South Australian Sports Institute

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:19): We have been steadfast in doing what we can to help encourage our kids to get off the screens and be active and healthy in their local communities. We know it is so important for their mental health and wellbeing, we know it is good for their physical health as well, and it is very important in terms developing those all-important skills that will help develop them into well-rounded adults.

To do that, and just as importantly, we have to acknowledge that sport is an amazing facility for bringing people together. That was achieved this weekend through the opening of our SASI building, where we welcomed communities and members from all across our state to come and see this world-class facility. If we want to inspire our kids to get off their screens and be active, we need to be able to show them that we have world-class facilities to help inspire them on these pathways, whether they want to be future sporting champions or perhaps want to seek careers that are involved in sports—helping to develop their passions into their education and learning as well.

The SASI building was an $88 million investment: $68 million via the Malinauskas government in collaboration with UniSA, who have provided $20 million and are providing world-class education in this field as well, at the building. It really offers our state unique opportunities through this collaboration, not only in what we are doing to support athletes and the education that is being provided but also in the way that people are able to come together, engage, learn from one another and support each other as well. This is something we have heard strongly from athletes already using the facilities, and from those who work there as well.

Of course, we are going to be seeing our future champions come through these doors for many years to come, and we have the facilities within the building to support them as well. We have:

a strength and conditioning gym that features a five-lane synthetic turf testing space and an antigravity treadmill;

an environmental chamber for athlete testing under a range of temperature, hypoxic and humidity conditions; and

a full-sized indoor sprung timber court and a half-court movement studio, which has been designed for instant performance analysis under individual and team modes.

I am really pleased to share that that has already been taken up by some amazing athletes and teams, such as the Thunderbirds and the 36ers as well. We also have:

an ergometer training space;

a physiology laboratory and athlete health rooms;

an athlete recovery centre, complete with athlete nutrition zone, hot and cold pools and dual saunas; and

biomechanics and exercise physiology laboratories that are fit for allied health partners and students to learn about the role that forces play in movement and physiological responses to exercise and training.

There is lots going on at this facility. What was amazing was to then be able to invite the community in. We saw a wide range of families coming in through the doors on Sunday to have a firsthand experience of all these different chambers and how they all work together, done in such a way that inspires young people to get active.

We had some amazing, incredible and inspiring speakers. We had the legendary Callum Peters, who of course won silver in boxing at the most recent Olympics. He is a north boy from Davoren Park doing us all very proud. We had Jed Altschwager, who is a para-rowing champion; Meg Lemon, a paracyclist; Matthew Temple, Rowan Crothers and Harrison Biddell from swimming; Kiana Elliott, who is a weightlifting champion, but she started her career in gymnastics; Dr Ben Singh, a research fellow at UniSA; Akeesha Snowden and Olivia Sandery from athletics; Dr Clint Bellenger, who has a PhD in sport science from UniSA; and also the incredible Steph Talbot, who is a Golden State Valkyries player in the Women's NBA.

So we had a range of athletes from a range of different backgrounds showing all the students and young people coming through the doors, and their families as well, just what is available and what you can achieve through this amazing facility.

I was really fortunate in bringing my daughter along. We had a look at some of the different activations, and it was really interesting to see the sports that she got quite excited about. She particularly liked the cycling because she was able to use that to make a watermelon smoothie. She was really interested in the archery that we had available there and the little gymnastics.

What was particularly exciting for her as well was the movement studio that is available through this facility, where she was able to shoot like a Thunderbird with a wide screen behind her full of a crowd cheering her on. She was able to play 'Don't step on the lava' with other young people, helping to show how the movements work and how the different technologies integrate as well, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.