Thursday, 03 October 2019
ALI CLARKE: This time yesterday or thereabouts we were hearing from Marion Mayor Kris Hanna, why? Well because the future of the Hallett Cove boardwalk was up for grabs essentially. This is this incredible boardwalk, it was built about 20 years ago, and it essentially gets you from Hallett Cove all the way to Marino. Two and a half kilometres of it has been shut down, we brought you that news months ago because they worked out during a safety audit that some of the footings weren’t even in the ground anymore. So it had to be closed down and they had to work out a way to fix it. Well another report has come back and this new safety report found all the stuff that they’re going to need to replace might then only add 5 to 10 years before permanent closure, so therefore they need to look at all options. Well Amanda Rishworth is the Labor MP for Kingston, good morning.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR KINGSTON: Good morning.
CLARKE: Now Amanda the Marion Mayor Kris Hanna, he was very straight up where he said look this is going to be expensive and this is going beyond the realm of what council could possibly afford. Now they’re going to go to another meeting at the end of November, they’ll get more reports back, engineers reports back, and then we’ll have a better idea of price. But he is going to be going to the government.
RISHWORTH: Look I think he absolutely should go to the State Government because this is an amazing asset. People from right around the State use this boardwalk and it’s critically important, and I think we need to come from the starting point that we need to do everything we can to ensure this piece of coastline is accessible to the community. Because if you’re ever down there, there are hundreds and hundreds of people who go down every day, I’d say thousands even, who enjoy this boardwalk. So I think there does have to be a cooperative effort about how we actually ensure this asset is available for the community.
CLARKE: You’ve been the local MP there since 2007, you had your time in government, so what specifically had you done in that time to make sure this was going to be okay or did you have no idea that this was coming?
RISHWORTH: In terms of this part of the boardwalk this was not brought to my attention. I’ve been talking about the coastal trail for some time and indeed at the last election committed funding to actually connect the piece that is missing in Hallett Cove that is further south. Because what we want to see and what the previous State Government was working towards, and other groups have been working towards, is ensuring that we can walk along the whole metropolitan coast. So this part of the boarwalk is part of the bigger picture which I think is a really exciting opportuntiy for the State. In the last two elections I’ve committed funding for parts of the boardwalk, not this particular part because I wasn’t aware that this was in so much trouble. But certainly it has been a focus of mine and I think we all need to work together to talk about how we keep this open, because it is such an important asset.
CLARKE: So if you’re keen to work together, Mary says “the Liberal State Government had lots of shiny videos and presentations during the election about this super park joining all the southern parts together including Hallett Cove, I’m sure they’ll put some money towards repairing this, has anyone actually asked them?”. So if you’re keen to work together have you gone to the Government yet?
RISHWORTH: Look no the first I’ve heard is these reports and I will be writing to the State Government to urge them. There was funding available for the Coastal Park and we need to make sure that funding continues. The attitude was well it’s almost done we’ll leave it to council, well I don’t think we can do that. I think we do need to be ensurnig the State puts money in and I’ll certainly be writing to the State Government about this. But we haven’t heard anythig from them yet and I think it’s imperative we do get a commitment even if it’s in principle to work with the Marion Council to ensure this asset is protected.
CLARKE: Well we will certianly be putting in the appropriate calls. Another texter says “Look it’s amazing I only discovered it just before they closed parts off, I thought it was fine (although I’m not an engineer). Absolutely should be fixed if it can be without damaging the environment”. That was one of the other things Marion Mayor Kris Hanna said that whenever or if ever it does come back, it may not be the way that we’ve known because certianly the sympathy to some of the gully maybe 20 years ago wasn’t as strong whereas now whatever they do if they can get funding, it will be done in a very different way that gives it more longevity.
