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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-06 Daily Xml
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Riverbank Arena

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his statement of 19 March this year that there will be funding allocated in this year's state budget for early works on his $700 million basketball arena? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: During a press conference on 19 March the Premier said, and I quote: 'The upcoming budget will have some money for early works.'

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:03): Well, of course, we need to wait to see what is going to be in the budget. I myself am looking forward to this budget. It will be the last presented by the Hon. Rob Lucas here in this chamber. It will, of course, continue our record investment in infrastructure in South Australia and our support for businesses and individuals during this particularly tough time.

With regard to any specific project, we will have to wait to see what is going to be in the budget, but we are very excited about the new Riverbank arena. We note that those opposite have been very disparaging about it, describing it most often in the media as a basketball court, which to me—

An honourable member: Basketball stadium.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Basketball stadium. Actually, they have—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will not respond to interjections.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: And certainly there will be an opportunity for sporting—

Mr Boyer: I like to go to the footyball. Who wants to come to the footyball with me?

The SPEAKER: Member for the Wright! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. Of course, there will be sport at the Riverbank arena and that is going to be an important component of what is going there, but it is also going to be a very significant expansion to the convention capability and capacity that we have in South Australia. At the moment, we are losing large conferences to South Australia because, despite having a very large footprint overall, it's not consolidated in the one area.

Most recently, the Land Forces conference was very successful in South Australia; in fact, it was the largest conference we have ever held in South Australia. I spoke to the organisers afterwards hoping that we would be able to continue this event going forward because they did express their delight in having the conference here in Adelaide, but they said, 'You just simply don't have the capacity.' Whilst we worked through and said, 'Could we put part of it down at Wayville or part of it down at the Entertainment Centre or part of it over at the Adelaide Oval, or could we build, for example, a pavilion in front of the Adelaide Convention Centre?' because this is a very important conference, they made the decision no.

By bringing the capacity that is currently down at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre alongside the riverbank, adjacent to the Adelaide Convention Centre, what it will actually do is it will allow us to bring—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —more events, conferences and visitors into South Australia, and that's going to have a massive flow-on effect for our economy. One of the other things is that the existing Entertainment Centre, whilst loved by, I think, many of us in this place, we have been down there and seen sport, we have been down there and seen—

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: AC/DC.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No, I didn't see that. I have seen a concert down there. I particularly enjoyed going along in 2018 with my son to see The Killers, which was absolutely fantastic. I think we've all got a favourite moment. I think we've all got a favourite event that we have been down there for. But the reality—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —as you would be aware, sir, is that it is an old facility and is significantly smaller than it needs to be going forward. We know that many leading international acts bypass Adelaide because the viability of production here just doesn't stack up. Most importantly, by bringing it into the city we know that patrons finishing at a sporting event or at an entertainment event will stay in the city, spend money in our hotels, pubs, clubs, cafes and our entertainment precincts and that will enliven our city. We have seen this be transformative in other cities and it's time for it to come here in South Australia.

We note the constant negativity from those opposite with regard to the upgrade at the Adelaide Oval, the upgrade of Memorial Drive and now, of course, the upgrade at the Riverbank arena.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Waite, I call to order the member for Florey, I warn the member for Wright, I call to order the deputy leader. The member for Lee will leave for the remainder of question time in accordance with standing order 137A.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

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