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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-09 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE AIRPORT HOTEL COMPLEX

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (15:31): In The Advertiser today there was an item dealing with a proposal to build a new hotel at Adelaide airport. The item was accompanied by a colour illustration which showed a fantastic building, although it appears to be located exactly in the car park which adjoins the terminal. Adelaide Airport Ltd has placed on its website a preliminary draft of a major development plan to allow this airport hotel complex to proceed.

What the article in The Advertiser is vague about is the precise location of this terminal. When one reads the fine print of the preliminary draft, it appears (as I mentioned before) that this proposal will take up significant car parking spaces which are presently located to the north of the existing terminal building.

Car parking facilities at Adelaide airport are already grossly inadequate. Members who have had to either go to the airport for the purpose of delivering passengers or collecting friends or relatives from interstate and had to use the car park will realise the truth of what I say. Hundreds of users complain about it. The car park is frequently full with cars driving around and around waiting for parking spaces to become available. There is simply inadequate parking.

There have been promises in the past for multi-storey car parks but none have materialised. Last year the operator of the airport opened a new long-term car parking facility, which is located about 800 metres from the terminal building. It is located alongside and to the south of the old terminal building. Anyone who has had to use that facility, especially during hot weather and having to walk long distances, elderly people walking long distances dragging bags and the like or waiting for a shuttle bus, which slowly goes around once every 20 minutes and which sits at the bus stop for about 15 minutes before it moves off, will realise the frustration that many people are feeling about the inadequate parking facilities.

The planning arrangements relating to the airport are unusual because of the original ownership of that land by the commonwealth government. Presently, the federal government has imposed a planning regime which requires a master plan to be presented by the airport operator and also provides for extensive consultation and input from local planning authorities. However, it is clear that the original master plan had an international hotel on the corner of Williams Drive, the main drive in the airport, and Sir Donald Bradman Drive. By subtle means, it is now proposed to shift the proposed airport to what is regarded by the developers as better for the international traveller—not better for the users of the airport generally and not better for the ordinary South Australian citizens who have to use those parking facilities but better for international travellers, high rollers, and the proposed developers of this hotel.

I hope that the government will exercise its powers to ensure that the airport operator does not sacrifice car-parking spaces or the convenience of South Australians for further profits for Adelaide Airport Limited. I urge the state Minister for Urban Development and Planning and all who have any say in the planning process relating to this proposal to voice opposition to it.

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