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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-19 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE OVAL

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:08): My question is to the Premier. Did the Premier agree with the Leader of the Opposition when she said on radio yesterday that the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval is nonsensical because 38,000 seats is sufficient?

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Bragg is warned. Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:09): Well, the short answer to the question is no. It is not only me, but many others—including 80 per cent of SACA members, and the better half of the Liberal Party in this state—believe that, yes, Adelaide does require a vastly upgraded Adelaide Oval, with a capacity of 50,000. Apparently, the leader's current position is that 38,000 is sufficient. We believe that 50,000 is what is required. It will mean that, for the first time, we will be able to see football and cricket at the very highest level sharing a world-class stadium facility. It means the oval will be able to host AFL football—

An honourable member interjecting:

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

Mr WILLIAMS: Madam Speaker, there is a bill before the house, and I think this is pre-empting the debate on that bill.

The SPEAKER: Order, the member will sit down! At this stage, I am just listening carefully—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop!

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop, you're warned! At this stage, I am listening to what the Premier says—if he strays into the content of the bill—but this seems a fairly general response.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Certainly, we are not legislating for the leader's comments on radio yesterday. It means that the oval will be able to host AFL football, local and international cricket, rugby and soccer matches, and various other special events as may be secured by us as a state, such as music concerts or one-off major sporting events. I have to say that last night's radio performance absolutely beggared belief, but I will get on to that in a moment. The upgraded oval will make our state comparable to other states in terms of what we can offer to the sporting codes, corporate bodies, the media and, most importantly, the spectators.

Once upon a time, the opposition wanted a 50,000 capacity sporting oval in our city centre. That is what they wanted. That was their policy, but apparently last night that changed. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition wanted a much bigger oval than that. She wanted 80,000 people at her oval. It has gone from 80,000 down to 38,000. It was 80,000—and apparently a rooftop—before the election. What a difference an election makes. The stumbling, dodging and weaving by the Liberals on a city stadium for Adelaide has been like watching Arthur Daley try to crack a deal.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Norwood!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Oh, no, we'll talk about that. In the leader's case, I have to say that her formula for turning South Australia into a series of thousands of French villages—imagine if I had said that when I was leader of the opposition. It would have been ridiculed. There would have been cartoon after cartoon with me in a beret.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: In the leader's case, it may be more apt to say: watching Inspector Clouseau, who once famously said, 'There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.' Let me run the house through some of the leader's more awkward twists and turns. In November 2009, just a few months out from the 2010 election, the Leader of the Opposition grandly unveiled the former leader's vision with the April 2009 date still attached. They just changed the name and photo but left the date in. The member for Waite, I am sure, was very, very proud. But her plan was for an $800 million to $1 billion brand new, 50,000 (it had changed) seat, multipurpose undercover sports stadium (these, by the way, are the Liberal's costings) to be built on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site that would have the interstate and local railway systems running beneath it, along with, we understand, multistoreyed underground car parking.

Just think about this. It is a $1 billion stadium; it is going to have the trains and trams running underneath it, but also there is going to be an underground car park. Just think about that: there could be a traffic jam. It might remind her of the Metro in Paris. The leader said this was necessary because:

For too long—

this is what she said—

Adelaide has been regarded as a backwater where nothing ever changes. This development will once again make this city proud.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Norwood, you are warned!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That is what she said. I will read that again because we had an interjection from the next leader of the opposition. They can change the photo and next time change the date—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The Leader of the Opposition said this was necessary because, she said:

For too long Adelaide has been regarded as a backwater where nothing ever changes. This development will once again make this city proud.

That's what she said, and she anticipated that she could generate $1 billion funding for the project from the sale of government land. Initially the Liberals were saying they could sell land at Keswick, which does not actually belong to the government, so they turned their attention to land at Gepps Cross which we are told was worth a maximum of $100 million on a good day. That is her mathematic formula. We have trains going underground beneath the underground car parks.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We are selling land at Keswick that we do not own and then we find all this land down at Gepps Cross which on the best day would earn us about $100 million. Then we go on to this: the leader then went on radio on the same afternoon and substantially upgraded her stadium plans to say she anticipated the stadium would have a capacity of 60,000 to 80,000 people. This is like Wembley Stadium or maybe the Stade de France, I don't know. Is that right?

Mr Marshall: Is it Chante-lois or Chante-loi?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Norwood, you are warned for the second time.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: This is where I am sure this is going to be highlighted elsewhere—yet last night on radio, this idea of a city stadium—she wanted 80,000 and a covered roof. Last night on radio she said the idea of a city stadium is nonsensical. I will quote exactly what she said. Now, remember the 80,000 stadium we were going to get before the election. Well, last night it was this:

Our view is that the whole thing is a nonsensical spend of Government money…$600m plus probably and that is to put 12,000 extra seats into a stadium that already has 38,000—more than sufficient to cater for football if they wanted to bring it into the city this Friday night.

So it has gone from 80,000 to 38,000.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: So presumably, if the leader does not support the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, having lost the election, she would want us to remember—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —in her words, 'a city where nothing ever changes', because that is her plan. We are not going to have a stadium with the Liberals; we are going to have the French villages, and while she is now feigning outrage about the government negotiations with the Adelaide City Council over some parking arrangements for the redevelopment, it was the Leader of the Opposition back in November 2009 who declared that if she were elected—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Do you want to hear this? She doesn't want to hear what she said before. Her stadium was a mirage in the city. Here we go: back in November 2009, she declared that if she were elected, her huge stadium, railway, casino, riverbank extravaganza would be done by seizing control of the area in order for her to coordinate its development and construction. She was going to take the whole lot. Now she is worried about the little bits of leaves around the corner. Now she is the new Ann Moran. Let me remind the house of what she said. I am going to again remind her of her comments:

The Riverside Development Authority will be established in the first term of a Redmond Liberal Government to take control of the area and co-ordinate development and construction.

No negotiations, no questions asked, never mind the Adelaide City Council, never mind Ann Moran, and the leader made not a mention of consulting the Adelaide City Council on building over the Parklands. Then their plan was to hand over prime control of this state government asset to the SANFL and to soccer. Can I just say in finishing, how phoney is that! It was 80,000 before the election: 38,000 now. Consult to the nth degree now: before the election, take it all over.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop, order! We won't have a repeat of yesterday's performances.

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