Government Initiatives

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:40): Lately, the east coast has been looking over its shoulder at South Australia and it is not just because we are hosting their flagship origin event at Adelaide Oval, it is really because, well, frankly, we are kicking the goals in the tourism and major event space. Maybe we are scoring the tries after tonight. Who knows?

We know we have to do things a little differently in South Australia and it seems like we have figured out how to do that. We are really starting to look pretty good. It is not just the vibe. The numbers do a good job of telling the story of how well we are doing: over $8 billion was put into our visitor economy and a record 20,000 businesses in the tourism and business tourism sector are benefiting from it.

We brought back the Adelaide 500, and I ask you, by the way, who is not glad that we did that? It was such a successful event, it delivered a record $51.85 million benefit to the South Australian economy, a resounding endorsement of the Peter Malinauskas decision to bring the race back. We promised it, we delivered it, and we smashed it. Mad March went spectacularly this year. Over three days of the March long weekend alone, an estimated $128 million was spent in the state's visitor economy.

We saw an unprecedented number of ticket sales across the Mad March events. Fringe ticket sales broke a national record, which is fantastic. It bears out that the government was right to have increased the funding to the Fringe and we are proud to have supported the festival as we did. There was WOMAD, Ed Sheeran. It is fantastic, it is massive, it is, to quote a South Australian icon, pretty special.

Then we had the AFL Gather Round—how fantastic—which was simply a smashing success. If you build it, they will come. We heard evidence in this parliament that the Adelaide Airport had its busiest four days since the start of the pandemic. Every single match sold out. More than 268,000 tickets were sold across the four days, and more than 60,000 people came from interstate to South Australia. No wonder they are looking over their shoulder.

The Friday and Saturday saw $6.8 million in hotel bookings alone in our state. The Saturday was the highest ever revenue for a single night on record in our state for hotel accommodation in Adelaide. The Friday night takes out second place. The two AFL matches both played in Norwood injected more than $2.2 million into Norwood just alone for entertainment. Who could complain about that in the seat of Dunstan?

LIV Golf, Tasting Australia, event after event, delivered exceptional benefits to our state, and it is not just about tourism. We are delivering on major election promises. We are doing the work, we are making life better for our community. We have taken decisive action on the South Road tunnels. Real work will be commencing—actually commencing—in the coming weeks. We have a Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care with no less than a former Prime Minister at the helm, delivering that.

We are delivering on our promise, with hospital beds, ambulances and ambos to bring ramping down, as well as 278 extra nurses, 89 extra doctors, 141 extra ambos. We are delivering even more beds. The biggest land release—we are building new public housing. We have banned mobile phones in classrooms. We are putting mental health support into classrooms and schools as well. We are building the technical colleges we promised. We are going to skill up our young people for the future workforce that we need in this state to support the new economy we are working and we are going to transition to.

Let's not forget we are leading the nation as well with the Voice to Parliament. We have done all this with some pretty significant headwinds. We have had 11 interest rate rises. There is an increased cost of living and associated pressures that come with that. Let's not forget, we had to respond to the floods in the Riverland too. We have done all this and we are starting to answer the question of: what is it we do in this state—a question that the state, no doubt, had been wondering about for the four years prior.

That is just in the first 14 months we have been in government. What is next? I am looking to the rollout of the AUKUS preparations, with billions of dollars in defence contracts coming to our state. The rollout in the Upper Spencer Gulf of hydrogen will attract the sort of jobs we need up there to make sure we develop that into a real other goal kicker for our state. I am looking forward to welcoming back the festivals which we already attracted to our state. Bring them back, bring them again, bring them from interstate, get them looking over their shoulder. Look at South Australia, we are kicking the goals, Mr Acting President. Enjoy the NRL.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (The Hon. R.A. Simms): Thank you, Mr Hanson. The Hon. Ms Bourke.