HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-27 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (16:14): Today, I speak of the history of the Glenside Hospital development over the past 10 years. Members will be forgiven if they assume that the control over the Glenside Hospital development in the last 10 years and the supervision of this was largely at the behest of then premier Rann—indeed, concluding at his goodbye party last year on the Glenside Hospital site at the Australian film hub (now Adelaide Film Studio) where $68,000-plus was spent for his goodbye party—and that this was all his baby. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Premier Weatherill, in particular, has had his fingerprints all over this development in the last 10 years. Members may recall that there are a number of different ministers in that last 10 years, but when I first came into office as the member for Bragg in 2002, minister Hill was the then minister for environment. He now has portfolios of arts and mental health. In between, covering health issues were the Hons Lea Stevens and Gail Gago (covering mental health, for example). We had various other ministers in these portfolios.

Members may be interested to know that the then minister Hill contributed state government funds of $15,000 to help rebuild the heritage wall. We then had promises from then minister for health, Lea Stevens, in June 2004 in which she made it very clear that the Glenside Hospital would be retained for mental health purposes. She went on to say on 10 June 2004, 'I can confirm, however, that at this stage there are no plans to dispose of the land for either residential and/or commercial functions.'

Of course, we then had the era from 2004 to 2007 when the now Premier (then minister for housing) proposed a major development of Housing Trust on the Glenside site. In fact, the plans were drawn up and the matter ended up in the Supreme Court. In the end, the minister's adviser gave notice that there would be a withdrawal of the appeals in the Supreme Court and the major Housing Trust development would not proceed.

To have this assumption that he has not been anywhere near this, bear in mind that he was sitting all the way through in the cabinet dealing with these matters. Then we had the Cappo report, as you might recall. We had minister Hill saying that, as then minister for environment, he could not expand the Glenside proposal because it was needed for mental health facilities in the future. Finally, in September 2007, the then premier Rann and minister Gago announced a redevelopment on the site which included a major cultural hub.

However, by May 2008, the premier then announced that there would be a $43 million film and sound hub built on the campus. His department was going to buy the property for a few million dollars, they were going to have this major development and the Film Corporation would be relocated to it.

I mention that because that is really the issue that has been alive today—the acknowledgement publicly by the SA Film Corporation, who are now tenants of the premises on the Glenside site, where they have admitted that the Resistance television series is no longer going to be made by the Film Corporation and that the $1.5 million financial incentive that had been provided for this would not be available. So we still need to have from the government very clear answers as to what payments have been made to the Film Corporation in support of this, not just the cash investment incentive payment of $850,000 but whether any other in-kind support had been provided. What is the loss of revenue that they have received on this issue since they had announced that they were going to do the resistance program and also what other projects have been sent away.

We do not know any answers to that because we do not have the annual report of the SA Film Corporation. It is now six months overdue to be tabled in this parliament; it has still not been presented today. What we do have, though, is some information that was presented to the Public Works Committee of the parliament in an update. This was a report that had been prepared for the Public Works Committee giving them an update on financial material for this project. I will refer to it another day.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT