Limestone Coast Events

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:39): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on government support for events on the Limestone Coast?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:39): Absolutely. I want to thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question but more than that I want to thank the member for Mount Gambier for his advocacy.

When we had country cabinet in the Limestone Coast last year, we were on the ground in Mount Gambier. The member for Mount Gambier, as he frequently does, assiduously arranged a packed program for me to meet a whole suite of various organisations, businesses, community leaders when I was on the ground in Mount Gambier. One of the people I had the opportunity to meet is Mr Dale Cleves who is the principal organiser, amongst others, of the Generations in Jazz festival.

I must confess that despite having made a few different failed attempts to go to Generations in Jazz, up until a couple of weeks ago I had never been there before. The proposition that was submitted to the government via the member for Mount Gambier that, if the state government was able to contribute somewhere in the order of $700,000—in fact, more specifically, $720,000—to Generations in Jazz, it would result in them being able to build a whole range of facilities on the site immediately adjacent to The Barn that then would negate an in excess of $100,000 per annum cost on bump in, bump out of marquees and other facilities. Also, in turn, the infrastructure would then create a separate revenue stream for Generations in Jazz to the tune of somewhere in the order of $50,000 per annum.

Now, a $700,000 investment from government that generates $150,000 per annum cash being available to Generations in Jazz is a pretty good buyback—it's a pretty good buyback—and we rarely come across those types of opportunities in government. I don't mind saying that through this relationship, as distinct from DIT building the infrastructure, it's probably resulting in a different budget outcome.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Yes, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport is not here. I am a bit braver now to say these things. But in all seriousness, it was a really sensible proposition that we considered in the context of this year's budget deliberations and, as an early budget announcement thanks to the Treasurer's work, we were able to make that commitment at Generations in Jazz a couple of weekends ago.

But can I say this: in South Australia we have a lot of different events. They vary in their scope, their scale and their size, but this event is out of the box. There is a tent that gets erected, a temporary tent, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere in terms of its scale, and everyone was telling me how great it is.

I walked into the tent on the Saturday night—the Minister for Arts was there and there were over 6,000 people in that tent, overwhelmingly young people—and it had a unique and special feeling to it. There were a lot of young people high on life, having achieved their grand final in a jazz and music context of playing at Generations in Jazz. It was infectious, it was healthy, it's a good thing to do, and if we are facilitating more young South Australians participating in music, which is yet another contribution to a great upbringing, then that's a good thing and I want to thank the member for Mount Gambier for facilitating it.