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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-02 Daily Xml
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Major Events

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:39): I rise today to talk about major events and the important role that they play not just for our economy, the thousands of jobs they help sustain and the tens of millions of dollars that they bring into our state each year. This is money that then comes in some part back to the government, which can then be used on important government priorities like health, education, the environment, housing and other areas where people need to have better services and better infrastructure.

It has always seemed to me that some people, and I think many who sit opposite have displayed this in government and through their ignorance about major events since the last election, see events as just some sort of party. They do not actually see the role major events play in building our economy.

Events are as important as agriculture, manufacturing and every other industry. They are all really important, and we need to have a diverse economy in South Australia. We need to be doing our very best across all of those money-making sectors so that we get more money into our coffers that we can spend on the priorities of the government but also the priorities of the people of South Australia.

Aside from the economic benefit gained from Gather Round and LIV Golf and the five-test series between India's men's hockey team and the Kookaburras last December, and what we are going to see in a few weeks' time when the Australian women's team, the Hockeyroos, play the Indian women's hockey team, the advantages we get are about much more than just jobs and more money into our economy.

LIV Golf and the Gather Round help change the way people inside South Australia view South Australia and how people interstate and overseas view South Australia. There is an old saying that the only people who bag Adelaide are those who have never left or those who have never been. If people have never been, we need to explain to them who we are and what we are.

If we look at Austin, Texas, our sister city, about 20 years ago they decided that they were going to go after the US traveller and change the view that people had of Texas and the view people had of Austin. They came up with the slogan 'Austin: we're weird'. They went out and started things like South by Southwest, and they became a magnet for people who wanted a bit of excitement in their life, who wanted to be at the cutting edge, who wanted things that were different. That is what we are going through here in South Australia at the moment.

To anyone who saw that 12th hole at the Grange golf course, where the people there did an amazing job, that is not golf as we know it. To those who have never been to Adelaide, that is not Adelaide as they know it. We know it happens all the time. We love having a great time in Adelaide. We are changing the perception of our place so that people will come here for holidays, people will invest in South Australia. It is a really, really important role that these events play in South Australia in terms of positioning ourselves in a very busy and cluttered global and national market.

As the chair of the Major Events Attraction Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow committee members. We have Manuel Ortigosa, Nikki Govan, Kiara Johnson and Damien Walker, and we are very well supported by members of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet team, Wayne Hunter and Robyn Ingerson, who have done a terrific job. It is our role to work with the South Australian Tourism Commission, Events SA, the tourism minister's office but also other ministers and other portfolios.

If we look at the India v Australia hockey test matches, they do not necessarily stack up on a bums on seats, heads on beds kind of look at the economic benefit, but when we look at the important role that multiculturalism plays in South Australia and the growing Indian community, having the Indians here for 10 matches across the men's and women's competitions is an extraordinary opportunity to work with the Indian community in South Australia. Also, the biggest cohort of international students that we have in South Australia comes from India, so it is a terrific vehicle to show people that we are a safe place to send their children to study.

We are also working with the education department. We are working with lots of different areas to make sure that we bring the very best events here and that we leverage what those events can do for South Australia to tell a much wider story about who we are as South Australians and why people should come here.

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