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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml
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BULK COMMODITY PORTS

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): I have a supplementary question. Is the minister referring to the minister the question of when it will be operational—because it is three years; you have to have some deadline.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:31): That is a bit rich coming from an opposition that wants to build a sporting stadium, and it will not even start until after two elections. They want to make it an election issue in 2010 as to whether we have this proposal to build a stadium. If I heard the Leader of the Opposition correctly this morning, I think he was talking about that commencing in 2022, depending on what happens with the World Cup. I think Australia has an application to host the World Cup in 2018, but the leader is suggesting that it could be 2022.

The opposition is quite happy to try to run an election campaign about what might happen in 15 years' time. This government is much more concerned with what will happen in the immediate future. That is why we are keen to get this development under way at Port Bonython. Whether the port facilities go ahead will clearly depend on the financing and demand from those companies that wish to export commodities from the port, which would be the iron ore commodities, in particular. That clearly will be the deciding factor. Whether or not that can happen will depend on the world situation, but people can be sure that this government will certainly be doing everything it can, as it has done—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Seven years; yes. We certainly have had the best years that mining has ever had in this state. It went from four mines to 11, and it went from $40 million a year to $370 million with respect to exploration. That is what has happened under this government. For that to continue we need these developments to occur.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: You ought to show leadership—

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: What leadership, if any, are we getting from members opposite? This question was all about raising concerns in Port Lincoln, so I ask opposition members this question: if you want leadership, will you support the port at Port Lincoln?

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I ask the questions and you answer them.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: There we go; given away, isn't it! They will come in here and knock everything that this government does. I could not believe it this morning when I heard the Leader of the Opposition in another place put up this proposal that goes out to maybe 2022. On the back of an envelope you can prove that the costing of a sports stadium will not work. Think about it for a moment. To have a sports stadium that seats 50,000 people, even if you charge 1 million people $50 to go to the footy every week for 20 matches, you get $50 million. How would $50 million of income, before taking out costs, pay for a $1 billion-plus stadium? It would be paid for only if taxpayers put in hundreds of millions of dollars. You can disprove the whole thing in one second with a back of the envelope calculation. It is absurd!

The Leader of the Opposition got on the radio this morning and said that he did not want anyone knocking the project. What a joke! What about the tramline extension? All we had was knocking. After two years of knocking and saying that it was the tram to nowhere, the opposition was then knocking the government because the trams were too full and people could not get on them because they were so successful.

Then we had the hospital proposal, which has been knocked from day one by Liberal opposition members. They are the greatest load of knockers this state has ever seen. When it comes to a proposal where this government is trying to support the mining industry to grow, what do they do? They cannot even come into this parliament and back the government on any of these major projects.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

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