Infrastructure Funding

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house why South Australia has failed to secure its population share of national infrastructure funding in last night's budget?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order: the question contains argument and assumed fact and is therefore out of order.

The SPEAKER: 'Failed to secure'. I am going to allow the question. I do accept that it is on the border. I am going to allow that question. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:18): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think we can all agree as an accepted fact that about 7 per cent of the population of this country resides in South Australia.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: So the question is: did we get 4, 5 or 6 per cent in last night's budget? No. Did we get 7 per cent in last night's budget? No. Did we get 8 or 9 or 10? We got 11½ per cent of the national share of new road funding in last night's budget. Now, 11½ per cent is more than 7 per cent. You were right, Minister for Education: there was a lack of fact in that question.

Last night's budget is the answer: 11½ per cent of new money being spent is coming to South Australia. We could not be more proud of the fact that we have delivered a pipeline of civil construction work that is not only going to deliver certainty for the civil construction sector but also get us ready for what is to come, and that is that these projects are about busting congestion to support population growth.

There are also a number of other factors that we have weighed into this. We talked yesterday about the outer ring route, but we also need to get ready for the north-south corridor being built, which is why the Goody Road/Springbank Road/Daws Road intersection is so important. It is why, down on Brighton Road, doing the Hove crossing is so important. It is why, for instance, the Torrens Road Ovingham overpass grade separation is important because, once the Regency Road to Pym Street section is completed, we are going to see traffic change.

No longer will we see tens of thousands of cars go down Port Wakefield Road and Main North Road into the city via O'Connell: we are actually going to see those people come down the Northern Connector, get onto the superway, get onto the Pym Street to Regency Road section and come up Port Road and Torrens Road. We have thought ahead, and we realised that we need to proactively deal with bottlenecks before they occur. It is why putting money into the Ovingham grade separation is an extremely important project.

There is a strong strategy about busting congestions at key pinch points across the network. The north-south corridor is a big project. It will take a lot of South Australia's focus when it comes to infrastructure effort and civil construction effort, which is why we got in first with these metropolitan projects. It was important to do the work beforehand and get ready to build this big behemoth, which is the final 10½ kilometres of the north-south corridor. There is a plan. There is a strategy, and it is in the forward estimates.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: It is ready to go. I am so proud and excited to be part of a Marshall Liberal government that sat down with the federal government and delivered well over the odds of our population share on new infrastructure investment that's going to deliver for the people of South Australia. We see across so many spheres of this new Marshall Liberal government what a proactive and cooperative relationship delivers you, and that is money into our state. We are no longer throwing banana skins around the place or jumping up and down. We are having—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —adult, strategic conversations that deliver. It has taken 12 months in this instance to fix up the black hole and the mess that was left to us by the former government, but we have done it and we will continue to do it.

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Our message to South Australians and everybody who works in the civil construction industry is that they finally have a government that's got their back.