Improving bus services for schoolkids, helping young families, council affiliation, essential primary school security upgrades, reinvigorating Stuart Park High Street.
Dr RAHMAN (Fong Lim): Madam Speaker, a strength of the CLP in recent years has been its commitment to local engagement and problem-solving. That has been led by the Chief Minister in setting the standard for maintaining our accessibility to the community. People see this displayed in our commitment to attending multicultural events, mobile offices during parliamentary sittings and the electorate events that we collectively attend.
A related strength has been the willingness of our team to work together in support of problem-solving at all scales. I say ‘all scales’ because whilst there are big issues to tackle in this place, there are also the everyday local issues which are no less important. I am fortunate to have ministerial colleagues who have been supporting me with local problem-solving in the Fong Lim electorate. Tonight I will draw attention to a small number of things we have been working on in the expansive Fong Lim electorate, which covers 10 suburbs, focusing on Berrimah Northcrest and Stuart Park.
As I have pointed out on a number of occasions Berrimah Northcrest is a place replete with potential, but it is also filled with challenges whilst it works towards achieving critical mass as a development. It has an absence of a postal service and council services, water pressure problems, no supermarket and no prospect of local schools. We cannot deal with those things overnight, but we are trying to make strides in the right direction for the people of Berrimah Northcrest. You have to start somewhere, and we decided to start with bus services.
The CLP government is actively progressing this task to make it easier for parents and students to get to and from school every day, noting that very few of the kids who live in Berrimah Northcrest go to Haileybury; most of them go to schools in the northern suburbs and, until this point, have been disconnected from those schools.
I am grateful to the Minister for Logistics and Infrastructure and his staff for the efficiency they have displayed in helping us get to the point where we are now conducting consultations to help get bus services for a range of kids living in that area.
Consultation for students in Northcrest is officially underway and closes this Friday. We now have route 100 leaving from Reuben Avenue in the middle of Berrimah Northcrest for kids to get to Darwin High School and Darwin Middle School. It also detours through Nightcliff.
A concerned parent in that electorate, Kieran Jones—I am sure he will not mind me naming him—was good enough to collect some of the information on the ground that I could work with to help us move things forward so that now his kid can get to and from school in Nightcliff every day.
Similarly, there are kids living in Berrimah Northcrest for whom the closest primary school is in the electorate of Karama at Manunda Terrace Primary School, where I went to primary school, and at Karama Primary School, where I went to Transition. We now have route 206 leaving from Berrimah Northcrest to go to Manunda and Karama Primary and on to Sanderson Middle School and Dripstone Middle School.
These are small things in the context of all the big issues we discuss in this place, but these are the things that really matter to people. This government prides itself on staying engaged with the local community. The new routes are anticipated to commence on 3 March, all things going well. Likewise, we are working on Berrimah Northcrest in its totality. Speed limit changes on Berrimah Road have been implemented, which we hope will improve pedestrian safety for all those kids who cross the road to go to Haileybury Rendall School.
I have maintained that I am committed to helping this area actualise its potential as a suburban haven for young families, and I mean that sincerely. For all our talk about stimulating housing development, population growth and housing supply, that is one of the areas which must be focused on and supported in order for us to create places for young aspirational families to get a leg up. I put the Assembly on notice that, in conjunction with the people of Berrimah Northcrest, in the coming months I will tackle council affiliation, which should long ago have been resolved for Berrimah Northcrest.
On the matter of bus routes, Stuart Park similarly had a bus servicing Stuart Park Primary School which did not go through Stuart Park. I could not believe that. It seems cheeky in adjournment to have a pot shot at my predecessor, but I was flabbergasted that Stuart Park, being the enormous suburb that it is, had a school bus that did not take half of the kids in Stuart Park to their school.
I am pleased to say that the route 464 bus, which used to cover Defence areas through Woolner and Bayview, will now extend to cover Tipperary Waters and the southern part of Stuart Park from Dinah Beach Road up, including Eden Street, Mary Street, Meigs Crescent, Gothenburg Crescent, Margaret Street, Duke Street, Frances Bay Drive, Flinders Drive, Ashley Street, Graham Street and Nudl Street. That is dozens of families with little kids with little legs who will have an easier commute.
On a related note, Stuart Park Primary School has been in desperate need of an essential security upgrade which should have been covered by minor works rectification years ago, but it was not due to whatever mismanagement took place. I am pleased to report that we have found the funds for and completed the work on essential security upgrades for Stuart Park Primary School to improve the locks and doors for the upper primary school and the main office. That work was all completed in time for the start of the year.
I am indebted to the minister for Education and her staff for ensuring that work was completed in a timely and efficient manner. I applaud the decisiveness with which she tackled the issue. There have been security issues at that school over a period of time, with doors that simply do not lock and cannot be opened from both sides. These are the essential and enabling infrastructure upgrades that somehow we lost sight of whilst we have been focused on the big-picture stuff. Thank you to the Minister for Education and Training for assisting me to help the people of Stuart Park Primary School in that regard.
I will focus on addressing local infrastructure issues, including enabling infrastructure affecting Stuart Park and, by extension, the CBD. As I have mentioned in this House several times, metaphorically speaking the neck of the body of the Northern Territory is the Stuart Park/Stuart Highway precinct leading into the CBD, which is the head of the Northern Territory. Without a strong neck you cannot have a strong head that supports itself. Over the next three years I will be championing the reinvigoration of that area focused on the Stuart Park high street. I will begin public consultations on that over the coming months with all stakeholders and the community, in conjunction with my ministerial colleagues who have been exceedingly helpful and supportive.
Plans to assist Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Association (Dinah Beach Yacht Club)—or for those who are more familiar, the Grotty Yachty—will commence over the coming months. Do visit. If you have not been there for a while, it ain’t the Grotty Yachty anymore! It is a beautiful seaside venue with excellent food, regular live music and a great atmosphere. I freely declare that I am proud to be the new patron.
Permit me to share this personal indulgence: the CLP wing went on a Wednesday night in the November sittings to have ‘wings for the wing’. You will not find finer chicken wings anywhere other than those at the Dinah Beach Yacht Club. I extend an open offer to the opposition and crossbenchers to join me at Dinah Beach for chicken wings on any given Wednesday.
In closing I note that I will never have the vigour and valour of the Members for Drysdale and Blain with their Palmerston lawnmowing service. My life’s aspiration is simply to do well enough so that I never have to mow a lawn again in my life. I have not managed to realise that aspiration to this point. Notwithstanding that, my commitment to the people of Fong Lim is that I will do my best to maintain the CLP’s commitment to local engagement and problem-solving.