Motions

Adelaide City Skate Park

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. T.A. Franks:

That this council:

1. Notes that skate parks across the world provide full considerable positive youth development opportunities;

2. Notes that the Adelaide City Skate Park has been an outstanding social and recreational space for South Australia since June 2000, and in this time it has also provided a career LaunchPad for professional skaters and riders;

3. Expresses concern that, as a result of announcements to build new medical facilities on the site of the Adelaide City Skate Park, the state government has terminated its lease with the Adelaide City Council effective June 2014, yet has not made a corresponding financial commitment for a replacement central city skate space; and

4. Calls upon the state government to urgently ensure a temporary skate facility in the interim and commits to funding a new permanent central city skate space in the upcoming budget.

(Continued from 21 May 2014.)

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (16:39): I will speak very briefly today in strong support of the Hon. Ms Franks' motion on the Adelaide City Skate Park located just down the road from this very place. I do not mean to rub it in but as the youngest member of this parliament—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: The least experienced in life!

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: How dare you? My life has been rich; it doesn't matter how many years you have lived as long as it has been a rich life.

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Indeed, misleading the house—implying that I have not had an interesting life, indeed! I wholeheartedly support the sentiments of the Hon. Ms Franks' motion and agree that an alternative in the CBD area must be found to accommodate our young people and, of course, the young at heart who wish to skate and recreate at a skate park.

Skating, I am informed, is a very vigorous outdoor pursuit that allows the healthy physical activity we want to see being done by not just our young people but all South Australians, so this is an important initiative in that regard as well. In an age where we worry about obesity and lack of activity amongst our so-called screen-addicted youth in particular, we should certainly be encouraging any activity that helps anyone to get out and about for at least 30 minutes a day of physical activity.

I am not technically much of a skater myself, and I am not sure where a wheelchair falls into that sort of category but I certainly hope that we can find a solution to this very important issue in this chamber. I commend the motion to the chamber.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (16:41): I rise on behalf of the government on this motion. While the state government recognises the important contribution of skate parks in providing positive youth development and youth activity opportunities, this motion is opposed because the key section of the motion calls for a premature commitment. The state government through Renewal SA, the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet have been working constructively with skate park users and the Adelaide City Council to achieve both a short-term and long-term solution. I repeat that the state government and the Adelaide City Council are currently working together to achieve a solution. It is doing so across a number of forums including through the Capital City Committee.

This cooperation is by no means a result of the Hon. Tammy Franks' motion. It was occurring prior to the introduction of this motion and will continue beyond today. A political game will not solve this important issue. Only cooperation and consultation will do so. The state government is committed to this.

While it is true that Adelaide City Council's lease of the City Skate Park site will end in June 2014, the government has been working for some time to ensure safe public access to the skate park can be maintained for as long as possible following 18 June (today). While it may well be the case that a period of closure will be necessary to allow the universities to undertake investigations to develop their new buildings, it is anticipated that there will be some time before the land needs to be completely inaccessible to the public.

Through the cooperation of the University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, it is expected that safe access to the skate park will be able to be maintained through to at least February next year. I understand that planned construction of the two exciting new major medical research and teaching facilities for the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia will be underway then. These buildings will provide further momentum to our future state economy and add to the South Australian Health and Biomedical Precinct, containing the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

Furthermore, in anticipation of the closure of the current skate park, the Adelaide City Council has initiated consultation with skate park users to determine preferences for the nature and location of any new skate park. I am advised that the council has received almost 300 feedback forms from patrons providing important feedback on the amenity, design and location of a future skate park. The government understands the Adelaide City Council is currently reviewing this feedback in order to plan for a new facility and will continue to seek input from the skate community as the project progresses. The government continues to work closely with the Adelaide City Council to ensure that the best possible outcome can be secured.

The suggestion that the government needs to commit funding now to the skate park is premature. The government continues to demonstrate its commitment to building a more vibrant Adelaide. When the plans for the new skate park have been finalised, the government will work with the Adelaide City Council to consider funding arrangements.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (16:44): It is with some pleasure that I rise to indicate opposition support for the honourable member's motion. I will start by congratulating the Hon. Tammy Franks on her motion, and we acknowledge the importance of this particular activity for our young people, maybe even some of our not so young people, giving them something proactive to participate in, rather than perhaps getting up to some mischief or being on the streets and being a danger to themselves and others. I also congratulate the member for Adelaide, who has been quite vigorous both within our party room and also within the general community with her support for the proposed skate park. With those few words I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:45): I rise to thank those members who have contributed. I thank the Hon. Kelly Vincent and the Hon. Terry Stephens for their support, on behalf of Dignity for Disability and the Liberal opposition. I note with concern the government's words that it is somehow premature to announce funding for a skate park, they themselves having announced the end of the lease. They terminated the lease exactly a year ago today. It has, yes, had a reprieve until February for a continuation of that lease, but it should be no surprise to this government that, if a new skate park is to be built, there needs to be some money on the table not just from the Adelaide City Council but from the skate government—state government, not the skate government, clearly.

If they wanted to be known as the 'skate government' and wanted to prove, as I said in my original speech that #jaygetsit, not only would the Premier have said, when the lease was terminated, that he would ensure that the skate park would be relocated, as he did, but he would have announced how much money the state government would put into the budget so that therefore proper planning could be undertaken and that we would not see a period when there was no skate park in the City of Adelaide.

The City Skate Park has a fine history, a proud community that is active and, as you can see from the gallery tonight, is most concerned to secure the future of this particular facility. Announcing funding is necessary if the government is then to move on to undertake work, to do the scoping, to finalise the plans for a new skate park and to do so in a timely manner and not, as the government has said, in a premature manner. I think that all of those references to 'premature' were in some way references to some other sort of phallic approach to politics, but I digress.

If the government were serious about its commitment to the skate park, it would have responded to the Adelaide City Council's pleas much earlier on. They would have already announced the funding for this skate park, and we would not have been looking at a potential time—and we still are looking at a potential time—where there is no city skate park. It shows that in this case Jay didn't get it. In this particular instance the minister clearly does not get it. This government talks a lot about small bars and vibrant laneways; those small bars and those vibrant laneways are nothing without a skate park in terms of ensuring a truly vibrant city. There is more to a vibrant city than just small bars and activated laneways.

With the pleas and work the Adelaide City Council has done, there is actually fantastic groundwork for the government to now step up and announce not only funding but to work more collaboratively with the skaters and the Adelaide City Council to ensure there is no time delay between the old skate park and the new skate park, and that the new skate park, for which I hope the government will announce funding in tomorrow's budget, is something of which all South Australians can be proud, and should always have been something on which there was a collaborative approach.

It has been this government and this particular minister, minister Rau, who has held out, who has made stupid comments to the press like 'young people could use Victoria Square to skate in'. He also was quoted as saying that he did not have an opinion on a skate park, even though it has been brought to his attention not only by the City Council but also through media and journalist inquiries, and through the many people who have signed the petition to minister Rau, which has been cc'd to the Minister for Regional Development and also to minister Bettison.

With those few words, I commend the motion to the council. I hope that the government will see the error of its ways and that in tomorrow's state budget we will have an announcement of a portion of money to adequately fund a city skate park to be developed in cooperation not only with the Adelaide City Council but with this city's skaters.

Motion carried.