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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-08-05 Daily Xml
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Commonwealth Games

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Recreation and Sport - Can the minister inform the house about his recent visit to the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (15:17): I thank the member for Torrens for her question and acknowledge her great netball career as well. I know that she did play for the federal parliament netball team, not quite to the standard I saw last week in Glasgow, when we saw Natalie Medhurst and Renae Hallinan, two great South Australian netballers, play against the South Africans on their way to a gold medal play-off on Sunday night at the Commonwealth Games.

It was a pleasure to be in Glasgow for three days last week for the Commonwealth Games and to get out to have a look at the sorts of facilities that they have and the facilities that we would need to have here if were successful in hosting the Commonwealth Games. We have asked the Australian Commonwealth Games Association to consider us for the next time Australia gets to host the games after 2018, which, of course, is when they will go to the Gold Coast.

I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition, who is on a committee with me. We have spent the past 12 months having a look at the possibility of Adelaide hosting the games. There is no doubt, after visiting the facilities in Glasgow last week, that South Australia would be a fantastic place to host a Commonwealth Games. We've got brilliant facilities already, and that was brought home last week.

While I was in Glasgow we joined with Swimming Australia to announce that the Olympic swimming trials for 2016, in the lead-up to the Rio games, will be held right here in Adelaide at the Marion Aquatic and Leisure Centre. The same thing happened in 2012, in the lead-up to the London Olympics as well. It just goes to show that we have the best swimming centre in Australia, one that is capable of hosting international events.

We also have two fantastic pitches out at the hockey centre at Gepps Cross. We put a second one in there last year at a cost of about half a million dollars, so that is up to speed to host a commonwealth games. Of course, we have the best stadium in Australia, with the Adelaide Oval, a half billion dollar investment that is proving a real winner with football. We are seeing big bookings for cricket over the summer, and thousands of people are coming here to watch the footy who didn't come when the football was down at football park.

We visited the athletes' village, the transport coordination centre in Glasgow, the city operations centre, the Commonwealth Games headquarters, the national hockey centre, the Tollcross swimming centre (and I have to say that the Marion one is better than the Tollcross one), and Hampden Park, where the athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies were held. Then there was the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Precinct, where we saw the netball, and there are also gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, and it was the home also of the International Broadcast Centre and the main press centre.

One of the interesting things was to go through the athletes' village to see how big that is. They have MRI and CAT scan facilities. It is pretty high tech for a village that has been put up as a temporary centre but one that is home to the best athletes from around the commonwealth.

I want to put on the public record my thanks to Gordon Matheson, the Glasgow City Council mayor, who was terrific in his being very open with us in talking through what you need to do to get up a successful bid. He spoke about when they went to the Manchester games and then worked with the Scottish Federation, and then there was a bit of a contest between Edinburgh and Glasgow on who would host the games.

Also, my thanks to Ian Hooper, the director of sports and special projects, Glasgow Life, Francesca Osowska from the Scottish government, Phillip Walker and the police and emergency services team at Safety Glasgow. All these people, who have put on a fantastic games, took time out of their busy schedule to meet with us and give Adelaide a few hints on how we could do it so well here in 2026 or 2030.

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