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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-19 Daily Xml
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Royal Adelaide Hospital Site Redevelopment

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:49): Thank you, sir. My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on what action the government is taking to redevelop the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site and revitalise the East End?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:50): I would like to thank the member for Colton for his question and also his excellent contribution since he joined this chamber after being elected on 17 March this year. We all saw the great contribution that he made to our state and, in fact, our nation prior to coming to the parliament. I am sure that he has a very bright future in front of him. He asks a very important question and one which I think is important to the aspirations that we have as a state.

As we all know, the former government prior to the 2010 election made the announcement that they would, if re-elected, move the Royal Adelaide Hospital from one end of North Terrace to the other end of North Terrace, therefore creating a great opportunity, I think, at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site—probably the most appetising, mouth-watering urban renewal project that is going on in Australia at the moment.

It is seven hectares of prime land right in the centre of the city, wedged between the Botanic Garden and, of course, the university precinct. We all know that the previous government had multiple plans, none of them finalised and none of them having a central, uplifting theme as the Leader of the Opposition likes to refer to. He wanted a central, uplifting theme for our budget. There was no central, uplifting theme whatsoever for the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. Those opposite had 10 years to come up with a central, uplifting theme and what they actually wanted was 1,300 apartments on the site. Anyway, thankfully the people of South Australia elected a new government on 17 March because we have a very ambitious idea for that incredible site that is right on North Terrace.

We believe that this site has multiple opportunities to transform our state, in particular in the area of new business start-up and scale-up, in the area of bringing more international students and having more vocational education and training in South Australia and providing an icon for our city to attract more interstate and overseas visitation to our state.

You would have noticed, sir, in the budget that was brought down recently that the government allocated $476.2 million over the next five years. Again, those opposite didn't think there was a central, uplifting theme. We allocated $476.2 million to this project, which I think was a very central, uplifting opportunity for our state. In particular, $43.9 million was allocated to the refit of some of the heritage buildings on that site, so I am talking about the four heritage buildings across the front and then the Margaret Graham and the Eleanor Harrald buildings down Frome Road.

We are actioning the adaptive re-use of those buildings so that we can have start-up, scale-up, we can have global companies on that site, we can have venture capital companies, we can have angel investors, we can have professional services companies and we can also, of course, have university researchers, and this will be in a precinct that is all focused on creating new jobs in future industries.

One of the central elements of what we are proposing is the curation of this precinct, this job creation precinct in South Australia. It will not be coordinated by government; it will not be coordinated by the university sector but by a chief entrepreneur. We believe that this is best practice, and of course the government has already announced that we have appointed Mr Jim Whalley, the founder of Nova Systems, a very successful company, to be the chief—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Point of order by the member for West Torrens.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: All of this information is publicly available.

The SPEAKER: Publicly available. I ask the Premier, as per the past practice, if this information is publicly available that he also add to it; if it is not, to please conclude his answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It seems extraordinary to me. This is not reading a press release that has already been out there but referring to something that, yes, is in the public domain, but lots of answers are actually in the public domain. The government is often asked about questions which are definitely in budget papers and which have been referred to previously, so I don't understand the opposition's hatred for creating new jobs in South Australia. We remain focused on this important task.

The SPEAKER: The Premier's time has expired. The member for Elizabeth has the call.

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