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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-29 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: TECHPORT AUSTRALIA (STAGES 3 AND 4) AND OSBORNE NORTH INDUSTRIAL PRECINCT

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:43): I move:

That the 317th report of the committee, on Techport Australia (Stages 3 and 4) and Osborne North Industrial Precinct, be noted.

South Australia has made substantial commitments to build an internationally competitive shipbuilding precinct at Osborne to assist the Australian Submarine Corporation to build the Royal Australian Navy's next generation warships and attract other shipbuilding and repair opportunities.

The staged development of Techport Australia is well underway and involves a series of distinct major projects, which add to considerable public and private sector infrastructure development activity in the northern LeFevre Peninsula. The associated works include:

the deepening of the Outer Harbor shipping channel and extension to the container terminal booth;

completion of the deep sea grain wharf and ABB Grain terminal;

a freight corridor linking the road and rail network to Outer Harbor, including the Port River Expressway, the new road and rail bridges over the Port River and rail corridor upgrades on the LeFevre Peninsula;

development of Techport Australia as the premier naval and defence hub in the Australasian region;

the Port Adelaide Waterfront Redevelopment; and

Largs North Marina Adelaide marine industrial precinct.

This convergence of infrastructure developments in the region, coupled with ongoing growth in the defence and mining sectors, will continue to provide stimulus and confidence to the industrial property market.

The subject of this report by the Public Works Committee involves site preparatory works of about 50 hectares, including the remaining industrial land parcels within the Techport Australia Supplier Precinct (Stages 3 and 4) on the western side of Mersey Road and a parcel of land immediately north of Techport Australia, referred to as the Osborne North Industrial Precinct.

The site in its present condition is not suitable to support large industrial structures or sub-grades for sealed pavements without considerable site preparation works, ground improvements and/or piling works. Completion of the site preparatory works reduces geotechnical risk and will advance a portfolio of development-ready industrial land that can be progressively serviced and delivered to the marketplace. This will ensure that the government is able to capitalise on the momentum generated from the ongoing sales of allotments within the Techport Australia Supply Precinct (Stage 2).

Funding for the site preparation of the land was allocated to Defence SA as part of the 2008-09 budget process to allow the agency to undertake the works required to facilitate the release of development-ready industrial land beginning in 2010-11. The land will be prepared in stages by private civil construction contractor Bardavcol Pty Ltd. A site preparation strategy has been completed by geotechnical specialists Coffey Geotechnics, which outlines the construction requirements for the site preparation works. The works include:

stripping surface vegetation and upper organic materials and stockpile separately;

excavation to about 1.8 metres Australian height datum, then surface impact rolling to identify and remediate any weak, wet or spongy areas;

importation and placement of technically specified engineering landfill to raise development site levels to 3.35 metres Australian height datum;

placement of surcharge material embankments, known as preload, up to 3.5 metres high on the engineered landfill to advance ground sediment of the underlying foundation;

settlement monitoring of ground surface to observe the desired extent of underlying foundation settlement; and

removal of preload, leaving a final three metre Australian height datum site level (just below final building site level requirements).

The preload design is a critical part of the strategy. It uses general principles of pre-consolidation to the underlying compressible soil foundation by surcharge loading. A design load in excess of that which will be applied to the foundation by a typical industrial building is placed and allowed to settle until the ultimate settlement has been reached. Primary consolidation settlements of up to 350 millimetres are expected during the preload phase.

The site preparation strategy incorporates the reuse of highly saline waste products and clay soils as fill in the lower layers to minimise its exposure to future heavy pavements and raft footings. This will maximise the durability of the structures and mitigate corrosion in line with the likely design life requirements. The final engineered site level will be marginally lower than the final Coast Protection Board levels required so that surplus building excavation material can be retained and reused on the land to bring it up to the final required level (3.35 metres Australian height datum), thereby minimising redundancy and rework.

Delivery of development-ready land on the northern Le Fevre Peninsula will help to generate further economic benefits for the state in what has already been identified as an important industrial region. Development-ready land in Osborne is likely to appeal to owner-occupiers, investors and developers. Demand for industrial land across Adelaide is increasing. The annual average consumption rate has increased to 110 hectares per annum over the period 2002 to 2007 in comparison with an average 85 hectares per annum over the period 1996 to 2002.

The air warfare destroyer project will have a transformational impact on the state economy. An analysis by EconSearch conservatively estimated that the project will inject an estimated $1.4 billion into the economy and create more than 1,000 direct jobs and a further 2,000 indirect jobs, as part of the build contract. The commonwealth government estimates that the air warfare destroyer build contract will also create about 1,000 additional jobs throughout Australia at other shipyards subcontracted for up to 70 per cent of the module construction work.

The prepared land provides the potential to consolidate further support industries engaged on the air warfare destroyer program at Osborne. The project costs, land sale proceeds and lease revenue are contained within Defence SA forward estimates. Over the forward estimates 2008-09 to 2012-13, the project will positively impact on the net operating balance budget measure by $3.631 million and the net lending budget measure by $7.811 million. Economic analysis undertaken in October 2007 by the Department of Trade and Economic Development indicates that the development of industrial land held by the state government on the northern Le Fevre Peninsula, over a 15 year period, will contribute approximately $1.069 billion to gross state product and sustain an average of 1,960 jobs statewide.

Based upon the evidence presented to it and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:51): Obviously, I rise in support of this report today. I think the member for Norwood indicated in the last half hour that it seems like ancient history because, indeed, it was a long time ago that the Public Works Committee dealt with this issue. What has taken place at Port Adelaide is interesting in its entirety. I am not quite sure what Mr Rod Sawford thinks of it all. I suspect that he is probably a bit doubtful and has probably held a few meetings at the Colac Hotel to work out a strategy for dealing with it at various times. I am someone who has used the Port for a number of decades now. I used to catch the Troubridge backwards and forwards to Kangaroo Island when I was at school in the early 1960s. I can recall the steam tug still operating, making me very old—I am nearly as old as the member for Schubert. However, the steam tugs were operating and the—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: The windjammers were up in Veale Gardens. The fact is that it has changed considerably from what it was. It used to be a very busy port, with a multitude of shipping coming down the Port River into the various berths which were in place but which are now slowly disappearing. It is with some sadness and with a bit of excitement that I do see what is happening. The member for Norwood mentioned the air warfare destroyers. I cannot help making the comment that, if it had not been for John Howard, we would not have had those air warfare destroyers. It was John Howard as prime minister and the former federal Liberal government that gave the Port that initiative to plan for the future. It is something of which it can be eternally proud.

The Public Works Committee has undertaken a number of tours of Port Adelaide and the Techport precinct, and it has been very much a bipartisan approach. What we have looked at has been highly interesting. Even though we were told that we were not allowed to take photographs of submarines, a member in the chamber probably has some pretty good shots, I reckon. The actual Osborne North industrial precinct about which the member for Norwood talked, hopefully, will be a great precinct into the future. It is having a huge amount of work done on it. It is really wasteland. It will be transformed into something that will be part of the future of South Australia. Having seen it as it was and also having seen the rapid changes, I look forward to another visit when that site reaches its full potential.

It is fair to say that not everyone in the Port is happy with what is happening down there. Only in the last week or two we saw the demise of Searle's shipyard. I spent a number of trips over a number of years at Searle's. We took a prawn boat up there once a year; and we had great entertainment in the Port working on a slipway with the boat during the day and then studying the various delights of Port Adelaide by night. I have good memories of that, but a lot of that is gone now.

I do support the noting of the report. The member for Norwood went through it in detail, and I have no intention of going through that again. We will wait to see where all this will end up. I look forward to the first air warfare destroyer hitting the water. There has been a lot of talk by the Rudd government about a paper to have 12 submarines operating with the Royal Australian Navy. It is rather confusing to me, because currently we have six. On one visit down to Techport we saw three in dry dock. They can crew only about 2½ at any given time, so where on earth they think they will get the crew for 12 submarines I do not know.

It would be my earnest desire to see those submarines—if they are to be built—to be built in South Australia, in Port Adelaide. I support the motion to note the report that has been presented to the parliament on behalf of the Public Works Committee.

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:56): I welcome the support of the member for Finniss and the opposition for the motion concerning this project. It was Premier Rann who put together a very good group of people to put the tenders forward, which group included our Governor, the Hon. Kevin Scarce, and Andrew Fletcher. They simply put up a much more professional bid than the other states. That is why we received the money, not because it was necessarily John Howard acting like Father Christmas for South Australia. With those comments, I recommend the report to the house.

Motion carried.

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