Overland Train Service

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:03): My question is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Did the minister consult with the member for MacKillop and the member for Hammond before axing funding to The Overland train service?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:04): I welcome that question from the member for West Torrens. Can I say that there are established cabinet and budget processes that need to be gone through in relation to all government spending, and we need to make sure that we take heed of that. What I would say is that the cries by members opposite that this was an essential regional service for regional South Australians are quite clearly wrong. The reason they are wrong is that regional South Australians were the ones voting with their feet to no longer use this service.

In the six months to the end of July, only 600-odd people either embarked or disembarked from a regional station on this line across a six-month period. What we have seen over the course of the last 14 or 15 years is a threefold decline in the number of people choosing to use TheOverland service. That existed with a subsidy. Even with it being subsidised—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —we saw a threefold reduction in the number of people choosing to use TheOverland service.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: The first transport minister to cut a regional passenger service in 40 years.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: On this side of the house, we will take the difficult decisions, and the reason we do that is that we either make the decision to continue to subsidise a service that regional people, as well as people in Adelaide, are choosing not to use in the numbers that they did before or we actually put that money into other good things that we are doing in regional South Australia, such as our events bid fund—$40 million that has been put into a fund and also opened up for—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order. The minister will be seated for one moment, please.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: this is debate. The question was about consulting two members of the house.

The SPEAKER: The question was about TheOverland. I have the point of order. Minister, I ask you to come back to the substance of the question, thank you.

The Hon. A. Piccolo: No is the answer. Just say it. It's simple.

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The answer is that I have had discussions with members about this service, but there is a process it does need to go through in relation to how government money is being spent. What I would say is that I have conversations with regional MPs across this side of the house every single day of the week and we talk about the back and forth and the way we can deliver for these electorates—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —including, for instance, the $5 million-odd that the member for MacKillop and I, only a couple of months ago, went down and talked about delivering, or the 14½ million bucks that are being put in to fix the Penola bypass. Members opposite spat in the face of the federal government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —which wanted to help deliver for regional South Australians. So we on this side of the house—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens can leave for 20 minutes under 137A.

The honourable member for West Torrens having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —will not be lectured to by those who ignored regional South Australia for 16 years. We will continue to get on and deliver and be bloody proud about how we do it.