House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Infrastructure Projects Infrastructure Projects Dr HARVEY House of Assembly Newland Infrastructure Projects Dr HARVEY (Newland) (14:18): My question is to the minister— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! I can't hear the question. The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, Premier! Dr HARVEY House of Assembly Dr HARVEY: My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house about how the state government's constructive relationship with the federal government is helping to deliver key infrastructure projects such as the Gawler rail line electrification? Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport has the call. Mr Mullighan House of Assembly Mr Mullighan: The missing $1.8 billion. Where is it? The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned. The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly Schubert Minister for Transport Minister for Planning The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:18): Well, I would like to tell the member for Lee exactly where it is. The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Premier will not interject. The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: It's being spent exercising a contract with Lendlease, which is exactly what the Premier and I have been able to do in the past couple of weeks—actually clean up another one of Labor's messes. Here we have a project that has been on again, off again more than Brad and Angelina ever have been. This is a project that those opposite tried for a decade to deliver and failed to get it done. The member for Light and those members in the northern suburbs should hang their head in shame for the way that their government dealt with this project. This Gawler line is a hugely important and busy line with around five million passenger journeys per year. The electrification of this line has been a project that has been needed and wanted for a decade, and finally it has taken a new Marshall Liberal government to deliver this project. The way that we have done it is by acting like a bunch of grown-ups, heading across to Canberra— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Now, Mr Speaker— The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Light! The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —there have been some publicly who have tried to use the fact that I may look a little bit youthful against me in the last few days. I noticed that there are members in this chamber who have tried to shave up a little bit to look a little bit younger. What I don't apologise for— Members interjecting: The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There may be some members in here who have had a 5 o'clock shadow at 9am since they were 13 years old— The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is called to order. The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I have had to deal with the genetics as I have been given— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Haven't we all. The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and if those opposite want to blame anybody for the fact that I look young, they should blame my parents. Either way, regardless of these youthful looks, we have built a constructive relationship with the federal government, and it has delivered for South Australians. I was extremely excited, before 30 June, to be able to exercise the extension in Lendlease's contract so that they can get on and, instead of just delivering from Adelaide to Salisbury, be able to deliver the Adelaide to Gawler electrification of the line. This project, apart from— The Hon. A. Piccolo House of Assembly The Hon. A. Piccolo: Gawler Central or Gawler? The Hon. S.K. KNOLL House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Sorry, Gawler Central. I have made that very clear to the member for Light on previous occasions. This project will support 135 jobs during construction and will also include the acquisition of 15 additional three-car electric trains to improve track safety. Members on both sides of the house may be asking, 'What is the utility of completing the line to Gawler Central?' It seems that those opposite were happy to have a line from Adelaide to Salisbury, which is really quite puzzling because you can't run electric trains on an electric line unless the entire line is electrified, unless of course you run the diesel trains between Salisbury and Gawler Central and then run the electric trains between Salisbury and Adelaide. The thing kind of doesn't work unless you electrify the entire line. Upon coming to government, this was a fact—I suppose, a reality—that I came to after a good 15 or 20 seconds of having a look at this project. We went across to the federal government and they obliged with $220 million of taxpayer money so that we can complete this project. We have been able to exercise the extension in the contract to make sure that we lock in the existing price, thereby protecting taxpayers from any future potential price increase. More importantly, this is about keeping faith with the South Australian voter and the South Australian public. I note that, even after this announcement and even after we signed off for this project to go ahead to Gawler Central, there are still those in the northern suburbs of Adelaide who do not believe it's going to happen. The reason they are conditioned that way is that those opposite conditioned them to believe that this project was never going to happen—never going to happen. We need this line and we need this line to be electrified to deliver the increased capacity. Residents of the northern suburbs and the outer northern areas who will use this line on a daily basis will have the fact that there are now grown-ups at the table who have been able to deliver this project for South Australia.