COUNTRY ROAD MAINTENANCE

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:17): I rise today to talk about country roads. Just this week I have lodged a petition to this parliament, to this house, with some 630 signatures highlighting particularly the Tod Highway on the Eyre Peninsula. I have spoken about the Tod Highway in this place on a number of occasions. I mentioned it in my maiden speech just two years ago, and once again I rise to talk about this particular stretch of road and highlight the state of the road between Karkoo and Kyancutta in particular.

It is particularly narrow, it has high freight rates and it has got to a point where it is in such poor condition that it has become dangerous. There is insufficient width on the road. The signatories of this particular petition have identified that and, as signatories, are urging the government to deal with that particular road. It would not take very much, Madam Speaker, to seal the shoulders of about 150 kilometres of road to make it much, much safer.

There have been many near misses on this section, and it is in need of urgent upgrade. I can congratulate Mr Creagh McGlasson of Lock for taking it upon himself to organise the petition and to hand it to me to table to the parliament. It gets back to the point that up to $400 million of road maintenance funding has not been spent. It is a road maintenance backlog that has been building over the years under this Labor government. Obviously, they are allocated funds but they have not been spent. The spending of this by the Weatherill government and the Rann government previously on country roads is not a priority. You would have to wonder what you need to do to get money spent on a road.

It has been demonstrated many times that the condition of roads does have an impact on road safety. It stands to reason that the better the road, the safer they are. I am saying to the house that the government cannot continue to neglect country roads. The temptation, of course, is to spend this money in other areas, and we have seen time and again reckless spending and economic mismanagement. It is not hard to spend money where it is allocated, and I urge the government to do that.

Further to that, with regard to heavy transport, many of the road trains on Eyre Peninsula do travel up and down the Tod Highway in their task of carrying freight and, particularly, grain harvest across the peninsula. Unfortunately, due to a recent agreement by the state government with the NTC (National Transport Commission), we are about to see huge cost increases to the heavy vehicle transport industry. Admittedly, as part of that agreement, the cost of registration for an A trailer has been reduced somewhat but, on the flip side, road train, which is by far and away the transport of choice in many rural areas, and other trailer registration will increase by 20 per cent.

For one particular operator—just one operator who I have spoken to on Eyre Peninsula—that will add some $70,000 in direct costs to his operation per year. If we add to that the increase in the federal road user charge of 2.4¢ per litre, which, again, is an increase of around 10 per cent, this will add an extra $60,000. In total, just through this agreement, one particular operator is looking at a $130,000 increase in costs from 1 July on. It is a shame and it is despicable, and we would have to wonder if this government is not at risk of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The transport industry spent a huge amount of time and effort in discussions with the government through this process (as individuals and through their various organisations), seemingly, to no avail.

Eyre Peninsula relies on road trains, and the country areas and the state as a whole rely on road trains. If we add to the cost of transport, we add to the cost of doing business, we add to the cost of goods and services, and the cost of living, and that is a real problem for this government. I have not even mentioned, thus far, the increases that will come about as a result of the introduction of the carbon tax. That, too, will add significantly to the cost of transport and the cost of doing business in this state and in this country.