6 May, 2026
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:17): I move:
That this council—
1. Notes that:
(a) in February 2025 the Malinauskas government announced plans to redevelop the North Adelaide Golf Course in order to secure the future of LIV Golf in the state;
(b) the redevelopment will cost taxpayers at least $45 million and result in the destruction of 585 trees;
(c) the future of LIV Golf is in doubt and there are media reports that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has ceased its support while a LIV Golf tournament in New Orleans has been postponed; and
(d) South Australians are struggling with the increased cost of living, with the costs of fuel, groceries, power, rent and mortgages continuing to rise.
2. Calls on the Malinauskas government to:
(a) cancel the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment and instead allocate the $45 million to measures to assist South Australians in dealing with the cost-of-living crisis; and
(b) return the Adelaide Park Lands annexed for development to the management of the Adelaide City Council.
In moving this motion, I think it is important that we revisit some of the events that have led up to this point. Let us not forget what happened in February last year. I remember the huge fanfare when the Hon. Ms Game and the Hon. Connie Bonaros announced that they were going to be supporting LIV Golf coming to South Australia and would be supporting legislation in this parliament to enable the redevelopment of the North Adelaide Golf Course so that the government could keep LIV Golf in South Australia.
That was the rationale for the piece of legislation that was rushed through this parliament. Indeed, in introducing the bill into this chamber, the Deputy Premier made clear in his introduction and first reading that the legislation will, and I quote from Hansard:
…ensure the redevelopment of the North Adelaide Golf Course can go ahead as soon as possible to host the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament in 2028.
The rationale was very, very clear. This was a golf course redevelopment to support LIV. Well, we now know that LIV Golf is very unlikely to go ahead. It is unravelling before our very eyes. We know that the golf course tournament in New Orleans has been postponed. Indeed, over in that jurisdiction Governor Jeff Landry and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said in a joint statement that their state had already paid $3.2 million under a contract with LIV Golf, of which $2 million has already been invested in upgrades to the City Park course that were scheduled.
That state is now seeking compensation from LIV Golf. They are seeking $1.2 million for losses that they have incurred on the redevelopment. We know from media reports just last week that now the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund is withdrawing its support, so it is not likely to go ahead in 2028, and yet the Malinauskas government persists.
This is another one of the Premier's vanity projects. It is another Labor lemon, another Labor white elephant that the Labor Party has insisted on despite the fact that the business case just does not exist. We know it does not exist, because I called for a production of documents so that we could get an opportunity to view it before we voted on special legislation. We did not get a chance to see it.
I also recall that I asked questions on behalf of the Greens in this chamber about the heads of agreement between LIV Golf and the Malinauskas government. What were the terms of the agreement with LIV Golf and the Malinauskas government? What were the terms of the agreement between the Malinauskas government and Greg Norman Design? How much money has already been spent on this Labor vanity project? These questions were not answered by the government when they rushed this legislation through the parliament last year. They are still refusing to provide those answers to the people of South Australia.
This motion is not ideological. It is a simple proposition urging the government to scrap this redevelopment plan and instead spend the money on cost-of-living relief for South Australians who are struggling. How on earth can the Malinauskas government justify spending $45 million to redevelop a golf course, cutting down over 500 trees to redevelop a golf course for a tournament that is not even likely to go ahead?
How on earth can the government justify that whilst we have a record number of South Australians sleeping on the street, struggling to get into the housing market, while we have a record number of South Australians struggling to afford the basics, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay power bills, struggling to pay their rent, struggling to make mortgage payments?
How on earth can this Labor government, which purports to represent working people, justify spending $45 million on a golf course redevelopment? It is a slap in the face to South Australians who are doing it tough at the moment and it demonstrates Labor's warped priorities, focusing on the big events, focusing on the good times and the parties, rather than focusing on the core issues that are facing South Australians.
When I was a kid, my mum always used to say to me, 'Rob, you can have dessert, but you have to eat your mains first.' You have to get the basics right first, and these are the basics that the Labor Party has neglected, whether it is ramping, whether it is ensuring that every South Australian can have a roof over their head and a place to call home, whether it is getting our rental market under control, whether it is investing in the public services that we need and having public ownership of our electricity, whether it is rolling out free public transport and actually showing leadership on the fuel crisis. These are the things that the Labor Party is failing to tackle, and $45 million on a golf course just does not make sense.
This is an early test for this chamber. I do plan to bring this motion to a vote in the next sitting week, and it is an opportunity for all members in this chamber to send a very clear statement to the Labor government, as they craft their next budget, around what we see collectively as our priorities. It is not about ideology. It is about putting the people of South Australia first ahead of Labor vanity projects like this.
A government should only ever be cutting down hundreds and hundreds of trees when there is a really good reason to do so, and it is hard to see how on earth this government could justify destroying so many trees at the moment, and it is hard to see how this government could possibly justify spending tens of millions of dollars to lure a tournament to our state when we already know that it has Buckley's chance of going ahead. I commend the motion. I will bring it to a vote next sitting and I hope that members will support it.
Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.