Waite Electorate Transport Forum

Mr DULUK (Waite) (14:36): Thank you very much, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I would like to hear this question.

Mr DULUK: My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on the Waite transport forum, which he attended with me last night?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:37): To answer the question for the member, what wasn't at last night's forum was a duet up-front from the member for Waite or I—that would have scared the entire audience. What did excite the audience last night was our commitment to delivering for the people of the Mitcham Hills, especially when it comes to road transport and public transport. What we were able to talk about last night was the fact that, in addition to the 3½ million bucks that was already on the table for the Blackwood roundabout, we have put a further $16½ million—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —to help improve a section of our state and our road network that has been neglected for such a long time. There was story after story that we had to listen to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —where residents who have lived in the Hills for decades have not seen anybody give one toss about the issues that they have been dealing with on a daily basis in their area. In fact—

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: Yes. There's a lot of toss over there.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —a number of the decisions that have been—

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Industry will withdraw that last comment.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Sorry, the Minister for Primary Industries, please withdraw that last comment. Please rise and withdraw that last comment. You don't have to repeat it.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: Withdrawn, sir.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. I apologise to the Minister for Industry; he wouldn't say something like that. The Minister for Transport has the call. Let's get on with it. The Minister for Transport has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: A series of decisions that had been taken to create congestion in the Mitcham Hills has been done without any requisite planning of how it is that we are actually going to move these people in and around the Hills area, and what we heard was a consistent call—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and people crying out for somebody to listen to them and to help reinvest in such an important part of our metropolitan city. So excited they were—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens, please.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —with the outcomes that we are seeking to achieve by implementing the Road Management Plan. Two projects we discussed last night that we are doing further work on at the moment are in relation to the Russell Street-Main Road intersection on the outskirts of Blackwood—it's more Hawthorndene, I suppose—a choke point along that corridor that has sat that way for a long period of time. We are investing, putting significant millions of dollars of taxpayers' money into fixing that part of the road network.

We also talked about the Shepherds Hill Road/Young Street/Brighton Parade intersection. Again, this is a very heavily patronised area where we see lots of turn-in and turn-out movements as well as a lot of pedestrian movements, and the need for us to reinvest in that section to free up and make more free flowing that part of the corridor is extremely important.

What the people of the Mitcham Hills were also excited to talk about was our plan for a better public transport system. What we have with the Belair train line is a line that is underutilised, and it is underutilised because it doesn't provide the frequency needed and also because the connections to that line aren't good enough. We heard numerous examples, at least half a dozen different examples, where people talked about the fact that our public transport network doesn't integrate properly to allow people to get from A to B quickly and efficiently. In fact, we talked about some absurd examples of how much time it takes, once you have missed a connection, to get to where you need to go.

The answer to fixing the problems in the Mitcham Hills is about more investment, and we have that money on the table. We promised it at the election, and it is delivered in the 2018-19 budget.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The other part of the equation in dealing with congestion in the Mitcham Hills is around improving public transport, giving people faith in the fact they can use it, getting those cars off our roads and being able to deliver a better, brighter future for some people who have been forgotten for decades.