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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-26 Daily Xml
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AAMI STADIUM

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (14:51): My question is to the Premier. Does the Minister for Finance have responsibility for costing the upgrade of the West Lakes AAMI Stadium and, if so, does the Premier stand by the minister's assertion that $9 million should be enough to bring the stadium up to World Cup FIFA standards?

On 20 June 2007, the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing announced a $9 million commitment for the AAMI Stadium redevelopment. In his release, he stated that this funding would ensure that 'AAMI Stadium not only continues to be one of the country's leading football grounds but will also allow us to host international events such as World Cup soccer matches'. That is $9 million, Michael.

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) (14:52): I am pleased that the soccer supporters here—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —are gaining pace and gaining status. Just recently, some people from soccer came to see me. They were not asking for a stadium that was a shared resource with the AFL or with cricket. They came to see me with a plan: they wanted me to make a commitment to build the same stadium roughly as the one in Frankfurt, with a covered roof, for use in the World Cup. Unfortunately, there were no costings. I asked for a business case, but there was no business case. Those are the sorts of deals and commitments that the Leader of the Opposition makes, but that is not the real world.

Can I just say that this clamour from the other side for a new soccer stadium makes me want to go back in time about eight years. Don't you remember when the former Liberal government—of which the Leader of the Opposition was a minister—wanted to have the soccer stadium for all time? It was for the 2000 Olympics, and it would set us up for a generation. It would be a soccer stadium which we could be proud of and which would have international status. They spent a fortune down at Hindmarsh, and now they are telling us, just a few years later, that it is no good.

Basically, your Press Club luncheon speech was an admission or a confession that, in fact, Hindmarsh Soccer Stadium does not fit the bill. Because we have been leading the charge, this government will make sure that we do not miss out on the World Cup. But we are not going to sign up for things without a business case, and we are not going to make announcements without costings—we will leave that to the Leader of the Opposition.

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