Country Road Speed Limits

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Transport. It is now 221 days since the election.

The SPEAKER: That is a fact introduced, member for Mount Gambier, and you know better.

Mr BELL: When will the minister increase the speed limits on the Carpenter Rocks and Port MacDonnell road back to 110 km/h, as promised in the lead-up to the 2018 election?

The SPEAKER: That is the question. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:59): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank very much the Independent member for Mount Gambier for his question, and I do note that the question he has asked me publicly in the house today is a question he asks me almost every single day in this chamber privately. Can I say to the member for Mount Gambier, once again, what we said before the election was that we want to put the speed limits back up on country roads alongside of—

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: Why did you drop them?

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Primary Industries is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —reinvesting in country roads—

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Primary Industries is warned for a second and final time. I ask the Minister for Primary Industries to please be quiet so that I can hear his colleague answer the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Primary Industries and the member for Lee, if you are going to continue arguing, please do so outside the chamber.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: What I am really excited to talk to the member for Mount Gambier about is the investment that this government is making in and around his electorate in the South-East of South Australia in relation to the Penola bypass, in relation to Clay Wells Road, in relation to a whole series of promises that we are undertaking in his electorate, including recent upgrades that have been undertaken on the roads he has mentioned in his question.

The answer is that once the roads are in a significantly good enough condition by reinvesting them through our Royalties for Regions scheme, and they are considered safe for a higher speed limit, we will be putting the speed limit back up.