Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Looking after our Defence Force veterans is one of the most important tasks we have as a nation, and that is exactly what we are doing at the brand-new veterans wellbeing centre located within the reactivated Repat site in Boothby. Made possible by $5 million of funding from the Morrison Liberal government, the centre is one of six veteran wellbeing centres around Australia. The centre is now home to the RSL, Open Arms Australia, Soldier On and, of course, the Plympton Veterans Centre—and I pay tribute to their veterans advocates: Tich Tyson, Bill Hignett and Graham 'Ruddy' Rudd—who I recently visited. The veterans centre is complemented by the refurbished SPF Hall, the town square and the neighbouring sports gymnasium, which offers sports such as wheelchair basketball.

I returned to the Repat for Remembrance Day and, along with many of the veterans in attendance, saw the state Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Hon. Stephen Wade MLC, plant in the town square a lone pine which is a descendant of the original Gallipoli Lone Pine. This is a fitting tribute to the thousands of Australian veterans who have been supported and cared for at the Repat during its long and proud history. I am incredibly proud to have secured funding for the Repat as part of more than $40 million of Morrison Liberal government funding towards its reactivation, which also includes a specialist dementia unit and a brand-new brain and spinal unit. The former state Labor government shamefully closed the Repat hospital, but, thanks to the Morrison and Marshall Liberal governments, it is once again thriving.