Question Time

City Deal Funding

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question is to the Premier. Why has Geelong been able to secure more funding for its City Deal over the forward estimates than Adelaide?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:03): We are absolutely delighted with the City Deal that we have signed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It seems like the only people in the entire state who are upset about the City Deal are those opposite. In fact, people are saying to us on an ongoing basis how transformative it is to finally have a plan for the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. Let me tell you, sir—and I am sure you are interested to know this—those opposite decided to leave that site back in 2007. Fast-forward a decade and they still didn't have a plan. Despite multiple public competitions to come up with a plan, the best they could conjure up was 1,300 flats on our Parklands in South Australia.

Well, we have had a much grander vision for our state focused on the future industries, and it was with much pride that the Prime Minister came to Adelaide last year and announced that South Australia—in fact, Adelaide—would host the national headquarters for the Australian Space Agency. Those opposite, of course, said that they were working in a bipartisan way. I would love them to come in here and put forward an agenda list of all those meetings that they had advocated, or maybe even a letter or a scribble or maybe a text, that they had sent to the Prime Minister or the minister. They wanted to photobomb our success.

The reality is that this is great news for the people of South Australia, and what is lost on those opposite is the detail which has been put in place for our City Deal. Yes, there is more money going into a national space headquarters on our site. Recently, the federal government announced that Mission Control would be coming to South Australia and that the Space Discovery Centre would be coming onto Lot Fourteen.

I was only down there this morning with Inovor Technologies; they are moving onto this site. They will be manufacturing satellites. Satellites will be manufactured on Lot Fourteen—but there's more. Part of our City Deal, of course, will be a globally significant Indigenous art and cultures gallery. Those opposite scoff about the significance of this piece of infrastructure. It will drive huge interstate and overseas visitation to South Australia. It will also be able to house the new culinary school of excellence, the relocation of that facility onto Lot Fourteen, and we do that because we don't accept those very low numbers—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —of international students that those opposite presided over. We want more international students to come to South Australia, but we've got to create the right environment for that to happen, and we know that is going to happen on Lot Fourteen. It might have been lost on those opposite who always want to talk down Adelaide and South Australia as a destination for migrants to come. We had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition out recently saying, 'Why would people want to come here to South Australia?'

The reality is that they want to be coming here to South Australia because this place has a central uplifting theme. The Leader of the Opposition often talks about central uplifting themes. Well, our central uplifting theme is a transformed old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, Lot Fourteen, which will capture the essence of what we stand for: more jobs in future industries linked to the new Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs), which were covered off into our City Deal—750 people for regional South Australia. Those opposite are always talking down our regions: we are talking up our regions and, more than that, 300 people coming to South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —coming to Adelaide to fill those skill shortages. We welcome people. We welcome people from interstate and overseas to make Adelaide their home.

The SPEAKER: Geelong also got Patrick Dangerfield. I think they have had enough. Before I call the Leader of the Opposition, I call to order the following members: the member for Playford, and I warn him; the member for Cheltenham; the member for West Torrens; the Minister for Primary Industries; the members for Lee, Morphett, Badcoe, Giles, the deputy leader and the member for Wright. The Leader of the Opposition.