Mr DEAN (Windermere ) - Mr President, I think it is well known that the Silverdome has had an interesting background particularly when you look at the ownership of it and where the ownership should lie. I think most people would be aware that there was a recent move for the Launceston City Council to take over the ownership of that venue. It was made well-known in the press that there was a lot concern about whether a local government should accept the responsibility in its own right for a venue that is very clearly a regional complex. That is one of the difficulties that local government now have with many of these venues, that -
Mr Aird - Are you going to move your amalgamation bill?

Mr DEAN - As I have said, Mr President, on many occasions in this Chamber, I am currently having work done on that. I will be putting a motion forward in the autumn session of this Parliament, hopefully, which will look at a number of issues in relation to local government, where we should move, and what I believe is the future for local government. So that answers the question asked by the Treasurer.

There has been a lot of concern about the ownership. As I said, a proposal was put to local government, the Launceston City Council, that they take over the ownership of it. One of the impediments there, Mr President, was the fact that the Silverdome unfortunately runs at a substantial loss. I would hope that through the moves we are now making it can be changed or some of that can be changed. In this instance, it was a loss that local government, the ratepayers of Launceston, would have had to have picked up, not all of the users of the complex but the ratepayers of Launceston.

Mr Hall - Could I say that the former Premier, Jim Bacon, also put a similar proposal to the then NTMO, the Northern Tasmanian Municipal Organisation, for member councils to take over the running of the Silverdome, but there wasn't much interest. That is why it would have gone to Launceston and rightly, I think.

Mr DEAN - I was aware of that but I was not involved in that process at that time. Suffice to say that a decision was made by the local government of that area not to take on the Silverdome, even though there was an indication by some members that it would probably be in the interests of Launceston to have done that, but only on the condition that there would be an underwriting of any losses of that complex in the long term. Of course that was not given by the State Government and therefore the decision was made not to move on with that. So now we find the Silverdome, and I think rightfully, coming under the Tasmanian Institute of Sport and I believe that is the right body because it is a great venue; it is a great complex. I believe now that it can move forward and I believe we will see some very good things happening with the Silverdome into the future.

I am told that the existing board and staff have been consulted and have been involved in the changes proposed for the complex and what it will mean for them; that is, that the board will be abandoned by necessity and that the future of the current employees there is somewhat questionable at the present time.

We have discussed previously in this Chamber, when looking at government business enterprises, what happens to existing and current employees when they do change, and there is always concern around that, Mr President. I think I am right in saying that as a policy position of the TIS, all positions must be readvertised, and that that will happen in this instance, and that the existing permanent members of staff will be able to reapply for those positions. One would expect, because of their background and knowledge of the complex, that they must stand a good chance of being reappointed to those positions. That is not to say that that will happen, but very clearly they must have a head start, I would think, on any other persons who might apply for those positions.

That gives me some comfort because it was a concern raised with me as to what might happen with those people. I think there are only four permanent staff; and I think there are a number of casual staff - or two permanent staff and the rest are casuals. The manager and the operations manager are the only two permanent staff members there.

I would like to take this opportunity, Mr President, to compliment and commend both Brenda Sheldrick and Greg Banks for what they have done for that complex; they are assiduous persons; they have promoted the Silverdome; they have done a lot of extremely good work in moving the Silverdome to where it currently is . I would like to just have placed in Hansard my commendations to those personnel for what they have done. I would very much like to see them continue on in those roles if they are considered to be the best persons applying for the positions. They are great people; they really have the Silverdome at heart and they do want to see it become very successful and move in the right direction.

I just want to talk briefly on the $3 million that has been made available for renovations and maintenance work to the Silverdome, Mr President. I, like a lot of others, have been hearing about this now for a long time. I think it was about two or three years ago that it was first mentioned to me that there would be a large amount of money made available for maintenance and improved works to be done at that Silverdome but it has never come to fruition. But I am now told that the tender documentation has been viewed, that it is in place and that the work will move on at the very first opportunity. So that is again a real plus for the Silverdome. It is a great complex; it offers tremendous opportunities for sport and for retail events and other uses. It needs to be maintained at a quality level. We know that there is a lot of work that is required to the floor of that venue, we know that there is a lot of work to the change rooms and to other areas. I think there is a roof leak and other things in that complex. It will be good to see all of this move forward now reasonably quickly. That complex was seen as one of the best if not the best venue in the Southern Hemisphere for netball. It has a lot of netball use and it has a lot of other sporting use as well.

One of the problems that we have had with the Silverdome is the fact that it was built as a velodrome, for cycling, so it is neither really a sporting venue nor an entertainment venue, it is in between, and that has always created some difficulties, particularly when we look at huge entertainment events being able to be conducted at the Silverdome. It has not been able to facilitate them for a number of reasons - for example, ceiling strength. They have not been able to put in the lighting equipment and all those things that are necessary for an event such as that, and it is not proposed that that should happen, and I would agree with that. That moves me on to the next point.

We need to be very careful with our facilities around this State. We do not have sufficient population in this State to have world-class venues around the State. We need to concentrate on singular venues, singular areas and develop those areas to world-class standards. That is what we should do.

Mr Hall - Are you saying that the Derwent Entertainment Centre should not have been built?

Mr DEAN - That is what we should do, Mr President, and that is why I am going to mention the DEC, the Derwent Entertainment Centre. I believe that that is the entertainment centre in Tasmania. I believe that that is the centre we should be concentrating on to spend money to ensure that it is a world-class venue and that the Silverdome -

Mr Aird - Can you sing a couple of lines from one of Carole King's songs just so that we can get the atmospherics going here?

Mr DEAN - And, Mr President, I was going to talk about the Carole King concert because I was a guest of the Mayor of Glenorchy, Adriana Taylor, at that event. When I walked in I was greeted by a large population of people from the north of the State. I turned to Adriana and said, 'Is this a northern event?' Adriana told me that with major events at the DEC 40 per cent of the audience comes from the north of the State.

Mr Aird - Isn't that interesting when you hear arguments about why football should be played in the south and not in the north.

Mr DEAN - I was getting to that.

Mr Aird - I met the people from Launceston at the DEC on the night of the Carol King concert who were driving back that night.

Ms Forrest - I often drive back from the Silverdome to the north-west of a night. And from the Inveresk precinct, Mr President.

Mr Aird - Exactly. People travel.

Ms Forrest - They do to Parliament as well.

Mr Aird - People in the north-west and the north. It is about time the southerners got used to it.

Ms Forrest - Exactly. Once you get through border control.

Mr DEAN - I was going to get to that.

Mr Aird - Good, sorry to rush you.

Mr DEAN - It irks me somewhat that the parochialism in this State is so vigorous in some areas that I believe it is having a detrimental impact on development in this State of world-class venues. I find it difficult to understand. I believe that it is right that we concentrate on the singular areas and get them to the level that they should be at. So I do have some concerns about what is in the paper today and what was in the paper yesterday; I believe those people are not considering Tasmania as a whole, globally. They are interested in their own one little area and I do not think that you can do that. I certainly could not do it with my other hat on. I could not do that. We ought to be interested in the State as a whole. In that regard I take my hat off too and commend the department of sport and recreation who are currently looking at developing a facilities framework to guide the development of facilities in this State into the future. That is what is occurring and I was heartened at a briefing that I had the other day in relation to the Silverdome when this issue was raised because this was a topic of discussion. I was very pleased to hear that that is being done. It is necessary, in my view, and I think that when that is completed we can concentrate on where we should be going with our complexes into the near future.

The Silverdome, as I said, has its use. I was also heartened by the fact as it was indicated to me that the Silverdome's priority will in the future be sport and I believe that that is a right direction because it is a great sporting complex. It needs some maintenance et cetera, but that is going to occur. However, there has to be a little bit of mix because sport does not bring into the complex sufficient income that is necessary for the financial side of it and therefore there will always need to be some mix, Mr President, in relation to retail business from the Silverdome.

Mr Hall - Carpet sales.

Mr DEAN - I was going to mention that, member for Rowallan. There will always need to be rug sales, vehicle displays, accommodation of Targa, school speech nights and all of those other things, Mr President. I accept that, but that should not be to the detriment of sport because when we - and the member for Rosevears would remember this - discussed this as a GBE, I think about two years ago, there was some concern from the sporting bodies using that facility that they were being pushed aside for the purposes of bringing retail in. There was a lot of concern about that; in fact one body that had been using that facility for a long period indicated to us that as soon as they could find a suitable venue to move into they would do that because they could not be guaranteed use of that complex when they needed it and as they required it. I am very pleased to hear that sport in this instance will be the major requirement of the Silverdome moving forward, in other words, that will take a priority over the other events that will occur there.

Mr President, in conclusion, I would also take this opportunity to thank the current board of the Silverdome who, I believe, have done an exceptional amount of work and an exceptionally good job. They have had to work under some duress and through some hard times but they have made it. I also applaud Mr David McQuestin, the chairman, for the way in which he has led the board and how he has developed and moved forward with the Silverdome.

Mr Hall - Before you sit down, I agree with all your sentiments but one of the big losses from the Silverdome some years ago was when the Institute of Cycling went to Adelaide. Do you think, in your role as Mayor of Launceston, you might try to get that back from Adelaide?

Mr DEAN - It would be a great thing for this State to do that, however I would think that that would be extremely difficult now it has gone to South Australia -

Mr Hall - You're a very persistent person.

Mr DEAN - I am a very persistent person.

Mr Hall - Can't you see Danny Clark back there as head coach.

Mr DEAN - I am like a dog with a bone, I do not give up, I keep chewing away. Maybe that is a possibility, Mr President, for us to continue to look that way.

What I think we need to do is attract cycling events to the Silverdome and there are a lot of cycling events that we can attract.

Mr Hall - We could have a 'pollies pedal'.

Mr DEAN - You are right, maybe -

Mr Parkinson - Maybe the V8 Supercars.

Mr DEAN - Maybe the 'pollies pedal', as mentioned by the member for Rowallan, Mr President. We may well be able to attract the Treasurer and the Leader into that event at the Silverdome. Would that not be a picture to see both of those gentlemen on bikes riding around the Silverdome closely pursued by the Deputy Leader. It does have a lot of potential, Mr President.

Mr PRESIDENT - And the Federal member for Lyons.

Mr DEAN - Yes, and the Federal member for Lyons.

Mr Parkinson - Maybe dodgem cars.

Mr DEAN - It is a great place and the only other comment I want to make - and I understand that this has now been sorted out as well - is the separation of the building from the land.

Mr Parkinson - How are you going to do that?

Mr DEAN - The land around the complex is in the ownership of DPIW and the building belongs to another area of the State which has always created some concern. I understand that that has now been resolved and both are under the one umbrella, the one government department, another good direction for the Silverdome. I can only see good things happening there and let me say now, Mr President, while I have the opportunity, it is not the right place for the Launceston Aquatic Centre. That has been suggested. I do not believe, although it was suggested the other day to me, that a swimming pool in the centre with bikes riding around the outside would be a wonderful attraction.

Mr Parkinson - Once you get those levees fixed you can just fill the void water.

Mr DEAN - I beg your pardon?

Mr Parkinson - Once you get those levees fixed you can just fill the void with water and have the best aquatic centre in Tasmania.

Mr DEAN - As suggested by a member of the Council, if we do not fix the levees Invermay will become the biggest and probably one of the best swimming pools in the country.

I reiterate my support for this bill. It is a good direction, a good way to move forward that will give security to the whole complex. The TIS is a great organisation in this State and the people in it are wonderful. I believe that we are now moving in the right direction.