Riverbank Arena

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:01): My question is again to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house whether the business case for his new stadium has actually been completed?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:01): I love getting up to speak about the benefits of this important project for South Australia. It is very important for South Australia and, as the member would be aware—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Education!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —if he looked at the Capital Intentions Statements—I think you can look them up on the Infrastructure SA website—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —this is a project that they say is investable now. I know that the opposition was opposed to the establishment of Infrastructure SA. They refused to implement the independent scrutiny of government projects when they were in government. They refused to implement—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —a project like Infrastructure SA or a body like Infrastructure SA—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —when they were in government. They did, I think, ultimately support the legislation going through this house, and now it's time for them to take a look on the website. Take a look on the website and see the great work that Infrastructure SA has been doing. Of course, as I have previously reported to the house, this is a project that is going to deliver very significant benefits to South Australia. Those benefits will come over and above—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the costs, in terms of interest and in terms of depreciation. There will be direct benefits and there will be indirect benefits. We will enliven our city in South Australia.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for a second time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Jeremy Conway has answered questioning by a parliamentary inquiry as recently as this week. They had the opportunity to ask any questions that they may have. We have seen the detailed work that has gone into this by Adelaide Venue Management. I might have made it clear earlier today that it wasn't the first plan that had been submitted. It might not have been the first plan that had been submitted. In fact, Adelaide Venue Management were very keen to see—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that development here, an expansion of their capacity. But we didn't just jump at the very first proposal that was put in front of us.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We needed to be sure that—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —this was would provide an adequate return to the taxpayers here in South Australia. That's precisely what we did. We said, 'You've got to go and test what the demand is going to be,' not just the demand immediately, because of course we know that there is a subdued demand at the moment. It's very difficult to have people moving around to go to conferences and exhibitions and conventions at the moment, but we needed to look at what was going to happen going forward. We needed to look very carefully at what the size, the capacity and the make-up of these new facilities should be going forward.

We know that the new areas are far more digitally enhanced than they have been in the past, so we needed to make sure that that was going to be adequate. We needed to look at and speak to the people who are running the concerts and ask them why they weren't coming to South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —why they were flying directly across the top, over Adelaide, from Sydney to Perth, and make sure that there was going to be an adequate return.

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 for debate: it was a very specific question about whether a business case has been completed for the new stadium.

Mr Picton: It's so simple: yes or no.

The SPEAKER: Order! I will rule on the point of order, and while I rule on the point of order—and particularly, for the moment, members on my left might take the opportunity to get out the green volume and have a close look at standing order 142—I direct all members on my right and on my left to the standing orders: what the Speaker is charged with the responsibility to maintain in this place. I uphold the point of order. I note that the question was quite specifically directed, and the Premier will direct his answer to the specific question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: To the specific question, sir, the answer is yes.