Exclusive: Colourful ex-pollie’s tell all on park lands grandstand
As the Premier opens the door to a permanent park lands grandstand, Kevin Foley tells Mike Smithson how his own plan crashed and how Malinauskas could succeed.
Speculation of a new, permanent grandstand at Victoria Park has triggered another cat-amongst-the-pigeons argument for the park lands.
Almost 20 years ago Labor’s concept drawings were on the cabinet table but disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
Over the past week, Premier Peter Malinauskas has been at pains to point out that he has not started a new ball rolling on a permanent structure, but he is happy to gauge public opinion and potentially take any ideas forward.
In many respects it’s his perfect platform in the wake of a barrage of angry abuse over tree removal for a new golf course and MotoGP track.
He can use any traction as a kite flying exercise to read public opinion rather than dive headlong into another round of potential discontent.
I’ve explored a greater insight into the failed 2007 grandstand plan from the MP who was its political architect and then had to wear the indignity of it crashing and burning.
Colourful ex-pollie, ex-Deputy Premier, ex-Treasurer and ex-Motor Sport Minister Kevin Foley spoke exclusively to InDaily about where his plan failed and explained where Peter Malinauskas might succeed.
Foley’s crash through approach to get his own way largely served him well throughout the Rann years in Labor Government.
He’d picked up a half-hearted attempt from the Liberals a few years earlier to establish a permanent structure on the hallowed park lands to serve motor racing, horse racing, the SA Jockey Club or any other evolving community group or activity.
Yesterday he recounted the past.
“It was actually Lord Mayor Michael Harbison who came to me with preliminary pictures and he wanted us (the government) to fly the kite, and he said I’ll be with you all the way,” Mr Foley explained.
Council then denied the government a long-term lease on the land.
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“It wasn’t until the s**t hit the fan that he (Harbison) was nowhere to be seen,” he said.
“I don’t like losing, but the grandstand turned into a typical Adelaide argument.
“Once you got over the hurdle of opposition it would have been a valuable asset.”
This issue wasn’t so much the fight in the dog, but the dog in the fight.
Labor’s ordained golden girl, at the time, was none other than Dr Jane Lomax-Smith.
Yes, that’s the same Lomax-Smith who’s now the Adelaide Lord Mayor.
She was Tourism Minister and MP for Adelaide, which was seen as the jewel in the crown seat when she won it from the Liberals in 2002.
Dr Lomax-Smith was personal favourite of Premier Mike Rann and almost untouchable in a state government which had just won power.
But Foley claims she put her constituents above the likely direction of cabinet and that’s when Foley’s idea came crashing down.
“Jane was given dispensation from having to vote in cabinet,’ Mr Foley says.
“I’d got approval from cabinet, but opposition was strong.
“Jane didn’t attack me, but the issue kept building.”
As the debate raged and Foley’s dream fell apart at the seams, the absence of support from city hall, left Dr Lomax-Smith sitting pretty without her having to support her cabinet colleagues.
“It’s not normally tolerated, but this time it was,” Foley explained.
“I pulled the pin on it as we didn’t have the numbers in the Upper House.
“I was pi**ed off for a while, but it wasn’t a huge issue.”
So, does Kevin Foley now consider Peter Malinaukas will have better fortunes if he chooses to push for such a structure more than two decades on in 2026?
“Nothing is easy in Adelaide and Peter has a fight, but he’s prepared to take on opponents,” Foley says.
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“People out there in suburbia think he’s a good guy who gets things done.
“But how many fights does the Premier want to have?
“There might not be the same need as 20 years ago with no horse racing at the park.
“My strong belief is that people in Adelaide think the park lands is for them.
“It’s a no brainer and should be done, so if Mali was to push ahead, he’d have my strong support.”
Foley has a track record of getting back on the horse after taking a tumble.
Against a wave of initial opposition, he was a mastermind behind the Adelaide Oval redevelopment.
His talks at AFL, SANFL and cricket levels started in 2009 when he, Rann and others brought warring parties together in a $575 million peace deal to get football back to its CBD mecca.
“I’d learned a few tricks by the time Adelaide Oval came around.,” he said.
“You need universal support and then you just push it out.
“No-one complains about the facilities or the footbridge these days.”
Foley still maintains the bridge from the train station to the oval should have been higher and wider to become a more suitable piece of infrastructure for vast crowds.
Footy fans know the squeeze which often occurs when crowds are leaving the stadium all at once.
Had it not been for the hard push from Foley and others, there might not have been a bridge ever built, which would have always spelt chaos after every Crows and Port match.
Reading between the lines he kept the oval plan a top secret until the deal was done, to ensure that potential knockers, such as Jane Lomax-Smith and city council, would have had trouble standing in his way.
Foley once said the oval upgrade cost him his political career.
He’s claimed he never recovered from pushing the cost boundaries which led to him being accused of misleading parliament.
Anyone who knew Kevin from those days might be able to cite a few other issues as well.
Until my phone call, he hasn’t entered any level of discussion with the government or anyone else on flying the flag for a new grandstand.
If the idea builds up a head of steam, he might still be a good sounding board for getting an old idea back onto a new track and rolling once more.
He might say “all aboard”.
Mike Smithson is weekend newsreader and political analyst for 7NEWS.
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