Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, it is a great pleasure to see you in the chair. We can only wish that you were in the chair in the House, but I will move on to other matters. It was my great pleasure to be on radio the other morning out at Munno Para in the newly built Stretton Centre. I was on radio with Ian Henschke, who did a whole week of programs from the centre, and it was a really positive thing for the northern suburbs in what is a very tough time. I was also there with my friend Phil Harrison, an old resident of the City of Salisbury, who is now working for the City of Playford.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 09:31 to 09:47

The Stretton Centre is named after Hugh Stretton, who was a famous South Australian who played a particularly prominent role in the foundation of our housing trust and the continuation of that fine institution. The Stretton Centre was funded by the Gillard government, in particular by the Suburban Jobs Program—for which Tony Burke was the minister responsible—which provided $11.3 million of the $15 million required for the centre. That was announced on 6 September 2012, and in Tony Burke's press release he announced a completion date of 30 June 2015, so it is pretty much spot on the money.

I can remember getting the City of Playford's very worthy submission for the centre based around planning for jobs growth and for the sorts of transitions that we will need to make around the place in terms of the shift, in particular from manufacturing to service jobs and other jobs in the area. Sadly, with the closure of the car industry and the reckless behaviour of the Abbott government in regard to the submarine construction, we now know that that is an even higher priority than it was in 2012. This is a far-reaching concept by the City of Playford, and it was supported by the Gillard government and by myself. It is very important. The University of Adelaide and Associate Professor John Spoehr were involved in undertaking it, and it is a very impressive centre architecturally.

My understanding is that the opening of the centre was delayed because the Abbott government wanted to take credit for it, and the minister for training, Simon Birmingham, wanted to be there—good boy of the northern suburbs that he is. He should remember what Benjamin Disraeli said, 'Plagiarists, at least, have the quality of preservation.' In this case, the Abbott government might seek to come out to the northern suburbs and to try and mitigate some of the damage they have done with the closure of the car industry, but they should not take credit for the funding and construction of this important centre, the Stretton Centre, which has a very important role in providing jobs for the future for the northern suburbs.