Park-and-Ride Facilities

Mr BOYER (Wright) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Have Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure staff held discussions with Tea Tree Gully council about building the additional parking spaces promised for the Golden Grove park-and-ride at any other location?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:52): I thank the member for Wright for his question. I was asked a bit of a bizarre question in relation to this, which was again like the Minister for Environment, backgrounded via the media to ask some questions. It had a nefarious purpose, but I did get to the bottom of it.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There is still three minutes and 45 seconds to go.

The SPEAKER: Order! I am trying to listen to the answer.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The answer is that there is a north-east planning study being undertaken at the moment. It should arrive on my desk, I am told, within the next few weeks. It will outline options for the best way forward because, again, a bit like yesterday's discussion, when we undertake this infrastructure work, there needs to be a degree of strategy around it. Can I say for the record that the Marshall Liberal government is committed to delivering the Golden Grove park-and-ride. The money was in last year's budget—

The SPEAKER: And Paradise.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —$18½ million. I note, Mr Speaker, without incurring your wrath, that Paradise will be delivered first—

The SPEAKER: Absolutely.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and then we are on to Golden Grove. We are also considering the augmentation of the O-Bahn out to Golden Grove. If you were to look at options for delivering that, it would make sense to couple it together with a park-and-ride. To make it very clear, if you are going to extend the O-Bahn, which is something that the north-east planning study is considering, you want to make sure that wherever you stick a park-and-ride complements that. I think that is strategic; I think that is quite intelligent. I think what the member for Wright is trying to suggest is that somehow this study is going to see not a park-and-ride but just a number of car parks all over the place. That is not true. It was information that was backgrounded to a journalist.

When we were asked the question, we were able to refute that claim, which is why, I assume, the story never appeared in the paper, but potentially why the member for Wright is trying to bring the issue back up here in parliament under the guise of parliamentary privilege. I'm glad I am able to provide this information to the house to restate our commitment to delivering a Golden Grove park-and-ride.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Mr Speaker, I would never dare to go against any of your rulings in this way. I merely seek to serve the house with information, and to clear up any misconceptions that people might be trying to spread around the north-east, and to say that this is a Marshall Liberal government that will deliver on its promises but will do so in a strategic and planned way that gets the biggest and best bang for buck for our infrastructure dollar.