South Eastern Freeway

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall government is assisting the freight industry to stay safe on the South Eastern Freeway?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:31): I thank the member for Kavel for his question and note that he's a fierce advocate for his community in the Adelaide Hills and also the fact that his community does rely very heavily on the South Eastern Freeway.

The Marshall government is investing tens of millions of dollars into upgrading the South Eastern Freeway to improve safety and create more jobs, but I will come back to the more jobs and the project in a moment. It's not just commuters, I should say, who rely on the South Eastern Freeway. It's our freight industry that supports thousands of jobs here in South Australia.

I would like to acknowledge how crucially important the freight industry is to South Australia. Those opposite may not care for them. We know that they are incredibly important, especially during COVID-19. They have done an outstanding job to make sure that we have kept our supermarket shelves stocked and kept people operating here in South Australia.

Steve Shearer at SARTA has been working very closely with the state government, and I thank him and his organisation, along with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and the Marshall government. They have been in lock step with making sure the freight industry continues on strong through COVID-19.

Before I continue, those opposite may not be familiar with the South Eastern Freeway. After all, it is after the tollgate. Of course, we know that the South Eastern Freeway feeds a lot of very important electorates—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —the member for Hammond's electorate; your electorate, sir; the member for Kavel, we have mentioned him; the member for Finniss; and also the member for MacKillop. Of course, it goes all the way to Mount Gambier as well.

I mentioned that the Marshall government is investing millions of dollars into the South Eastern Freeway. We are building what matters. Of course, the Managed Motorway project has just been completed, adding an extra lane from Crafers to Stirling to remove some congestion along there and improve safety again for the people who use that stretch of road.

We are investing $35 million into resurfacing the South Eastern Freeway and this will generate more jobs from the tollgate up to Stirling. This is a very important project, improving safety on the South Eastern Freeway. We know this will be a project that will cause some inconvenience. We ask people to bear with us because we are building what matters for the people of South Australia.

I'm told by the trucking industry and the people who live in the Adelaide Hills, including the member for Kavel, that this stretch of road hasn't been touched for more than 20 years. In fact, I think Di Laidlaw from the upper house was the minister in this place when that was last resurfaced and had some improvements done—that was the last time it was touched. It was ignored by those opposite for such a long period of time, it's degrading now and we are fixing it, building what matters.

As I have said, as well as helping the freight industry improve safety at every turn, it was my pleasure to be at the SARTA headquarters with the Premier and the Minister for Innovation and Skills to launch the Heavy Vehicle Simulator, a package worth some $450,000. We have partnered again with the federal government, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and, of course, the Minister for Innovation and Skills has invested in this as well through his department, along with the Department for Infrastructure and Transport.

What this new simulator will be able to do—and again, a lot of this is put together here in South Australia—is allow the industry to go out and help educate people on how to drive, in particular on the South Eastern Freeway, safely. It will be upskilling our truck drivers that have been on the road for a long period of time or new truck drivers at the same time. This is a great piece of kit.

We know we need to build what matters and build those important roads to make sure that our road network is as safe as possible. Then there's also the education and the training, and that is what we're delivering as well to these people that work on our roads. This will make the trucking industry safer, it will make people that use our roads safer and we are continuing to build those piece of infrastructure that will make South Australia safer. Right across our state, we're investing billions of dollars into making our roads safer so that we have a better transport system here in South Australia.