Northern Connector

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister Assisting the Minister for Planning, Minister Assisting the Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:11): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Last Monday the Premier and I were joined by the commonwealth government to announce joint funding of $985 million for the Northern Connector road project. This is a critical project for South Australia. The Northern Connector is a 15.5 kilometre road connecting the Northern Expressway to the Port River Expressway, Salisbury Highway and to the South Road superway.

It will link both light and heavy vehicle traffic to the north-south corridor and to the Lefevre Peninsula and Outer Harbor container terminal and export facility providing a direct link for northern suburbs manufacturers, Barossa Valley and Mid North agricultural producers.

The project will provide considerable productivity benefits for the transport industry, with average travel time savings of approximately seven minutes during peak hours and avoiding six sets of traffic lights. Importantly, this project will support nearly 500 jobs each year during its four-year construction phase and deliver long-term economic benefits into the future providing a significant stimulus for the northern suburbs.

This project has been a long time coming. Former transport minister Patrick Conlon first announced that planning would commence for the Northern Connector in March 2008 with an initial submission to Infrastructure Australia in January 2009. This followed with subsequent submissions to Infrastructure Australia in November 2009 and August 2012, which led to the project being identified as a threshold project in December 2013.

As members would be aware, in January 2014 the Premier released the government's Jobs Plan, which sought to bring forward construction of the Northern Connector in response to the closure of Holden. The Premier and I have worked very closely with the commonwealth to secure funding for this project because we know of the many benefits that this project will create.

Of course, this is now the third project on the north-south corridor that the state government will be delivering with the commonwealth. Over the past 18 months three projects—the Torrens to Torrens project, the Darlington project and now the Northern Connector project—together worth $2.5 billion have been secured, and this government will be getting on with the job of delivering them.

The state's share of funding for these projects is $769 million and the commonwealth's $1.75 billion. Together these three projects will support approximately 1,330 construction jobs during each year they are simultaneously under construction. The north-south corridor has been a priority for this government. Detailed planning works and project concepts and more detailed design have been underway since 2003. It is a corridor that stretches 78 kilometres from Gawler in the member for Light's electorate to Old Noarlunga in the member for Mawson's electorate.

Contrary to some views, the north-south corridor does not finish at Wingfield, nor does it start at Bedford Park. Unlike those opposite, we do not believe that the state ends at Grand Junction Road.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Taylor is called to order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Projects already delivered by the government on the north-south corridor include the Northern Expressway, the South Road superway, the Gallipoli underpass, the Glenelg tram overpass and the Southern Expressway duplication—over $1.96 billion worth of projects.

I am especially pleased to say that we have delivered all of these projects and we will be delivering the next three projects I mentioned earlier without the need to impose a toll on any section of the north-south corridor. Of course, there were many, including in this chamber, who were so desperately keen to impose additional taxes on the freight industry in the form of a toll in addition to those fees, levies and charges that are already imposed on operators. But not this government.

Instead, we will continue to progress work on an alternative heavy vehicle charging regime to replace, not be placed on top of, existing state-based charges to the industry. This government is already working with industry on developing network charging trials that, if successful, will show up road tolls as being last decade's solution to the road funding issues of the future.

Not only will we be delivering the Northern Connector and all of the freight and broader economic benefits that go with it, we will continue to support road investment in the regions to assist both freight operators and the broader community access to a productive and safe road network.

The SPEAKER: When a minister uses a ministerial statement to sledge the opposition, the opposition will have the benefit of clergy in interjecting.