Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As South Australians approach the 20 March state election, it is becoming crystal clear that the South Australian Liberal Party is continually making policy on the run, with already a number of ill-conceived, poorly thought through and carelessly costed election announcements. One such announcement directly affects the Makin electorate, which I represent. I refer to the announcement by the SA Liberals of a plan to sell off land at Sports Park at Gepps Cross, located in the Makin electorate, in order to pay for the development of an indoor football stadium in Adelaide’s city west precinct.

The football stadium proposal itself raises serious questions about the Liberals’ competence and ability to manage the state, with issues such as the proper costing of the project, the ongoing and long-term maintenance costs of the stadium, its location and the logic of building a very expensive new stadium as opposed to the Rann government’s option of upgrading, at a much lesser cost, the existing Adelaide Oval facilities. Separate from those concerns, the intent to sell land at Sports Park for residential purposes is fraught with problems and highlights the Liberals’ incompetence.

My recollection is that Sports Park was set aside by the Bannon Labor government in the 1980s as a state sports precinct. The South Australian cycle superdrome and the state hockey arena are located there, along with the sporting facilities established there by the Croatian community, and a new superschool is under construction. I understand that there have also been other expressions of interest to develop sports facilities on land at Sports Park. In the late seventies I was actively involved with other local residents in preventing the Sports Park land from being sold off as housing and preserving it as open space for community recreational land—so much so that, in the mid-nineties, I was instrumental in having Salisbury City Council purchase the northern section of the Sports Park precinct, which is within the city of Salisbury, in order to preserve it as a community recreational asset.

Today that particular area has been developed into a wonderful community asset with a wide range of recreational facilities, open space and substantial wetlands. Things such as the BMX club, the skate facility, a playground which caters for children with disabilities, a dog park, walking trails, an ornamental lake and the beauty of the wetlands themselves have all been developed as a result of preserving that land. Sale of Sports Park land for residential purposes would be a betrayal of promises about the future of this land made by previous state governments to the local community. It was bad enough that the Liberal government in the 1990s sold off a substantial portion of Sports Park to Woolworths for its distribution centre, but at least the Woolworths development does not constrain existing facilities. This latest proposal by the South Australian Liberals to sell off Sports Park land for residential use is incredibly irresponsible. They have not consulted with the local community and, not surprisingly, the mayor of Port Adelaide Enfield, Mr Gary Johanson, whose council area Sports Park is located within, has also publicly opposed the sale of Sports Park land by the Liberals.

If Sports Park land is sold off for housing, not only will it prevent the future location of other sports codes on Sports Park—because the land simply will not be available—but it will also directly impact on the activities and growth of existing sporting facilities. I am aware that, for one, the state hockey arena wants to see an expansion of their facilities. That is the very kind of expansion that will be put at risk. The co-location of houses with sporting facilities inevitably creates conflict relating to traffic, noise, lighting and security issues. From past experience I know only too well the angst caused by co-location of both the residents and sports clubs. This is a foolish proposal which highlights that the South Australian Liberals are incompetent, short-sighted and lack concern for both the local residents and the existing Sports Park sporting groups. The SA Liberals have shown once again that they have not done their homework, that they do not understand the issues and that they are not ready to govern.