Grievance Debate

Riverbank Arena

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:20): There are some people saying at the moment that there are some ructions in the Liberal Party. Some people are saying that they do not believe the current Liberal Party represents the Liberal Party they know here in South Australia. Some people say this Liberal government does not stand for what a Liberal government usually stands for here in South Australia. I think that is harsh; I think that is unfair. I think this Liberal Party and this Liberal government are exactly the same as the Liberal Party and the Liberal government that South Australia has come to know over the years. In fact, this Liberal government is nearly a carbon copy of the last Liberal government we had here in South Australia.

Let me walk you through it. They are in minority government, just like the last Liberal government. They are riven by factional division, just like the last Liberal government we had. There was a constant stream of privatisations in this term, just like there was in the previous Liberal government. We have a health system in crisis, just like we had in the last Liberal government. We have an economy lagging the nation, just like we had in the last Liberal government.

They are at war with public sector unions, particularly in the health area, just like the last Liberal government. They of course have the same issues at the moment, with serious questions over the Deputy Premier's judgement, just like they had in the last government. We have the same issue with a Premier who cannot remember key details of a major deal that he is involved in, just like the last Liberal government. In fact, they even have the same Treasurer as the last Liberal government.

What I really want to talk about today is the extraordinary capacity for the Liberal Party of South Australia, when they happened to fall into government here in South Australia, to stuff up major projects. We can see it right now unfolding before our very eyes. Of course, you will remember during the term of the last Liberal government the famous one-way expressway debacle. It was something that would have cost $97 million to rectify with a dual-way expressway, had they built it at the time. By the time Labor came around to rectifying it, it cost over $400 million.

You will remember that the last Liberal government extended the Convention Centre. The first one was opened by the former Bannon government and the former Liberal government extended that with a new extension. Then what did they do? The then Premier listened to his advisers and he decided to immediately invest in a competing convention centre down the road, the National Wine Centre. What a basket case that turned out to be.

The thing that has stumped us on this side of the house today are the revelations that have just come out of question time. The major plank of this Liberal government's re-election, announced exactly one year out from the next state election—19 March it was announced by the Premier—was what was to be pitched by him as a new multipurpose arena. He overrode the objections of his advisers and public servants advising him and he stood up at a press conference and proudly announced that this would be a basketball stadium for the benefit of South Australia.

He committed at that time, on that same day, that he would release the business case in conjunction with the state budget, setting out the benefits of this new stadium. Now we seem to learn from the Premier, who cannot answer a straight question in this house, that we do not even know whether a business case has actually been completed. Sure, it has been referred to Infrastructure South Australia, and that indeed was confirmed in the other place, but no business case has been completed.

Without a business case, what is the purpose of having a new facility that the Premier tells us we need to secure more major conferences like the Land Forces conference? So quite understandably we asked him today: have you secured the Land Forces conference for when this place is built in future years? Not only was the answer no but the Premier also coughed up to the house that they have not even been contacted and asked—absolutely extraordinary!

Not only can he not demonstrate the economic need for this new facility without a business case but he himself has not even thought to go to the basic effort of reaching out to those conference organisers who he assures South Australians will be flocking to use this new facility.

The truth is there is no justification for this new basketball stadium and there is no justification for it when this government, for example, is building a new Women's and Children's Hospital that has only one extra paediatric bed in it. This is meant to be a hospital to provide for South Australia's future for the next 50 years. How can we justify spending nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars on something that does not even have a business case?

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order on my left! The Minister for Education has the call.