New City Arena

[ozisnowman]

Labor have pledged to scrap this and redirect funding to health care.

Got my vote on this policy alone. Priorities.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do tge Memorial Drive upgrade instead. We can have better health care and a new arena without spending 3 quarters of a billion on an arena alone.

How quick we are to forget, the same Labor that closed the repat and delayed the WCH rebuild. Sure they'll spend it on health.

I don't like either major party but at least libs are spending on roads, hospitals including WCH and Repay not just a stadium. Also as a fisherman opening up our reservoirs for recreation creates a great tourism/employment opportunity.

[wilkiebarkid]

Labor have pledged to scrap this and redirect funding to health care.

Got my vote on this policy alone. Priorities.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do tge Memorial Drive upgrade instead. We can have better health care and a new arena without spending 3 quarters of a billion on an arena alone.

How quick we are to forget, the same Labor that closed the repat and delayed the WCH rebuild. Sure they'll spend it on health.

I don't like either major party but at least libs are spending on roads, hospitals including WCH and Repay not just a stadium. Also as a fisherman opening up our reservoirs for recreation creates a great tourism/employment opportunity.

Not to forget there is currently a massive spend on new schools and major upgrades across the state.

[gnrc_louis]

Labor have pledged to scrap this and redirect funding to health care.

Got my vote on this policy alone. Priorities.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do tge Memorial Drive upgrade instead. We can have better health care and a new arena without spending 3 quarters of a billion on an arena alone.

How quick we are to forget, the same Labor that closed the repat and delayed the WCH rebuild. Sure they'll spend it on health.

I don't like either major party but at least libs are spending on roads, hospitals including WCH and Repay not just a stadium. Also as a fisherman opening up our reservoirs for recreation creates a great tourism/employment opportunity.

The WCH isn't starting for years and the previous government had also begun planning for it, much of the roads spending would've happened under either side i.e. South Road. For all the massive spending this government is doing, there is almost nothing meaningful on public transport, which will have a big negative cost to Adelaide in the future for a multitude of reasons.

This arena seems like it is taking a risk in terms of banking on large scale international conferences coming back. Since COVID, Zoom and live streaming more broadly have decreased the need for in person meetings. During the GFC, many of the large corporations sold their extensive art collections they had in foyers etc, I'm not sure how many of these corporations have repurchased art since? They also decreased spending on the lavish staff functions they used to pay for. There is no guarantee post-COVID that large international in-person conferences will be the norm again, which seems like one of the key selling points of this arena.

[citywatcher]

Labor have pledged to scrap this and redirect funding to health care.

Got my vote on this policy alone. Priorities.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do tge Memorial Drive upgrade instead. We can have better health care and a new arena without spending 3 quarters of a billion on an arena alone.

How quick we are to forget, the same Labor that closed the repat and delayed the WCH rebuild. Sure they'll spend it on health.

I don't like either major party but at least libs are spending on roads, hospitals including WCH and Repay not just a stadium. Also as a fisherman opening up our reservoirs for recreation creates a great tourism/employment opportunity.

Not to forget there is currently a massive spend on new schools and major upgrades across the state.

Ha gotta love it.
Copying Labor or rather trying to copy Labor in building infrastructure. When Labor do it it's fiscally irresponsible, when Liberal " propose " it , it's jolly good.

Sent from my SM-A515F using Tapatalk

[rev]

Labor did all those things and more. Thats besides the point.

The point is our EDs are over crowded, hence the ramping issues, and there arent enough ambulances to attend to call outs.

[Patrick_27]

Labor have pledged to scrap this and redirect funding to health care.

Got my vote on this policy alone. Priorities.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do tge Memorial Drive upgrade instead. We can have better health care and a new arena without spending 3 quarters of a billion on an arena alone.

How quick we are to forget, the same Labor that closed the repat and delayed the WCH rebuild. Sure they'll spend it on health.

I don't like either major party but at least libs are spending on roads, hospitals including WCH and Repay not just a stadium. Also as a fisherman opening up our reservoirs for recreation creates a great tourism/employment opportunity.

The Repat's closure was a decision based on an independent review undertaken for the government at the time, it's a convenient fact that the Libs enjoyed leaving out in their election campaign last time around. The Libs played to the veteran's heart strings promising the reopening of the Repat and all these years later, they've only reopened portions of what was previously there and in most cases they've merely redirected other health services to the site; clearly they were already aware that the review commissioned by Labor was actually justified in its findings and suggestions. Speaking of hypocrisy, someone mentioned before and I'd just like to reiterate the point... Wasn't it Marshall and his shadow cabinet that spend five years rubbishing Labor for the cost of the NRAH, meanwhile they're proposing a NWCH that's smaller than the NRAH in terms of its capabilities and is almost up there with the NRAH in terms of cost...

[SBD]

Labor did all those things and more. Thats besides the point.

The point is our EDs are over crowded, hence the ramping issues, and there arent enough ambulances to attend to call outs.

The way I have heard Labor intends to address the ramping issue is to provide more ambulances. It seems obvious to me that the problem is on the other side of the doorstep. It is less obvious what the problem actually is or how it should be fixed. If it was simple to fix, then at least one state government would be crowing about having solved it. So far, Darwin seems to be the only major city hospital without ramping - because they are quicker to send the ambulances to Palmerston, even if the patients eventually get admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital!

[rev]

Ramping is one problem, the other major problem is there aren't enough ambulances.
The MFS also has issues.

We have wonderful new motorways (that nobody seems to keep tidy with debris all over), but critical services are fucked.
And this current government thinks its a good idea to spend 700 million on a stadium

[how good is he]

I am just a bit bemused that we have an emergency services levy (which I am not sure if any other state has) and the most expensive (and biggest?) new hospital in Australia (if not the world) and with a population of only 1.5m and yet we are in this position.

[Spotto]

Ramping is one problem, the other major problem is there aren't enough ambulances.

Yes but the government are presenting it as though adding ambulances alone is helping the problem. They were pretty proud recently about reaching a deal with the union to employ more ambos (and are not happy at all that chalking is still happening). Once you add significant beds and staff at the hospitals you can get people out of ambulances which than then be redeployed and ramping goes down. Then you can actually look at how many new ambulances need to be added to the network.

Adding more ambulances without increasing hospital intake significantly is just going to mean those new ambulances will be ramped too. Problem gets worse and nothing has actually been solved.

[Will]

As a health care professional myself, I am disappointing with how politicians address these issues. They think that by building bigger hospitals or buying more ambulances the issues will be solved. They are wrong. The real problems and thus solutions lie at both extremes of the patient journey. We need strategies to deal with problems at the primary care level, before people need hospital admission, and also at the end of the patient journey. We need further resources to get elderly and disabled patients out of acute hospital beds and into more appropriate care.

[SBD]

As a health care professional myself, I am disappointing with how politicians address these issues. They think that by building bigger hospitals or buying more ambulances the issues will be solved. They are wrong. The real problems and thus solutions lie at both extremes of the patient journey. We need strategies to deal with problems at the primary care level, before people need hospital admission, and also at the end of the patient journey. We need further resources to get elderly and disabled patients out of acute hospital beds and into more appropriate care.

Thank you Will.

My impression is that "the government" (both elected members and senior public servants) recognise that the solution is neither simple nor in only one area. The trouble is that "politics" - opposition, media, wannabes - manage to find a negative perspective and criticise any efforts that don't instantly solve the visible problem.

Your comments can be interpreted as "discouraging people from going to hospital", "kicking the old and frail out of hospital" etc. You might be right, and there are much better ways to deal with the problem, but they don't provide headlines unless they either fail or involve spending a large chunk of cash on a single piece of new infrastructure (which can then be criticised anyway).

[CDJ]

A question: why are people so outraged about the $600m for this stadium, but are totally fine with the $10b (that's $10,000m) being spent on a tunnel for one road in our city?

Think how many incredible building projects could be funded with that money, along with increased spending on health, education and public transport.

In the long run the tunnel will achieve very little. Traffic is fixed by improving public transport and limiting urban sprawl. It is not fixed by building more freeways.

(I visit this site to keep up to date on buildings projects, not to read people arguing about whether Labor is better than Liberal. I have very strong opinions on this, but don't think this is really the best place for it).

[how good is he]

I think it's more about how the Govt. prioritises the spending of our money [as taxpayers]. Health could be considered a life or death decision [ie a necessity with a more important and pressing need] over say a a new sports stadium which may be considered a luxury and rank lower in relative importance.
The $10b tunnel/s when complete would complete a non-stop 80 km freeway after some 30+ years. The end result should significantly increase productivity/output and travelling times, so there are many worthwhile benefits which will always continue on.
I however agree the cost is very expensive for some 10 kms, so maybe the debate should be why is it costing so much?

[Jaymz]

Don't get me wrong, I love a shiny new stadium as much as anyone, but I really don't see the need for this one. If the purpose is mostly to attract larger musical acts then we already have those bases covered.... Adelaide Oval, Entertainment Centre (which I still believe is more than adequate and well serviced by the tram) and even Coopers Stadium.... which has previously been used for acts such as Foo Fighters, Fleetwood Mac etc.

They talk about the new stadium providing more convention space, but I struggle to see how the three built side by side on the river aren't enough. I mean, is the current Convention Centre at capacity? I doubt it.

As for the massive spend on finishing the North/South Motorway, I see this as expensive but super important that it gets done and done properly the first time. The decision to make the new tunnels three lanes instead of two I think is a sensible idea as once they are completed they can't be widened.