Stephen gave the following speech in Parliament on the 9th of September, 2021.
"I take this opportunity in parliament today to speak about Glenelg North, a suburb that at the 2022 state election is returning to the electorate of Morphett. Of course, that is the electorate I am fortunate enough to represent. Morphett already incorporates Glenelg, Glenelg East and Glenelg South, so that joins all the Glenelgs up together.
Glenelg North is home to some great community organisations, including the William Kibby VC Veterans Shed on Kibby Avenue. It is very ably led by Vietnam veteran Barry Heffernan and his support, Graham Rose. I really must emphasise that it is the veterans' shed. Barry always makes that point. The aim of this veterans' shed is to create and maintain an environment for veterans and ex-service personnel where concerns, past trauma, health issues and welfare issues can be discussed with other veterans who have empathy through similar life experiences in their operational areas or even, as Barry says, just to come and have a brew and a chat.
Not far away from the veterans' shed in Glenelg North is the Glenelg branch of Meals on Wheels on David Avenue. I was very fortunate to attend their recent AGM. They updated us that last year the Glenelg branch of Meals on Wheels delivered 23,797 meals, which is an average of 95 meals a day for the neediest in our community. In the time of COVID, when so many people are isolated, sometimes it was their only interaction for the day, so it was great to hear from the speakers around the great work they do. I would like to commend the Glenelg branch board chair, Sue Sodeman; the kitchen coordinator, Eric White; volunteer coordinator, Margit Grose; client services coordinator, Marg Foyle; and also the treasurer, Sandra MacDonald; and, most importantly, all the volunteers.
It was great at the AGM to recognise some of those volunteers for their service, whether it was one year of service, five years, 10 years, 15 or 20 years of service. In my case, I was fortunate to present awards to those who had 25 years of volunteer service. I presented those awards to Vi Harding, Judy Stagg and Dot Tangey. Congratulations to those three great volunteers in our Glenelg North community.
Glenelg North is also home to St Leonards Primary School, which is a great little government primary school nestled in the heart of Glenelg North. St Leonards is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, which is a great achievement for the community. To celebrate this, the school is holding a centenary fair which will take place on Saturday 30 October at the school. Local businesses can showcase their products, families can come along and also I note there has been a big letterbox drop in the area to try to get along all those past old scholars from Glenelg North to reminisce about their great times at what is a fantastic little school.
During this last month, I have undertaken a number of street corner meetings around Glenelg North. I would like to thank the people who came out for a chat at Golflands Reserve, Old Gum Tree Reserve—very famous and where we hold our Proclamation Day ceremony—Fordham Reserve and also Macfarlane Street Reserve. It was a great time to discuss with my community how the Marshall government is creating jobs; reducing costs; building what matters, including expanding emergency department capacity by 65 per cent; and, more importantly, delivering better services across this state.
I will be holding regular street corner meetings continually over the following upcoming weekends, and the next one will be at Wigley Reserve this Saturday. Wigley Reserve is a great open space and one the Marshall government has really helped support, alongside the Holdfast Bay council, partnering together to put $1 million into the great Glenelg adventure playground and fitness hub, which really makes the area fantastic and family-friendly and brings people to that area of Glenelg. Many families go down there on the weekends; they grab a picnic rug and the kids go off and have a great time at the adventure playground. They are fantastic infrastructure upgrades.
I would also like to talk quickly about the PHOS Camden Netball Club at Golflands Reserve and the $300,000 the Marshall government is putting into the netball court upgrade at the PHOS Camden Football Club, just across Sturt Creek. That will combine the football club and the netball club after a long time apart, so that is great news for all those sporting clubs in Glenelg North."
