Road and Rail Freight

Mr GEE (Napier) (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister advise the house of any studies conducted on Adelaide's road and rail freight network, including options to relocate road and rail freight traffic from metropolitan Adelaide?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:58): What a great question. Some members will be undoubtedly surprised to learn that significant studies have already been undertaken to underpin the nearly $3 billion worth of road and rail freight projects committed to by both state and federal governments. Let's start with studies regarding rail freight.

In 2008, the commonwealth department of infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government provided $3 million to undertake the Adelaide Rail Freight Movement Study. This independent study was undertaken by global engineering group GHD to determine how Adelaide's rail freight network could be made more efficient and also to increase capacity to cater for higher freight volumes in the future. It included an assessment of moving the freight line out of Adelaide. The study was released in June 2010 and is freely available online, and considered five options available for the future management of rail—

Mr KNOLL: Point of order, Mr Speaker: saving me from doing any work, the minister has just admitted the fact that the information is freely and publicly available online.

The SPEAKER: No, he admitted that a particular report was available online—quite different from the answer he is giving to the member for Napier's question. Minister.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Indeed, Mr Speaker. Even the most cursory glance at Google would have uncovered the evidence of the report, and the report options 2, 3 and 5 in the study broadly resemble the rail bypass put forward by those opposite in their, as the member for Unley calls it, '#globlink proposal'. Perhaps it's 'globs and growth'. So what did the study say about these options? Firstly, that the capital costs outweigh the benefits. In fact, 'significant negative net present value' was what the report said, that there would be modest operational benefits, and the social benefits, particularly in those key Adelaide Hills seats, would be marginal.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is on his final warning.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: It's like fishing in a barrel. Infrastructure Australia also has had this report since 2010 and has not included it in their infrastructure priority list released just late last year. Instead, Infrastructure Australia recommended the $440 million Goodwood and Torrens Junction upgrades to the rail freight line to improve efficiency and also to increase future freight capacity of the freight line. Interestingly, it had a benefit cost ratio, which was positive, of 3.2. These projects were jointly funded between the state Labor government and commonwealth governments, both Labor and the current Coalition government, with the Goodwood Junction delivered in 2013 and the Torrens Junction project now underway.

It is not just rail freight that has been comprehensively investigated; it is road freight as well. In 2013, the federal government, first under former federal transport minister Albanese and then under assistant minister Briggs, funded the north-south corridor 10-year strategy. The strategy was completed and published in the first half of 2014 and has informed decisions taken by the state Labor government and the federal Coalition government to invest $2½ billion into upgrading three sections of the north-south corridor.

These upgrades are necessary because 80 per cent of heavy vehicles travelling west on the South Eastern Freeway from Murray Bridge are bound for Greater Adelaide; that is, they pick up or they drop off within metropolitan Adelaide. Further, only 10 per cent of heavy vehicles use existing roads to bypass metropolitan Adelaide, indicating there is already a viable road freight bypass of Adelaide. As the minister said in his earlier answer, not only were people not consulted with but the freight council has bagged this proposal and, indeed, local councils including the Coorong Council have called this 'a short-sighted Liberal policy'. So that's what it does for regional communities.

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: 'JokeLink'.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Health is warned. The deputy leader.