Electorate Office Address
1 Paradise Ave,
Miami QLD 4220
8 May 2015 12:23 PMMichael Hart
Mr HART (Burleigh—LNP) (9.18 pm): I rise tonight to talk about a couple of great things that have happened in my electorate recently. But before I do that I would like to correct a major omission I made last night during my speech on the address-in-reply. It has been pointed out to me by a number of people that I missed thanking my major supporter and someone that you really should not forget—my wife.
Honourable members interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, members! I cannot hear the member for Burleigh.
Mr HART: That omission was made because I was distracted by those opposite. But it gives me great pleasure to correct that tonight, especially seeing as my wife is in the gallery, so she is here to hear it for herself. I am sure most members can appreciate that our spouses are, of course, the major supporters in our lives and I would be completely lost without my wife. I would like to say to you that I love you and I am very appreciative of the support you have given me over the years.
I would like to mention a couple of things that have happened in my electorate over the last few days. One of those is that the major beach in Burleigh, the Burleigh beach, has been declared the cleanest beach in Queensland for 2015 by the Keep Queensland Beautiful group. I am one of the luckiest members in this parliament because I have some fantastic beaches along with having a fantastic electorate. There is no doubt that Burleigh beach is one of the best beaches in Queensland, in Australia and in the world for that matter.
Also, I wanted to speak quickly about the David Fleay Wildlife Park in my electorate. The minister responsible for that put out a press release yesterday and said that the number of visitors over Easter has in fact doubled since last year and tripled from the year before. When I was first elected, that park was looking like it was going to close down. We put a master plan in place and we turned that park around. That is the reason we are seeing twice as many visitors as last year and three times as many visitors from the year before. We have an amphitheatre being built that is expected to be finished by the end of the year. We have a pontoon that is being put in by the Gold Coast Waterways Authority. That will allow people from the Tallebudgera recreation centre to paddle out to the wildlife park, go for a bit of a tour and then paddle back again. So we are really looking forward to that.
