House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-26 Daily Xml

Contents

ADELAIDE OVAL

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:33): My question is to the very well-dressed Treasurer. Is the Treasurer aware of the costing methods used for costing other or alternative stadium proposals?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (14:34): I might ask my fashion adviser: does this look okay?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: I like your shirt.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: His shirt with my suit.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Jack Snelling's your fashion adviser.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No: Tom. Maybe the apricot shirt would go better.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Salmon.

Ms Fox interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, the member for Bright likes my suit. What I can say is that we have been attacked on this side because we did not have robust enough analysis and work done on the costings of the stadium. As I said earlier, the numbers that were used by the SMA—and our people thought it was a reasonable approach—was a cost per seat approach, for which the leader has attacked us as being rubbery. This is what she said in a press conference a few hours ago. In her press conference this morning when commenting on her alternative stadium she said:

From my view, the SANFL put up a proposal for a stadium and their figure was $643 million, so our figure of $800 million we felt was actually pretty much on the money.

Then, when asked to concede by a reporter that her figures were also rubbery, Ms Redmond responded:

I'll concede this much. In any costing you can only go so far when you have got concept designs and you can only base it upon how much per seat.

Madam Speaker, she has confirmed that that is exactly the method that she used to cost her stadium. Now she is accusing us of having rubbery figures because that is what we did.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I can't hear the Deputy Premier's answer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The leader has been caught out on her own words. She has confirmed that our method of costing the seats, or the SMA's method, was an appropriate method to use and it was the same method she used. What I can also say about her alternative proposal—and I do not know whether the member for Adelaide was listening, again, to the leader on radio this morning when she said about—accept the fact that we are building a hospital up in the north-west part of the city—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: 'Where would you build it?', and the Leader of the Opposition said, 'We'd build it behind Adelaide High School on the west parklands.' So, on the Leader of the Opposition's alternative proposal, her advice to us is not to spend—effectively, what she said on radio today was 'Don't spend $85 million more, spend $300 million more and build it on the western parklands.' The leader wants us to spend more money and build it on the western parklands. I say to the member for Adelaide: I don't think the Adelaide school council or your constituents would be very pleased with that project being built there.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Question time goes for an hour, and we try to allow the members on my left to have 10 questions, but I am sure nobody heard that response then. We will try and behave. Some of you should get jobs in showgrounds I think—showgrounds with the voices.