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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-29 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE OVAL

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure. As there is now no deadline for the Adelaide Oval project, has the government agreed to approve further funding, above the $10 million already approved for the Stadium Management Authority to operate until 31 December, so that the Stadium Management Authority can continue its work past 31 December? If so, how much money has been approved, for what time period, and is that money coming out of the $535 million government contribution?

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (14:55): I tried to be polite, that didn't work, so I am not going to do that this time.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Go and find a friend and leave me alone, will you? Go and find a friend, mate. The truth is, firstly, let's make this clear: $535 million, that's it from us.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Actually I was losing my sleep. I was worrying whether the member for Unley would believe me, but he believes in lots of things. He is a very easy person to get to believe in things; we remember those documents. He picked them up. They were full of Seventh-day Adventists and shady deals; he said, 'This has got to be true.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PENGILLY: Point of order, Madam Speaker. I think you know what it is: 128 on relevance. It has nothing to do with the question.

The SPEAKER: I uphold that. Could the minister get back to the substance of the question?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Thank you, but the interjections have been so constant it is hard not to respond.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The deputy leader will be quiet.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: And the power of three remembers the $450 million. The truth is there is $535 million out there. This is a marvellous contribution from the government and, yes, we have approved funding because we are rolling it out because it is a project that is going to go ahead. Of course, the money we are rolling out is part of the $535 million. There is no other pot of money. I cannot believe anyone would think otherwise. But the truth of the matter is this: we want to have football at Adelaide Oval, played at Adelaide Oval by 2014. That is an ambitious deadline. Of course, the one thing you always get in trouble for in this business is being ambitious, but we have a—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: And they snigger and laugh, and that is why they have been in opposition for this long and that is why they are going to be in opposition for another eight years. The truth is we are rolling out money to deliver football at Adelaide Oval in 2014. That is what football supporters want, that is what the Crows want, that is what Port Adelaide want, it is what the SANFL want, it is what the league commissioners want, it is what the league directors want, it is what the former premier Rob Kerin wants—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. It is question time, and the opposition wants an answer. That is what the opposition wants.

The SPEAKER: That is no point of order. He is answering the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I point out: yes, we are rolling out the money. Yes, we are rolling out the money because we want to meet that time line. We want to do what football wants and what cricket wants and what 700,000 football supporters want. We want to put football at Adelaide Oval. Yes, it has caused us some pain but, yes, it is worthwhile. What will happen with it is a redevelopment of that river precinct for the first time in South Australia, and we will transform the face of Adelaide doing it. If you mealy-mouthed naysayers want us to apologise for that, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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