Public Works Committee: Port Pirie Regional Sports Precinct

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:06): I move:

That the 566^th report of the committee, entitled Port Pirie Regional Sports Precinct, be noted.

This project will see the co-location of many sports facilities in Port Pirie around an upgraded Memorial Oval, the adjacent Pirie West Oval and the swimming centre. Currently, the sporting facilities in Port Pirie are spread over a number of ovals and venues. Many of these facilities are aged, some do not meet the needs of the community, and many are in urgent need of upgrade and repair to meet building and sporting code requirements. The cost to the council and the clubs of maintaining all these facilities is onerous and there is a need for newer, more modern facilities to ensure the ongoing interest and engagement of the community in local sport.

The proposal to rationalise the playing venues and provide significantly upgraded facilities has met with both community support and support from the local sporting clubs. With funding assistance from the state and federal governments, the Port Pirie Regional Council is proposing to consolidate a number of facilities into one location and provide new, modern facilities for football, cricket, soccer and baseball, as well as upgrading and expanding the swimming centre to incorporate additional indoor pools, gymnastics facilities and squash courts.

In order to accommodate the sports precinct, the existing Memorial Oval will be realigned to incorporate Pirie West Oval and extend the oval onto adjacent council-owned land. The Minister for Education and Child Development, owner of the Pirie West Oval, is supportive of the project, and the necessary negotiations have occurred to allow the council to proceed with the project.

Other works in the redevelopment for the Memorial Oval include the creation of a turf cricket pitch, main soccer pitch and a baseball diamond; upgrading the oval surface drainage and irrigation systems; and installing new floodlighting and scoreboard in addition to new goalposts and fencing. Also, a new two-storey sports pavilion and function centre for over 200 people will be constructed. This will include two canteens, two umpiring/referee rooms (interchangeable), and four change and strapping rooms. The existing grandstand will also be upgraded to replace the current asbestos roof. All roadways will be sealed and the car park will be upgraded.

Upgrades are also occurring to the swimming centre to create a new indoor recreation centre. Works include the creation of a new gymnastics facility, three squash courts, a multi-use program room, a new canteen, new change room facilities and office space. In addition, a new indoor learn-to-swim pool, lagoon pool and a toddler pool will be constructed. This project comes with many benefits, including providing local employment in the region, the potential to grow tourism and other social and economic benefits.

This is a jointly funded $20 million project between Port Pirie Regional Council and the state and federal governments, with the state and federal governments providing $5 million each. The council is responsible for the remainder of the funding and will undertake some of the required works in house. The ongoing operating costs will also be the responsibility of the council. The council will be overseeing the project, with works to be completed by the end of 2018. Indeed, it is an exciting project and very welcomed by the local community. Having grown up in that area not far away from Port Pirie in the country in the Mid North, I know that it will be really well used.

I thank my fellow committee members for considering this important regional project, namely, the members for Colton, Torrens, Finniss and Unley, and also the committee staff for their assistance with reviewing the project. I also thank those who came to present to the committee on this multidimensional project. Given this and, pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:10): The member for Elder has covered a lot of the project, but some matters arose during the hearing. I was a little surprised that netball is not incorporated. When we met at the Port Augusta complex last year, it was very interesting to me that the netball and tennis courts were all part and parcel of the project.

It was indicated that there was substantial pressure on the Port Augusta council over the continuing maintenance, etc., of the project and its financial viability. I asked that at the Port Pirie project and they seemed reasonably comfortable. It would appear that the netball side of it in Port Pirie is down the road a bit and that the facilities there are not that old, which I think is a pity because I find, even in my electorate, that netball seems to run separately to football. In parts of my electorate, actually, netball is much bigger than football by virtue of numbers and it is a critical part of the community.

We got some answers to some of those questions. I was concerned about the financial viability of the Port Pirie complex into the future. However, they seem pretty comfortable with where they are at. It will be a good project for the area. We have family by marriage around that area, in Redhill and down towards Lake View. They expressed to me that they thought it would be good for the region, so we did not have much hesitation in being supportive of it.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:12): I rise as a neighbouring MP to add my support to this project. We certainly know in Port Augusta, which I represent, the enormous value that the development of our new sporting complex has had. Following on from the comments of the member for Finniss, there are certainly enormous benefits in combining football and netball in winter. That happens in most of country South Australia.

While the clubs in Port Augusta are not combined, the netball league did decide to move from its traditional home on Railway Parade and join with the traditional home of football, being Central Oval in Port Augusta. That may still happen one day in Port Pirie and, if that were to happen, it would be a good thing, but that is for local people to decide.

There is often a lot of discussion about investment in these sorts of facilities and how broad a community benefit there is. I have a strong view that there is a very broad community benefit. The argument against it is often, 'What would people who do not participate in sport get out of it?' My view is that these are facilities that are not only for sport. These are facilities that can be used for a very wide range of community events, including trade fairs and conventions.

In fact, the very first public event that was held at the newly developed Central Oval facilities in Port Augusta was an ageing expo. That event was well attended and very positive and really had nothing to do with sport. The other thing, of course, is that it does not matter whether a person is male or female, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, a tremendous sportsperson or just somebody who just does it for a bit of fun and recreation, a very young person or quite a senior person because anybody can benefit from the sporting facilities.

They can benefit by being spectators. They can benefit because, maybe if they are not doing it, their husband or wife, son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter might well be benefiting from these new facilities. For me, it is not only about sport. These are very important community assets and I am very pleased for the Port Pirie Regional Council and for all the people in the broader Port Pirie district that this project will go ahead.

I am also pleased that it continues to cement the broader Upper Spencer Gulf as a tremendous place to participate locally or for people to come from other parts of the state to participate in sporting and other events. For example, Global Maintenance Upper Spencer Gulf holds a mining and resources forum in Upper Spencer Gulf every year, which is very strongly attended by people from even farther afield than South Australia. So, these facilities can be used for that sort of thing.

I would like to finish by saying that the money invested in these facilities needs to be very carefully thought through. The Port Augusta City Council decided to invest. I was very closely involved in enabling Port Augusta City Council to get support from the state government back in around 2009 and the federal government chipped in money. There was $5 million from each of those two governments, but the Port Augusta City Council has contributed significantly more than either the state or the federal government.

I know that the Port Pirie Regional Council will have done its sums very carefully and will pursue this in a very responsible fashion. As I have said a couple of times, I strongly support Port Pirie having this facility for its benefit, the benefit of the broader community and Upper Spencer Gulf in general. However, it is important to say that these projects can and should only proceed when they can be afforded and without placing an unfair burden on ratepayers. Even ratepayers who will actively participate and directly benefit from the project must not have an unfair burden placed on them through council expenditure.

I say again that I have no doubt that the Port Pirie Regional Council will have done its sums appropriately. I know that the Port Augusta council is under a great deal of financial pressure. The newly developed Central Oval project has contributed to that but is not actually the reason. Let me finish by saying that I am very supportive of this proposal going ahead in Port Pirie, as I was in Port Augusta. However, please let no-one ever forget that the benefits of a project like this must be very carefully compared to the costs that go with it. Of course, all councils must incur these costs in a way that means that they do not force unfair rate increases upon their ratepayers.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Frome—Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Local Government) (11:19): I rise to speak in support of the Public Works Committee and the project for the multi-use sports facility at Port Pirie. As most people know, I was able to secure $5 million from the state government back in 2014. The federal government also contributed $5 million towards this project through the National Stronger Regions Fund. This project has been going on since 2014. At this stage, the council has started some of the project and they have demolished some of the outbuildings.

They have reinvigorated or reinforced the oval itself by changing it completely. They are going to have what I consider to be one of the best oval grounds and facilities in regional South Australia. They are going to have similar grass and so forth to the Adelaide Oval and, with the drainage problems there, hopefully they will be able to overcome that issue. The council at this stage has not accepted a full tender. I know for a fact, as the member for Stuart has indicated, that councils need to be very aware and very responsible when they do these projects.

We also have to ensure that the councils themselves maintain the ongoing costs of these facilities. I know our council, the Port Pirie Regional Council, have been consulting with all the sporting groups there. They also have not finalised a tender at this particular point. I know they are trying to do every due diligence to make certain that the long-term viability of this project is going to be sustainable. A facility of this nature, as with the one at Port Augusta, will allow the community to have better facilities for sporting events, etc., there.

I would like to point out an issue happening in Port Pirie: we have a gymnastics regional training academy, which has over 300 young students under the guidance of Garry and Lee-ann Nayda and other teachers. These young kids have won some state championships recently. They have won national championships. It is a regional academy, and one of the things that I want to be able to ensure, as do other members in this house, is that our young kids have the best training facilities and opportunities in regional South Australia so that they do not have to go to Adelaide to train to be national competitors and so forth.

This gymnastics academy is growing all the time. It has had an invitational academy championship recently, when over 2,000 people came into the community and 550 entrants came into Port Pirie. I want to make certain that with this project those sorts of sports are accommodated, that they can have the best training facilities for the young kids, both male and female, and also be able to hold country championships in these facilities. Our communities, as with Port Augusta and with other regional areas, need to get more and more sporting events because that is new money. It is also an economic boost opportunity and acts as a tourism attraction, and those people will go away with great memories of the community.

If I may digress a bit, I have seen some of the opportunities created by the Copper Coast council, and I think they are doing a fantastic job. I certainly support this facility. I congratulate the Port Pirie Regional Council on what they are doing, and I hope they are ensuring that they have done their complete due diligence. I would also like to thank the federal government for their contribution to this, and the members of the Public Works Committee for putting this project before this house.

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:23): Thank you to all those who spoke in support of this really incredible project, which will open Port Pirie up to be a real sporting hub in that area. Thanks to the member for Finniss, the member for Stuart and the member for Frome in his role as the Minister for Regional Development. I recommend this project to the house.

Motion carried.