Port Wakefield Overpass

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:18): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. My question—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I will come back to you.

Mr ELLIS: —is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Will the minister update the house on the state government's plans to improve traffic flow and safety around Port Wakefield?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:19): Talk about patience. Ask the people from Narungga how patient they have been about waiting for a long-term solution for Port Wakefield. I would like to thank the member for Narungga for his advocacy but also pay tribute to his predecessor, the member for Goyder, who has been fighting for this project for such a long period of time. In fact, even the member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, says he has been fighting for this for over a decade.

If those opposite want to understand where the jobs are going, they are going to construction in South Australia. That is where the jobs are being created here in South Australia—good, private sector jobs to build the productive infrastructure that this government has put into this budget. We took to the election a commitment to deliver an overpass over the top end of the Copper Coast and Augusta highways at the top of Port Wakefield, a $24 million commitment that we were going to work on a conservative fifty-fifty arrangement with the federal government.

What we have been able to deliver is not just stage 1, but we have actually been able to chuck in the steak knives and actually get stage 2 and get the duplication done. Not only did we get the stage 2 duplication of Port Wakefield through the township, but we actually got an 80:20 funding arrangement from the federal government—$71 million that we got from the federal government to be able to deliver this project for South Australia.

This is something that the former Labor government seemed to enjoy a decade ago, but it's never been delivered. We have actually been able to deliver this for the people of South Australia. This is one of a number of large infrastructure commitments that we have been able to deliver in this budget. I want to thank the former Labor government for having—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —put into the state budget some money to deliver Joy Baluch, Pym to Regency and the Gawler electrification. There is only one problem with actually being able to deliver these infrastructure projects as a result of last year's budget: the fact that they didn't have the money from the federal government—no money from the federal government to deliver any of those projects. What we did was work assiduously and managed to get $1.8 billion worth of new money in the federal budget.

Pre-budget, those opposite set a test for us, saying, 'You need to bring forward that spending.' Do you know what we did? Exactly what they asked for. Do you think they would be happy? No. What we have actually delivered in this budget is $500 million more spending on infrastructure than was seen last year—the highest, excluding the NRAH, on record—and over the course of this budget and over the forward estimates, on average, $240-odd million extra than the average spend over the last Labor budget.

This is what jobs look like in South Australia. It looks like productive infrastructure that is going to deliver productivity improvements, better road safety and job certainty for workers in the construction and civil construction sectors here in South Australia. This is how we are going to rebuild the South Australian economy, and I am extremely proud to help deliver a budget that does just that.