Statutes Amendment (Heavy Vehicle Registration Fees) Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:52): I resume my comments by talking about the depth of knowledge in the trucking industry in the South-East. It would be remiss of me not to mention what is possibly the best example of that—Allan Scott—for founding Scott's Transport, which grew to be one of the biggest freight companies in Australia rivalling Linfox.

In 1988, Allan Scott purchased Mount Gambier rival transport company, K&S Freighters, and then listed it on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 1997, Allan Scott became a major sponsor of the Port Adelaide Football Club upon their entry into the Australian Football League—and I wish them all the best for tomorrow night's game against Hawthorn.

Mr Scott was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 1986 and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2006 for service to the development of the transport industry focusing on heavy vehicle driver safety training and through lobbying for improved infrastructure and development of an integrated freight network and for service to the community through a broad range of sporting, medical research and aged-care organisations. Unfortunately, Mr Scott passed away on 28 October 2008 in the Mount Gambier hospital.

The knowledge gained by Mr Scott was certainly transferred to his son, Ray Scott, with whom I have had intimate dealings around freight issues and improvements for South Australia, because at the heart of that great family is a desire to see South Australia grow and prosper. That desire is being handed down to Ray's son, Ashley Scott, who is moving forward in the same vein.

We had an interesting conversation around permits and heavy vehicle registration fees and creating an equal playing field so that South Australian companies will support South Australia and the South Australian government. There does need to be an equal playing field because at the end of the day these are businesses with very tight margins. There is a backlog on rural and regional roads. In particular, the increase in forestry and the number of truck movements between Mount Gambier and the Port of Portland will need ongoing attention going forward.

Before I was even elected to parliament, Ray Scott would talk to me about diverting traffic out of Adelaide at Murray Bridge. I remember sitting down with maps at his desk and looking at those. In a way, that has led to certainly part of the Globe Link, which is an alternative corridor for heavy freight to avoid the heavily populated areas of existing freight routes and be a non-stop direct link into South Australia's biggest port, Port Adelaide.

A generational upgrade of our freight export infrastructure is required to provide our companies with the competitive advantage they need to get our premium South Australian products to markets across the globe. There has been a lack of development in an alternative route and it is something that we will take to the 2018 election as a cornerstone policy for the freight industry. With those brief words, we will be supporting the Statutes Amendment (Heavy Vehicles Registration Fees) Bill and I commend it to the house.