Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a transformation underway in Adelaide, which I would like to share with the House today, including the latest announcement which was made just over the weekend. I believe that one of the most underutilised parts of Adelaide, with the greatest potential, is our riverside precinct.

It is a riverside precinct which we have spoken about for many years, but it is now set to become a hub of activity, after a series of announcements from the state government, our government and the city council. Of course, the sporting tragics are very excited about the new Adelaide oval, which will become, once more, a home of both AFL and cricket. But there is another very exciting precinct which is developing—and that is a health and medical research area alongside the river where the brand new Royal Adelaide Hospital will be built.

On Saturday I was incredibly pleased with the Prime Minister's announcement, in Adelaide, of a $100 million boost to these world-class education and research facilities. This will mean, not just that a brand new hospital and a brand new South Australian Medical Health and Medical Research Institute—for which our government proudly provided some $200 million; it is one of the most spectacular buildings on the horizon—will be built in this area but that we will provide funding for a branch new medical school for the University of Adelaide, to be built alongside the new hospital.

We are providing funding for the University of South Australia Centre for Cancer Biology. This means that we will have 250 researchers investigating blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma. It also means that by moving to have a brand new medical school alongside the hospital and the research institute we will be able to see people working and helping patients in the hospital alongside the medical staff of tomorrow—who are being trained and who are getting inspiration and ideas from those already in the work force—also working alongside the researchers who are providing the future cures.

This is an incredibly fantastic vision. I would like to commend Vice-Chancellor Bebbington from the University of Adelaide and Vice-Chancellor Lloyd from the University of South Australia, the South Australian government and, of course, the Prime Minister for supporting this. This is special for Australia. We know this will be the biggest precinct of its type in the entire southern hemisphere. I am incredibly proud that we are supporting it and that it will be a part of Adelaide's very bright future.