Main South Road

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:19): I rise today to talk about a very important project in my part of the world, that is, the duplication of Main South Road from Seaford to Sellicks. In November the year before last, the entire cabinet was down doing a community cabinet meeting in McLaren Vale and Aldinga. We went out doorknocking, the then Premier and all the ministers, and the biggest issue that kept coming up was the duplication of South Road from Seaford down to Sellicks. It was something that I had heard a fair bit about.

The member for Kaurna, who then had responsibility for Aldinga, had heard a lot of rumblings about it, and a very good group had been established just prior to that called the Main South Road Action Group. They were terrific in getting more than 3,000 signatures on a petition to lobby the government to come up with the funding to duplicate Main South Road to make it a safer road that would accommodate the growing needs of the area, not just around Aldinga and Sellicks but farther down the Fleurieu to Myponga, Yankalilla and Rapid Bay and farther afield to Kangaroo Island, where tourism numbers continue to boom.

In all the deliberations around last year's state budget, it was never far from any of our minds, as we sat around the cabinet table, that this was a really important issue that needed to be addressed. I was delighted that the then treasurer, the member for West Torrens, put it in his budget last year and then had some supplementary money in the Mid-Year Budget Review at the end of the year, in December, to ensure that both stages 1 and 2 could be carried out.

When the department came out with their initial plans, they were indicative, as they are when you put a bit of a plan, and they had some roundabouts mapped on the images. Of course, the people of the local area know what works well for the local area, so again the Main South Road Action Group sprung to action and said, 'There's got to be a better way of doing this.' So we had a community forum with the action group there and probably about 45 or 50 other members of the community. The member for Lee, who was then minister for transport, came along, as did the then CE of the department and some senior staff.

It was terrific to have the local community being able to get direct access to the minister and senior members of the staff. It was made clear that night that these were just indicative drawings, that there was $435 million there and that that money could be used to build the best possible new road that looked after local residents. The group behind this, the Main South Road Action Group, is keen to see overpasses or underpasses at all major intersections there rather roundabouts, and I think that is a really good idea. That came across that night in the discussions. The then minister thought it was a good idea, and the senior members of DPTI thought it was a good idea.

After that, the friends of South Road action group were constant in their attendances on Saturday mornings down at the Aldinga Central Shopping Centre—and I was there with them a lot of the time as well—to make sure that as people walked past we could get them to sign a petition. I have here with me a petition signed by 1,142 people of the local area who are calling on the government, when looking at the scope of this, to include in the design overpasses and underpasses at those intersections and to make sure that we have the very best design in this duplicated road from Seaford through to Sellicks.

I will be sending a copy of this petition through to the new Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, and I hope that we can all work together because, as I mentioned in my speech here this morning, we get a lot more done by working together and collaborating than by having fights with each other. I have already sent the minister probably about 11 or 12 letters in the past week; we gave him a little bit of time to settle in, as I mentioned to him yesterday. I said, 'We're not trying to bombard you, but there are a fair few issues.' Again, we are just setting about this in the right and possible way.

I want to thank the members of the Main South Road Action Group, and Craig Curtis, the head of that group, has brought the petition in here today. Also to Dale Grimmond, Adrian Polst, Holly Freeland, Fred Sheilds, Jess Sweet, Cheryl Battick, Steve Annells, Barry Bache, Aslan Storm, and Onkaparinga mayor and group member, Lorraine Rosenberg, thank you so much for the time and dedication you have put in to be real leaders within your community. This is democracy at work at the coalface, if you like, and you have been very professional in the way you have dealt with not only me but Andy Gilfillan, who was the Liberal candidate who ran for the seat of Mawson as well.

I commend you for the great work you have done. You are a pleasure to deal with, and I look forward to working with you. Work on this should start next year, 2019, and I look forward to working with you on the planning and the building.

Time expired.