House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1) 52 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Adelaide Oval ADELAIDE OVAL Ms SANDERSON House of Assembly Adelaide ADELAIDE OVAL Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:40): My question is to the Treasurer. Given his statements yesterday about the Adelaide Oval upgrade, can he provide an estimate of the number of extra car parking spaces associated with the precinct, and what protection will North Adelaide residents have from their streets being used for car parking on match days? The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly Port Adelaide Deputy Premier Minister for Federal/State Relations Minister for Defence Industries ADELAIDE OVAL The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (14:41): The member for Lee's constituents—each day there is a game of football on at West Lakes—have many cars in their streets. It is part and parcel of what the western suburbs have done for decades. That is the difference between— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —the western suburbs. That is a valid question from a local member of parliament, but I do not have the answer to that question. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! An honourable member interjecting: The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, how do people feel at Hindmarsh Stadium when they spill all around the member for West Torrens's electorate? The Hon. M.J. Atkinson House of Assembly The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Or Croydon. The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Or the member for Croydon. Don't worry about the western suburbs, you can have your cars in the streets, but let's not have them into North Adelaide. It is simple— The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy Premier. The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The car parking issue is a work in progress, as are all of these things. There are 25 people, I think, who are working on all of these logistic issues, all of these dimensions of the project, and discussions are occurring between the SMA and the Adelaide City Council. It is premature for me to give an answer, but the government is very aware of the pressure on the area and it would be the government's intention to ensure that North Adelaide residents are not impacted. Ultimately, that will be, I guess, a council regulation issue about what it does in terms of bylaws for cars on weekends in terms of stopping cars parking there. What the SMA is working towards is a full understanding of the volume of car parking available throughout the precincts close to it. One piece of work it is doing, which is not yet completed, or if it is I have not got the answer, is a detailed analysis of car parking, along with the Adelaide City Council. They are doing audits—Friday evening audits, Saturday afternoon audits—of existing car parking space in registered or official car parking stations in the city, to see what is the volume of usage, so that there can be a prediction, with a degree of accuracy, as to what is the available capacity within the existing Adelaide city owned car parks, such as Wilsons, in the CBD, because there is an enormous amount of car parking space. We then have options such as this. As I said yesterday, we have a car park here under Parliament House which we need to— An honourable member House of Assembly An honourable member: Get rid of the concrete cancer. The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Concrete cancer. The casino may have a requirement for more car parks, so we are working through that option as to whether that then will offer a range of car parks. You have, of course, the car park down at the Convention Centre. On top of that, I can say to the house that we have also identified a number (and I am not going to locate these land parcels for you, because it is too premature) of other unused precincts close by (nowhere near the good citizens of North Adelaide) where we think for a very limited cost you can bring on board substantial car parking. Also, for the western suburbs, there is some rail yard land that may be available for conversion to car park, and there will also be, for the good burghers of the western suburbs, the park-and-ride, which I think has 700 car parks. Mr Marshall interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy Premier, can you wind up your answer? The Hon. K.O. FOLEY House of Assembly The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: He is a genius, this guy. Where have you been for the last 16 years? I haven't had this sort of intellect on the other side for 16 years. I can say that the member is correct: if there is a Saturday matinee at the Entertainment Centre at the same time as the footy, that is a problem, so I would not encourage people to rely solely on that but, just on the off-chance that, say, 70 per cent of the time it is available, that is another option. Also, we are looking at the work that has been done in Victoria about how many people drive to the football. Remember this: within the next few years (and, I would think, pretty close to when the stadium will be finished) we will have electrified the rail corridors from north to south with faster, more comfortable railcars from the western suburbs, which can come into the railway station, and it is a short walk over the bridge and you are there. There will be a large number of people who do that. It is much closer than the Richmond station is to the MCG, I think, and people will be able to come in on public transport. I think the member's concerns can be allayed. There is also a discussion about whether or not there is a commercially viable proposal for an underground car park, which the council has flagged itself. I think the mayor did that publicly. I do not know exactly how that modelling is going, but I am more than confident the car parking will be more than adequately dealt with.