James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm sure most members have the same challenge in their electorates as I do, which is a drastic shortage of quality sporting infrastructure for the great boom that is going on in sports participation, particularly female participation in traditionally male-dominated sports. It's very difficult in a long-developed community like mine to find new open-space opportunities to develop. Throughout the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide, that is a problem across many sporting codes. Obviously, traditional clubs have their grounds, but as their membership is swelling, particularly with the growth in female participation in codes like Aussie rules, soccer and cricket, the clubs can't keep up with that excellent growth with their existing facilities. There are other sports that have lost their homes as land has been developed over the previous few decades and have, for a long time, had to make do with temporary or remote-to-their-location places to train and places to compete.

There is a very significant opportunity in my electorate, which I hope will not be lost, to develop a multipurpose piece of sporting and recreational infrastructure. The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia have concluded plans to merge, and that obviously means that the various campuses of both institutions are coming together under the one banner. With that is the proposal to close down the Magill campus of the University of South Australia, which has a number of elements to it—particularly, significant heritage assets but also open-space playing fields. The state government are at this stage indicating that it will be developed to the highest-value use, which really means high-density housing. That decision needs to be reversed, and we need to protect that open space and, in fact, invest in that open space to be sporting infrastructure for the many clubs that would love the opportunity to create a home for themselves on that land. I'm talking particularly about the parcel east of St Bernards Road, opposite the UniSA Magill campus. It is a prime opportunity for open-space recreational sporting infrastructure.

I certainly will fight here in Canberra to help get the financial support to develop that land, but first the land needs to be made available. I urge the state government to reverse their decision to turn it into high-density housing and instead provide it to the local council so that we can work together to develop it into high-quality recreational sporting facilities for all the local residents of the eastern and north-eastern suburbs.