North-South Corridor

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): Does the minister stand by his commitment to deliver the Regency to Pym project by 2020?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:15): Yes, when we made the announcement last week—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —we stated that we would immediately go out to consultation with those affected business owners. That has already started. That work started last week and, for the affected business owners and householders who will be caught up in what is going to have to be a compulsory acquisition process, that work has already begun. Those early-stage works have already begun. The department is working on refining a design process in relation to a number of elements of the Pym Street to Regency project to make sure that we do have a final design that we can put in place to start construction late next year.

There is still an approach that the department takes where we broaden the scope of who is and isn't involved in this project, and all of those affected landholders are being spoken to at the moment. As we refine the project, we will be able to have those ongoing conversations with the affected landholders to start that work. But, as was committed to last week, the process is that we start this early-stage consultation, we start the early-stage design refinements, we have a tender process that we need to go through, and that will continue to move forward. We will be talking with the federal government about how we reprofile the money for what is a more shovel-ready project when it comes to Pym Street to Regency Road—of course.

We expect to deliver this project on time, but this is the easy project to do it on. The other projects are a lot more difficult because—

Mr Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —once again, we need to do our homework, and we fully accept that. As the new state Liberal government, we are just being mature and businesslike about the way to go about it. We haven't cracked a tantrum or stamped our feet. We haven't ignored the good news, the $1.8 billion worth of good news, that has landed at our feet. We are going to get on and do what mature state governments do, and that is work constructively with other governments around the country to deliver projects for people in South Australia because, at the end of the day, this may be smart politics today, but the people out there don't care. They just want to see these projects delivered, and they want to see them delivered as soon as possible. That is what this state government is going to get on and do.