Tonsley Park Redevelopment

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation. Can the minister give us an update on the state government's Tonsley Park redevelopment?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for his very good question, and I am able to find some information about that to answer his question. The Tonsley redevelopment is a glimpse into what the future of manufacturing in South Australia will look like: high value companies that are globally competitive, working closely with research and training organisations. In the last 18 months since the Tonsley vision was launched in May 2013, we have seen tremendous progress onsite in terms of both the physical delivery and economic activity.

The 20-year $253 million redevelopment is a long-term investment by this government in South Australia's future. This development will welcome 8,500 students each year and is forecast to leverage more than $1 billion in private investment and deliver more than 6,000 jobs over the next 20 years. Already, Tonsley has attracted significant investment from: TAFE SA, Flinders University (where 6,000 students will attend from March), Siemens Australia, Hills Innovation Centres, Signostics and ZEN Energy, along with a memorandum of understanding with MAN Diesel and Remote Energy to develop large-scale hybrid power generations and to cluster with like-minded companies.

Tonsley also now houses a unique training facility in the Onshore Petroleum Centre of Excellence. Santos, Senex Energy, Beach Energy and TAFE have partnered with the government of South Australia to provided accredited training to oil and gas workers. Just last month, construction of the new $32.2 million state drill core reference library commenced. This world-class information and data resource will lead to new discoveries and energy developments over the next 20 years, generating an estimated $6 billion in royalties.

This development is changing how traditional business is carried out. Everything at Tonsley has been designed and built to encourage a collaborative environment, right down to the central food and retail precinct encouraging researchers, students, companies and entrepreneurs to share their ideas for new products and develop solutions to existing problems. It is a lot like the Blue Room but without the French onion soup, where many people can come together and—

The Hon. T.A. Franks interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: No, it is there every six or eight weeks. I thank honourable members for their interest in French onion soup particularly. I have been lucky enough to visit Tonsley a couple of times in the past few weeks, and on the most recent of those visits I was able to announce that Origin Energy, in partnership with our Tonsley tenant ZEN Energy, has been selected to deliver the roof solar installation on top of the main assembly building at Tonsley. For those members who are familiar with the old Mitsubishi plant, that is the saw-tooth roofed building that housed the main assembly part.

This project has the potential to be the largest solar roof installation in South Australia and, if fully realised, will cover an area larger than the playing surface of Adelaide Oval and provide relatively cheap renewable energy to those businesses under the main assembly building roof at the Tonsley development.

Over the coming months (sometime in April) we will see new retail outlets, the opening of the main entrance from South Road and the completion of the urban forest, which will continue to stimulate the site and draw in the local community. The development of approximately 850 dwellings in coming years will also provide contemporary living options built to 21^st century environmental and design standards, attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work, live and spend time at Tonsley.

This world-class development is an outstanding example of what can be achieved through partnership and collaboration. When government, industry, the research sector and community work together, very big things are possible.