Grievance Debate

MANNUM

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:27): Further to my presentation of a petition today in this house, I inform members that two weeks ago I met a group of concerned residents from Mannum. I have to say that they were fed up with the inaction of the Rann Labor government in regard to fixing the concrete ramps on the upstream ferry service which was closed in December because of the falling river level.

I have raised this issue numerous times in this house, as have my colleagues, particularly the member for Hammond. Still Premier Rann and his team refuse to fix the ramps, and the ferry service remains closed. The people of Mannum have taken the matter into their own hands, with local businessman, Mr Tony Eversham, organising a petition urging the state government to take immediate action to upgrade the concrete ramp of the upstream ferry at Mannum enabling it to operate again.

The petition, which was officially tabled in this house today, attracted over 700 signatures from local residents, and this is testament to how strongly the residents of Mannum feel about this issue. Mannum residents are concerned about the many aspects of being reliant upon one ferry, including issues of safety. What if there is an emergency and there is a 45-minute wait at the ferry? Financial losses are being experienced by businesses since it closed in December. Local businesses have reported a 15 per cent downturn in their takings. Many locals are simply fed up with the great inconvenience and feel that they are being treated as second-class citizens by the state government and are being totally ignored.

The safety of residents is paramount and should be the government's number one priority, yet sadly it is not. Recently, the people of Mannum have been left stranded without a ferry at all. Twice there has been no ferry during the same week due to the suspension of the remaining downstream operating ferry for emergency repairs and routine maintenance work. I was informed that, on Monday 7 April, the downstream ferry service was temporarily suspended from 8 o'clock until 9.30pm (1½ hours) for regular maintenance. That means no ferry. This caused problems for many, particularly for those working in the hospitality and service industries who finished work in the evening and then had to make their way home to the other side of the river.

Worse still, on Friday 11 April between 1.10pm and 3.10pm, the downstream ferry was closed—this time, for emergency repairs to be carried out. In other words, there was no warning. For over two hours nobody could cross the river unless they did a 70 km round trip. Thank goodness there was not an emergency. It is 35 kilometres to the nearest bridge. The local school dismissed students at 2.30pm that day and parents could not cross the river to pick up their children. They were left stranded. Parents, who had no forewarning of the closure, were left wondering how they would reach their children, and both students and parents were stressed. No-one can expect people to travel the 70 km round trip to Murray Bridge to cross the river. It is just ridiculous.

The situation has been made worse by weight restrictions put on the other ferries, especially those at Swan Reach, thus forcing more trucks onto this one operating ferry without the weight restrictions at Mannum. I received from the then acting Minister for Transport (Hon. Paul Caica) the following response to a request I made in February to have the concrete ramps of the closed ferry extended:

The department does not have any plans to extend the concrete ramps on the Mannum upstream ferry crossing at this time. I am advised that this would be a significant project, estimated to cost in excess of $500,000.

I question that amount; I think $300,000 is a more realistic figure. He continued:

In addition, the works may take up to six months to complete and would require extensive design work and dredging of the river, as well as native title clearances.

It goes on and on; every excuse imaginable.

This state government is currently flush with money. It has more money than any other state government has ever had and has supposedly commenced a huge infrastructure program. One must ask why it cannot find the $300,000 to $500,000 to fix the concrete ramp for the upstream ferry at Mannum to make it operational. Considering this state government managed to find $100,000 out of revenue last year to fund a welcome party to open the tramline extension to nowhere, $500,000 seems only a little money to find. I implore the government to appropriate some funds in the next budget to carry out this work on the upstream Mannum ferry. It needs to get its priorities right and forget the politics.

I congratulate all those who worked to get these signatures, and I pledge to the people of Mannum that I will do all I can to encourage the government to do the work—even if it asked local government to do it, because I am sure the Mid Murray Council would do it for a fraction of the cost. It is not fair that these people have this gross inconvenience. I notice that we will be debating a transport bill, and I will be raising this again, because it is grossly unfair that these people pay a huge price like this. We take access for granted; all these people are asking for is a fair go.