House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Adelaide Oval Hotel Development Adelaide Oval Hotel Development The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Adelaide Oval Hotel Development The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Has the minister yet written to the Minister for Infrastructure expressing her opposition to the hotel development? Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly Schubert Minister for Transport Minister for Planning The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:04): This is unbelievable—a former government spent $535 million on a piece of infrastructure. This government seeks not to just give an ex gratia payment but to actually provide a loan facility, and somehow structuring a loan that actually provides a better return to taxpayers is not okay. This level of hypocrisy and shamelessness knows no bounds. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left and right! The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: What we also sought to do through this process was provide a level playing field. We are a government that has very much moved away— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: I am trying to listen to this answer. The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We saw through the 2018-19 budget the fact that we scrapped a whole heap of individual ex gratia grant programs that the former government had in place. Again, they shouldn't need me to explain this to them, but what happens when you get a loan is that banks tend to ask for security against that asset, so you need an asset to secure against to get some money loaned. Interestingly, with the Adelaide Oval, the Stadium Management Authority don't own it—we do—although the Stadium Management authority does put $3 million a year into a sinking fund for the asset they don't own. They put $3½ million into maintaining an asset they don't own. They then pay a lease, which next year will be $1 million a year, for an asset they quite clearly don't own, as well as paying $1 million towards the sport and rec fund. Interestingly, this is the deal that the former government put in place. The fact that they don't understand it really does not make much sense to me but, when you don't own your asset, it is much more difficult to get secured finance. In this instance, what we did was give the Stadium Management Authority access to money in the same way as another developer who owns their asset would be able to go to a bank and get it. All we did was provide a level playing field. If those members simply don't understand that, then I invite them— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —to go and speak to a member of a big bank or something like that to be able to understand how basic economics and finance work. Members interjecting: The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I think that's enough.