Tramline Extension

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister update the house on the progress of delivering the Premier's commitment to install the right-hand turn by March next year?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:17): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We have been explaining all along this process that we believe that these two projects are two very separate and different projects. We have a priority to get the East End tram extension completed, and we will be considering how to best deliver the right-hand turn election commitment as a separate project to that. But I think the Premier is trying to deliver a level of sequentiality to this process. You need to deliver one project first, and then you need to deliver the second project. The fact that the first one is taking a bit longer means that the second one needs to happen after that starts.

We have commissioned some work that's currently being undertaken in relation to understanding the engineering solutions that we need to put in place in relation to this project. We have said very publicly, and will continue to say so, that we are going to make sure that this is delivered in a way that impacts in the most minimal way possible the traffic that exists on this very busy intersection. That necessarily means that it can only happen at certain points during the year.

We are going to make sure that we do what we do with the full and frank advice in front of us, making sure that we go through a thorough and complete process to get there. When we do, we will be open, honest and transparent with the people of South Australia. That's exactly and precisely what we have done in relation to both these projects since coming into government. We didn't carp and whinge and complain. We didn't potentially tell people—

Mr Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —that this project was going to be finished before the election when it quite clearly wasn't. What we have done is what adult, grown-up governments do: they deal with the problems that exist in front of them. They work through them, find ways to fix them and then deliver.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will not interject. The member for Waite has been patiently waiting.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! That is not an invitation, members on my left. The member for Waite has the call.