Yorkeys Crossing

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:26): My question is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Why has the government not committed to the upgrading of Yorkeys Crossing around Port Augusta to allow all-weather access for oversized and overweight vehicles and other vehicles when the Joy Baluch AM Bridge is closed?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:26): I had this discussion this morning on radio. We've got a situation where, unfortunately, the pedestrian and cycling facilities adjacent to the Joy Baluch AM Bridge have fallen into disrepair and can no longer be used. The federal Minister for Infrastructure requested of me that I have the transport department try and do a piece of work to see if it would be possible—and the federal government, to its credit in this regard—to see if some sort of bridge structure which could accommodate cycling and walking could be attached to the Joy Baluch AM Bridge, and take some risk away from the current situation which we have been left with since the closure of the—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes, I'm coming to the point.

The SPEAKER: Look, just give the minister a minute.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has not yet completed a minute of his four-minute answer; let him get to it in his own way—in his own idiom.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: This should be of particular interest to the member for Stuart, because this is of course his electorate and his constituents that we are trying to benefit here. The suggestion would be that if some sort of species of shared cycling and walking bridge could be attached to the Joy Baluch AM Bridge, then it would reduce the risk that we are currently having, where people who are walking or cycling are needing to use the Joy Baluch AM Bridge, where we have a high volume of traffic and, more to the point, a high volume of heavy vehicle traffic.

That would be, in my view, as I said on radio this morning, a stopgap measure at best. What industry have been calling for, and indeed what members of the local community have been calling for, is a permanent solution. A permanent solution, to my mind, would comprise one of two things, one of which is what the member for Stuart was alluding to in his question, which is the upgrading of Yorkeys Crossing. To be fair to the member for Stuart, I think he rather accurately represents a lot of the concerns that people have been raising which have led to calls for the upgrade of Yorkeys Crossing.

What happens—and this does happen from time to time—in the event that there is a car accident on the Joy Baluch AM Bridge and there needs to be a temporary closure to deal with that incident? Where can particular types of heavy vehicles go, particularly if they are of a configuration and a weight which means that—and particularly if it's raining, because the member for Stuart made a reference to all weather—they cannot use Yorkeys Crossing? Sometimes it is not in a condition to do so. So yes, given the cost that would be required to upgrade Yorkeys Crossing, which is a partly government and a partly council road, we think, I think in 2011 dollars, the cost would be something in the order of $40-odd million to upgrade that road.

Given that the Joy Baluch AM Bridge sits almost literally at the crossroads of South Australia's part of the National Highway network, would South Australia be best off investing $40 million to seal that road or, if a bridge costs in the order of $200 million or even $250 million, knowing that upgrades to the National Highway network are funded on an 80:20 basis, would we better off putting that $40 million into a duplication of the Joy Baluch AM Bridge.

While a lot of people are stuck and fixated on the fact that Yorkeys Crossing should be upgraded, what we are currently looking at are three particular solutions to the dilemmas we have; one is what has been suggested to me, which we are investigating, from the federal Minister for Infrastructure and whether we can deal with the cycling and walking issue, but I think we also need to keep on the table for active discussion between the state and federal government the duplication of the Joy Baluch AM Bridge. I am sorry it has taken me four minutes to get there, but that would obviate the necessity to seal and upgrade the Yorkeys Crossing to take that type of truck traffic.