PM: Can I start by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope everybody here had a great Christmas, I certainly did have a fantastic Christmas here in Adelaide with family and friends. I'm joined today by Acting Premier John Rau, by my parliamentary and ministerial colleague and the Member for Adelaide Kate Ellis and also by Ian McLachlan who is President of the South Australian Cricket Association and we are here at this wonderful Adelaide Oval and I'm very pleased to be able to announce today that the Federal Government will make a $30 million contribution towards the redevelopment of this place.
Our $30 million will go to construct some new car parking as part of the redevelopment. It will also go to create a wetland precinct on the river bank.
Now this is important because Kate Ellis as local member has made constant representations about ensuring that when this redevelopment happens, the needs of local residents are met as well.
Understandably they've had concerns about car parking and they will now be resolved through the use of this $30 million for new car parks. And they've wanted to ensure that people who aren't necessarily sports lovers can still get a benefit from this redevelopment and that benefit will be in the new wetlands alongside the river.
During the time I've been here in Adelaide I've been walking on the river. It looks fantastic now, it is enjoyed by so many South Australians and this will be an important new feature with this wetlands walk.
I'm very excited about what this redevelopment means for Adelaide. What it means in terms of the ability to continue to host cricket at the standard that Adelaide always has throughout its history but what it also means about the hosting of other events including AFL matches right here.
So this is an important part of redeveloping this great city, my home town and I'm very pleased to be here to make this announcement.
I'll hand over now to the Acting Premier for some comments.
RAU: Thank you very much Prime Minister and welcome back to Adelaide.
PM: Thank you.
RAU: And may you stay long. Can I just say on behalf of the State Government that we're absolutely delighted to have the support that we're now receiving from the Federal Government.
I'd like to obviously thank the Prime Minister and Kate Ellis the Member for Adelaide for their great efforts in supporting this project. Everybody in this room would appreciate that this project now has the overwhelming support of all of the people of South Australia. We're lucky enough to have cricket and football and the general public entirely supportive of this project. It's going to be part of the revitalisation of the city of Adelaide which is taking place and on behalf of the State Government I can only say that we are delighted and very thankful for the support the Commonwealth is giving us in relation to this project and Prime Minister I hope when the project opened you'll come back again and have a look at the actual development that is taking place in part due to your great support today, so thank you very much.
ELLIS: Well thank you very much to the Prime Minister, to the Acting Premier, to Ian McLachlan and can I thank you so much for your announcement here today.
We know that a developed Adelaide Oval is great news for sport, it is great news for our city and what we are working to ensure is that it's also great news for the local community.
I know that since day one I've known that this will be a fantastic investment in our state but that we also have to make sure that the needs of the local residents are taken into account. And in my street corner meetings, in my consultations in our local community I've heard time and time again that people support the development but they are concerned about car parking, they're concerned about access to their streets and their houses and they also want to make sure this is a development which is for more than just sports lovers.
Personally I am a sport lover and I am looking forward to watching the cricket, to watching the football, but also to be able to enjoy this redeveloped precinct. I thank the Prime Minister for listening to the concerns of Adelaide residents, for making sure that we can play a role for working in partnership with the South Australian Government and with the local sporting community to deliver the best results for Adelaide.
MCLACHLAN: Yes, Prime Minister thank you for the contribution from your Government and I'd also like to thank Kate because we've been at her for some time, I mean many years to support this project and others and I'm also pleased that we can do several major things with this. One is to get car parking and the indoor school together. There'll be a car park under that indoor school now - certainly. Because the kids come from the country during all of the holidays particularly in the summer and their mums and dads can sit underneath and wait for them so that will be a convenient thing rather than having to walk back for hundreds of yards in the heat.
Secondly the extension of what was called the Cathedral Project I think it was called which has been around for some seven or eight years, which was to take storm water and clean it up, I'm very pleased to see that happening too and so I hope that that will appease, if you like, some of those people who have been worried about this development.
As for the development itself and the other things this extra money brings, Prime Minister, it will just round out our list of essentials, I would say and I think when this is finished it will be the catalyst that will switch this town on and so I'm very pleased that a) the project's going ahead obviously as Chairman of the Stadium Management Authority but secondly that this contribution can round out a project which I think will make this the most beautiful and convenient first class cricket and football ground in the country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister.
PM: Yes.
JOURNALIST: This project was first announced in December 2009, why has it taken until December 2011 for the Federal Government to put up (inaudible)?
PM: The Federal Government has made investments in Adelaide Oval in the past. We've been working on this announcement today for some time. It flows out of the Member for Adelaide - Kate Ellis' consultations with the local community and making sure that their needs were met at the same time that we enhance this redevelopment. So I think as you've heard this morning, what we've announced today is going to meet needs for the local community so that they're reassured that there won't be cars across their driveways for example but also will enhance this redevelopment so people can come and park easily whether they're coming to attend a sporting match or whether they're bringing one of the kids for training.
JOURNALIST: Given the budget position and given the Federal Government's withdrawn funding from various other South Australian projects, such as the (inaudible), how can you justify this kind of expense on something which is probably not a fundamental project in terms of the infrastructure? Is it more a gift to the local member (inaudible)?
PM: I think your question is underestimating the significance of this redevelopment for Adelaide. This is about people coming into the city, attending a sporting event then going on- flowing from the river back into the city, maybe taking their family out to dinner, having a drink after they've been at the sporting event or perhaps going to the shops before they come to the sporting event so it really is about revitalising the city of Adelaide.
As someone who grew up in this place I can remember the days that we basically all had our backs turned to the River Torrens so you didn't really view it as a feature of the city, now it is properly valued and viewed as a feature of the city and the way in which this redevelopment is going to be done alongside other redevelopments that are happening in Adelaide will create an entirely different sense of how people use the city, move around the city and enjoy the city. So it's a very important piece of infrastructure.
I don't know whether anybody else wants to say something on that?
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) suggest that this is basically a vote buying exercise.
PM: This is about an important enhancement for this redevelopment that certainly will make a difference to local residents but as we've heard from Ian McLachlan who's in a very good position to judge being president of the Cricket Association, it will also enhance directly this redevelopment for the people who will come and use it. His example - a country mum who's driven her son or daughter down for special training - get a park straight underneath rather than have to worry ‘where am I going to put the car', ‘how long is it going to take me to get from the car to where we need to go for the training', ‘how long is it going to take me to do the walk back'.
JOURNALIST: Do you think people are wary of the amount of spin and cynicism involved in the selling of this process right the way through including today where you get a good run by dropping the details to a sympathetic local paper - do you think that's symptomatic of how this process (inaudible)?
PM: I must admit I'm not going to agree with any part of that question and I think in the spirit of Christmas - this is no more complicated than what you see in front of you. It's a $30million investment to make difference for local residents but also to make a difference for the city of Adelaide and the state of South Australia that will very much value this place.
JOURNALIST: While we're on the topic of newspapers and News Limited papers have suggested that your Government has spent $65 for every Australian in a bid to keep the Greens and Independents happy and keep yourself in power. Do you agree with that figure?
PM: Thanks very much for that question. You are referring to a report in today's Daily Telegraph and I thought when I saw that report this morning - they don't call it the silly season for nothing. That report is wrong. To give you just some examples of how wrong that report is - it records for example the $10 billion investment into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. I'd invite anybody to get the budget papers themselves and have a look and when they do have a look they'll find that that $10 billion doesn't hit the budget bottom line. It's an investment in solar and renewable technology, it's an investment in clean energy and it comes on top of investments that the Government has made in the past.
And then to give you some more examples of just how wrong that report is, it records things like Labor election commitments - Labor's election commitment to have an investigation of high speed rail; Labor's election commitment about connecting renewable energy sources to the electricity grid. So the report is wrong, wrong in all of the details that I've just described. And can I say again - they don't call it the silly season for nothing.
JOURNALIST: Presumably there was some lobbying for this $30 million, can you therefore quantify the flow on benefits to the state from that $30 million?
PM: Well I'll turn to Kate because she's been representing her local community on this.
ELLIS: I just want to make really clear that the Federal Government and myself as the local member has supported the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval since day one and we need to just be clear when we're talking about timing, when we're talking about support - that from day one we said we think that this will be a fantastic investment for our community but if you recall at the time we were also going through a World Cup bid process where we worked with the South Australian Government during that process and we came to agreements to invest in Adelaide Oval if we were successful in that bidding process. And we also said if it turns out that we're unsuccessful in that bidding process we will sit down and work with you to see how we can invest. That's the point that led us to today.
So this isn't something new, this is something we have supported from day one and we've committed to working with the South Australian Government, we've done and that and the results of that can be seen today.
JOURNALIST: And on that Kevin Foley initially suggested he'd be seeking $100 million from the Federal Government, is this (inaudible).
ELLIS: No, I think South Australians would expect their Treasurer to being asking for perhaps more money than they're going to get in the end. We think that this is a fair contribution. We also know that this is a contribution that will have a real difference. The South Australian Government are funding the overwhelming majority of this upgrade but we wanted to ensure that we could make a difference, that we could ensure that we'd get the best result and that we can play a role in this as well which is what the $30 million will achieve.
JOURNALIST: Was it disingenuous then to throw that figure around or had you given some kind of commitment or suggestion that he would get (inaudible)
ELLIS: We have gone through many discussions and negotiations with the state government. Obviously a large number of those were done in the context of the World Cup bid but since then we've sat down and I think that the South Australian Government would probably say that they are delighted to receive $30 million-
RAU: We are.
ELLIS: And that is definitely being viewed as a positive.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: We'll just take one last question over here and then we'll go.
JOURNALIST: Just on asylum seekers, I understand the Government currently is looking at a proposal to take to the Liberal Party, when can we expect that to be delivered to the Liberal Party and when will there be an (inaudible) to the negotiations?
PM: I've been staying in constant contact with the Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen and my cabinet colleagues about this over the Christmas season. I am very pleased that the Opposition has now decided to actually sit and have serious discussions on this question - I'm very pleased to see that.
This isn't a matter for politics, this is a matter for getting something done and we will continue those negotiations. Because it's not a matter for politics it's not my intention to conduct those negotiations through the media but they will continue and I hope that they continue with good faith and good will towards an outcome.
Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: The people of Darwin have had a rough Christmas (inaudible).
PM: At Christmas time unfortunately we do see around our country all too regularly Australians who are caught up in natural disasters or Australians who are feeling in their own family the burdens of fire and we've seen that over this Christmas season and of course we see Australians too caught up in car accidents so whilst it's a time of joy and friendship and family for many Australians it can often be a time of hardship for some. So for Australians who have faced hardship over the last few days whilst we've been celebrating Christmas, I think all Australians have been thinking of them as we've seen what they've gone through, that's certainly been my view as I've seen people caught up in all sorts of circumstances and difficulties over the Christmas season.
I guess it strikes us particularly heavily at this time of year when we know somany people are celebrating and we see our fellow Australians doing it tough.
Thank you.
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