North-South Corridor

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:20): The Torrens to Darlington South Road upgrade will be the biggest infrastructure project in the electorate of Badcoe in a generation. The project will consist of two tunnels. The above-ground section between those tunnels spans my electorate precisely, from Cross Road to Richmond Road. This means the people of Badcoe are the people set to be most detrimentally affected by this major project.

Do not get me wrong, Labor absolutely supports the upgrade of the north-south corridor; in fact, Labor was the instigator of this incredible public infrastructure project. But that does not escape the fact that for many people in my neighbourhood, for many families, for many businesses, for schools, for churches and for sports clubs, this project will seriously impact them, and for many it will be a heartbreaking outcome.

As the member for Badcoe, I am elected to stick up for my community, to fight for what they need, to ensure they get the best deal possible, even when the likely outcomes for particular individuals are poor. I have been actively engaging with my community about the future of South Road before I was even elected, but since budget day I have stepped up those efforts. Through public meetings, doorknocking, phone calls and Zooms, I have heard from hundreds of local people.

They are people in Black Forest, Glandore, Everard Park, Kurralta Park, Keswick, Marleston and Ashford who will have a six-lane sunken roadway between their suburbs; people in Clarence Gardens, Clarence Park and Edwardstown who are concerned about the future of Emerson Crossing and Cross Road; and people in suburbs like Forestville, Millswood and Plympton who are worried about the inevitable road diversions and rat running. What people in my community are feeling right now is uncertainty, stress and confusion. For some who strongly suspect their home or business will be taken from them, it is helplessness or even anger.

On behalf of my community, I am calling on the government to make a decision about land acquisitions as swiftly as possible and as decisively as possible. My community is saying to me that the cruellest thing is being left in limbo. The project has been announced, but with no detail about the alignment and no advice about land acquisition or where a sound wall will go. They have no idea about the future of their biggest asset, their home or business, and no idea whether to sell now or wait, to invest in their property or not.

It has been difficult to get clear, consistent information from the government but, from what has been disclosed, it appears that it will be six to 12 months or maybe longer before compulsory acquisition letters will even go out. That is more than a year of uncertainty for people about whether their property is even in the firing line, choking their chance to make important decisions for themselves and their families. For that reason, the government must make a firm decision swiftly, both for the mental health and the financial health of my community.

So far, the communication from the government has not filled my neighbourhood with much hope that we will be listened to, or that the government even cares who we are or where we are. There have been scores of problems with erroneous subsurface drilling notification letters—wrong dates, wrong streets, wrong times—and flyers just not making it on time to be of any use to local residents trying to figure out how to get in and out of their streets each day.

Last week, a flyer was distributed in Glandore notifying locals of a road closure in Clarence Gardens. Residents may well have chucked it in the bin thinking it was not relevant to their suburb but, alas, it was yet another typo. Put simply, if the government does not know where we are, it does not fill us with confidence that they care about us.

As further evidence there is little regard for people in our neighbourhood, this exchange went on in the Budget and Finance Committee recently. The CEO of DIT was asked if there would be a briefing about the project provided to the local MP. Mr Tony Braxton-Smith laughed and replied:

I've got no idea who the member for Badcoe is; in fact, I don’t even know where Badcoe is or how you spell it, for that matter—I presume with an 'e' on the end?

Why would he know where our community is? It is only the biggest project that he is executing and it is acutely affecting the people of Badcoe. Comments like that from the head of the project send a clear message to my community: he could not care less about them; he could not care where they are, what they need or who their local representative is. It is not a great start.

There is an opportunity for things to get back on track. The minister can start by ensuring the people of Badcoe are adequately represented on the community and business reference groups. With a total of 10 to 15 members on each group in each of the separate north and south groups, I think at least half the members should be from the Badcoe area.

I say that because those are the suburbs affected by the above-ground section of the project. There must be representation from those who are likely to be compulsorily acquired, likely to be living near a sound wall and likely to be adversely affected by the construction phase, which will last at least a decade.