Bills

Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous No 4) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:39): I rise today to take the opportunity to contribute to this very important bill. I note that many of the contributions thus far have been broad ranging. Mine also will be of that nature, given the announcement just a few weeks ago from Genesee & Wyoming that the rail service on Eyre Peninsula will cease to function and cease to provide a service after 31 March. In the first instance, I will talk about the bill at hand.

The Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous No 4) Amendment Bill 2019 amends the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) Act 2012 by inserting new provisions relating to drug and alcohol testing, to provide an additional exception to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1991 and to implement routine amendments arising from the national law maintenance process.

In December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to implement a national single rail safety regulator and develop a rail safety national law that a regulator would administer. The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator has an overarching function of working with rail transport operators, rail safety workers and others involved in railway operation to improve rail safety nationally. South Australia, as host jurisdiction, is responsible for the passage of the national law and any amendment bills through the South Australia parliament and for the making of regulations to support national law.

The national law came into operation on 20 January 2013 and was debated in this very house. This rail amendment bill is the fourth amendment package. When approving the national law in 2012, the council requested a review of the current drug and alcohol legislative requirements—hence today's debate—the scope of which the council approved in 2014. Section 127 of the national law governs the requirement for a rail safety worker to submit to a drug screening test, oral fluid analysis or blood test, or a combination of these. The rail amendment bill complements section 127 by including the ability to require urine testing as an alternative method of testing rail safety workers for drugs and alcohol.

The rail regulator has requested that, once passed by parliament, the rail amendment act will come into effect from 1 July 2019. The proposed amendments in the rail amendment bill were developed by the rail regulator in close consultation with the commonwealth, state and territory transport agencies and representatives of the Australasian Railway Association, Australian Local Government Association and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. All those consulted support the amendments, hence the support for this particular amendment bill.

I now want to turn my comments to the rail system on Eyre Peninsula. I note the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure is sitting just in front of me, and we have had many conversations about this particular issue over the last six or even 12 months, dare I say. The Eyre Peninsula railway system is a system of transport that is very dear to my heart given that those of us on Eyre Peninsula have all grown up with the rail system functioning and providing a really important service to the residents of Eyre Peninsula.

My great-great-grandfather on my mother's side actually arrived in Cummins to work on the railways. His son, my great-grandfather, duly followed with his family, promptly had 11 children and settled in the area for the long term. It is interesting that so many families now residing on Eyre Peninsula originally had links with the railway system. The rail system is inextricably linked with the settlement and growth of Eyre Peninsula.

I assume an act of parliament decreed that a railway be built on Eyre Peninsula. It was begun in 1906. It extended north from Port Lincoln and arrived in Cummins in 1907, and the first train ran late in that same year. In the interim, it had taken a trainload of passengers for a picnic at the Warunda railway site, which would have been highly exciting. I have a photograph of that my office here in Parliament House. It ultimately reached Cummins in time to haul freight (wheat) to Port Lincoln from the 1907 harvest.

In 1909, it was extended to Yalata and over the following two decades extended from Yalata to Mount Hope, on to the port at Thevenard in the Far West of the state, out to Penong, which is even further west than Thevenard, and there was a branch line also from Cummins to Buckleboo. So it serviced the entire agricultural areas of Eyre Peninsula. There was even a spur line surveyed from Kielpa to Mangalo, which was not ever constructed but was certainly forecast at some point. It was built on the cheap. Even from the very early days, it tended to be built with second-hand materials. Initially, there was no ballast for the sleepers and rails. You can imagine what some of that heavy clay in that Cummins country would have done to the rails with no ballast in a wet year.

It was critical to the people of Eyre Peninsula. It provided a freight service, it carted produce up and back, it provided communication and it provided a passenger service to the residents of Eyre Peninsula. It was particularly important for the settlements. The train line actually grew along with the settlement of Eyre Peninsula and ultimately extended to Minnipa, where trains turned around. They went as far as Minnipa from Port Lincoln and from Thevenard, and each of those train services turned around in Minnipa and went on their return journey.

In the early days, a critically important task of the train service was to cart water across Eyre Peninsula. Of course, there was no reticulated service until late in the 1920s when the Tod River Reservoir was built and the reticulated scheme was extended from Eyre Peninsula. Up until that time, a big task of the train was to cart water to the settlements up and down the line for use in the towns but also as stock and surface water.

The rail service reached its maximum extent in the late 1920s. From then until the early 1950s, it operated at its maximum capacity. There were over 80 railway sidings up and down the railway line. Slowly, from the early 1950s onwards, they began to close. Things were beginning to change. Lots of changes were made over the life of the railway. They installed some ballast, which helped no end. There were far fewer derailments after the ballast was put in under the sleepers. Railcars came into being—there was a converted bus which provided a passenger service, rather than people actually riding in a carriage on the train.

There are many great stories that come from the years of rail. One of the more famous or prominent ones relates to this bill directly in that the railcar drivers were renowned for drinking on the job. They would leave Port Lincoln at the designated hour with a flagon of port stowed underneath the seat, and they would sip away at it as they journeyed up to Buckleboo or Minnipa, or back the other way, or wherever they were going.

I am not suggesting that they were ever over the limit, but just occasionally, towards the end of the journey, they would miss a stop, much to the consternation of the passengers. In fact, I know that some of the passengers came to learn to drive these railcars and, should the designated railcar driver not be able to carry out his task, the passengers were well able to take control. That is just one of many wonderful stories that stem from the early days of rail.

Of course, steam trains were replaced by diesel electrics. I am old enough to just remember the last steam train in Cummins, which appeared in the 1960s. A big change came with the erection of around 25 silo complexes by SACBH during the late fifties, the early sixties and into the seventies. It meant that bulk deliveries of grain came into being and the wheat stacks disappeared. The wheat stacks existed on each and every siding up and down the railway line, and a whole culture and work ethic developed around these wheat stacks.

In fact, only today I was talking to two long-time residents of Eyre Peninsula. We were talking about one Pat Cronin, who lived in Cummins and actually has the world record for sewing bags: in excess of 700 in an eight-hour day. Can you believe that? The erection of the silos by SACBH introduced bulk handling. My father still believes that this was the greatest change ever to come to his farming career. No longer did they have to sew and lump bags—lump them many times, unload them from the header, drop them in the paddocks, sew them up, take them to the siding, stack them, load them onto the train and unload them again at the ports.

I remember when they removed the guard van from the end of the train. Of course, that meant the end of the van and the guards as well. It was all about efficiency. Even in those days, the drive was towards efficiency. We have seen that more and more lately. In the mid-2000s there was a significant investment of about $39 million, some of which was contributed through a levy raised from farmers. All the grain growers on Eyre Peninsula were levied 50¢ a tonne up until $2 million was raised.

Other contributions came from the state government and the federal government. Viterra, of course, had an interest and made an in-kind contribution. That in a way extended the life of the rail service for another decade or more, but at that same time the rail service was truncated at both Wudinna and Kimba, which meant that from Wudinna to Thevenard there was no longer a rail service and from Kimba to Buckleboo there was no longer a rail service. Already we were starting to see the shift from rail to road.

The line remained open from Wudinna to Thevenard in order to shuttle diesel engines up and down the line, because Genesee & Wyoming, who by that stage were the operators of the line, were still operating a run from Thevenard to the Kevin mine site west of Ceduna where three loads a day were coming into Thevenard from the gypsum mine at Penong and were loaded onboard ship at Thevenard: mostly coastal shipping and mostly to the east coast into the building industry.

Of late, we have seen a further drive towards efficiency. What I have noticed in recent years is that Genesee & Wyoming have been running just one train a day. Having said that, it is a long train. They generally run four engines and 60 carriages, so it certainly is a long train. To my mind, that is an efficient way to haul grain.

The pressures continued and the competitive pressures are coming from road transport. When I first started farming there was the much referred to seven tonne Bedford. That is what farmers had and that is what grain was transported in from farm to silo. Things have changed and we have seen the introduction of road trains. Road trains are commonplace now on Eyre Peninsula. There are B-doubles and B-triples are developing. The minister will know better than me how these are changing the freight task on Eyre Peninsula.

The flexibility that trucks are now giving the grain farmer and the storage and handler has really put pressure on the rail freight operator. This is a commercial decision. I do not want to pretend that anyone is particularly to blame for this. It is just how the freight task has evolved unfortunately. Sadly, in my eyes, the rail operation has come under competitive pressure and is no longer able to continue.

In recent times there has been a contract in place between Viterra, who is the storage and handler, and Genesee & Wyoming. Genesee & Wyoming are in the unenviable position of having just one customer, that being Viterra. In a way, Viterra held many of the cards in their hands and saw the opportunity to reduce some of their freight costs and shift things to road. I guess what I am saying is that it has been brewing for a while. It is a sad day. It is an unfortunate day, but in some ways it is no surprise.

Unfortunately, 33 jobs will be lost in Port Lincoln, almost solely those who work on the railway line, either drivers or maintenance gangs. I have spoken to a couple of the drivers and they are pleased really in some ways that the announcement has finally been made and they know full well what their future is. Many have taken packages or have taken up relocation options and some have other things to do.

One of the challenges that will arise as a result of this closure is that there will be more trucks on the road, primarily on state roads, on our arterial roads: the Flinders Highway, the Tod Highway and the Lincoln Highway, because all those roads funnel into Port Lincoln. Despite the fact that there are other port proposals at hand, the grain is still exported both from Port Lincoln and Thevenard. Make no mistake—the grain will still get to port; it will just get there in a different fashion now and arrive by truck.

There will be pressure on the roads. There will be pressure on those arterial roads that are heading towards both Thevenard and Port Lincoln. Unfortunately, because of the geography of Port Lincoln, much of that truck traffic will be directed through downtown Port Lincoln. There is little way around that. Lots of ideas are being tossed around—perhaps even using the existing freight corridor that is occupied by the rail line to transport those trucks from the west into the silo complex at Port Lincoln—but let's see how that unfolds. There will be much discussion about that.

I have to remind people that 60 to 70 per cent of the Eyre Peninsula grain crop is already transported by road, so even though there will be up to three-quarters of a million extra tonnes on the road as a result of the ending of this contract and the addition of a number of trucks, only an extra 30 per cent of the grain crop will be going on the road.

It will be imperative that money is spent on our state roads particularly. I have mentioned the Tod, Lincoln and Flinders highways. They will bear the brunt of this freight task. Ultimately, the City of Port Lincoln will have to handle a number of extra trucks up and down Liverpool Street and, more particularly, through Western Approach Road and Mortlock Terrace. Let's see how that goes. I am still hopeful that negotiations will prove fruitful with both the state and federal governments in relation to funding for our roads.

With the few minutes I have remaining, I would particularly like to mention two things. The first is the DPTI freight study that was undertaken by the previous state government.

The Hon. S.K. Knoll: Do you want to see it?

Mr TRELOAR: I would love to see it, minister. A lot of people would. My comments are around the fact that we have not yet, as stakeholders, been able to see it. I am sure there are good reasons for that.

Mr Brown: There's a minister there—ask him.

Mr TRELOAR: Don't worry, member for Playford. We have had those discussions and I am sure there are good reasons, but I would remind the minister that there are many stakeholders in this, not the least being the residents of Eyre Peninsula, the districts councils and the city council of Port Lincoln, and they are looking forward with much anticipation to seeing what is in that report.

Finally, I would like to mention the Eyre Peninsula Railway Preservation Society, ably led by Peter Knife, who is an absolutely passionate railway buff—is there any other sort, I wonder? The first time I met Peter, I was stopped on the railway crossing at Edillilie, crossing to my place, and there was this fellow taking photographs. I had no idea who he was, but I was intrigued because I did not know him. He was taking photographs of the trains coming through Edillilie. I introduced myself and he introduced himself to me.

He was a resident of New South Wales, but has a particular passion for the Eyre Peninsula rail system, so much so that he has an exact replica of the Minnipa rail siding complex in his garage. It is an extraordinary thing to see, if anyone is in Port Lincoln. Peter has come to live in Port Lincoln now and is heading up the Eyre Peninsula Railway Preservation Society. He has also written and produced three magnificent volumes of the history of Eyre Peninsula. I am going to lend one to the member for Narungga because I can see he is interested and would love to read it.

I inform the house that I, too, am a fan of rail. My compliments go to Peter and his work and also the Eyre Peninsula Railway Preservation Society because they are passionate. They will have an even greater task now. They are resident within the old Port Lincoln railway station. One of their big asks is that they are able to remain there, so that is a negotiation that will be going on. It is a really important job that they do and it will probably become even more important now.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:59): I intend to make just a short contribution on the bill. I feel that the contents of the bill have been covered reasonably well by previous speakers. Indeed, probably the majority of rail transport in this state has been covered reasonably well by previous speakers. However, I felt compelled to stand up and make a short contribution because the electorate of Narungga was the home of the first ever silo receival site by rail, as I have been reliably informed by the member for Flinders. I have since googled that and had it confirmed, and I found it in the Hansard record, of all places, of a previous speech the member for Flinders made in this place. This no doubt means that it is incredibly accurate and reliable.

The town of Nantawarra is also where my trainee comes from. She recently started working in my office and is doing a fantastic job. She confirms the silos are still alive and well and acting in that capacity. As the electorate that boasts the first ever silo receival site in the state of South Australia, built by the South Australian cooperative—

Mr Treloar: Bulk handling.

Mr ELLIS: —'bulk handling' were the words I was looking for—company, it is pleasing to make a contribution on this important bill. The Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous No 4) Amendment Bill 2019 amends the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) Act 2012 by inserting new provisions relating to drug and alcohol testing to provide an additional exception to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1991 and to implement routine amendments arising from the national law maintenance process.

In December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to implement a national single rail safety regulator and develop a rail safety national law, which would be administered by that regulator. The National Transport Commission was tasked with developing the national law, and the now Transport and Infrastructure Council was responsible for its approval. The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (the rail regulator) has an overarching function of working with rail transport operators, rail safety workers and others involved in railway operation to improve rail safety nationally.

It is pleasing that we are the jurisdiction leading the way nationally in rail safety and making it a safer prospect for passengers, innocent bystanders who use the road and all others associated with the rail network. I commend this government and the previous government in working towards that goal to lead the way in the national implementation of these laws. As the body of the bill has been thoroughly gone over, I want to touch on how it will affect the electorate of Narungga, that is, its impact on the Bowmans Rail intermodal.

I am led to believe that the Bowmans Rail intermodal is one of Australia's largest regional inland ports and a hive of activity. Bowmans is located north of Balaklava, and I would like to provide this house with some facts about its contribution to South Australia. Bowmans Rail employs more than 100 jobs on site, and the investment of $70 million since 2000 was supported by a state government Regional Development Fund grant. It helps with export sales, as export sales carried by rail to port by Bowmans are roughly $160 million annually.

They have the capacity to handle quite a bit of product. They specifically work in grain and mineral transportation, and they are a great link for regional businesses to the international market. They are based at Bowmans, where there is the Balco hay receival site. By way of a time line to chronicle the extraordinary rise of industry near Bowmans, the hay and grain site was only established in 2000 and the intermodal terminal was established in 2003, with the first hardstand area of 30,000 square metres.

The rail service also began in 2003; by 2008 there was a hardstand expansion and, in 2012, 600 hectares were zoned industrial at the Bowman site. So in only 12 years it had gone from being established to being extended to 600 hectares. In 2013, road train access was gazetted, and Toll and AMG became shareholders in the intermodal. Further expansion was required, and in 2016 it was expanded to 40,000 square metres. In 2016, Bowmans Intermodal changed its name to Bowmans Rail to more accurately reflect the future direction of the business.

Bowmans Rail is a large employer in the electorate of Narungga, and the company does a great job of delivering a large quantity of export sales to the market—importantly, the international market—to get our products out to the world stage. I thought I would touch briefly on Bowmans Rail's bullish attitude towards rail freight in itself, which might be a good sign for these rules going into the future to make sure that safety is carried forward.

Research carried out by Deloitte Access Economics for the Australasian Railways Association in November 2017 foreshadowed an 88 per cent increase in road freight kilometres by 2050 and about 2.5 million more trucks and light commercial vehicles on the road during that same period. At the same time, that report predicted that private vehicle travel is estimated to increase by 40 per cent and congestion by an even greater amount. Bowmans Rail argues that greater use of rail to replace these truck movements will dramatically reduce congestion in our cities and on our country roads.

The value of this has already been demonstrated by the Bowmans intermodal near Port Augusta, where there is community opposition to large trucks in urban areas. Helping get that freight off the road and into the rail system eases traffic congestion. That same research found that road travel is responsible for eight times more accident costs per kilometre than rail. The increased safety measures that we find in this new national law will help widen that gap further to make rail even safer than the road.

It also found that road freight crash costs are estimated to be 14 times more per tonne kilometre than rail. Bowmans Rail alleges that it is clearly a much safer prospect to travel by rail than road, and that bodes well for the future, especially with the improvements made in this bill. They also claim that the rail system can be a lot better for the environment. They say that road freight produces 16 times as much carbon pollution as rail freight per tonne kilometre, and one freight train can replace 110 trucks on the road. So there are benefits for the environment as well as for safety and reduced congestion.

Having visited Bowmans Rail, I know that they already have a busy workload, but they are looking to expand further to continue to get products out to the international market. This year, a lot of grain from the western part of Yorke Peninsula went to Bowmans for distribution to the Eastern States, such was the demand for it there. They want to continue to expand and provide further benefits to a wider range of customers in the future. I know that Balco and AGT, who share the site at the Bowmans area, the acreage that we have already referred to, are appreciative of the service they offer; indeed, their contribution is reflected in the Bowmans Rail logo, for those who are interested.

I acknowledge the significant impact that the bill will have on the electorate of Narungga. It will increase safety for the wide range of people who work at the Bowmans site and at that rail service. I commend the minister for leading the way nationally, with South Australia becoming the lead jurisdiction on this bill. I will not touch further on the bill after having heard a great deal about it already, but I thought that I would make these brief comments about the benefits we are likely to see and the benefits rail might hold more widely. With that, I commend the amendment bill to the house.

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (16:08): I, too, rise to speak to the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous No 4) Amendment Bill 2019. Unlike the member for Narungga, I will traverse some of the pertinent parts of the legislation. The opportunity to talk about what constitutes a urine test, in particular, is something I find irresistible, notwithstanding that lots of other people have doubtless covered this already.

The bill covers drug and alcohol testing. It enables exceptions to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act, and it also implements some notionally routine amendments to the national law. Before traversing those points, it is also irresistible from my perspective to consider the impact that this bill will have on the seat of Davenport. The answer is absolutely zero.

Members interjecting:

Mr MURRAY: The member for Finniss has played the game rope-a-dope style and said, 'Until you get a train,' and we will be getting a train. I am delighted at the prospect and, in particular, look forward to the actuality of the Flinders railway station, currently under construction as part of the massive Darlington works. As a direct result the seat of Davenport will once again have a train station and, in this particular case, not just any train station but a station that will be the hub of the Flinders precinct.

Flinders University has had research conducted—I think Deloitte conducted the research for it—and anticipates somewhere in the vicinity of $2 billion worth of value being attracted to that precinct by way of investments in accommodation, hotels and the like. That rail hub will have a tremendous impact not just for Flinders but also for the whole of the electorate I represent.

By way of a history lesson—and there have been a few today—there was, in fact, a Happy Valley railway station, people may be interested to know. If you live in the south and, in particular, in the seat of Davenport, it is my strong contention that Davenport is extremely poorly served by public transport. The people of the area in which I live have extraordinarily poor public transport options and, as a result of that, most of them elect to drive, with the consequent loads on the local roads not to mention the expense, aggravation, etc. Happy Valley had a train station that opened in 1915 and closed in 1969. It was part of the Hallett Cove to Willunga line, which traversed from Hallett Cove down through Happy Valley and McLaren Vale all the way to Willunga.

As I said, in my view and in the view of many people in the area, the electorate of Davenport is poorly served. The Flinders rail station will provide not just an opportunity for students and other users of the Flinders precinct to travel anywhere from Adelaide down through southern Adelaide to Flinders but it will also potentially provide the people of the southern suburbs with a hub that will, provided the appropriate infrastructure is in place by way of bus services and their interchange with the railway station, have an enormous transformative impact.

The practical reality is that if you are a public transport user leaving from, and I hesitate to use the words 'station' or 'terminus' because it is simply a glorified bus stop, the park-and-ride in Aberfoyle Park, for example, depending on what time of the day you leave and whether or not you use an express service, you are condemned to a trip that will, in a roundabout way, take well in excess of an hour.

Mr ODENWALDER: Mr Acting Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

A quorum having been formed:

Mr MURRAY: I thank the member for Elizabeth for ensuring the house has a quorum and, as a result, as many people as possible are present in person to hear me elucidate the public transport woes of the southern seat of Davenport and how they will be changed by the advent of a train which, to quote the member for Finniss just now, is not far off in Davenport, but there again it does not have to be.

As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, the practical reality for public transport users in my seat is that in order to get to the city centre, either for employment or for study purposes, they are more often than not sentenced to use bus services which take well in excess of an hour. The difference, however, is that with the advent of the Flinders railway station, travel times from Flinders to the city of 30 minutes, or in fact less than 30 minutes, are not an unreasonable expectation given that it is a further 900 metres further north on the line. When one rides on a train from Tonsley into the city, that usually takes 18 to 19 minutes.

The practical reality is that buses are scheduled from Aberfoyle Park to Flinders to travel anywhere from 12 to 13 minutes. A bus service connecting my constituents in the south with the Flinders railway station, once it is in the seat of Davenport and installed at Flinders, should as a practical measure enable people from the south to travel to the city in roughly 30 minutes thereby cutting in half the travel time not to mention removing cars from the road and buses from Flinders north into the city itself. This is a practical reality, a practical outcome, which will be possible as a result of the advent of rail coming back to the seat of Davenport.

Once the rail station is open, concurrent with that is the need, for a variety of reasons, for additional park-and-ride facilities in and around the southern area. I am on record and delighted to again take this opportunity to further reiterate the need for more park-and-ride facilities in the southern parts of Adelaide and in particular in my electorate. The member for Kavel, by way of example, if my recollection serves me correctly, rejoices in there being in excess of some 700 park-and-ride parking spots in Mount Barker.

Mr Teague: If only we could be so fortunate.

Mr MURRAY: 'If only we could be so fortunate,' the member for Heysen so eloquently mentions in an aside. Whilst I am delighted for the people in the northern parts of Adelaide—in particular in and around Tea Tree Gully—given the hundreds and hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of park-and-ride spots being constructed for them, I would make the point that at a similar distance south of the city of Adelaide, in and around my electorate, some 20-odd kilometres south of the CBD, I rejoice in sharing some 196 park-and-ride spots at two facilities. One is wholly in the seat of Davenport and the other is on the border of the seats of Hurtle Vale and Black.

There are, to put it bluntly, far too few park-and-ride facilities in the south, and we therefore cannot be surprised when patronage of public transport options in the south are less than what is desirable or optimal given particularly the increasing cost of fuel, registration, etc. It is a major issue for people in the south. The advent of rail in the seat of Davenport by virtue of the Flinders railway station being open should enable the provision of cheap park-and-ride facilities in land which is already vacant in and around those electorates and those areas, as well as a hub-and-spoke approach to providing public transport not just to the CBD area but equally to the Flinders precinct as a destination, or indeed the Marion Shopping Centre.

The proposition that I have advanced in the past and will continue to advance with the minister, and indeed with any potential stakeholders and/or people who have some interest in the matter, is that there should be literally hundreds more park-and-ride spots in and around the Windebanks Road area of my electorate, in and around Flagstaff Hill, and additionally off further to the east at a former dump area just off Shepherds Hill Road; and, indeed, there are additional capabilities with land that is proximate to Glenthorne National Park.

These park-and-ride areas, were they to be implemented, should provide readily accessible, cheap and plentiful car parking options where they are served by small bus services running on a frequent basis dropping patrons to the Flinders rail—or to the Flinders precinct. If they wish to conduct business at Flinders, or to study, to seek medical attention, etc., they can. Should they wish to proceed by train to the city for work, study or other reasons they can, or they can indeed be transported back via loop through the Marion Shopping Centre precinct.

This is a reality, and in all seriousness it is high time. In that context, it is great to have the prospect at hand of having rail transfer and all the advantages that it brings become a reality in my part of the southern parts of Adelaide, which I unashamedly propagate the view are poorly served by public transport. It must be said that I expect it is less deliberately as opposed to simply being overlooked, but my intention is to advocate aggressively for a change in that given the opportunity that the Flinders railway station will provide to the area.

I touched briefly on the prerequisite that, for this to be successful, proper integration is needed of that rail station with bus services. Now, that seems a self-evident proposition, but the practical reality is that that may not necessarily be the case. There are lots of moving parts, if I can put it that way. Lots of government departments and lots of entities are involved. The practical reality is that, for this to work and for reasonable public transport options to be finally delivered to the people in my electorate in particular but in neighbouring electorates as well, there has to be consideration for the integration of the bus services with the rail hub at Flinders.

I urge all the ministers and the departments involved who have been working on this to make it a reality, to keep up the good work and to ensure that we have a practical and workable solution that is robust enough to not only serve the immediate needs of the area in particular but also—as we all hope patronage levels increase in concert with or as a result of the increased amenity—effectively halve the transport time taken to get into the city.

As patronage rates increase and therefore the rate of passenger take-up for the area increases, we need to ensure we have adequate infrastructure in and around that railway station. As I said, it seems and sounds self-evident, but the practical realities are that there are inevitable temptations to scrimp on that. Some of the planning documents I have seen, particularly in my work on the Public Works Committee, are somewhat underwhelming to say the least, with people being dropped off on or around the side of South Road and expected to traipse some 400 metres to the railway station. I think it would be scandalously stupid if we were to implement that, to state it mildly, but it would also, as a result, be a self-fulfilling prophecy in that we would have very few people using it.

It is great news that rail is returning to Davenport; the practical reality is that we need to ensure that we provide the appropriate levels of infrastructure to support the use of rail, otherwise we will end up with the situation that we had in 1969, where the railway station was closed, the rail line itself was torn up (in 1972), and we now have an extensive walking trail and/or bike trail all the way from Hallett Cove and, in particular, from Happy Valley down through Reynella, as far as Willunga.

To reiterate, the prerequisites are that we must make it as attractive and as easy as possible for people to use rail transport—in this case, the railway station in Flinders. In order to do that, by far and away the best bet and the easiest methodology is to provide many more park-and-ride facilities where the local population can easily access them and where there is the added advantage of being built on land that is already vacant by virtue of the fact the land is under high tension powerlines or is the site of a former dump, etc. There are options to facilitate the sort of take-up I have described and it is important for the future of public transport that those options are explored.

I should point out that another impact of that type of investment will not just be the use by the resident community of the southern parts of Adelaide, and in particular the constituents I have in the seat of Davenport, of the rail system to go out and do business in the Adelaide CBD or indeed at places en route from Flinders to the CBD, but, of course, it will also provide our area with the capacity to service incoming visitors to the area, which is not an unreasonable prospect given the advent of the investment in Glenthorne National Park. Glenthorne Farm is a reality today. As a government, we went to the election last year promising to bring about the reality of South Australia's second national park and I am delighted to reiterate in this context that that is a reality.

The practicality of the enhanced use of rail transport into the seat of Davenport, in particular through the advent of the Flinders rail station and the hub-and-spoke approach I have talked about, is that that then provides a ready-made means whereby visitors to Glenthorne can very easily traverse the area using public transport. Failing that, the only practical options are, in particular, the use of a motor vehicle, which in many respects runs counter to the objective that we have in re-establishing a pristine or semi-pristine environment in Glenthorne itself.

I regret that I did not have time to cover off the rail amendment bill's urine test provisions; nonetheless, I have been delighted to have the opportunity to talk about the return of rail to Davenport.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (16:30): I rise to speak on the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous No. 4) Amendment Bill 2019, which amends the Rail Safety National Law by inserting new provisions relating to drug and alcohol testing to provide an additional exception to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act and to implement routine amendments arising from national law.

The discussion around the bill has been that in December 2009 the Council of Australian Governments agreed to implement a national single rail safety regulator and develop a rail safety national law, which a regulator would administer. The National Transport Commission was tasked with developing the national law, and the Transport and Infrastructure Council is responsible for approving the national law. The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator has the overarching function of working with rail transport operators, rail safety workers and others involved in railway operation to improve rail safety nationally. It promotes safety and safety improvement as a fundamental objective in the delivery of rail transport in Australia.

South Australia, as the host jurisdiction, is responsible for the passage of the national law and any amendment bills through the South Australian parliament, as well as for the making of regulations to support the national law. Once commenced in South Australia, each participating jurisdiction has an application act that automatically adopts the national law and subsequent amendments into its own legislation.

In Western Australia, their parliament needs to first consider all amendments to the national law before they can be adopted. The national law came into operation on 20 January 2013, and the attached rail amendment bill is the fourth amendment package. The bill was drafted by the South Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel on behalf of the national Parliamentary Counsel's Committee.

When we were adopting the national law in 2012, the council requested a review of the current drug and alcohol legislative requirements, the scope of which the council approved in 2014. Section 127 of the national law governs the requirement for a rail safety worker to submit to a drug screening test, oral fluid analysis or blood tests, or a combination of these. The rail amendment bill complements section 127 by including the ability to require urine testing as an alternative method of testing rail safety workers for drugs and alcohol.

The rail amendment bill amends the national law by defining what constitutes a urine test. It includes a urine test as a method of testing and inserts a requirement for a rail transport operator to do all that is reasonably possible to facilitate an authorised officer in exercising drug and alcohol testing powers. It prescribes offences and penalties for hindering, obstructing, assaulting, threatening or intimidating an authorised person and for interfering with, tampering or destroying a urine, oral fluid or blood sample. It ensures that a urine test, together with the existing oral fluid and blood tests, cannot be used for any other purpose.

If we look at freedom of information under section 263 of the national law, it prescribes acts, including the FOI Act, that apply as laws of a participating jurisdiction for the purposes of the national law. Over the past five years, the rail regulator has encountered a number of instances where the interpretation of the FOI Act has been very complex—as it is—or contrary to the intention of the national law and requires further clarification. The operation of the national law is routinely monitored by the NTC, the rail regulator and the jurisdictions to ensure its effectiveness and identify the need for any other minor administrative amendment that may be required to better facilitate the operation of the national law.

As part of the process, the rail amendment bill contains the following routine amendments: the ability to allow a rail regulator to access the use of private sector auditing, amending definitions of section 4 of the level crossing and rail or road crossing and deleting the definition of railway crossing; the creation of penalties for the public road managers who fail in their risk management duties at road or rail crossings; and substitution of the deleted railway crossing at level crossings in section 200.

While the legalities are there, I want to touch on the fact that over a number of years, sadly, here in South Australia we have seen the demise of rail. The electorate of Chaffey was once a proud rail community, and once upon a time, particularly in the Mallee, we had large communities that survived with the rail towns that were brought together to build the rail. I know that some of my small communities had populations of 300 and 400 people while the rail was being built. Sadly, they are gone. Those communities have disappeared, just as the rail has in the Mallee. The rail, particularly from Tookayerta just out of Loxton down to Tailem Bend, has ceased operation.

Back in 2014, we saw one customer, Viterra, decide that they were not going to put grain on rail anymore. It had become inefficient and uneconomical for that grain to be put into wagons out of Tookayerta and head down to Tailem Bend because the rail line and the infrastructure had got to a point where the use-by date had come and gone. There were restrictions, particularly on speed, heat and load capacity. We know that when moving bulk commodities it is about how much grain can be put into wagons to find efficiencies, making sure that if we are looking for efficiencies they not only help our growers and communities survive but also take the pressure off our roads.

We saw the demise of the rail line from Pinnaroo down to Tailem Bend. Sadly, those two Mallee rail lines took a huge amount of pressure off our highways. Now Genesee & Wyoming Australia have not been able to secure an ongoing contract with Viterra to keep those lines open, and all that grain is now being transported by road, putting more and more pressure on roads. The Tod Highway and the Karoonda Highway were built for eight-tonne Bedford trucks. They were not built for 62½ tonne B-double trucks and they were not built for the amount of grain that we see rolling up and down the highways.

Little grain goes upstate through the Mallee; most of it heads out of the Mallee down to the large receivals, whether at the port of Adelaide, Outer Harbor, Roseworthy or Tailem Bend. The larger receival depots are now using the roads as their cash cow. Rail has seen a demise, and we are seeing it now. It is almost like a cancer, and it is spreading over to Eyre Peninsula. Sadly, the only customer, Viterra, in association with Genesee & Wyoming Australia, is putting that grain on road.

The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure has a massive job in front of him to undertake audits on where to spend money on upgrading our highways to make sure that our roads are safe and have the capacity for those larger trucks to get the grain into receival depots and to get the grain into ports and into ships and to get it to our export destinations. Grain is one of our largest export commodities. It is vital that we have efficiencies within the logistics of getting that grain to its destination.

As I said, many of the highways in the Mallee were built for Bedford trucks. What we have seen over a number of years is that the only maintenance upgrades to those roads have been some shoulder sealing. Ironically, when the previous government came in, we saw the reopening of the zircon mine at Mindarie. We saw all the pomp and ceremony.

The then premier and energy and mining minister came up for photos. They said that they were going to rebuild the roads and put larger shoulders on them to make sure that they had the capacity to take the zircon out of the Mallee and down to port. Sadly, we only saw a small amount of shoulder sealing. We saw no significant amount of road upgrades, except for a small amount south of Wynarka. It was a token gesture of upgrading roads. What we see now, particularly in the Mallee, are an estimated 6,250 extra truck movements down there to move the grain.

I am sure that if we look across the gulf to Eyre Peninsula, we will see the extra pressure that the cessation of rail is going to put on those roads. The Minister for Transport has a massive job to undertake now to make sure that those roads are capable. It is reported that there could be up to 30,000 extra truckloads, or extra truck movements, on those highways, particularly the Tod Highway. As part of a responsible government, I think that the minister already has a robust regional road plan in place. I know that he is spending money on a number of commercial road tracks that are used for commercial delivery of grain in particular.

There are some larger commodities that we are seeing come out of Eyre Peninsula. We see all our livestock and all our seafood on trucks. A lot of our commodities come out of Eyre Peninsula, just like they do now from Yorke Peninsula. But I think what we are seeing now are commodity sectors growing as they never have before, such as red meat, livestock and broadacre horticulture. We are seeing the wine industry growing. The value and tonnages are increasing significantly on an annual basis.

All these commodities, all these products, whether they are raw products or value-add, are on trucks now. They are all on the road. Not only are they putting more pressure on our roads but they are creating some level of uncertainty for some of those roads, and so I am sure that you will see the maintenance program rolled out. Most people would take note that the RAA has just made a prediction of the amount of money that they would like to see a federal government put into regional roads in South Australia: it is over $7 billion.

Sadly, the previous government did not understand what a regional road was. I know that the then minister for transport came out to the Riverland as part of a country cabinet. It was one of the very few trips out of the city for him. What he encountered was the Karoonda Highway and he was shocked. When he got to Loxton that night in his chauffeur-driven limousine, he had almost chipped his teeth as the road was so rough. We saw that he realised just how poor some of the regional roads were—the Karoonda Highway being one of them—so, after a visit to the dentist where he got his teeth fixed, he decided that he would put some money into shoulder sealing. That was some welcome relief, but it was not enough.

We need to understand that it is critical that regional roads—those commercial highways for getting our bulk commodities to port, market, processing plants or receival depots—have a focus put on them not just by the state government but by the federal government, too. We know how we can leverage money from a federal government. The current Minister for Transport and Infrastructure has done an outstanding job leveraging money out of the federal government, particularly for our regional road upgrades, and I hope he continues to be able to do that.

I live in the regions and experience those roads on a day-to-day basis. I live on a federal highway, and the number of trucks is increasing. Those trucks have gone from conventional semitrailers with a 24-tonne load. They moved up to 40-odd tonne B-doubles, and we have seen an increase to 62.5-tonne road trains that are now on our highways. Initially, that was to reduce the number of truck movements, but farmers are becoming bigger, better and smarter. They are producing more, particularly with livestock and rotations in the grain sector. They are now growing more and producing more, and needing more inputs, and we are seeing more pressure put on those roads.

Sadly, for the benefit of rail, in the Mallee it has been and gone. If we look across to Eyre Peninsula, it has been and it is going. Other states have reinvested in their rail, and I think it is too late. As an incoming government, we have looked far and wide, and it is something that almost cannot be resurrected. If we are going to utilise rail, we need to make sure that it is maintained and that there is a competitor to ensure that it is cost competitive. This is to keep the lessees of our train infrastructure on their toes so that they continue to upgrade that infrastructure.

This amendment bill should be supported. I am sure that everyone in this chamber will work together to make sure that the amendments are supported and move swiftly through the parliament.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (16:47): I would like to thank all members who made a contribution to this bill on both sides of this chamber, especially those who have given us a sterling history of what rail has meant to South Australia. As the minister in this area, I know there are a number of passionate advocates for rail across our state. Those people would at times like the government to be doing more than we are, especially around passenger services and freight tasks.

We see a future for rail in South Australia, but it has to stack up. We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can so that our bulk commodity producers and extractors get their products where they need to go as quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. We know that will make a difference to their bottom line and will also help to grow the regions within our beautiful state. With that, I would like to thank everybody for their contribution and I look forward to the speedy passage of all stages of the bill this afternoon.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clause 1.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I move:

Amendment No 1 [TransInfrLocalGov–1]—

Page 2, line 5—Delete 'No 4'

This is amendment is moved because 'No 4' refers to this being the fourth package of amendment legislation on the Rail Safety National Law. We have a new parliament so all that came before 17 March last year has entered the ether and we need to start again. As such, 'No 4' gets the chop.

Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.

Remaining clauses (2 to 13) and title passed.

Bill reported with amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (16:50): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.