Electorate Issues

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:17): I rise today to talk about local issues in my broader region, but also to talk about our roles as MPs and focusing what we should—on the needs and wants of our local electorate. I was very frustrated a couple of weeks ago to see the motion that the member for Light put up in relation to the Palestine-Israel conflict. He essentially tried to insert himself into making determinations on a future two-state solution for that very vexed part of the world.

The Palestine-Israel conflict is something that nobody has ever brought up with me as I travel around the Gawler, Barossa and Adelaide Plains regions—no-one. But I will tell you what they have talked to me about, and perhaps the member for Light should reflect on tackling some of these issues as being more important than something that he has basically no control over or no influence on.

His electorate has issues. He still has a rail line that is not electrified and that even in the budget is only going to Salisbury. He has high unemployment in his electorate, which is only going to be exacerbated by the closure of Holden's in the coming months. The local council has asked to be part of the Northern Economic Plan so it can deal with the transitional issues that the Gawler area is going to face in relation to Holden.

He could deal with something that I have talked to a number of Gawler residents about, and that is our high electricity prices and the fact that people are struggling to make ends meet, and the fact that people are struggling to make ends meet when it comes to paying their emergency services levy. He could, and this is something that has been brought up many times by Gawler residents. After speaking with a great community advocate, Karen McColl, I know that the Dalkeith/Main North Road intersection is a huge issue, but the member for Light does not bring a motion to this house about that. He chooses to focus on something that is happening halfway around the world instead of the 35,000 people that he is elected to represent.

He could deal with the issues that have been exacerbated by the flooding of the Gawler and Light rivers last year, which many people in our region have talked to us about. How about fixing that issue? How about bringing a motion to this house regarding that? How about bringing a motion calling on his own government to talk to the feds about dealing with this flooding issue, something that dozens and dozens of his residents have come and talked to me about because they know that they are not going to get representation from their member who is too busy fighting something that is not his fight?

I also have issues in my electorate, and that is what motions brought to this house should be about, and that is what all members should be talking about in grieves. The budget did not hold very much for the good burghers of Schubert, and for that I apologise. I will continue to double my efforts to get for them what they so richly deserve. First off is funding for a new Barossa hospital. There is $1.1 billion (which actually was not $1.1 billion; I think at last count it was somewhere between $850 million to $900 million) for metropolitan hospitals but nothing for a Barossa community that has been seeking a new hospital since 1992. They had it promised and then taken away from them in 2001-02, and there is nothing on that project in this budget.

Regarding road funding, the resealing of Owen Road north of Hamley Bridge was very worthwhile, but in fact an even worse stretch of road is below Hamley Bridge. Essentially, the Hamley Bridge to the Templers section of the road is absolutely awful. It is nothing more than a goat track. Again, that was exacerbated by the floods last year that the member for Light chooses not to talk about in this place. We need an upgrade to the Daveyston Road, between the Sturt Highway and Freeling. Again, it is one of the most awful stretches of road in my electorate and it is something that I dearly call upon the government to get on and fix.

One of the biggest issues that gets brought to my attention is mobile blackspots, whether they are in Eden Valley or Springton, between Greenock and Kapunda, and certainly between the Sandy Creek and Concordia areas. It is something that local residents and everybody who passes through the southern Barossa talks to me about. I would dearly like the government to get on and deal with the traffic issues that exist in Nuriootpa, the fourth fastest growing town in the state. It has a lot of development, it has a lot of new residents, and we need a new rethink, a completely new traffic management plan for Nuriootpa. That is another local project that I call on the government to fund so that the residents of the Barossa can feel that their government is standing up for them and delivering for them as much as they do for the rest of South Australia.