Infrastructure Australia

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:46): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister provide an update to the house as to how many new projects have been submitted by DPTI to the Infrastructure Australia priority list? Sir, with your leave and that of the house, I will further explain.

Leave granted.

Mr DULUK: Submissions for the February 2021 Infrastructure Australia priority list closed on 31 August this year.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:47): I thank the member very much for his question and I know he is very interested in this. Of course, infrastructure is a very key part of what we are delivering here in South Australia. I did talk yesterday about the $12.9 billion of infrastructure projects that this government is very proudly delivering. We have a number of projects on the Infrastructure Australia list, and the department is also working with Infrastructure SA to put more onto that list. That list will be released in February.

We have put a number on that list, and we have a number that are being considered as well. We have actually received an opportunity to continue to put projects on that list. I don't have the exact number in front of me, but I am happy to go away and have a look at that for the local member, but I can assure him that this is a key focus.

Of course, we have also been working very closely with the federal government on stimulus as we go through this COVID-19 pandemic the world is experiencing. We know it's a health crisis on one hand and it's an economic health crisis on the other hand. That's why again we have fast-tracked that $144½ million worth of road projects, a lot of them in the regions focused on road safety.

We know, again, the history of the lack of road maintenance over 16 years of the Labor government. We are getting in there and fixing a lot of that, adding road shoulders and audio tactile line marking to a number of our regional roads as well as the north-south freight route, of course—some $12 million going into upgrading the roads there as well. The South Eastern Freeway is another aspect that we are looking at and getting on with fixing.

This is stimulus money. This is improving our road safety network and making sure that we are generating jobs for South Australians. That is the key here. At this time, we want to be generating jobs as well as introducing and improving our infrastructure, particularly around our road network. As for the finer detail of the member's question, I am happy to take that on notice and come back to him.