Regional Roads

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on the Marshall Liberal government's strong plan for better and safer roads on Eyre Peninsula?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:00): Yes, I can. I thank the member for Flinders for his question and also thank him for his cooperation and help in dealing with what is a very difficult issue on Eyre Peninsula; that is, the fact that the rail line that carted some 700,000 tonnes worth of grain down to Port Lincoln was no longer viable. That decision taken by Genesee & Wyoming and Viterra to no longer use the rail line does pose some difficult questions in relation to how we see trucks move on Eyre Peninsula roads.

Fantastically, what we have is a great relationship with the federal government, one where we sat down with them and worked through how we were going to fix and deal with this issue. What we got last week was a fantastic announcement, where the Prime Minister came over here and, in conjunction with the Premier, announced some $415 million worth of works that are going to be brought forward and delivered that much more quickly on regional roads in South Australia. Again, that is an example of what happens when instead of just having a fake fight and instead of throwing the toys out of the cot, you sit down and work together: you can actually deliver for the people of South Australia.

Most importantly, $125 million of this money is earmarked for Eyre Peninsula and some $32 million worth of works for roads on Lower Eyre Peninsula to deal quite specifically with the issues that exist with the closure of EP Rail. We do note that this is an environment that is changing over on EP with the opening up of Lucky Bay, and I understand that they have taken their first few shipments of grain. The transshipment vessel is being built and will be on its way. That is going to change the way that traffic movements and road train movements happen on Eyre Peninsula, potentially moving some of them away from Port Lincoln and dragging them further up the eastern side of the coast.

We stand ready with $32 million worth of money to help fix the roads that need to be fixed to support the increased grain movements on Eyre Peninsula. This is a great step forward to fixing not only some of those issues in Port Lincoln but also some of those more longstanding road safety and vehicle productivity issues that exist both up and down the Lincoln Highway and inland on roads such as the Birdseye, the Tod, Bratten Way and others.

There is so much more that we need to do and are going to do across on Eyre Peninsula. I speak specifically about the Eyre Highway, a highway that is a route between Port Augusta and Perth and one that is significant in terms of how goods and services move around our state. The balance of this $125 million is earmarked for that road.

I had the opportunity, together with the Minister for Energy and Mining, on Monday night to talk to Iluka Resources—a company that does great things across on the Far West Coast, mining mineral sands and helping to grow exports out of our state—firsthand about what some of this money could do. What we have is $125 million here to support regional economies in South Australia, to improve road safety, to improve heavy vehicle productivity, to improve the ability to get grain out of our state and overseas and export dollars into our state much more quickly, and also to help try to spark new investment in regional areas that is going to help grow jobs for our state.

This is a great time for South Australian country road users, with a federal government and a state government that after so long are actually willing to work together to invest in regional South Australia. The people of Eyre Peninsula will all be much better for it.