TRAMS

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (16:03): I did note the previous member's speech and I will do some research on that. Since my service on the Public Works Committee (which I began in 2002), I was always concerned about the Rann Labor government's intention to purchase the new fleet of trams. I was very concerned (and still am) that the wrong trams were purchased originally, and that they were the wrong type and the wrong width. We are now locked into these narrow trams forever.

Initially, some might have described my concerns as conservative or perhaps nostalgic, since I also questioned the officers present as to why the vehicles could not have been built here in Adelaide and, if not here, at least somewhere else in Australia. The committee was given the usual answers about world markets, economies of scale and general blurb used as a sunscreen to cover the skin of an increasingly sensitive government.

Unfortunately, I did not then have enough specific knowledge to pursue the matter. Then, however, the problems started. First, there was the upgrade of the entire existing system, a matter on which either the public servants had not performed due diligence or which had been deliberately developed to keep this parliament in the dark, tricking it into committing expenditure far beyond that which was originally envisaged.

Then the Bombardier trams arrived. These trams, while well suited to German conditions, lack air conditioning for Australian summers; they are narrow and not in world demand. That is why we got them in time to be installed on the tracks before the state election. The reality is that the government—and this is damning of its decision-making processes—chose the narrow-bodied trams purely because it could get them in time before the election and put them on the rails. They have locked us into these squeezy sweat boxes purely for basic political expediency.

On 5 October last year, I learned that, while we cannot build tram bodies, apparently we have no such difficulty with buses. The Minister for Infrastructure announced the first of 80 brand-new buses to be delivered by the end of the financial year and went on to explain that the Scania chassis are shipped from Sweden to Adelaide where the body—which includes air conditioning, seats and windows—is assembled onto the chassis by Custom Coaches at Royal Park. So, we can build buses but, apparently, we cannot build trams. Why not? We could import the rolling chassis or part thereof and do the rest right here in Adelaide. We could at least have our own design and appearance, and even copy our beloved red heritage Glenelg trams.

It was announced a week ago that the Rann government has secured a $36 million deal to deliver six European trams to Adelaide. If we were to build our own tram bodies here in South Australia, this $36 million would go towards supporting local business and jobs, but instead it goes offshore, initially to Spain. I understand that we bought these trams from the Spanish government for $6 million each. I also understand that Spain allegedly paid France $2 million each for them—not a bad profit for Spain.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr VENNING: Sorry, $3 million. I am corrected. They bought them originally for three, and then sold them to us for six—not a bad deal. I am pleased that at least we have bought much better trams than the first lot. I made speeches on this matter in this house on many occasions in 2004 to 2006. After visiting Bordeaux and Paris in France and then Manchester in England, I came home with the strong opinion that the wide-bodied Alstom tram was by far the best option for us. Alas, there was a three or four year wait so we could not get them. We now have Alstom trams coming; it is a pity that they are the narrow ones.

We used to build our own rolling stock years ago. I cannot understand why we do not do it now. Remember Lawtons, tram builders of Adelaide? On 18 May 1854, South Australia became the first place in Australia to operate a railway run on iron rails. In 1856, we had the first government built and owned steam railway system in the then British Empire. By 1917, South Australia had a rail network of 5,300 kilometres.

Under railway commissioner William Alfred Webb, who was appointed in 1922, the SAR was pre-eminent in Australia. We constructed not only our own carriages and rolling stock, but some very powerful locomotives at the Islington workshops. In 1951, the Lady Gowrie, the first diesel powered locomotive in Australia, was built at Islington. All this under a Liberal government.

We had an equally proud record when it came to trams. Adelaide firm Duncan and Fraser built 70 electric trams for our system in 1908-09.

Time expired.