Riverbank Arena

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier secured an agreement with AMDA Foundation Limited, Land Forces conference organisers, to host the Land Forces conference each year once the stadium is completed?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:26): There's no commitment at this point in time—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will leave for 10 minutes in accordance with standing order 137A.

The honourable member for West Torrens having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but there's still quite some time between now and when the arena is going to be delivered; in fact, I think that it's not going to be delivered until quite some years down the track. But I'm more than happy to be taking the offer to return Land Forces to South Australia. We spent an extensive time with the organisers prior to their decision to move to Brisbane. They regretted having to move to Brisbane, but the nature of these conferences and the equipment that is exhibited will of course—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —not fit into the current level facilities. Of course, what will undermine our ability to win these projects back in the future is the Labor Party's position that they will scrap this plan. We think it's a very important plan to build it up. I don't quite understand why the Labor Party hates creating jobs in South Australia. To me, it's very important to be able to create as many jobs as we possibly can, and that's precisely what we will do. One of the two major areas of focus in the budget was of course around job creation. It's one of the reasons why it contained $17.9 billion worth of infrastructure projects—

Mr Malinauskas: The worst unemployment rate in the nation.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which was actually the highest level infrastructure investment in the history of the state. It was the highest in the history of the state, and that's why we've now got the largest number of people ever employed in the history of the state.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Sorry?

Mr Malinauskas: Where is it?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Where's the $17.9 billion?

The SPEAKER: The Premier will not respond to interjections and the interjections on my left will cease.

Mr Brown: Where are the results?

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Those opposite are finding it difficult to comprehend that we do have the most people employed in the history of this state. We've also stopped the brain drain. What we had for a long period of time was people who were leaving the state because they couldn't find jobs here. We are finding them here because of our focus and a big part of that is on defence.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat for just a moment. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Standing order 98: debate. We have already secured the fact that he hasn't secured the commitment, so he's now debating the answer.

The SPEAKER: As the member for Lee knows, a point of order is no occasion for providing further personal contribution. I am listening carefully to the Premier's response. The Premier will respond specifically to the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have only just announced that this will definitely be into the forward estimates. We've got a date that we are focused on. We will definitely be speaking to each and every person. The only thing that is going to undermine our ability to attract additional conferences, conventions, exhibitions and international exhibitions to South Australia is the Labor Party's announcement that they are going to scuttle the entire plan. They are going to say, 'We're going to constrain South Australia to a size that is not winning the larger orders.'

We had the IAC here in South Australia in 2017. We want to have it back in the future. In fact, we already put it on the table that we would like to have it back. We would like to bring as many international conferences to Adelaide as possible when the borders permit. We want to open those borders. We want people flooding back into South Australia because we know that it's good for jobs.

One of the things that has happened in recent times is a very significant increase in the number of beds in the CBD. We have recently seen the Adelaide Oval Hotel open up with rooms, opposed by those opposite—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: And this is the person who opposed it.

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Again, standing order 98: this is clearly debate. It's nothing to do with the question that I asked.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I don't uphold the point of order for the moment. The Premier will direct his answer to the specific question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The specific question was about attracting the Land Forces conference back and what the appropriate time is to get in touch with those people to win that work back. I am saying it's very important to win those jobs back because we have more hotel rooms in South Australia. We have the Adelaide Oval Hotel and the Casino expansion—$330 million. We have the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We have the Sofitel, which is about to open, and now we have, if you like, a complete schedule of new projects that are going to come online, so we must get conferences like Land Forces.

It's regrettable that those opposite are playing politics with this important opportunity to bring more conferences, more exhibitions and more concerts here to South Australia, most importantly to create jobs for the future.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Lee, I warn the member for Playford for a second time.