glenelg Mainstreet Board and the Neighbourhood Watch group in the area, I invited the honourable Minister for Home Affairs to visit. I am pleased to acknowledge the consideration he gave to my constituents and businesses in the area as he took time to visit Glenelg on three separate occasions—not once, not twice, but three separate occasions over the weeks that followed—to consult with all of the stakeholders.

During the first of these visits we went for a walk through the hot spots, conducted by the Mayor of the City of Holdfast Bay, Ken Rolland, and the CEO together with representatives from Neighbourhood Watch, the Glenelg Residents Association and the mainstreet board to discuss the issues and see what measures we could put in place. A few weeks later, on the second visit, we also met with Chief Inspector Les Buckley from South Australia Police and later with the President of the Taxi Council of South Australia, Wally Sievers.

I was very pleased on behalf of all those stakeholders, but especially for the residents, business owners and visitors to Glenelg when the minister, who is here in the chamber with us tonight, announced that the government would provide $350,000 to the City of Holdfast Council to implement some measures, including extra street lighting in High Street in Glenelg, new CCTV cameras at the western corner of Colley Reserve, new CCTV cameras at the rear of the Glenelg Town Hall, and relocating the CCTV at the taxi rank for better coverage. I am very pleased that I have been able to deliver all these things for the residents of Hindmarsh and the residents of Glenelg. (Time expired)