Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Training and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have spoken previously about the poor quality of road infrastructure in Adelaide. I would like to speak today about the poor quality of sporting infrastructure in Adelaide. It is one of the frustrations of residents in Adelaide that we lack so many topnotch sporting facilities. In recent times, Sydney has hosted an Olympic Games and Melbourne has hosted the Commonwealth Games. Both Perth and Melbourne have hosted world swimming championships, and yet Adelaide has not had a FINA standard swimming pool since the early 1990s. The notion of a having a FINA standard pool has been around for a long time—at least since 1998. This project has stalled several times. I was very pleased, together with the former sports minister Senator Rod Kemp and the former finance minister Senator Nick Minchin, to work very hard to get $15 million for a FINA standard pool to be built on land owned by the City of Marion. That $15 million has been sitting in the City of Marion’s account since 2006. It is now worth some $18 million. I am pleased to welcome the announcement made last month by the South Australian government that they will be proceeding with the design and construction of the South Australian State Aquatic Centre.

One of the issues was that Macquarie Leisure was a partner of this project and pulled out of this project in January. That was disappointing news. But I do welcome the announcement by the South Australian government that they will be taking over the design and construction of the South Australian State Aquatic Centre. They have said that construction of the centre will commence within the next few months, and is likely to be completed by mid-2010. When this facility is built it will cater to elite swimmers, club swimmers, and people who swim for exercise, leisure, or rehabilitation. It will cater to people with disabilities, the general community and people learning to swim.

Swimming SA has announced that it will host the 2011 Australian Age Championships at the Marion venue and will also be bidding to host the 2012 Australian Swimming Championships that will be the trials for the London Olympics. This week the Australian Swimming Championships are being held but, unfortunately, Adelaide has not been able to host this event since the early 1990s due to the lack of a FINA standard pool. The South Australian State Aquatic Centre will be an $80 million project and will also be constructed with a $27 million GP Plus Health Care Centre in Marion. The City of Marion has contributed $5 million to the project, as well as land for the site which is valued at about $10 million.

There are a number of design improvements in the new South Australian State Aquatic Centre. The depth of the main swimming pool will be increased to three metres. The seating capacity will be increased to 4,500. And there will be an installation of a depth-adjustable pool floor for leisure water and learn-to-swim activities.

This is a very exciting development for the south-western suburbs. It does open up the possibility of South Australia bidding for a whole range of things, including national swimming championships, school games and, potentially, some FINA events as well. It is something that I welcome. It has been welcomed by South Australian swimmers, including dual Olympic medallist Hayden Stoeckel, and also world record holder and multiple Paralympic gold medallist, Matt Cowdrey.