Question Time

Road and Rail Freight

Mr DULUK (Waite) (14:43): My question is to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister is finished. The member for Waite has the call.

Mr DULUK: My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on the evaluation of options to address road and rail freight congestion in our suburbs?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:44): I thank the member for Waite for his question. It allows me to provide him with an answer he has been seeking for quite some time. In fact, again, he is someone who does contact me quite regularly about the rail corridor in his electorate and the potential longstanding issues that have occurred there over an extended period of time.

I am very proud to tell the house that once again we have delivered on another one of our 100-day election commitments. I have issued a tender, which went out on 28 June, in relation to stage 1 and stage 2 of the GlobeLink business case. That is delivering on exactly what we said we would do at the election. Before the election we said one thing, and after the election we said exactly the same thing. All we did was deliver on our promises as we put them, and I think the South Australian people are coming to realise that, after 16 years, they can have a government they can believe in. They can believe what politicians say because they actually do what they say.

The 100-day plan is a very clear, very specific set of commitments that this government has delivered on, and the GlobeLink business case is very much a part of that. It is something that I know the member for Waite and many others on this side of the house campaigned for in the lead-up to the election. It is something that really captured the mind and the imagination of South Australians, this idea that we don't have to accept the status quo in relation to traffic in Adelaide, that we don't have to accept the status quo about how easy or difficult it is to get our products interstate and overseas.

One of the best examples is a vegetable grower from the member for Kavel's electorate. He is a brussels sprouts grower. He said that at the moment he actually ships his goods to Melbourne to get them overseas because it is too difficult to do out of Adelaide. That isn't good enough. Here in South Australia, we are a food bowl and should be more of a food bowl for South-East Asia and the rest of the world. The best way we can help our exporters is to give them the ability to get their products interstate and overseas more quickly, and the best way to do that is to invest in infrastructure.

That's why the GlobeLink proposal is so important—so important to helping grow and develop our economy, develop our export market, develop our export capability and provide that direct link between Adelaide and South Australia and the rest of the world. It's why this stage 1 and stage 2 business case is so important, because we are going to actually identify the problem—mind you, not the problem as it's identified by those who have a vested interest in the status quo. It's actually going to look at who would benefit from such a proposal. The people who will benefit are the people whose voices I don't think have been heard in this debate yet. They are the exporters themselves who want access to market.

As a government that's here to enable, as a government that's here to try to promote, develop and work with industry to help improve the productive capacity of our state, these are exactly the kinds of things we need to look at. Member for Waite, you would also like to know that we are in the process of developing our Infrastructure SA process so that we can improve and evaluate the way these proposals get up. This isn't going to be some pork-barrelling exercise. This isn't going to be a marginal seat pet project. This is the kind of process that South Australians can believe in, that they can trust. When the information comes through about what potential this has for South Australia, it will be independently verified and independently evaluated by Infrastructure SA.

It will also help with traffic congestion in and around Adelaide on the rail freight side but also on the road freight side. The idea that we can get these trucks and trains out of Adelaide is extremely important for the potential future decisions we make about how our city moves and the fact that this can really help to reduce congestion. It is all very important for the people of South Australia and very important for the people whose electorates this is going to improve from a traffic congestion point of view. Once again, South Australians have voted for this change and this proposal. I look forward to being part of a government that helps deliver on that.