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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-24 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE CRICKET TEST

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (15:12): My question is to the Minister for Recreation and Sport. Can the minister inform the house about Cricket Australia's selection of Adelaide Oval to host an Australia v India test match?

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the minister, I warn the member for Bragg for the first time. Minister for Tourism and Sport.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (15:13): I thank the member for Mitchell for the question. I was delighted, on the evening of 11 September, to receive a phone call to say that Adelaide would indeed host an India versus Australia test match in the 2014-15 season. Because of the World Cup, we are hosting an India versus Pakistan and an Australian quarter-final, provided they make the quarter-finals of the World Cup cricket in March 2015. The test matches have had to be reduced. Where normally we have five or six test matches in Australia, in 2014-15 we will only have four.

We knew that Hobart was going to miss out, and Sydney and Melbourne were guaranteed test matches, but the other two tests would be decided between Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. Perth was initially favoured as being able to receive a test match because of the three-hour time difference during daylight savings time. We were very worried about not being able to get this test match, and so was SACA.

Ian McLachlan was working very hard on it, plus the executives down at SACA as well. The Premier wrote to James Sutherland, the CEO of Cricket Australia, and I wrote to all the board members of Cricket Australia as well, to just point out to them that we have invested half a billion dollars in the Adelaide Oval, and taxpayers of this state would not look very favourably on South Australia missing out on a test match in the 2014-15 series.

I want to thank Wally Edwards, Chairman of Cricket Australia. He has been terrific. I met with him on 30 July in Melbourne, and we spent a fair bit of time on the phone in the couple of months leading up to the vote. He was always accessible, and although he could never give too much away he always took on South Australia's point of view.

South Australian taxpayers have put a lot of money into the Adelaide Oval and we wanted to make sure that they were not left disappointed, as Perth was left disappointed. When we look at some of the quotes from the Western Australian Cricket Association after the decision had been made, their CEO said:

The ongoing effects this loss will have on the WACA and cricket in Western Australia will be devastating and we are extremely disappointed by the decision...

We did not want to be in that position. We went out and fought hard and we made a real point for the Adelaide Oval to have a test match. Members opposite want to laugh at that. The member for Davenport put out a media release saying that we overspruiked the victory. Be in no doubt at all that we could have missed out on this test match had we not been out there fighting for it. Rob Lucas in another place tweeted:

Great to see Weatherill/Bignell have 'fought and won' AdelOval test given we have always had one! Now going to 'fight' to keep AdelCup here!

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order: he is now quoting a member of the other parliament. This is absurd debate.

The SPEAKER: I am sorry; could the member for Bragg tell me what in standing orders would prevent his quote and the minister quoting a member of another parliament?

Ms CHAPMAN: Let me put this to you, Mr Speaker: it is not only a reflection on the person in the other house but, secondly, it is debating the matter by attempting to use statements of another party in another house to try and bolster his position.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

Mr Goldsworthy: He is actually debating.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: Thank you, member for Kavel, for your assistance, and thank you to the member for West Torrens for invoking rule 303. I will listen carefully to where the minister goes. There may be some merit in the contention that his answer has crossed over into debate. There is no merit in the member for Bragg's first point of order.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Cricket fans and people who follow the game here know that there was no doubt that we could have missed out on that test. We had to work very hard and we are continuing to work hard on other things to get sport to the Adelaide Oval. Last week, I met with the head of the Australian Rugby Union to talk about 2025 and the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia. We want to have a rugby test match here in 2025.

You have to put in that work now, because a decision will be made in the next two years. You do not just sit back and hope that sporting organisations are going to gift the Adelaide Oval sporting events: you have to go after them. The British and Irish Lions bring with them 30,000 fans, and they were here this year. They tour Australia every 12 years, and what that is worth to the South Australian economy is huge.

Of course, the India-Australia test will bring people into this state for five days for that test, but it also will put Adelaide on the television screens of millions and millions of people right across the subcontinent. It will follow on from that that we will have that India versus Pakistan one-day match in the opening round of the international Cricket World Cup, which will reach an audience of one billion people.

The SPEAKER: Yes, the member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: Sessional orders, sir: timing.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is wrong and, accordingly, is called to order. The minister.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: We are also going after the corporate market with the AFL to make sure that, when teams come to visit Adelaide Oval next year, they bring with them their corporates. For the first time, the marketing managers of the AFL—

The SPEAKER: Alas, the minister's time has now expired.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order. I will just raise for the Speaker's consideration: do you think it is in order to warn a member for being five seconds out on the timing when there is no time clock for a member to be that precise by?

The SPEAKER: Yes, I do, and I will continue to warn members for frivolous points of order that disrupt the business of the house, as the member for Unley's did. The member for Unley took a point of order on no reasonable basis.

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