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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-30 Daily Xml
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MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:08): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about the Magill youth training centre site.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The state government has decided to move the Magill youth training centre to a different part of metropolitan Adelaide. There is a very large block of land available in that area to build residential homes for the surrounding communities, but it has been recognised by the people who want to live there that it will require open space.

The member for Morialta in the other place and his constituents have serious concerns about the state government's decision to close down the Black Hill Pony Club, which is an open space at the Magill youth training centre. I was informed by the member for Morialta in the other place that the Black Hill Pony Club, which was built from scratch 30 years ago through the hard work of volunteers in the community and with their own money using recycled materials, will be closed. They have been told that they have to leave by November.

The member for Morialta and his constituents feel strongly that open space will be required as part of a new housing development and that it ought to incorporate the Black Hill Pony Club. The club caters for the mums and dads, the single parent families, and the young women and men of the area. It is not by any means an elite pony club. Most of the children who go to the pony club and use the facilities do not pay for the horses or saddles because they cannot afford to do so. They have been cross-subsidised by wealthier families in the area for 30 years. Losing a community facility is heartbreaking for those members of the pony club and the local residents. My questions are:

1. Has the minister received advice as to what sort of development the government expects could take place on land currently occupied by the Magill youth training centre when the government sells the land over the next two years?

2. If the small six hectare block occupied by the Black Hill Pony Club were to be excluded from the sale at the Magill youth training centre, has the minister requested or received any advice as to how much money would be realised from the sale?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:10): If I recall correctly, within this parliament a couple of years ago there was a great level of agitation about the government replacing the Magill youth training centre because of the fact that that facility was built back in the 1960s and was clearly becoming inadequate for the sort of purpose needed in this day and age. There was a lot of agitation, including by the Hon. Stephen Wade and others, demanding that the government do something about this. Given the financial situation that always faces—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Here they go again! They always have a list of money—billions of dollars—that you can spend it on. The government worked out a solution about how we could provide the very necessary facilities needed to detain youth offenders. One of the ways we could do that was to sell off the site that houses the current youth centre, and that is what we did. We decided that, yes, we could; we did some work and said that we could fund a brand-new youth centre site, which had been clamoured for by members opposite.

The Hon. Mr Wade and others were demanding we provide this facility, so we decided to fund it through the sale of the site. That is why it was determined that that site, which is now used for the Magill youth training centre, would be closed and the land sold to help fund a new facility so that we could bring it forward in budgetary terms by having that money available for it.

Obviously with any new development where there is a land division there has to be some provision of either open space or contributions made to the Planning and Development Fund, and so on, in relation to that. As to the specifics of the question, I will have to look through and see exactly where any rezoning of this land is at. I am not sure what is the current zoning: I assume it is some sort of special institution zone. I will make inquires and bring back a reply in relation to where the zoning is in relation to that.

In relation to the Black Hill Pony Club, I am aware that a lot of government land around the place, from the parklands downwards, is used by facilities. There are a lot of areas provided. When this would have been provided 30 years ago, it would have been clearly on the understanding that at some stage in future that land might be required for other purposes of government. This happens quite a bit. If you are reserving land (and our 30-year plan will reserve a lot of land for government purposes for the future), and you are not going to use it for 20 or 30 years, it makes sense to allow community groups and others to use it, but there is always the understanding that ultimately that land may need to be used for other purposes.

In relation to that club, governments do what they can to help those organisations find new sites. I will make inquires of my colleagues as to what assistance, if any, can be given or has been offered to that group in regard to finding alternative accommodation, but it needs to be understood that, where community groups are using public land, it is always on the understanding that that land may be required for other purposes at some stage in future.

As to the sort of development that could go there, I understand that the site is currently zoned residential. I believe part of that land, from memory, is fairly steep, which would mean that some of the blocks will have to be of a larger size than others to allow for the terrain and so on, but those matters would be handled by the government land selling agency, presumably the LMC.

Normally, when government land is sold to provide funding for other purposes, the LMC is the government agency which would handle that sale and they would, consistent with their charter, seek to get the highest price for that land. They are taxpayers' facilities after all and, if we are to pay for good youth detention facilities, we need the income from it, which would be the work of the LMC. I will take that part of the question on notice as well and see what information I can provide for the honourable member.

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