Christopher Pyne: Opponents pop champagne corks after stopping yet another development in SA

Was the aquatic centre development dropped just because of a small group’s complaints? What is truth and what’s a lie? Let’s play a game.

In the popular BBC1 series, Would I Lie to You, the teammates reveal stories about themselves which may or may not be true and the other team wins points by correctly determining if the story is the truth or a lie.

Let’s play.

“The Adelaide City Council owns a dilapidated swimming pool and was offered $15 million of someone else’s money to fix it, but rejected the offer because of pressure from a noisy minority who always oppose any development.”

Truth or fiction?

Last week, the North Adelaide Aquatic Centre announced the indefinite closure of its spa baths.

In 2017, the centre closed its diving platforms. It runs at a loss. It is a financial burden on the ratepayers of the City of Adelaide.

It is under-utilised because it has not been continuously improved.

The North Adelaide Aquatic Centre is under-utilised because it has not been continuously improved. Picture: Matt Loxton

Like an old, ill, favourite labrador, it is at the end of its life and the only question is whether you are being cruel keeping your cherished family dog alive anymore.

I don’t blame the staff who do their best everyday to make it as congenial an experience as possible for the patrons. They aren’t to blame for the politics of Adelaide.

The centre could have been the centrepiece of swimming in South Australia but because of local bickering the local and national government built the State Swimming Centre at Oaklands Park.

In 2019, the council was offered the opportunity to partner with the Adelaide Football Club to completely revitalise the Adelaide Aquatic Centre.

The Australian Government has granted the Crows $15m to relocate their headquarters, club facilities and clubrooms from West Lakes.

The Crows have some of their own resources to add to that in order to make it a project of significant value.

No doubt, if the project had gone ahead, the council and the South Australian Government may have been asked to make a contribution.

The new Crows headquarters would have created a state-of-the-art swimming facility, gyms, clubrooms, cafes and recreational activities open to all. The club would have entirely replaced the rough hillocky ovals in that part of the parklands used by local schools like Blackfriars, with AFL level grounds that they would have continued to use.

The new Crows headquarters would have created a state-of-the-art swimming facility, gyms, clubrooms, cafes and recreational activities open to all.

They would have been the luckiest school level footy players in the nation. The volume of patrons using and visiting the Crows headquarters would have flowed onto the traders, pubs, restaurants and cafes of O’Connell Street in North Adelaide.

The idea had strong support from the small and medium enterprises there. But the council said no.

A noisy minority, who have never supported any development in the parklands and even argued that Lot 14 should be returned to parklands when the Royal Adelaide Hospital moved to the western end of North Terrace even though it hadn’t been parklands since the middle of the nineteenth century, harassed and harried the council into turning its back on the proposal.

Having rejected the generous offer of $15m of other people’s money already, some members of the council have the gall to demand the state and federal governments bail them out of a problem that is entirely of their own making.

Truth or fiction? What do you think? Could it be true? Sadly, it is.   The opponents of the project would have been popping the champagne corks at their success in stopping yet another development in SA. I imagine they are the same people who between bites of their salmon and fish roe canapes bemoan the fact that their children and grandchildren have moved interstate to find jobs in the professions and industry.

Although, fortunately, that is on the improve thanks to industries growing in our state like defence, innovation, health and creativity.

While the Adelaide Aquatic Centre ossifies and eventually closes, the Crows are taking their project elsewhere. It may well be that the Crows headquarters ends up at Thebarton Oval or the former Brompton Gasworks site.

Thebarton would be a partnership with the SANFL on land leased from the City of West Torrens.

The downside is that it is leasehold land but there are opportunities to develop State League and elite football programs. It is close to the city but not as close as the Aquatic Centre.

The Brompton Gasworks site has the advantage of being freehold land owned by Renewal SA.

The Crows would be in the driver’s seat of that project and be able to create exactly what they want and need.

It is closer to the Adelaide Oval and an easy walk to the Bowden train station and tram.

The City of Adelaide’s loss will be either the City of West Torrens or the City of Charles Sturt’s gain.

There’s an old adage that “truth is stranger than fiction”. Now, that’s definitely true.

The writer is a Crows Ambassador but receives no financial benefit from the AFC.