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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-14 Daily Xml
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VICTORIA PARK REDEVELOPMENT

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): My question is to the Premier. When will the Premier make up his mind about whether he intends to continue with his plans to build a grandstand in the Parklands at Victoria Park and, if negotiations with the Adelaide City Council do not resolve the matter, will he rule out the introduction of special legislation to secure the lease?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (15:00): I have already made my position perfectly clear in this house on that question. My view is that there needs to be more negotiations to give the new council time to consider the options, and I am a fair person—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Which they have invited. People know about my commitment to the Parklands. Let me tell you this: I will be remembered for a number of things, but I will be remembered as the premier who gave the biggest return of the Parklands in the last century. Let me just detail what I intend to do.

An honourable member: That's only the last seven years.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Including the last century: this century and the last century. It will include hectares of the current SA Water depot, which is down on the western Parklands, which I must say—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Yes, which for some people are the forgotten Parklands—5½ hectares of land which will be transformed from ugly sheds and brick buildings into a beautiful pristine urban forest. There will also be the bulldozing of parts of the Royal Adelaide Hospital—the ugly parts, not the heritage parts; God forbid—as we transform the railway yards into a park upon which will sit a $1.7 billion hospital, which will be porous so that people can walk down to the River Torrens.

Then, finally, of course, if the scheme of a grandstand is adopted, we will see another return of parkland equivalent to about a third of the size of the Botanic Garden. So, we are talking about hectare after hectare of alienated parkland finally returned. I am almost Napoleonic in my intent to liberate the Parklands—the greatest liberation of the Parklands in the last 100 years.

However, can I say this: there are $44 billion worth of projects going on. I do not lay awake at night awaiting the decisions of the Adelaide City Council. Let me go back on some of the history. I was approached some years ago by the Adelaide City Council, which showed me this proposal for this giant dog's tail of a grandstand to be built in the Parklands, and I said, because of my Napoleonic interest in liberating the Parklands, that I could not and would not countenance such a monstrosity being built on the Parklands. In my view, it would damage the vista of almost sunlit uplands.

So, what I suggested was that we needed to look at something smaller in its footprint and also which would see the removal of some of those ugly concrete edifices that currently exist on the Parklands. So, they came up with a scaled-down version, which also involved the liberation of more Parklands by way of exchange. Then, suddenly, when it became public, because previously the approach had been secret, the Adelaide city councillors decided that maybe the smaller one they were offering might actually be too large. So, every single thing the council asked us to change was changed, and it was reduced in size. Then we were told to put it to the Development Assessment Commission, which gave its endorsement.

But it is really important that we embrace a partnership—a partnership and cooperation in returning more Parklands than has ever been seen in the history of this state.

So, I am looking forward to extending Light's vision. I am looking forward to standing next to the statue on the hill and reading a proclamation to the people of the City of Adelaide—surrounded by councillors in robes, no doubt, at the time—at which I will then announce the biggest return of parklands in the history of the state. In the meantime, I will talk to Mayor Harbison, who believes, so he told me some weeks ago, that a compromise could be achieved. I should say that if that fails to happen, I am sure that there will be someone who will stand up and tell us that the concrete monstrosities that currently exist should soon be heritage listed, because apparently things that are built on the Parklands in the past have to remain, even though you cannot build more beautiful things in the future.

I did read a Parklands newsletter which talked about the University of Adelaide illegally squatting on the Parklands as a kind of a trespasser. But on this issue I am going to be even more resolute: I will stand in front of the bulldozers to prevent anyone in the future bulldozing the University of Adelaide.

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