Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the many things that annoys Australians about this place is the way that, too often, we members of parliament stand and make grand announcements and outline bold visions for the future, but, when it comes to actually affecting the day-to-day issues which are hurting people's lives, often this is a place that is too slow to move. I have one such example of where sometimes the small things can be the hardest things to get fixed. I am talking about a walking path in Millswood in my electorate which has been closed and which the community have been crying out to be reopened so that they can continue to travel from A to B. This might be a very localised issue, but it is an issue that appears to have gotten stuck in the divide between federal and state governments. The federal government would say that the walking path is not their responsibility and that it is a state government responsibility. However, this is a walking path that has been closed because it has been deemed unsafe along the freight line managed by the ARTC. What all of this means is that there is a whole lot of back and forth and very little action.

I have made a commitment to the local community and I am determined to reopen this walking path, if it is one of the last things that I do in this place. It is something that I have been on. I have had our shadow minister, Anthony Albanese, come and visit the site, and he has declared, as I have, that this should be a very simple thing for government to address. How on earth can we expect the community to have faith in us undertaking major infrastructure upgrades if we cannot open a simple path?

I have written to the minister and I have written to the ARTC, and I, for one, am sick and tired of the responses that I am getting, so I can only begin to imagine the frustration of the local residents. I received a response in January from Minister Darren Chester, who has informed me that the ARTC have advised him that they are concerned about pedestrian safety associated with the path and they will not be reopening the walking path along the rail corridor. I just want to reiterate in this place: I am not asking the ARTC to reopen this pathway. What I am asking the ARTC to do is to conduct a safety audit to tell us what it would take to be able to safely reopen this pathway. That is the first step; that is all we are requesting of them. I am then happy to take up the battle, whether it be with the state government or with the federal government, to get the funds to put the fence in place to reopen the walking path. This is not the last time I will raise this issue. I can assure you that this is on my list of things to do, and I intend to deliver for my community and reopen the Millswood walking track.