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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-22 Daily Xml
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BOWDEN URBAN VILLAGE

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:09): My question is to the minister for planning. Before announcing that the former Sagasco-cum-Origin site would form part of the government's urban village at Bowden, did the government assess the environmental safety of the site for residential living? The opposition has obtained through freedom of information documents indicating that the EPA advised that it would oppose any change in land use from industrial to residential on that site due to contamination concerns.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure) (15:10): Responsible for the purchase, through the LMC, of the Origin site—how dare I answer it? Goodness me! They got an FOI to discover that the former Sagasco site has significant contamination. Goodness, gracious me!

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Minister for Police, be quiet!

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Unley!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Oh, the member for Unley's interjecting, too. Can I tell you something about the member for Unley? We asked on our website for expressions of interest in redeveloping Adelaide Oval, and one of the first people to download it was a company called Pisoni Furniture. Now, I've got to tell you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, member for MacKillop.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: The point of order, Madam Speaker, is relevance. I asked the question to the minister for planning, the other minister was so keen to answer it, but now refuses to answer my question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Transport, answer the question, please.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I do apologise for being distracted by interjections. I just say to the member for Unley: good luck, but I think we will go with someone with a bit more experience—very likely. The Origin site, it is well known, has been heavily contaminated by its industrial uses over the years. We believe that the purchase of the Clipsal site from that great South Australian, Rob Gerard, allowed us the opportunity to include the Origin site and finally do something about it, because—

Mrs Redmond: Were you aware?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Were we aware that there was heavy contamination at Origin before we bought it? Yes; that is why we got paid money to take it. That alerted us to it; that led us to believe that there might be something about the place if they are paying us to take it.

Mrs Redmond: Exactly!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Exactly! So, your answer is: leave it contaminated forever. Our answer is: bring in, find the value, remove the contamination. The difference between us and you, you cheap political lightweights. It's exactly the same as the member for Davenport criticising us for not giving out the master plan for Riverfront precinct earlier. This is how small-minded they are: 'It should have been a local firm.' Yes, with that logic the Sydney Opera House, if it was built by him, would have looked like the Chelsea Cinema. These are the small-minded lightweights.

We are taking the Origin site, knowing it has significant contamination, believing that the value that we can put into this urban village will give us a chance to decontaminate the land. Wouldn't that be a good thing? And if you think we're going to apologise for that, you are even dumber than I thought.

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