Adelaide High School Footbridge

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Does the minister have a long-term strategy for Adelaide High School students to safely cross West Terrace, and has the minister considered a footbridge across either West Terrace or Glover Avenue? With your leave and that of the house, as a member of the governing council for Adelaide High School, I am aware of several incidents with students and traffic.

The SPEAKER: The member sought leave to explain the question, did she?

Ms SANDERSON: Yes I did.

The SPEAKER: Didn't quite say it.

Ms SANDERSON: I did.

Mr Gardner: Yes, she did in the usual form.

Ms SANDERSON: Yes I did.

Members interjecting:

Ms SANDERSON: I've finished; that's the question.

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:05): I thank the member for Adelaide for her question. She has long been interested, at least as far as I'm aware, in issues regarding pedestrian access to different parts of the city, particularly when it impacts on her electorate. She has certainly corresponded with me on occasion about a project on the diametrically opposite side of the city, in the east, which has just commenced major works construction, and that is the O-Bahn project, about pedestrian access, but I must say—

The Hon. J.M. Rankine: What about Barton Road?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Indeed, what about Barton Road? What a salient interjection that was, Mr Speaker. What about Barton Terrace West? I have to say as transport minister and minister responsible for these sorts of access arrangements, whether it is vehicular or whether it is to do with cycling or whether it's to do with pedestrian access, I haven't yet received a communication from the member for Adelaide, although I anticipate following this exchange one will be imminent.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Adelaide asks if there has been consideration of a footbridge from the western Parklands over towards—

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Adelaide asks whether we have considered a footbridge from one side of West Terrace to the other. I know that there has been a commitment by the state government, of course, to look at these sorts of access arrangements, but perhaps the reason why that particular issue has yet to be considered is because we have received no correspondence from Adelaide High School, certainly to me, asking for a footbridge.

Ms Chapman: What are you doing there?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Indeed, as the deputy leader says, 'What are they doing?'

Ms Chapman: What are you doing?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Well, perhaps we could ask the member of the governing council: what, indeed, are they doing if they are not asking for a footbridge across to the other side?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: For those of us who are a little more familiar with the western suburbs than some of those other people who choose to interject over this question—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —we would be very familiar with the access arrangements across West Terrace.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: The minister is now debating, sir.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to what the minister has to say.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I apologise; I was distracted by the deputy leader's interjection about needing to know what the access arrangements are across West Terrace. Of course, as I was saying, those of us who frequent the western suburbs reasonably regularly, certainly more regularly than perhaps the deputy leader, we would be very familiar with the vehicle arrangements and the access arrangements for all sorts of traffic across West Terrace—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: And some of us even catch public transport. But I realise that that's foreign to people on that side of the chamber. That's something they wouldn't be familiar with.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: The minister is debating.

The SPEAKER: The minister is responding to interjections from the member for Chaffey, which is out of order.