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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-07 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:49): Can the Treasurer advise the house of the magnitude of the potential cost of the opposition's latest master plan for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:49): I can, only to the extent to which one can try to ascertain what it is worth. As I said, we woke up yesterday morning to a blaze of glory of this vision, which I say now is nothing more than a path to bankruptcy in the middle of the worst financial crisis the world has seen since the Great Depression. It is likely to continue for at least another 12 months. Recessionary activity, globally and in Australia, could be with us until the end of 2010.

We have no knowledge yet when the downwards spiral of world financial markets will conclude, but we have a Leader of the Opposition who has proposed a $1 billion-plus football stadium; a covering of the entire rail yards, which would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars; an amphitheatre and performing space; to knock down the Entertainment Centre and build a new one; an urban plaza; a science and technology centre; pedestrian walkways and bikeways; green space; educational wetlands; new pedestrian bridges; interpretive indigenous design; a sporting academy precinct; and we would also see a new centre for performing arts and an expansion of the Convention Centre. That would be in the multiple billions. It would be billions upon billions upon billions of dollars.

Mr Hamilton-Smith: Trillions.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Trillions, he now says.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I find it incredible that here I am, battling with the loss of $1.6 billion-plus of GST revenue and our credit rating at risk because of the deterioration in our financial markets, and this guy comes out and says, 'I'm going to spend billions of dollars,' and The Advertiser does not show one piece of critical analysis: it welcomes it, and they try to tell us that they do not have an agenda. Absolute nonsense! They have an agenda. I will say this—

Mrs Redmond: That you're excited by it.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Finniss will come to order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am managing—along with every state treasurer and the national treasurer, including the Western Australian treasurer, who is about to, or has already cancelled their $1 billion-plus stadium—through the most difficult financial times this state and this country have seen since the Great Depression.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: For $200 million. I say that this is the most extraordinary announcement of a party in the middle of the worst financial crisis this nation or this globe has ever seen—and it gets platitudes in the daily Advertiser. I wonder why I bother. But, anyway—

Mr Hamilton-Smith: Are you under stress, Kevin?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Under stress?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Am I under stress? Coming from him—the knives are out. Vickie will be there before the election. We know that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: A week earlier, we saw an uncosted plan for the Royal Adelaide—maybe 300, maybe 800, maybe 1.4 billion.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: What the heck.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: What the heck—chuck the money around. This is the important part that I think we really need to concentrate on, because as an alternate premier, we need to hear what he says. Just have a listen to how he contradicts himself. On 4 May 2008, the leader put out a press release called 'Stadium Proof'. Quote Martin Hamilton-Smith:

A sports stadium at City West would cost around $520 million according to an independent firm of property and construction consultants.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Who would that be?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: We never found out who they were. But, wait—the next instalment: 27 October 2008, on ABC Radio—only a few months later:

The range of costs vary between around $800 billion to $1.2 billion, depending on what you go for.

So, what happened to the independent consultant who said $500 billion? It is now up to $1.2 billion. But, let's go on. On ABC—

Mr Hamilton-Smith: It was to rescope.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Rescope, was it? On ABC Radio yesterday, he said:

It can be done. It can comfortably be afforded. It won't be built in months, or even a year or two—it will take time.

What does that mean: 'it's comfortably affordable'? Says who?

Mr Hamilton-Smith: All will be revealed.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: All will be revealed. Then he—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Mr Speaker, can I have some protection?

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Mr Speaker, can you have them listen in quiet, please? Can you attempt to do that?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The interjections were coming as much from the government's side as they were from the opposition's side, particularly from the Attorney-General.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It is very difficult to try to give an answer to the house when you are getting screamed at by members opposite, but I shall try. The leader goes on to say:

It will need to be a partnership between state and federal government. Local government, of course, will need to be involved and also the private sector.

Think this through. What he is saying is that the private sector could build the stadium part of it—or two-thirds of it, I think he said. If the private sector—you would have thought The Advertiser might have actually put this under some scrutiny but that would have been too much to ask—were to fund two-thirds of this stadium, that would mean that the private sector would have to have the cashbox; it would have to have the gate takings to have some revenue. If they have the revenue, the AFL and the SANFL will not want to go there because they already get the revenue all to themselves. So, they are not going to go there. Therefore, if you want—

Ms CHAPMAN: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, quite clearly, the Treasurer cannot even remember his own Dorothy Dixer. The question was to ask the Treasurer what his estimate of this proposal was, not to have a tirade and debate about what our proposal is.

The SPEAKER: Order! No, that was not the question. The question was what concerns the Deputy Premier had.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Thank you, sir. Therefore, if you want to entice the AFL or the SANFL to the stadium you would have to allow them to take the gate which would mean the public sector would have to fund it completely. One would have thought that was an obvious question for The Advertiser to put to the Leader of the Opposition, but no, because it is not in their interests and because it spoils the agenda that it and the opposition have worked up on a city stadium.

I make this absolute firm commitment and statement: at present, this government is working through the worst financial crisis this state has ever seen. Our credit rating is at risk. We have lost $1.6 billion-plus in GST revenue alone. Unemployment is rising. There will be less payroll tax, less stamp duty, less transactional taxes. This crisis that we are currently in will be with us for many years to come. The Leader of the Opposition's proposal of a multibillion dollar free-for-all spend is a road to bankruptcy.

Make no mistake: between now and the next election I will hound the Leader of the Opposition to make his costings, to tell us how he is going to pay for it and to tell us where this money is coming from, because the next election is about a solid government fit to govern in a financial crisis against a Leader of the Opposition who is on a road to bankruptcy, who would bankrupt the state just to get elected. It is a very stark choice: competent, solid, cautious financial management or recklessness, bankruptcy and oblivion from the opposition.

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