South Australian Sports Institute

Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. How is the government supporting high-performance athletes and promoting South Australia as a leader in sports research and education?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:52): I thank the member for this question and for her interest in ensuring South Australians are empowered to equally and actively participate in the sport they love. On Wednesday 18 January, I was thrilled to join the Premier—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd, the immensely talented Kiana Elliott, Callum Peters and a number of other outstanding athletes and those who train, coach and support them, to announce the government's plans for a new, world-class South Australian Sports Institute development at Mile End.

For 40 years, the current SASI location has served our community well, but it is well and truly time for a modern, more accessible SASI with newer technologies, improved facilities and a brilliant partnership with UniSA—a partnership that sees the university committing a further $20 million to the project. The government is committing $68 million, with UniSA's contribution taking the full investment at the site to almost $90 million.

SASI identifies, develops and supports athletes with the potential to perform at the highest national and international levels of sport. We want to continue to inspire people like Kiana Elliott and Callum Peters to become the best they can be and to represent Australia proudly on the world stage.

Callum is an outstanding ambassador for his sport, for SASI and for the power of sport to make change. Callum speaks about how SASI has provided him an opportunity to thrive in his chosen sport. He speaks about how he gives back to his own community, encouraging other young people to get active and involved. That is our aim. Sport and recreation must be an exemplar of inclusion. It must harness its power to inspire people to be active, to participate and know that they belong.

Our government is investing in infrastructure and activities that recognise the benefit of sport and its place at the heart of communities. We want young people to aspire to follow in the footsteps of our homegrown legends or simply be engaged, be looked after, through belonging to a club, participating in recreation or volunteering to make sport happen. We want to get our children off screens and being active. We want them to see the pathways that are open to them. That's why this new building and the partnership with UniSA is so important.

The UniSA Sports Science Hub, integrated with the SASI facility, will house research and learning, with laboratories and teaching spaces for students participating in a range of degrees. This unique partnership with UniSA will see us establish a unique, world-class facility—an exciting collaboration. Our state is the home of world-class cycling. We are using this opportunity to install the state-of-the-art National Centre for Sports Aerodynamics at the new location.

On coming to government, it was really clear that much more needed to be done and opportunities seized to ensure that a new SASI would work as it should and be world-class. We got straight to work to ensure this important new partnership was delivered, and committed significant new investment. This new SASI will provide a facility that will create some of the best facilities for our current and future athletes, for all who wish to work in sport, and will send a clear message to young South Australians about the importance of being active and about the pathways that are open to them.