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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-04 Daily Xml
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Memorial Drive Redevelopment

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:49): My question is for the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Can the minister please give an update on the progress of the Memorial Drive upgrade and how the project will complement the recently completed new outdoor courts to reinvigorate the Riverbank Precinct and inspire the next generation of South Australian athletes?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:49): I thank the member for Morphett very much for that question. I know he is a very, very passionate tennis fan, as I hope many of us are in this place. I know I certainly am. It was with great pleasure that I was with the Premier just a few weeks ago. Also in attendance was Darren Cahill, one of South Australia's great tennis players but also, more specifically, a great tennis coach. He has coached three players to world No. 1—an absolutely outstanding achievement. Kent Thiele and Steven Baldas from Tennis SA were also there as we turned the first sod on this exciting new project.

It is just another way that we are building South Australia. The Marshall Liberal government is very focused on this, and we are delighted to be delivering. This is a $10 million investment into tennis here in South Australia, putting a roof on Memorial Drive courts so that they can be used all year round. We don't have an undercover tennis facility here in South Australia. The next generation of aspiring tennis stars currently have nowhere to train during the winter months and that just drives people out of South Australia.

Added to that, Mr Speaker, you may have been down there just recently and seen the roof being lifted off both the northern and southern stands. It's very exciting. A lot of people going to the football have been raising with me how exciting this looks. That is why we are taking great pleasure in building South Australia.

A lot of people follow the Australian Open at the start of every summer. Now we will have a lead-up event to the Australian Open: both the WTA, the women's tennis event, and the ATP. We haven't had ATP tennis here since about 2008, and we have never had a WTA tennis event here. This is really exciting. We are going to have some of the world's best tennis players. It coincides with the fact that Ash Barty is going so wonderfully well over at the French Open. We are excited to see that. I won't put the mozz on her. She is going wonderfully well. We will do all we can to try to get Ash to play here at Memorial Drive when the roof is put on.

Again, it's about the big events, which are fantastic. That's the investment we are making into South Australia to draw tourists here, to draw the big-name tennis players here. More importantly, we want to get young people playing—and anyone playing, actually; age is not really relevant here. We just want to get people active in South Australia. By having the roof on this facility, people will be able to play all year round. Young aspiring stars who want to grow their tennis skills and potentially get onto the world stage will be able to use this facility, so it's incredibly exciting. The other thing we should note with this event is that, by putting the roof on, it has enabled us to steal the WTA and the ATP event from Sydney. That's always a little sweetener. We do like to do that.

What I can also say about the roof going on at Memorial Drive—and you will see it take shape over the next few weeks—is that it complements the Adelaide Oval and the Riverbank Precinct down there. It's really going to give added value to that area. The ability to have concerts and events there as well is going to truly add to the Riverbank Precinct.

When we talk about growing sport, we want to do that at the international level, and I have stressed that point. We want people playing at the grassroots level as well. That's why we are also investing in putting together a state sports infrastructure plan, so that we can make sure we are delivering into the right parts of the community.

When I get out and speak to different sporting organisations they say, 'Everyone wants everything. We all want this, but no-one knows what the stepping stones are.' They were left in a mess from the previous government, and they are really keen to make sure we are delivering at grassroots level. They also talk about our sports voucher program.

The previous government, of course, had no money budgeted for that whatsoever. We put that back in the budget and we upped it again. We took it to $100. Families are so appreciative of that. It puts $100 back in the pocket of every South Australian family that has a young person playing sport when they are at primary school level, so this is sensational. We have also invested in the home of football at Gepps Cross, the SA Athletics Stadium and the Adelaide Super-Drome as well. We are building South Australian sport.

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