Appropriation Bill 2016

Estimates Committees

The Legislative Council gave leave to the Minister for Employment (Hon. K.J. Maher), the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation (Hon. I.K. Hunter) and the Minister for Police (Hon. P.B. Malinauskas) to attend and give evidence before the estimates committees of the House of Assembly on the Appropriation Bill, if they think fit.

Appropriation Grievances

Adjourned debate to note grievances (resumed on motion).

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:37): I have had an opportunity in the break to be advised that the former excellent and exceptional disability commissioner, Mr Graeme Innes, has been replaced by Mr Alastair McEwin and that the new AHRC head, who will be replacing Commissioner Gillian Triggs, is Mr Edward Santow. So, there have certainly been some changes in the Australian Human Rights Commission. I was saying before the break that we really do welcome the new people, but in particular I would like to commend the work that has been done by the Hon. Susan Ryan AO.

The issue that our committee has been particularly interested in over the past few years, and which has certainly been highlighted by the Willing to Work report, is the discrimination of people over 50 (at least 50 years of age). Anyone in here who is over that age will understand some of these concerns more directly, with regard to health and safety provisions, access to training and retraining in the workplace and superannuation entitlements. As I understand it, there are all sorts of different schemes with different entitlements for people, in some cases for over the age of 55 and under the age of 55, as well as, in other areas, the age of 60 years is the magic number when a lot of entitlements disappear for you as a worker.

As to workers compensation coverage and the different workers compensation coverage that is available around Australia, certainly, in South Australia your entitlement to compensation, both on wages and medical benefits, deteriorates the older you get and the estimate that is given for how long you are expected to be in the paid workforce. General insurance cover. It is really important for people to check, as they age, that their insurance cover is still there for different things.

I know that with some coverage things like travel insurance are really difficult to get if you are over 70, and to get medical support or insurance when you travel if you are over the age of 70 is something that you really need to look into because my understanding, and certainly my experience representing constituents, is that there is a lot of discrimination against people wanting to do things, particularly in the insurance area.

Obviously, the area of employment and promotion in the workplace can be a question, and the flexibility for work. While in earlier times people might have needed to take time off to attend to their carer’s responsibilities—and that might have been children—I am now finding that workers are saying that they have other relatives or friends they are taking responsibility for, as well as grandchildren and sometimes partners. Again, when we are talking about flexibility in the workplace, we probably need to think about some of the responsibilities that we have.

Then, of course, there is just basic age discrimination. In my former life as an industrial advocate, and now as a local member of parliament, there were a number of cases where people would just be discriminated against because they were of an older age. It had nothing to do with their ability or their experience: it was to do with their age. In relation to the link with working longer and health, there has been a lot of work done on how beneficial work is for us.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:41): I rise to make a further contribution in regard to the Appropriation Bill 2016. The member for Heysen gave a very eloquent appraisal of what the government is doing with the privatisation of the Lands Titles Office, and I want to add a few words. Conveyancers from my electorate have expressed to me what they believe is the high risk of this information of land title. It is like everything, as in the movie, a man’s, or a woman’s, I should say as well—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: A person’s—to be fully politically correct—home is their castle, and home and land ownership is something to be treasured. I believe, as do these people from the industry in my electorate who have come to me, that there is a lot of risk here; whereas, conveyancers were already concerned about the electronic conveyancing, which has been in for a while now. Not only will that happen, but who knows who will pick up the Lands Titles Office records department?

I have been told that what is likely to happen is that it will go offshore. What level of risk does that contain and what will happen and how do you undo that if the system falls apart? As was conveyed to me by one of my conveyancers, and by the member for Heysen in her contribution, Robert Torrens would be turning in his grave after the work he did, which is used here not only in this state but across other jurisdictions in regard to the Torrens Title.

The problem we have in the state is that it is bankrupt and that the state Labor government keeps selling assets, which they said they never would do—

Dr McFetridge: And we had the Treasurer going against privatisation.

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, and the only reason we are going to run into any surplus whatsoever is because of the almost $2 billion privatisation of the Motor Accident Commission. In regard to points around domestic violence—and this is a very serious issue—I note there is a very special week on the sporting fields in the River Murray Football League this weekend. Domestic violence is an issue that needs to be taken up every day of the week. I note that in 2016-17, there is a target to release a domestic violence discussion paper consulting on particular matters regarding reform and informing the community on current initiatives. Certainly, the 2015-16 highlights reflect the collaboration between the commonwealth and other state and territory governments to develop and implement the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.

I note that the Multi-Agency Protection Service is receiving $683,000 over four years, but they need much more funding. That funding is to be appreciated because this is a cross-agency operation that works exceptionally well, as I know from the brief time I have been there, the briefings I have had and working with senior police since then and talking to them about its operation. It takes out the silo effect of departments and gets people working across departments. I certainly think the government needs to ramp up the work it does there. When we visited with the Social Development Committee, basically all they were doing was paying the rent and living on love from internal budgets.

River Murray ferries are an ongoing issue. It is good that I have in my electorate a local company in Bowhill Engineering, a fantastic company. They were commissioned to build the first two replacement ferries, and they are building another two ferries, and recently the contract was announced in this place. The problem for me is that the government put my local governments (and the member for Chaffey's local governments, and those of others along the river) into discussions for a couple of years about how they were going to fund the ferry replacement. It had nothing to do with local government.

Ferries are a part of state roads. Thankfully, sense has won the day, and they have been funded. They are being manufactured at Bowhill, who do magnificent work and employ a lot of local people. From talking to the owners the other night at a business awards function, I know that they have come very close to having enough work for about two to three weeks. However, now, with the ferry funding, that leads way out towards 18 months to two years of work on the books. It is to be commended, but it would have been far better if we had not gone through the circus beforehand.

I note the regional loans program that other members have spoken about in here. It is a $4 million loans program which, sadly, after less than two years, after much fanfare in announcing this program, failed to issue one, single, solitary loan for regional South Australia, and that is a disgrace. It just should not happen like that. I am sure there are plenty of people in industries who could have used that money, but once again it did not happen.

During the last year, 4,967 people left South Australia. That is the net figure, not the gross figure. In Tasmania, it was only 79. We are compared with Tasmania a lot, but we are in a far worse state than Tasmania. The Economic Investment Fund has administered $15 million worth of grants, but the cost to administer these grants was $13.8 million. It is just ridiculous. If you lived in the real world, you would never go anywhere near running an operation like that—nowhere near it.

There are some local things happening in the budget. The Murray Bridge wastewater relocation is happening, but that will not be completed until December 2021. That is certainly something that needs to happen in our growing regional city. In terms of the Tailem Bend to Keith pipeline, the just-in-time River Murray pipeline, which my property is connected to, the Coomandook tank will get some additional storage. That is welcome because once water is pumped to the storage tanks, whether it is the Coomandook tank, Binnies Well tanks, or other tanks along that line, that is what helps take the surge out of the pumping so that people can have adequate water and do not get the pulsing down the lines that can put so much strain on pipelines right down to the stock and domestic lines on your property.

I discussed electricity in my previous contribution to the Appropriation Bill. We have the government trying to say every which way but coal. Some people are saying that we are against renewables. I am not against renewables: I have over 14 kilowatts of solar panels. The simple fact is that wind and solar are not base load. Ever since Alinta has been forced to shut down because of policy in this state, the base load has come out of Victoria, and guess where it comes from? It comes from coal. That is why the talk of the second interconnector is on—because it has to be connected to that base load power.

Yes, some of that will be connected to some hydro base load, and I guess you could call that base load out of Tasmania, although they have run into trouble until recent rains, as they were nearly out of water to run their hydro plants. They have had trouble with their interconnector as well. I can remember a summer when the temperature got to only 30° Centigrade and we could not import power from Tasmania. We have to be realistic. It is great to have these great ideas to transition to fully renewable, but we still need base load power and it still needs to be affordable.

In winding up, I want to make a quick comment on KESAB and controlling the size of beef schnitzels. I think—and no pun intended—that there are bigger fish to fry or bigger things to fry. They do great work, and I think we have the greatest deposit scheme in the world in relation to returnables, but we need to be realistic and look at the big issues. People need to be mindful of how they order their food because, if they do not want a big schnitzel, they can order a kid's serve or a smaller serving. How much regulation do we need? We are being regulated on our food sizes, but it seems that—

Time expired.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Treloar): Time has expired, member for Hammond. I always wanted to say that. Member for Morphett.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:51): Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker—and how nice it is to see you in the chair. Yesterday, in my second reading speech on the budget bill, I talked about selling the farm and the false economy that this Treasurer and this government are working under by paying their recurrent costs by selling assets. We heard the Treasurer go on about how the biggest sin that was committed in this state was privatising ETSA. I suggest that people go back and read the Auditor-General's Report in 2002 about the state of the state and what he thought of the privatisation of ETSA at the time: it was a very good thing.

Today, the Treasurer stood in this place and quoted from today's Australian Financial Review about the ACCC boss criticising privatisation. You have to read the whole article, but I will read the bits the Treasurer did not read. The ACCC chairman, Rod Sims, said:

Privatisation of public assets has been a pillar of Australian public policy since the [Labor] Keating government privatised Commonwealth Bank, CSL and Qantas in the early 1990s and the Kennett government repaired Victoria's shredded balance sheet in the 1990s by selling electricity and gas companies.

Selling gas and electricity to repair the shredded balance sheets, as the Liberal government did in 1993, or in the mid-1990s, selling ETSA to repair the balance sheets here. The ACCC chairman continues:

But the policy has often struggled to win the support of the public, and steep power price rises in recent years have set it back even further even though they have occurred just as much under public ownership.

Those steep power prices have occurred just as much under public ownership. The commission then goes on:

Mr Sims said he was less concerned about the NSW government's power poles and wires privatisations because the state has an independent pricing regulator.

I thought that we had an independent pricing regulator here in South Australia, so what is the Treasurer going on about? While he is reading the Financial Review, the Treasurer should also read the other front-page article, which continues on page 6, about how the market should pay for renewable backup, according to AGL. There are some very interesting comments there about the effect on electricity pricing of the way the market in South Australia has been skewed towards renewable energy.

The main thing I wanted to talk about in the few minutes available to me this afternoon is how we are having one of the wettest winters for many years, as though people in this place had not recognised. Certainly all the dams and creeks in the Adelaide Hills are full to overflowing now, and I am sure that there will be some flood events if we get these heavy late winter and spring rains.

I congratulate the CFS, SES and MFS and other emergency workers out there who have been doing a fantastic job in the storms in the last few weeks, particularly risking their lives to rescue people who have been stupid in crossing flooded creeks in cars and taking risks which they really should not be. Our SES and CFS volunteers and MFS firefighters are out there doing what they love to do and are happy to do.

However, this wet winter is going to lead onto a wonderful spring we hope which then, unfortunately for us in South Australia, will lead on to a high fuel load for the bushfire season coming up. Every year we talk about the dangers of bushfire in South Australia. The CFS go out there and warn people to prepare and act and to be ready. Have your bushfire plan in place and be ready to leave if you have to.

The need to heed that advice cannot be underestimated because if you have been in a bushfire—and I think I have said that we could crew two trucks in the CFS from the number of members on this side who have experienced fires—you know that a bushfire is a very dangerous place. In the disastrous Pinery fire, unfortunately two people lost their lives, and that is a very pertinent example of how dangerous bushfires can be and how rapidly they can move. There is very little that can be done to stop those sorts of fires, so being prepared is the best thing. Having a safe place to go to and leaving early is the best thing you can do, if you can. That is why the warning systems and other procedures we have in place are to be heeded, just as crossing creeks in floods should be avoided.

One of the people who has been looking at bushfires and their effects has been former CFS chief in South Australia, Euan Ferguson, who left South Australia to head up the CFA in Victoria. He has retired and is doing some consulting work now. He did a report into the Waroona fire in January this year in Western Australia, and again two people unfortunately lost their lives. There are a number of recommendations that Euan came out with in his final report, and the one that really caught my attention was the fuel management and fire prevention.

Members in this place will know that on numbers of occasions—I think it is three times now—I have introduced amendments to the Native Vegetation Act to try to get some common sense and some reasonable clearing of roadside vegetation to help people have clear paths to escape bushfires and reduce the spread of fires by having decent firebreaks. I think they call them fuse breaks along the roads and creeks. By clearing undergrowth and reducing the fuel, you can help limit the spread of fires in many cases.

Obviously, if there are extremely strong conditions like at Wangary and Pinery, that is unlikely, but they were exceptional conditions. That does not mean to say you do not try. You never choose not to prepare. One of the first recommendations that Euan Ferguson made in the Western Australian report was for the Department of Parks and Wildlife to plan for the highest priority hazard reduction burning effort around settlements in critical areas. Some of the areas had fuel that had been piling up for years, and the aim is to have no area with a fuel load that has accumulated for more than six years.

I think that our people in South Australia could have a good look at that and increase their fuel reduction burns. Interestingly, and I am not aware of whether this scheme exists in South Australia, but there is a bushfire mitigation grant scheme which apparently has federal money as well as state money available. If there is money available to help property owners recover their costs in reducing fuel, their upfront cost will probably produce many times the savings if there is a bushfire. Utilising commonwealth funds to help do that is a good thing. If we can get the commonwealth government to help pay some of the costs here, why not? We all pay our taxes.

Another recommendation is that the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, which is the equivalent of SAFECOM here, develop a simplified and fast track hazard reduction burn planning and approval process. This is what I was saying in my amendments. I wanted to have a simplified process, not the layer upon layer of bureaucratic forms, permissions and consents that you have to go through. I actually trust South Australians to do the right thing and I think they can do the right thing.

That has been recognised in Western Australia by former CFS chief officer Euan Ferguson doing this report in Western Australia. He recommended developing guidelines for landholders with respect to bushfire breaks around roadsides and irrigation drainage channels. Again, that is what I have been pushing for and that has been recommended by Mr Ferguson. Resource efficiency is another area covered by Mr Ferguson in his report.

Recommendation 10 recommends the adoption of an emergency services resource management system for tracking of emergency management personnel, vehicles, plant and aircraft. For years now—and I will ask it again in estimates on Monday, so it is almost a Dorothy Dixer—I have been asking about the automatic vehicle location system that was promised by Mike Rann and Michael Wright many years ago. I think it was in 2004 or it might have been 2008, but it seems so many years ago that it was promised, but it has not been delivered. Let's find out what is going on with the automatic vehicle location system in South Australia.

The other thing we need to do is make sure that we have evacuation places that are safe. The Kangarilla CFS and community centre are co-located. Their emergency generator, which runs the bores and the community centre, is absolutely stuffed. I cannot get either the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion or the City of Onkaparinga to fund that small cost to provide a safe place for that community. They really do need to think about their priorities. We need to prepare for the bushfire season. We need to have safe places to go and plans in place.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (16:02): I rise to make a few comments about the budget. Let me say at the outset that the biggest issues facing South Australia are cost of living, unemployment challenges and the ever-rising cost of electricity in South Australia. Unfortunately, electricity costs are not only rising but rising comparative to all other states in the nation at the same time as our unemployment is rising compared to all other states in the nation. These are fundamental issues that the government must address and has not addressed adequately in this budget, unfortunately.

I am going to spend the short amount of time that is available to me right now to address two key issues which are very important to my electorate, but they are also statewide and national issues of significance: one of them is the much-needed upgrade to Yorkeys Crossing and the other one is the sealing of the Strzelecki Track. As members of this house would know very well from listening to me talk about this many times, in Port Augusta as part of National Highway 1 we have a bridge across the top of the Upper Spencer Gulf that goes from the east side to the west side of Port Augusta, or vice versa, and it is only a single lane in each direction.

There is another bridge over a railway line further east of the gulf which is also a single lane in each direction. This is unacceptable with regard to delivering the service that is required of National Highway 1, but it is particularly unacceptable given that the only alternative path around the gulf and the regional city of Port Augusta is what is called Yorkeys Crossing.

Yorkeys Crossing is a dirt road approximately 21 kilometres long. It is a relatively poor dirt road and when we get approximately six millimetres of rain it is impassable. Not only is the main highway unacceptable for today's modern standards—certainly when it was built it was super duper; it would have been wonderful then, but for today's modern standards and the freight load that is expected on it, as well as the local traffic load, it is not up to scratch, but the backup is completely unacceptable as well.

I said at the outset that this is a local, intrastate and national issue. We quite regularly have congestion associated with the bridge within Port Augusta, but this is also a freight route which carries freight from Sydney to Perth and from Adelaide to Darwin. It is an incredibly important road by state and national standards as well.

The problem is exacerbated and potentially becomes completely untenable when there is an accident on the bridge or a breakdown on the bridge or some other issue which closes the bridge or even just closes one lane of the bridge. Believe it or not, it happens quite regularly. We have been very fortunate that it has only happened for relatively short times—sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for half an hour, or sometimes for a couple of hours it has happened. When that happens, very quickly traffic is backed up on the east and west side of the bridge for a very long way, and in some cases kilometres.

If the bridge were ever out of action for, say, 24 hours or 48 hours, our whole national freight efficiency would be very seriously detrimentally impacted. So, it is incredibly important that this house and the government understands how important it is to have this upgraded. The upgrade is twofold: one is upgrading the bridge and the road that goes through town so that there are two lands of traffic in each direction all the way through. I accept that that is a hundreds of millions of dollars solution and that it will come later. It cannot come now.

So, what we need to do now is address what can be done immediately, and that is to upgrade Yorkeys Crossing so that it is a passable, serviceable, useable, all-weather road so that when the bridge is closed for some reason or another we have a reasonable back-up so that heavy freight and wide loads can use it, so that local traffic if necessary, if the bridge is out for a while, can use it, and so that, very importantly, if there is an emergency of some sort on the west side, given that we have all our emergency services on the east side of Port Augusta—like the hospital, the ambulance, police and fire—they have an all-weather serviceable road so that they can get to the west side as quickly as possible and help people. We do not have that at the moment.

Another very important aspect of this important upgrade is that it would contribute to the driving of triple road trains from the northern pastoral area all the way around the outside of Port Augusta direct to the Dublin Saleyards, which is another example of very important freight efficiency which would be provided immediately if Yorkeys Crossing were upgraded. The government says that the cost-benefit analysis just does not come up. I disagree with that because they are not including all the potential costs and all the potential benefits. They are only looking at what happens just at the moment, and I think that is very narrow-minded.

I would like to quickly turn to the other issue which I think is very unfortunate to have been left out of the budget, that is, the sealing of the Strzelecki Track, which runs between Lyndhurst in the Northern Flinders Ranges, 475 kilometres north to Moomba, Innamincka, the Cooper Basin and then a further 30 kilometres to the Queensland border. This road services the pastoral industry, the tourism industry and the oil and gas industry of the Cooper Basin. All three of these industries make very significant contributions to our state's economy and all of them are identified as being among the state government's own highest priorities for further development.

There is bitumen all the way from Brisbane to the South Australia-Queensland border. The Strzelecki Track is renowned as the worst major dirt road in our state, and what this means is that, unfortunately, our state is missing out on business. The Cooper Basin, which overlaps the SA, Queensland and Northern Territory borders, has traditionally been serviced from South Australia, but over the last decade a large chunk of that business has shifted from South Australia to Queensland, simply because of the condition of the road.

To put this in context, it often takes more than 12 hours for a truck to travel from Lyndhurst to Moomba, and that is only 400 kilometres. On top of the cost of the time to the transport company are the increased maintenance and damage costs. Increased transport costs flow through directly to customers and reduce their efficiency and viability, but one of the biggest issues for me as a South Australian is that the Queensland service providers can travel on bitumen, and so our state loses the business due to inefficiency and higher costs.

Not only does the opportunity to upgrade the Strzelecki Track offer significantly enhanced productivity to these industries but it also offers return of business from Queensland to South Australia, which enhances our economy. But this is not just about taking business away from Queensland, as we all will benefit from having the shared and extremely important Cooper Basin cattle and tourism industries operating as efficiently and productively as possible. There are thousands of South Australian-based tourists who would like to but just do not venture into south-west Queensland because they cannot or will not travel on the Strzelecki Track.

The Queensland cattle industry would benefit enormously from vastly improved access to the South Australian market for their cattle. Right now, the Strzelecki Track essentially locks Queensland cattle producers out of the South Australian market so that they have no choice when prices in Queensland are lower than in South Australia. They cannot find it efficient to come to South Australia where they would get higher prices for their cattle. We will all benefit from these industries operating as efficiently as possible.

Importantly, the South Australian and federal governments are considering a proposal which has been put to Infrastructure Australia. This is a project with a value of $450 million. I know that is a very large sum of money, but this also has been determined by Infrastructure Australia as having a 4.9:1 benefit to cost ratio, which is extremely high by any standards. Clearly, this would be a very good investment. The problem at the moment is that the state government has not put any money on the table for this project. The state government has talked about it, is aware of it, and even acknowledges how important, useful and helpful it would be for our state, but it has not put any money on the table.

The state government has talked about an 80:20 cost split between the federal and state governments respectively but has not offered its 20 per cent. It has not even offered its 20 per cent over a succession of years, which would be a very positive step forward. While it would not be my first choice, in my mind it would be quite acceptable if 100 kilometres was done each year over five years. That would be a practical way to go.

I point out that by my calculations, adding up all of the north-south metropolitan Adelaide roadwork upgrades that have been completed or are currently being done from Darlington all the way through to Wingfield, the state government has actually contributed 40 per cent of the money and received 60 per cent of the total cost from the federal government. It is possible, when the government feels it is important enough, to do 40:60 and I urge the government to put on the table at least 20 per cent of the money that would be required to upgrade the Strzelecki Track.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (16:12): In the state budget, $3.5 million has been allocated this financial year to commence the long-awaited Gawler East Link Road Project. The $3.5 million is part of the $55 million the state government has allocated to this important infrastructure project for the area. I fully support this project and commend the minister and state government for allocating $55 million to it in a very tight fiscal environment. The Gawler East Developers and the Town of Gawler will also make a contribution to the cost of the overall project.

The project will create important jobs in civil construction and assist with growth of the Gawler East development, Springwood, which will result in jobs in construction and jobs which result from the creation of new households. In addition to generating important economic activity, the project will make an important contribution to addressing some of the traffic management issues in the Town of Gawler. The project has a number of elements, including:

the road from the Springwood Estate to Potts Road;

the upgrading of Potts Road from the intersection of the new link road to Main North Road;

the upgrading of the Potts Road-Main North Road-Para Road intersection with traffic lights;

the upgrade of Main North Road from Potts Road to Trinity Drive; and

the associated improvements to the Main North Road-Tulloch Road intersection.

The alignment of the Springwood Road-Potts Road section of the link road is currently under consideration by the Town of Gawler. The Town of Gawler rejected the state government alignment so as to ensure the success of the project, and the state government has reluctantly agreed to adopt the Town of Gawler's alignment recommendation. I understand that the Town of Gawler will adopt its position in relation to the alignment during August.

It is important that the Potts Road upgrade delivers a better outcome for residents living along it. Ensuring that appropriate traffic measures are put in place at the intersection of Potts Road and Coleman Parade is key to the success of the upgrade. The proposed traffic lights and associated pedestrian crossings at the Potts Road-Main North Road intersection will improve road and pedestrian safety, and in particular, safety for students who attend the two schools nearby—namely, St Brigid's Primary and Gawler and District College. The upgrade of Main North Road will help with traffic flows along this stretch of the roadway. While an associated project, a key part of the project is the upgrade of the Main North Road-Tulloch Road intersection.

I have previously written to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure on this matter and made my views very clear. Given the importance of this aspect of the project, those views are worth mentioning here. Given the retail development on Tulloch Road, it is critical that this intersection is upgraded sooner rather than later, and I would urge the Town of Gawler and the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

The intersection, in its current form, is not satisfactory. It will certainly be inadequate once the Audi store opens. What is most frustrating is the failure of the Town of Gawler and DPTI to work closely enough to develop an agreed strategy to address the traffic management issues at this busy intersection. It is acknowledged that weaknesses in the current Development Act have in part created the problem, but I am not convinced that the Town of Gawler and DPTI could not have addressed the issue sooner.

It has been particularly disappointing that the Town of Gawler has taken on a very passive role in this issue, preferring to blame the state government for the rezoning of the area and, secondly, stating that it is powerless to act. On both of those issues, I would strongly disagree with the council. The council appear to have washed their hands of the issue, stating the state government created the problem while, all along, they have been quite happy to collect the rates the new developments have generated. I am reliably advised that these additional rates are quite substantial.

When Gawler Park and Gawler Green were proposed, a range of traffic management measures were adopted in the development plan. The traffic problems in this locality can be addressed and resolved by the state government and the Town of Gawler implementing the provisions of that plan. My simple message to both the Town of Gawler and the state government, through DPTI, is to stop procrastinating and just do it. Just implement the provisions of the development plan.

It should be a shared responsibility, both financially and in terms of its implementation. It is time for the council and state government to put their differences aside and implement measures to improve safety in the locality. The development plan, when combined with some additional minor traffic measures, would improve safety at the Tulloch-Main North roads intersection.

Adopting the safety measures for Barnet and Para roads would improve safety for children and young adults attending Gawler District College and the children's centre. I have held discussions with members of the governing councils of both schools, and they support the implementation of the provisions of the council development plan for this locality, as far as they pertain to traffic management measures.

Traffic management issues in this locality are raised continually with me by local residents. If it is not the number one traffic issue, it is pretty close to it. Accordingly, I call on the state government and the Town of Gawler to pool their expertise and resources and undertake the required works demanded by the community which I represent. For the record, it is my view and the view of most residents that no traffic measure short of a roundabout at Tulloch and Main North roads will be acceptable.

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (16:17): I wish to take the opportunity today to talk about an intersection in my electorate and the opportunities for improving that intersection that my community would like to see implemented. The intersection in question is the corner of Reid Avenue and St Bernards Road, which is pretty much right out the front of the Morialta electorate office so, not wanting to just take my own personal interests into account here, I also have previously brought to the parliament a petition signed by hundreds of local residents and, more recently, conducted a survey of the surrounding suburb of Rostrevor.

I know the member for Hartley took a similar survey of the surrounding suburb of Hectorville on the other side of St Bernards Road. Upon receiving the results of this survey, we presented some material to the government, and it is that material and the government's response that I will use my time today to discuss in urging the government to act on the wishes of my community and undertake some necessary works. When I was first elected to the parliament in March 2010, the former member for Morialta, Lindsay Simmons, had, in response to community desires for traffic lights at the corner of Graves Street and Newton Road in Newton, elicited from her party an election promise to undertake a draft road management plan of the area.

While this draft road management plan was not in itself a bad thing, I said at the time, and have since been proven to be correct over the last six years, that it was a fig leaf to cover the Labor Party's embarrassment that they were refusing to service the people of Morialta and Hartley by delivering those traffic lights that were so sorely and are still so sorely desired at the corner of Graves Street and Newton Road. Further, the road management plan would only be worth the paper it was written on and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of DPTI staff time and consultation time that was undertaken in order to prepare it if it actually did result to improvements along the road.

DPTI did spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of staff time and management time and community consultation. They had many responses and many engineers' considerations of what to do along the whole stretch of St Bernard's Road, Darley Road, Newton Road, Penfold Road, along the way, as was promised. They produced a very thick document with dozens and dozens of recommendations that would have benefitted the community of Morialta and Hartley.

Campbelltown council responded, I responded, Vincent Tarzia, as he was then, before he was elected as the member for Hartley, put in his two bits in encouraging a response to that, and we ended up with a document that, while not perfect, had many opportunities to improve. One of the significant recommendations it had was for improvement at Reid Avenue and St Bernard's Road.

Consequently, nothing has happened. None of the recommendations has been put in place. None of the improved treatments at any of the intersections that were envisaged by the transport department have been put in place. None of what they describe as candidates for funding have ever been funded. Consequently, the Labor government's hollow promise (as it was) in 2010 to undertake a road management plan has been proven to be just that, hollow.

At any rate, it did come up with some suggestions for improvements to Reid Avenue and St Bernard's Road and also integrated into the intersection of Karrawirra Road and St Bernard's Road, which is right outside my office, as it happens. Undertaking that survey, it was a genuine survey, it was letterboxed by volunteers to all of the people in Rostrevor and Hectorville that would be impacted, potentially, by any change. They are seeking what they would like because there are a number of issues.

Firstly, there are traffic problems at those corners of St Bernard's Road and Karrawirra Avenue and St Bernard's Road and Reid Avenue. Secondly, there is a significant supermarket, Romeo's Rostrevor Foodland, that is a point of great desirable access for people living in Hectorville, but it is very dangerous to cross St Bernard's Road to get there. There is a tiny pedestrian refuge at the moment that, currently, we see people trying to access and not finding it very easy. Only two weeks ago my office staff witnessed an elderly resident being hit by a truck that nearly killed them. Fortunately, it slowed down so that they were only seriously injured. I say that very seriously because they were very nearly killed. It is a dangerous intersection, compounded by the traffic problems.

We received over 100 responses: 72 per cent support a sheltered right-turn lane being introduced into Reid Avenue, 5 per cent oppose that and 23 per cent are unsure. On the question of right turn lanes being put into both Reid Avenue and Karrawirra Avenue, 67 per cent supported, 3 per cent opposed and 29 per cent were unsure. For pedestrian access, 80 per cent supported the introduction of pedestrian-activated traffic lights, 14 per cent supported a wider pedestrian refuge and 3 per cent supported no change.

In December of last year I provided that information to the Minister for Transport, having previously spoken to him about the matter when he was kind enough to visit the Morialta electorate earlier in the year. The minister responded more recently, identifying that he had both forwarded my letter to the Minister for Road Safety, the Hon. Peter Malinauskas, and also identifying, and I quote from his letter:

The recommended option in the draft [road management plan] for St Bernards Road involves adding sheltered right turn lanes into Reid Avenue and Karrawirra Avenue. The proposed right turn lanes would also retain the pedestrian refuge, which would be upgraded and situated between the two side roads.

[The department] appreciates the local feedback your office has provided and will continue to seek funding opportunities for this work in the future.

Mr Malinauskas, the Minister for Road Safety, responded separately with a similar letter, and I will quote part of that as well. He said similar things about the described suggestion, the road management plan. He said:

This project was to be nominated as a potential Blackspot Project for the 2016/2017 financial year. Unfortunately, given the estimated high cost of the treatment ($1.6m) compared with the benefit to the community, funding for this work was not seen to be as high in priority when compared to many other projects across the arterial road network. As a consequence, the project did not receive funding. Notwithstanding, [the department] will continue to seek other funding opportunities for this work.

He then goes on to describe why the department would prefer to undertake the treatment that deals with introducing right turn lanes only and not traffic lights. I make the point that if those right turn lanes were introduced with a wider pedestrian refuge that would still be a significant improvement on what we have now. This $1.6 million figure in the minister’s letter stunned me because we are actually talking about an area that has very wide footpaths with a shopping centre that would be delighted to assist the government in having a crossing introduced because their residents are the ones whose lives who are going to be safer.

In relation to the minister’s comments about it being a potential Black Spot project but obviously not a high enough priority again, given the recent casualty crash that my staff witnessed a couple of weeks ago, I imagine that that might impact on the Black Spot project’s priority order, and I hope that the government will take that into account, as this is a very dangerous area. This $1.6 million stunned me, so I wrote to the minister again, saying:

In order to assist in helping me, and my constituents, to understand the reasons for the proposed treatments of these intersections not receiving support, I would be much obliged if you might provide a breakdown of the costings for the project that identifies how the suggested figure of $1.6 million is reached.

I am very grateful to the Hon. Peter Malinauskas, who responded. For the benefit of the house, I will read what the government can spend $1.6 million on because I am fairly certain that if they had a go at, if they have a look at it, they could get that $1.6 million down drastically. They estimate:

$193,000 Project/contract management, survey and design, consultation and environmental assessment.

They say that is:

…a potentially conservative estimate that attempts to allow for variations in the project delivery model, which was yet to be determined.

I should say it is a conservative estimate—$193,000 for project management by a department undertaking a project they have already done the planning for. They further estimate:

$357,000 Relocation of four communications pits and an allowance for the protection of an existing water main in the vicinity of the proposed works.

That sounds high to me, but I will allow others to cast their expert eye over it. Further:

$624,000 Construction costs based on an assumed scope of work.

This is introduce two right-hand turn lanes and widen the footpath in a short narrow area—$624,000. The letter continues:

…demolition and reconstruction of the existing footpath, new pavement beneath existing median islands, pavement rehabilitation to both sides of St Bernards Road for the extension of works, road lighting upgrades and traffic management during construction.

Finally, somewhere between $182,000 and $454,000 they say is the risk component 'to manage unforeseen works and potential impact to services'. For me the $1.6 million figure does not ring true. I urge the government to look at this again and undertake the works that my community desperately wants.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright) (16:27): I have to say that once again we have been subject to a very lacklustre performance by the opposition and, in particular, the Leader of the Opposition in responding to the budget. Really, they do wonder why they cannot win an election. They truly do wonder, they cannot fathom it; it is always someone else’s fault.

The member for Waite hit the nail on the head: so lacklustre is the opposition, so devoid of enthusiasm or, importantly, ideas, no-one bothers to turn up to hear what the opposition or their leader has to say. I have no doubt they will go into estimates, hours of questioning, and make no ground and still wonder why. In question time, they have had 20, 30, 40 questions on the trot and get nowhere and they wonder why. The chamber reverts back to a system of alternate questions and they are happy with that. Don’t you really have to wonder why?

If there was a measure of contrast of political priorities between the parties, education must be it. I am absolutely delighted with the investment this state government is again putting into education and education infrastructure here in South Australia—a total of $500 million, $250 million in infrastructure funding for public schools, and a $250 million loan facility for private schools throughout South Australia. In my electorate, we have been very fortunate; $9 million is going into schools in Salisbury East and the Golden Grove area for new and upgraded STEM facilities. This investment is fantastic for the children in our area. Four primary schools—Keller Road, Madison Park, Gulfview Heights, and Wynn Vale—will receive $1 million each, as well as Golden Grove and Salisbury East High School getting $2½ million each. It is a real boost for these schools and a real boost for the children, as I have said.

Salisbury East High School must be close to 50 years of age. When we came to government, it had not had any money spent on upgrades in its entire history. It was old and it was tired. In fact, when we came to government, public schools were so run down in this state that the first budgetary program for schools, the first priority of our government, was to fix the toilets in the schools. Kids did not have working, safe, sanitary toilets under the Liberal government.

Public schools were neglected massively by the former Liberal government. This was further compounded, obviously, and an indication of the priority they have for their public schools, when the federal Liberals turned their back on the Gonski funding, turned their backs on the state's public and private schools—and not a dicky bird of complaint from those opposite. More recently, we have heard from the member for Adelaide, who thinks this $250 million investment in our schools is a waste of money.

I also remember Trish White, when she was the minister for education, coming out to Salisbury East High School and announcing a new home ec and tech study centre. The entire assembly erupted, and teachers cried. Kids were so excited. It was their news of the day when they were picked up by their mums and dads. Of course, since then, under the great principle, Jacqui Van Ruiten, further investment and enhancements have been made at Salisbury East High School. It was $7 million, I think, and a performing arts centre as well as classroom upgrades and ground upgrades.

I have to say that I was extremely disappointed that she was poached from Salisbury East High School and appointed to Norwood Morialta. I understand that placement had a higher classification, so I understand Ms Van Ruiten accepting the position, but maybe the minister could consider a grading system for principals that considers not just the size of the school or the number of campuses but the complexity and challenge of disadvantage in principals' pay scales.

The private schools in the Wright electorate will also obviously benefit from the loan facility. When I was minister for education, it was their second priority after receiving money to help them assist children with a disability. The fact that they needed access to funds for capital works had been a concern for them for some time, so I know that they are going to be pleased with this loan facility available at government interest rates.

Jobs out in my electorate is also obviously a big issue. The Northern Connector, and an investment of more than $900 million of both state and federal funds, will be a great boost to our local economy. There is a $12.1 billion total infrastructure spend on transport, health and education in this budget. I was particularly pleased, in connection with the Northern Connector, with the establishment of the NorthHub, so those seeking to work on the Northern Connector, those needing a job, can register their interest.

The major tenderer, Lendlease, committed that at least half of the jobs will go to people in the local area. NorthHub will advertise vacancies, seek expressions of interest for upcoming positions, provide information on training opportunities from engineers to apprentices, from supervisors to admin staff. NorthHub provides a direct link into jobs, and it is a great initiative. NorthHub's website is now open, and we will be contacting people in my electorate, in areas that have relatively high levels of unemployment and areas where we know many of the Holden workers come from, and giving them details of how they can contact NorthHub.

Health is another area in which there is a clear divide between the major political parties. We know the federal government cut $655 million from South Australian hospitals over four years and refused to honour the signed National Health Reform Agreement with the states in 2014. Here in South Australia, this state budget includes a commitment of $526.8 million over four years to help ease the shortfall in federal health funding. Despite this extra state investment, there is still a significant hole in our health budget courtesy of the federal Liberals.

All Australians should be able to access health care when and where they need it. That is why Labor believes access to health care should rely on your Medicare card, not on your credit card. Labor gave Australians Medicare: the Liberals have been consistent in wanting to get rid of it. Our record and commitment to public health continues with a $5.8 billion investment in the health system, up to $230 million from the last financial year. That will ensure continued access to the best possible health services. Let me outline also some of the investment that we have made locally out in the north-east.

Since 2002, the state Labor government has invested $30 million in Modbury Hospital to improve the services and hospital infrastructure. Under Transforming Health, Modbury will receive further improvements, including an expanded one-stop breast service, gastroenterology outpatient services and elective endoscopies. The South Australian government is also committed to the construction of a new $32 million purpose-built rehabilitation centre at Modbury Hospital that will bring together allied health specialists, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy, as well as medical and nursing staff. The minister has announced that the Lyell McEwin Hospital will receive a second cardiovascular intervention suite in the 2016-17 state budget.

Since 2002, the state government has invested $313 million in the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Facilities include new radiotherapy, CT scanner, a mental health building, an inpatient building, a women's health and paediatric inpatient building, an extended emergency care unit and an administrative teaching and research space. Works have also been undertaken to upgrade and improve the engineering infrastructure, and a new multideck car park was constructed in 2010. A second cardiovascular intervention suite will be opened at the Lyell McEwin Hospital later this year.

The state government is investing in education, investing in our children and investing in health, particularly in the northern suburbs, where many families are feeling the hurt and strain of the Holden closure courtesy of the federal Liberal government.

Mr DULUK (Davenport) (16:38): Since the Treasurer delivered his budget on 7 July, my office has been contacted by quite a few constituents. I can tell you that not one has phoned, emailed or visited my office to sing the praises of the Treasurer's budget. No-one has said that it is an excellent budget, no-one has even said it is a good budget. What they have told me is that they are very disappointed. They are frustrated and they are very angry. They are frustrated by the government's unwavering commitment to Transforming Health, despite growing protests from medical professionals, staff and patients, as well as budget blowouts and despicable waste, including $3 million of taxpayers' money the government spent spruiking its changes to the health system.

They are angry that the government has ignored the most pressing issue for every household and every business operating in South Australia, and that is the extraordinary increases to cost of living. Every household and every business is hurting. They are hurting because of increases to electricity bills, because of increases to ESL and because of increases to council rates. What does the budget do to help relieve these rising costs? What does it do for young families, for couples, for single income homes, for pensioners and for business owners? This government has increased the tax burden for all of them. That is right: it has increased the tax burden on all these people.

The government has increased the solid waste levy. The levy will cost South Australians an extra $64 million per annum by the end of the forward estimates, with the price increasing from $62 to $103 per tonne by 2019-20. The Onkaparinga council, which my electorate overlaps, has already incorporated this price rise in its rates with an eleventh hour increase following the budget announcement. With the addition of the waste levy to the annual rate increase, Onkaparinga residents are now paying 3 per cent more each year or an average of $44. That is, $44 that households no longer have to help with school fees, to pay for a doctor's visit or put towards groceries.

Taxis, chauffeurs and ride-sharing trips will also attract a new levy for every metropolitan trip from next year. Public transport has again gone up with a single trip now at about $5.30. Indeed, fees and charges for all major government services have increased—registering a motor vehicle, CTP premiums, driver's licence renewals and speeding fines. Although there has been some minor relief to water bills this year, let's not forget that in 2008-09 the average residential water bill was $340.60. In 2015-16, it was $783.44.

Successive Labor governments have made a conscious decision to inflict an increasing financial burden on South Australians year on year. They have done so to help prop up a budget and to compensate for the government's disgraceful mismanagement of taxpayer money. As a result, South Australia is now the highest taxing jurisdiction in Australia, as reported by the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

Once again, the government has not only failed to deliver any cost of living relief for South Australian households and businesses, but it has actually increased cost-of-living pressures with new taxes, increases to existing taxes, and additional fees and charges. My constituents are walking around the local community with much lighter pockets as a result of this Labor government and, as they move about their community, travelling to and from work, visiting the shops and enjoying their weekend activities, they are wondering, where are all their dollars going? How is their local community benefiting from all these taxes, fees and charges?

Whilst they welcomed the government's announcement that $2.5 million in STEM funding will be invested in Blackwood High School, they are left disappointed that once again the government has neglected the infrastructure and transportation needs of Davenport. The state budget has failed to allocate any funding to help develop a new multi-use sports hub at Hewett Sports Ground in Blackwood.

Efforts by the City of Mitcham and local clubs to secure state government assistance have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. The council has committed over $400,000 to the project and was seeking an equal contribution from the state government. The upgrade is desperately needed to improve the facilities which are in terribly poor condition. On a recent visit to the club rooms, I noticed that the rooms were opened by Robin Millhouse, who was the member for Mitcham many years ago.

The clubrooms represent the essence of grassroots sport, operating as a home facility for the Woods Panthers Netball Club, Blackwood Tennis Club, Coromandel Cricket Club, Blackwood Football Club and Sturt Lions Soccer Club. They are also used by many other clubs, schools and organisations, but the local clubs, volunteers, coaches, athletes and local residents who rely on these facilities to practise and compete in their sports have again been ignored by the state government.

The government could not find $400,000 to make a real difference to the community. Thankfully, the federal Coalition government wants to make a difference and has stepped up to fill the void left by the state Labor government. I would like to commend Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, sports minister Sussan Ley, and new member for Boothby Nicolle Flint for making this commitment possible.

I am becoming quite repetitive but I will tell the house again that the road capacity in the Mitcham Hills will not stand an evacuation when there is a fire. Traffic along Main Road, Old Belair Road, Belair Road and Fullarton Road in and out of the Mitcham Hills continues to increase and yet again the government ignores the desperate need to upgrade roads, especially the central corridor through the Mitcham Hills.

On Monday this week, there was an unfortunate accident along Old Belair Road at the James Road intersection. This accident happened during peak hour and resulted in traffic banking up all the way to the Glenalta crossing. It was a frightening insight into how quickly and easily congestion immobilises commuters and residents in the Mitcham Hills. It is a situation that is at the forefront of the minds of my constituents each summer as they contemplate their capacity to evacuate in the event of a bad fire.

In 2009, the Natural Resources Committee, chaired by the current Deputy Premier, released its interim bushfire inquiry report. Recommendation 1 stated:

The committee recommends the provision of substantial funds to improve road infrastructure in the Mitcham Hills to be spent over the 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 budgets.

Not for the first time I ask: how much has been allocated to meeting the recommendations of the Natural Resources Committee? The answer is: very, very little. As then Sturt CFS group officer Mike Pearce noted in his evidence to the committee:

…if there was to be a major bushfire in the Mitcham Hills area on any weekend…we could have more than 8,500 vehicles fleeing from an approaching front. Of the six exits from the district, you could only reasonably expect less than half to be suitable for this purpose due to bushfire impacts. The situation will cause severe traffic congestion throughout the district and leave road users in some areas at extreme risk.

The need to invest in infrastructure and upgrade local roads has only increased since these comments were made due to the population growth throughout the Mitcham Hills and surrounding districts. This state budget once again ignores the safety of local residents. The government still has not responded to the report's recommendations and it has failed to allocate any funding to improve road infrastructure in the area.

The government has not even met its obligation to improve public transport in the area and in this year's budget it has only allocated $10 million to the much-needed Tonsley train line extension, when the state government is due to make a contribution of $40 million to the project. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has committed to partnering with the state government to cover half of the $85 million project, but the best the Treasurer can do in this budget is to commit $10 million to the project, which we understand is to be completed by 2018.

Ten million dollars is not going to get the job done and again Davenport residents miss out. Of course, the Tonsley project is a fantastic project: it is a rail extension between the Tonsley innovation precinct and the university and includes a new train station adjacent to the Flinders Medical Centre. The benefits of extending this line 620 metres are numerous, including: cutting travel times from the city to the campus to just over 20 minutes; easing parking woes for users of the hospital as well as staff, patients and visitors; improving access to the university; and enhancing the attractiveness and liveability of southern Adelaide. However, the benefits for commuters, patients, staff and students do not appear to be a priority for this government.

Finally, I would like to touch on the topic of epilepsy. I know we had many people from Epilepsy SA in the house recently, but there is no funding for epilepsy or the Epilepsy Centre in this state budget. The Epilepsy Centre is South Australia's community support base for more than 61,000 South Australians living with epilepsy. They operate without government financial assistance and, after repeated requests, they have still not received any assistance.

I commend the Epilepsy Centre for their work and for what they do with limited resources. I encourage all members to support the epilepsy lottery because, quite simply, they do not have enough money and with this government that is unlikely to change.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Flinders.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (16:48): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. We must be winding down the list, I think.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Again, you could still be the best on ground.

Mr TRELOAR: Again, let's wait and see. I rise to make a contribution to the grievance debate relating to the Appropriation Bill 2016. As the member for Colton noted yesterday, this budget sees unprecedented expenditure on infrastructure. I can only say that that is only too true but, unfortunately for this government and for this state, it is all borrowed money. It is borrowed money and the interest bill on those borrowings is running at about $1.7 million a day, as has been pointed out many times.

That interest bill creates an extraordinary impost on the people of South Australia, particularly given the fact that we as a state have no real capacity to repay this debt. As a former banker, the member for Davenport would understand the importance of being able to make your principal repayments at least in a timely manner so that you can stay on top of your borrowings, which is something this government has not been able to do through any of the six years and the six budgets that I have seen in my time in this place. Invariably, budget blowouts occur, borrowings go up, expenditure goes up and interest payments go up. Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, it is simply more of the same.

All this is in a state that has now just 7 per cent of Australia's population. We are a very small state and a very small economy in the scheme of things. As a percentage of Australia's total population, we are declining. We are in decline. The Premier I think described it at one stage as 'genteel' decline. That is a rather quaint term. The Treasurer yesterday talked about 'declining inertia', which I guess is new terminology for the situation we find ourselves in.

In relation to my electorate, I would like to take a few moments to talk about something I have talked about on many occasions before in this place, that is, the water supply and water resource on Eyre Peninsula. We will have the opportunity, I am sure, as part of committee business in this place to talk about the recently released Water Allocation Plan for the Southern Basins and Musgrave Prescribed Wells Areas. This water allocation plan has been a long time coming. The previous one was brought in in 2001 and still being worked under, so it has taken 15 years actually to get to this place.

I know full well how much work has gone into this. There are 130-odd pages. The amount of work, the amount of scientific evidence that has been collected, the amount of community consultation that has gone into this has been quite extraordinary. Ideally, we would have had this document a little bit earlier, but the fact is that it has been a difficult document to produce, particularly in regard to the underground resource, which in essence provides up to 85 per cent of the reticulated water supply requirement of Eyre Peninsula, with the other 15 per cent of course coming from the River Murray.

I will not say it is a perfect document, and certainly it is not one that will please everybody. It is not all things to all people, let's put it that way, but it is a big improvement on what we have had and at least it draws a line in the sand. From there, we can move forward with the management of this water resource. However, in all of this, and as I have said before, we will not actually take the pressure off the southern basins, and by 'pressure' I mean the pressure that is in place due to extraction.

The suggestion has always been that extraction rates have been in excess of a sustainable amount and that that has put pressure on the basins. We have seen the basins reduced. There have been years of declining rainfall, I am sure, but certainly the last six years (and I know full well because I am a farmer) have been years of good rainfall, so the recharge, I would suggest, has been reasonable. We have seen a slight increase in the water levels in, both the Polda Basin and the Southern Basin, so that is a sign that it is going in the right direction.

Also in all of this is a discussion around the future of the Tod Reservoir. Two budgets ago—it may even be three budgets ago—the state government announced that there would be money going into dam bank upgrades right around the state, and the Tod Reservoir was included in that. I was actually quite excited at the time because it was a significant amount of money and I thought, 'Hello, the state government has decided to resurrect the Tod Reservoir.' I thought that was a good thing because, if nothing else, it provided a backup supply to the water supply on Eyre Peninsula and provided some security, if for some reason the southern basins got to a point where they could no longer provide water. It was not to be.

We have discovered over recent months that in fact the state government, through SA Water, was certainly planning to spend some money on the wall of the dam (the dam bank), but what will happen as a result of this is that the capacity of the dam will be reduced to 8 to 10 per cent of its full level. Essentially, that will leave just a puddle. There are a lot of questions around this; in fact, I attended a public meeting in Tumby Bay two weeks ago that was attended by about 80 community members, and they raised some really significant issues.

I think it is important to remember that, more than any other dam, the Tod Reservoir has iconic status. It really is part of the psyche of the Eyre Peninsula people. As children, we all went on school trips and there was always an annual school trip to the Tod Reservoir. It was such an important part of the settlement of Eyre Peninsula, and up until 2001 or 2002, it was a very important part of Eyre Peninsula's water supply for 80 years. It has been taken offline primarily due to salinity issues, but all in all I have to say my observation is that it has been badly managed in the last two decades.

In the past, there was always recognition that the catchment was slightly saline, and the incoming waters were always carefully managed to keep the salinity at a level appropriate for a potable water supply. My understanding is that in around 2000, a significant amount of water was let into the reservoir early in the season, before the creek lines had been flushed. As a result, a significant body of saline water was deposited into the reservoir and has essentially become a slug of saltwater sitting at the bottom of the reservoir. Through negotiation with the NRM board, that has been slowly released over time down the Tod Reservoir.

I drive past the Tod Reservoir on my way to the Port Lincoln Airport from my home at Edillilie, and I did notice, after this exceptionally wet July—we have always had wet Julys on Eyre Peninsula but this one has been particularly wet—that the Tod River was flowing significantly. I thought to myself, 'What a waste; all of this water is actually flowing past the reservoir.' Country people hate waste, and to my mind, that water—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: We hate waste, member for Schubert—and not just the waste of water, but government waste as well, don't we?

Mr Knoll: That's right.

Mr TRELOAR: Indeed. To my mind, it was just a waste of a resource, and I sincerely hope that SA Water take on board the concerns that were raised at the community meeting at Tumby Bay. In the couple of minutes that I have remaining, I might dot point some of those concerns because they are significant. They are reasonable concerns and they should be addressed by SA Water and taken into account in the long-term future of the plan.

Very quickly, the views of the majority of those present at the meeting can be summarised as follows: they were sceptical about the risk of dam failure and would like to see hard evidence in relation to the risk of structural failure. My understanding is that South Australia has signed up to the ANCOLD agreement. That is all very well and every state in Australia has signed up to that, but as a result, we have to ensure that our dams are able to withstand an event that occurs—wait for it—one in every 600,000 years.

I am having trouble thinking that far ahead but, more importantly, I am having troubling thinking that far back. I suspect there have been at least four ice ages in that time, or maybe more. It was before modern humans walked on the earth. We are building capacity in our reservoirs to withstand an event that could occur one in every 600,000 years, which is more than half a million years. I would suggest that is quite an extraordinary state of affairs and one that is not even reasonable.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (16:58): I will leave the unions alone in this contribution, but I rise today to talk on this Appropriation Bill in relation to how it affects the fantastic electorate of Schubert. There is a mixed response, as I am sure there has been a mixed response across most electorates, but I want to start off with a couple of the good things that I have seen happen out in the Barossa, the first of which took three years and technically did not cost the government any money.

We have finally seen the railway station land in Angaston transferred from the state government to the local council. This is an exciting project, because part of the land will be sold off for residential development, and the money that is then garnered from that land will be put back into remediating that site. Being a former railway station, that site does have a few issues, with the termination of the line in the Barossa Valley. I think with that money we can transform the area into a real focal point for the town of Angaston.

I will point out the fact that I have a conflict of interest: I live about 50 metres from this land. In fact, my backyard backs onto this railway land, but I am really excited by the fact that Angaston, which is a town of about 2,500 people, will have a square large enough to cater for some of the large events put on by my community. The first of those is going to be happening on 16 October. We have a long lunch that is in the early stages of planning, and I expect to be able to wander out three minutes before the start of the event, trudge across the road and head straight up to the event. I am really looking forward to that and the town of Angaston coming together.

We were really excited by the $1.2 million that was part of the Mid-Year Budget Review for the upgrade of the surface of Murray Street, the main street in Tanunda. Frustratingly, though, the government has delayed that resealing by six months, and they are blaming the NBN for not having finished their works underneath Murray Street, Tanunda. It makes sense that the gas which has recently come through needs to have that work done first, and then the NBN work needs to be done as well to make sure we do not have to rip up the road not long after having resealed it, but the truth is the NBN is due to finish in the next couple of months. There is no reason why the government could not start that work directly after that but, frustratingly, they have delayed it until March next year.

This is an issue that brings calls to my office like almost no other. I think members can guess what other issue may elicit more calls to my electorate office, but this is an issue at the very heart of many in the Barossa because Tanunda is one of the main gateways into the Barossa and one of the first experiences that tourists get. We want to make sure that it is a premium experience in line with the world's-best shiraz that we serve when people drive past there towards cellar doors. Anyway, we wait in anticipation. Some in my community are a little bit jaded and suggesting it will not happen, but I am confident that, in this instance, the government will follow through on its promises.

We have also, as part of last year's budget, seen a couple of hundred thousand dollars spent on the upgrade of Barossa Valley Way. By upgrade, I mean a bit of shoulder sealing, which is very welcome, but also increased barriers on the side of the road in various spaces on Barossa Valley Way. This has caused some contention because there are those who do not think they are necessary, but many more, looking at where they have been placed, are wondering about the strategic importance of them because some trees have now had the metal barrier put in but others have not.

Indeed, barriers have been put in certain parts where there is a natural embankment just behind where the barrier has been put in, which again makes people question the validity of them. The main argument against them is, if they are used in long tracts on long sections of road—and it is not only Barossa Valley Way, we have also seen an increase in their use on the Thiele Highway—and somebody has an issue where they need to get off the road, they cannot. They are stuck, and I think it is a situation where we could actually create greater potential for accidents by not allowing cars the ability, when they need to, to get off the road.

I think that is a very legitimate concern and one we are in the process of talking to the minister about. I hope I can get a reasonable and sensible answer to it, so I can allay the concerns of my constituents that the government is not just putting up ugly metal structures the length and breadth of my electorate and that there is some benefit from them.

In this year's budget, we were very excited to see, after two years of me carping on in this place, some money for school infrastructure upgrades. I have been lucky enough to have both of my high schools receive money. Mannum Community College received $3.5 million, and Nuriootpa High School received $2.5 million. I have also had a number of primary schools—Freeling Primary School, Tanunda Primary School and Nuriootpa Primary School—receiving $1 million each. That money is extremely welcome, but I hope that it is able to be spent in the right way. I understand the government has their focus on STEM and upgrading the capability of primary schools and high schools to focus their education towards those subjects, but there is a standing need, especially at Nuriootpa High School and Nuriootpa Primary School, that needs to be addressed and I hope can be addressed through the course of this funding.

At Nuriootpa High School, we have a capacity issue. We were lucky enough at country cabinet last year to have the minister come and visit Nuriootpa High and see firsthand some of the capacity issues that exist there but also some of the dilapidated, very expensive to operate transportable buildings that are there. We are hoping that, through this $2.5 million, we can address the issue of providing greater access to resources around STEM subjects but also combine that with being able to deal with some of the infrastructure complaints that currently exist.

We are hoping that the same can happen at Nuriootpa Primary School. That primary school was one of those 1970s experimental jobs where it was built in a circle with an inner circle of an open area and two levels of a library and then the outer area with, essentially, open plan classrooms, and you see different classes in the same area retreating to weird little corners of the rooms, each equipped with their own microphone and speaker so that their students can be heard trying to get away from each other because there is such a build up of background noise.

We are hoping that through the course of this we will be able to, potentially, partition off some of those open spaces into regular classrooms, at the same time addressing what the intent of this money is. So, I am really hoping that that is what happens, but as always electorates turn to their elected member and say, 'That's all well and good but what have you done for me lately?' I think in this regard they have some legitimate concerns, and there are a couple of areas that I want to highlight.

The first that I will highlight is the Barossa Hospital, which I know is in the hands of the minister at the moment. There has been some local commentary in my local media, which is entirely confusing. It is under active consideration, but I hope that the government shows some foresight and is willing to take this process to the next level so that we can actually look at this in a holistic way and finally, after 25 years, get the job done.

There is also the issue of recreational boating on the Warren Reservoir. We now have fish, which is well and good for those anglers, but as somebody who would not mind taking a single scull rower onto the lake I am looking forward to the day that I can paddle. I am also not looking forward to the day Ivan Venning makes me go with him in his little yacht he has bought, which I am certain is going to capsize with the two of us in it and cause a by-election. Having said that, if that is what it takes to get the reservoir open to recreational boating, then I am willing to take that risk.

Lastly, I want to talk about road funding, which is a huge issue in all rural areas, but especially an issue in the Barossa because of our limited access to public transport. I want to nominate three roads that I think are worthy of attention. The first of those roads is the Daveyston to Freeling road, which is an awful, undulating patchwork of various grades of asphalt. It is a road that is going to see increasing use with the potential opening of a new dolomite mine at Nain, and I would really like the government to seriously consider funding to resurface that road.

The second resurfacing that I think needs to happen is on the Stott Highway in between Angaston and Keyneton. Again, an undulating, unsafe, narrow stretch of road that, at 100 km/h, needs to be resurfaced in parts. It is a state government road and I look forward to them getting on and having a look at that.

The third one, which I think will fundamentally change the way that people commute around the southern Barossa, is the sealing of the final part of Parra Wirra road, out from Williamstown, as you head towards Humbug Scrub. If that part of the road were bitumised people would be able to access, from the member for Little Para's electorate, through Napier, up through Parra Wirra road, and get to Williamstown much quicker than either having to go via Gawler or go via Gomersal Road.

I think that that will completely reorient back towards the southern Barossa, which is a part of the Barossa that has potentially felt neglected over the past decade. It will really reorientate traffic and potentially help bring tourist visitors back to that part of the Barossa. So, there is my shopping list of demands and desires on behalf of the great people of Schubert. I look forward to their positive consideration from this government.

Motion carried.

Estimates Committees

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (17:08): I move:

That the proposed payments for the departments and services contained in the Appropriation Bill be referred to Estimates Committees A and B for examination and report by Thursday 4 August 2016, in accordance with the following timetables:

APPROPRIATION BILL 2016

TIMETABLE FOR ESTIMATES COMMITTEES

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE A

THURSDAY 28 JULY AT 9.00 AM

Premier

Treasurer

Minister for Finance

Minister for State Development

Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy

Legislative Council

House of Assembly

Joint Parliamentary Services

State Governor's Establishment

Auditor-General's Department

Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Department of State Development (part)

Administered Items for the Department of State Development (part)

Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

FRIDAY 29 JULY AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Education and Childhood Development

Minister for Higher Education and Skills

Department of Education and Child Development

Administered Items for the Department of Education and Child Development

Department of State Development (part)

Administered Items for the Department of State Development (part)

MONDAY 1 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Health

Minister for Health Industries

Minister for Arts

Minister for Police

Minister for Correctional Services

Minister for Emergency Services

Minister for Road Safety

Department for Health and Ageing (part)

Department of State Development (part)

Administered Items for the Department of State Development (part)

South Australia Police

Administered Items for South Australia Police

Department for Correctional Services

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

TUESDAY 2 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries

Minister for Forests

Minister for Tourism

Minister for Recreation and Sport

Minister for Racing

Department of Primary Industries and Regions (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (part)

South Australian Tourism Commission

Minister for Tourism

Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Employment

Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation

Minister for Automotive Transformation

Minister for Science and Information Economy

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation

Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Minister for Disabilities

Department of State Development (part)

Administered Items for the Department of State Development (part)

Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (part)

Department for Health and Ageing (part)

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE B

THURSDAY 28 JULY AT 9.00 AM

Attorney-General

Minister for Justice Reform

Minister for Child Protection Reform

Minister for Planning

Minister for the City of Adelaide

Minister for Consumer and Business Services

Minister for Industrial Relations

Minister for Public Sector

Courts Administration Authority

Attorney-General's Department (part)

Administered Items for the Attorney-General's Department (part)

Electoral Commission SA

Administered Items for the Electoral Commission SA

Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (part)

Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Independent Gambling Authority

FRIDAY 29 JULY AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure

Minister for Housing and Urban Development

Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

MONDAY 1 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation

Minister for Water and the River Murray

Minister for Climate Change

Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources

Administered Items for the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources

TUESDAY 2 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Investment and Trade

Minister for Small Business

Minister for Defence Industries

Minister for Veteran's Affairs

Department of State Development (part)

Administered Items for the Department of State Development (part)

Defence SA

Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

Administered Items for the Department of Treasury and Finance (part)

WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST AT 9.00 AM

Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion

Minister for Social Housing

Minister for the Status of Women

Minister for Ageing

Minister for Multicultural Affairs

Minister for Youth

Minister for Volunteers

Minister for Regional Development

Minister for Local Government

Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (part)

Department for Health and Ageing (part)

Department of Primary Industries and Regions

Administered Items for the Department of Primary Industries and Regions

Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Administered Items for the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (part)

Motion carried.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (17:09): I move:

That Estimates Committee A be appointed, consisting of the Ms Bedford, Ms Cook, Mr Hughes, Hon. S.K. Key, Mr Knoll, Mr Marshall and Mr Speirs.

Motion carried.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (17:09): I move:

That Estimates Committee B be appointed, consisting of Mr Odenwalder, Ms Chapman, Mr Duluk, Mr Gee, Mr Griffiths, Hon. A. Piccolo and Ms Wortley.

Motion carried.