03/09/2026
Yesterday Robert Simms MLC moved that our petition be referred to the ERD Committee - carried!
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Legislative Council: Wednesday, September 02, 2026
ADELAIDE PARKLANDS PETITION
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:13): I move:
That the eligible petition presented to the council on 19 August 2026 from 43,784 residents of South Australia concerning developments on the Adelaide Parklands be referred to the Environment, Resources and Development Committee.
I will only speak very briefly on this because I have spoken on this issue in the past, but I do want to acknowledge the work of the petitioners, in this case Adelaide City Councillor Patrick Maher and Councillor Keiran Snape. They are responsible for the wording of the petition, and they did the legwork in terms of going out in the community and getting these signatures. The Greens are very proud to move this petition on behalf of the more than 40,000 South Australians who are concerned about this plan.
I also want to acknowledge the work of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and in particular their president, Mat Monti, who I think has demonstrated really effective leadership as an activist during this period, so I recognise all of the amazing work.
It is really maddening to see more than 40,000 South Australians sign this petition, making it one of the biggest petitions in South Australian political history. It is really maddening to see all of that public outcry, to see thousands and thousands of South Australians take to the streets in opposition to this development, and then to see SA Labor thumb their noses at the community.
What we saw announced on the weekend is really the worst fears of many of us in the community being realised. Labor's plans for the MotoGP track will swallow a huge portion of the Adelaide Parklands. They will change the face of the Adelaide Parklands forever. What the government has proposed is a woefully inadequate consultation period of three weeks. It is a consultation that will not even ask the threshold question of whether or not MotoGP should go ahead, because the government has made it clear that, whatever the outcome of this consultation, the Premier is doing it anyway. That is not genuine consultation; that is a slap in the face of all those South Australians who have concerns.
Regarding the point that was raised by the Hon. Dennis Hood in question time today, the government has also not come clean with the people of South Australia about the cost-benefit analysis here. Every time the Greens have asked for information about how they have arrived at their calculus around the economic benefits, about how much money has already been invested—and I know my colleague the Hon. Melanie Selwood raised these questions in committee this week—we get the same stale mantra from the Malinauskas government, who cover themselves in a cloak of secrecy: commercial-in-confidence. It is public money—it is public money—and the community has a right to know how it is being spent.
It is also outrageous that, in the middle of a climate emergency, in the middle of a climate crisis, we are seeing Labor chopping down more and more trees. We saw their chainsaw massacre in North Adelaide, where they cut down 580 trees. Now we know, of course, that they are going to be wielding the axe again in the East Parklands for MotoGP, with another 400 trees that are on the chopping block. It is outrageous and it represents their warped priorities.
Let's calculate how much money is being spent on the Hon. Peter Malinauskas's—the Premier's—MotoGP plans. Let's calculate how much money has been spent on that and associated commercialisation of our Parklands over just the last six months. For the North Adelaide Golf Course it is $45 million, and the cost is likely to blow out, and it is now close to $100 million on MotoGP. That is about $150 million on these vanity projects. Meanwhile, we have people sleeping on the streets and we have a health system that is under sustained pressure.
The hypocrisy of Labor needs to be called out here. I remember being in this place during that brief period when the Liberal Party were in government, and I remember that the Liberals at that time proposed a significant redevelopment in the Adelaide Parklands at Helen Mayo Park. They proposed a basketball arena. Premier Malinauskas joined with the Greens in opposing that development. He said that the money should be spent on getting ramping and health under control. He said that the money should be spent on other priorities and that we should protect the Adelaide Parklands. Indeed, Labor sided with the Greens in this place to support motions calling on the government to take a different direction.
What did they do? When Labor got back into power, what did they do? Well, of course they have embarked on their own Parklands plans, and it is an act of rank hypocrisy. I always say, with the Labor Party, do not trust what comes out of their mouths; trust what they do with their feet. Look at how they vote. They never ever stand with the community when it comes to protecting the Parklands. It is rank hypocrisy. Labor, when they were in opposition, said that they would support adding the Adelaide Parklands to the state Heritage Register.
To give the Liberals their due, they at least backed a bill when they were in government and gave a commitment that they would do it in opposition, and they followed through with that. That is not for the backflippers on the Labor Party side. They will not ever take the action that is necessary to safeguard our Parklands, and when they are lost, we will never get them back.
Members interjecting:
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: So shame on the Labor Party for the approach that they have taken. I can hear One Nation bleating in the corner. They have done absolutely nothing about this issue and indeed failed on the first test in this parliament when I moved a motion to call for a business case to be presented, so they need to pipe down.
The Greens will not stop raising this issue in the parliament. The 43,000 South Australians who signed this petition will not stop either and nor will the thousands and thousands of people who have taken to the streets. I welcome the fact that this is going to be referred to the Environment, Resources and Development Committee. I urge that committee to do its work in terms of casting a ruler over this proposal, looking at exactly what has been put on the table here, and I urge the government to pause all works until the Environment, Resources and Development Committee has had an opportunity to investigate this petition.
Motion carried.
https://hansardsearch.parliament.sa.gov.au/daily/uh/2026-09-02/52
