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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-27 Daily Xml
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Adelaide 500

Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:30): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on the 2024 Adelaide 500?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:30): I am very happy. The last time the parliament met a couple of weeks ago, the Leader of the Opposition made it clear that there is a sentiment—to which you are entitled; it is a democracy; it is a sentiment to which you are entitled in a liberal democracy—that the Liberal Party retain a sentiment of opposition and derision towards the Adelaide 500, and that's fine. I have to say, I think it was prescient—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right will come to order.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I think it was prescient that you had the honesty and the integrity to nail your colours to the mast in the lead-up to a by-election so that the people of Black could make an informed decision.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley with a point of order.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: The Premier was asked a question about the Clipsal 500 but is actually talking about the Liberal Party.

The SPEAKER: I don't think it has been called the Clipsal 500 for a few years now, but a nice little flashback here in question time today.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I wasn't able to get to the Adelaide 500 on the Saturday because I think most people in this place had other commitments, but I did—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: And again; he's at it again.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: He's at it again.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will leave the chamber for the rest of question time. He can spend some time in the pits and we will see him back here for grievances. You will be missed.

The honourable member for Unley having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The Adelaide 500 was last weekend and I've got to say that, notwithstanding the legitimate cost-of-living challenges that we see evidence of around the country, amazingly South Australians were able to support the event in a way that was exceptionally strong and exceeded expectations. In fact, in terms of economic benefit, we saw a $61.6 million benefit to the South Australian economy in 2023, and that was higher than was the case in 2022.

What I am very pleased to report is that over the course of the weekend we saw a crowd—across the four days I should say—of 259,400. Most pleasingly, though, we saw the economic benefit increase in 2023 on top of 2022. We will wait to see what the 2024 numbers are but, critically, numbers that aren't measured by the government—this is measured independently of government by the industry, and I know the Minister for Tourism pays a lot of attention to this—are the RevPAR numbers, revenue per available room in Adelaide, publicly available data from the industry itself.

What that showed is that on Thursday night revenue per available hotel room in Adelaide, despite the growing volume of stock—so stock is up—increased by 34 per cent from the same time last year. It was 34 per cent on Thursday night, 29 per cent on Friday night, 29 per cent on Saturday night and 31 per cent across the four days. So revenue per available room across the four days was up 31 per cent. What does that mean? That means more money coming from outside of our state inside to our state for South Australian small and medium businesses. That is good news. That is why we brought the Adelaide 500 back, and that's why for as long as this government is around we will make sure it stays.

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