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

I rise to talk on the South Perth Aquatic Centre feasibility study. Like the member for Chisholm, mine is a city issue with planning and the rest; but with mine the residents are actually on board for something and South Perth does not want it. I do remember Box Hill South fondly—I used to have a paper round there when I was growing up, and I know the St Leo's site well. Congratulations on your speech.

On 11 March I attended a public meeting in Karawara in my electorate of Swan with more than 150 of my constituents from the City of South Perth. Members might think this was a great turnout to a public meeting, and it certainly was, considering that I and each of these residents was disappointed that the only reason these residents—except for four of them—knew the meeting was even taking place was that my office distributed a letter to all the community prior to that meeting. This community meeting should have been advertised in the local paper, and I will tell you the reason why it was not in a minute. This was not just any meeting. It was supposed to be the first step in a community consultation for the South Perth Aquatic Centre, which I have campaigned for since 2011 while in opposition.

Gaining funding for this sporting infrastructure initiative was a priority of mine. I was pleased to announce that this coalition government understands the need for such a facility in this area and has committed $45,000 in grant funding toward a feasibility study in the 2014-15 budget. It was an important initiative because each of the neighbouring local government areas in my electorate of Swan, including the City of Belmont, the Town of Victoria Park, the City of Canning and the City of Gosnells all have high-quality aquatic centres for their residents while the City of South Perth has no such facility. Not only do they not have a facility, despite it repeatedly being identified by residents as a priority for the community, but the City of South Perth has also attempted to reject the funding and reject in-principle commitments from private enterprises. This public meeting last week was hosted by Jill Powell and Associates, who are the consultants commissioned by the City of South Perth to undertake the feasibility study. But, as I said, the only reason residents knew the meeting was taking place was that I encouraged them, through a distributed letter, to attend and share their grassroots knowledge with the consultants on this particular feasibility study.

The consultants requested the City of South Perth place an advertisement in one of my electorate's local newspapers, The Southern Gazette, to advise residents of the public meeting. She informed me of this particular advertisement back in January when I met with her in my office, and the request was put forward to the City of South Perth in January. The advertisement was drafted and proofed, but somehow seemed to be forgotten. The council officers who were tasked with putting this ad in the paper forgot about it. They absolutely forgot about it. To me, this seems like an agenda: they do not want this facility to go ahead. It is not in their forward estimates, it is not in their forward planning and it is not in their 30-year vision, but still they did not bother to put a small ad in to advise the local community that there was this consultation process taking place.

The councillors were not even aware that the advertisement had not been placed until my office questioned The Southern Gazette and asked them which edition that particular ad was supposed to have been in, because we had not seen it. Now we know why: because the city's process to advertise the meeting completely failed. It should not be acceptable, particularly with the majority of City of South Perth residents wanting an aquatic centre in their local government area. There are many reasons for that, and I have spoken about those in previous speeches: not only health reasons but travel reasons, particularly for an ageing population like in the part of my electorate where the proposed centre will be.

The City of South Perth appears to be out of touch with the ratepayers, and I believe it is time they started listening. I must admit, there were four councillors who turned up, including Councillor Irons—my wife, who is on that particular council—and also Councillor Cala, Councillor Trent and Councillor Huston. At the end of the meeting, when there was a vote taken on who was against the aquatic centre, no-one put their hand up. Councillor Cala and Councillor Trent actually took that on board and have changed their view.

The aquatic centre is something that we looked at with John Alexander; he came and spoke about a private-public partnership in Western Australia at the particular site. That was not taken on board, but it has strong support from Curtin University and all the local swimming groups, who want to see this aquatic facility developed. I say to the local residents and to the City of South Perth, 'Listen to what the ratepayers are saying to you. Get on board; this is an important facility.' We can investigate it and we can make it happen with the support of the local residents. Thank you.