Finniss Electorate Roads

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on the state government's election commitment to install a roundabout at the intersection of Crozier Road and Torrens Street in the Finniss electorate?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:56): I thank the member for Finniss for his question and also thank the member for his hospitality last week as we drove from stop to stop looking at the roads in his electorate. I think we had to have photos along 12 or 15 spots of roads that the member thinks need to be fixed. The beautiful thing is that, in relation to a number of things, we are fixing them.

We were at the Torrens Street-Crozier Road intersection at Victor Harbor at about 10.30 or 11 o'clock on the Wednesday morning, and already we could see that there were congestion issues. Victor Harbor is a town that is growing. It is coming along in leaps and bounds, and even with the provision of the ring road out the back, it does have a level of traffic congestion. That is why, as a great local candidate and now a great local MP, the member for Finniss advocated for an upgrade to the roundabout at the Torrens Street-Crozier Road intersection.

It was great to go and see it firsthand, and it only reconfirmed for me that this is a fantastic and worthwhile project that is actually going to deliver a lot to his electorate, and I look forward next time I am staying at one of the many holiday accommodation venues down there to be able to take advantage of that interjection.

But that is not the only thing that we are delivering for the member for Finniss's electorate. In fact, our Royalties for Regions program is delivering millions and millions of dollars for the Finniss electorate for works that have been needed for a long time. The Victor Harbor Road is one that the RAA and many local residents and members have talked about in this place for some time, and there are a couple of spots now that we are pleased to say that we are going to be fixing over the coming months.

The first of those is some resurfacing works between Quarry Road and Main Road along the Victor Harbor Road at a cost of about $1.5 million. We went and had a look at Mount Compass, a town very near and dear to the member for Finniss, and the intersection with Arthur Road and the Victor Harbor Road. There is a real issue there because there are a lot of cars that turn right on what is a single-lane road, which banks up the traffic behind, and it actually has had some serious crash history around rear-end accidents where cars have been unable to stop for cars in front that are waiting to turn right.

We have put $600,000 into creating a dedicated right-hand lane and some additional lighting to make sure that we deal with that high-risk intersection—again, another investment as part of our Royalties for Regions scheme. But wait, there's more. Down in Port Elliot on Port Elliot Road and Boettcher Road, we are putting in a staggered T-intersection at a cost of $735,000 to essentially help what is again another very difficult intersection, along a stretch road that is also becoming more and more congested as we see people move down to the beautiful south coast.

Four separate announcements costing around $3½ million to $4 million we are putting on the table to help improve road infrastructure in the member for Finniss’s electorate as part of our Royalties for Regions scheme. The reason that highlighting these things is important is that they are not big whiz-bang projects. They are not big things that you would cut a ribbon on: they are things that save lives. They are things that save local residents' time, the local community's time, and that is why these things are extremely important.

I look forward to continuing to update the house on this very important work as we seek to help reduce the regional road toll in country South Australia and as we seek to do the good work that hasn't been done over the past 16 years—that is, reinvest in country roads in South Australia.