Roadworks Signs

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Minister, what is being done to alleviate inconvenience to motorists caused by unnecessary roadworks signs? With your leave, and that of the house, Mr Speaker, I will explain a little bit further.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Due to the extraordinary amount of roadworks in the electorate of Narungga at the moment, there are a significant number of roadworks signs out for no apparent reason, which is causing great distress and inconvenience to motorists. What is being done to alleviate that inconvenience?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:18): I thank the member for the question. It is a great question. I understand his interest in this because of the roadworks that are being done in his electorate. I understand that any sign being left out when it is not warranted would be a bugbear for the people of his community.

What I do have to point out is that when we came to government we were left with a $750 million road maintenance backlog. They don't like talking about it on that side of the chamber, but it is a fact. If we have a look at some of the works that we have done since coming into government, most recently, of course, we put $100 million towards a partnership with the federal government to have $268 million of road maintenance work for the backlog that we were left with. In fact, $7.6 billion of our spend over the next four years—

Mr Picton: Answer the question.

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —is going into transport and infrastructure projects. In the member for Narungga's electorate is the Port Wakefield overpass. The duplication of the highway in Port Wakefield is one of those huge projects—$80 million to commence the duplication of the Port Augusta Highway—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —$46.5 million for the Upper Yorke Peninsula road network; upgrades of $2.2 million for the Kadina to Moonta Road as well, in conjunction with the Copper Coast Council to rehabilitate the existing road there, of course, and the stormwater also. There is $2.1 million for resurfacing works on the Port Wakefield Road near Dublin. That has been greatly appreciated—and it goes on. Hang on, there's more. The economic stimulus response from—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —the Morrison-Marshall government means $144½ million to go towards shovel-ready projects. I know again the member is very keen on that because some of those works include—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat for a moment. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The question from the member for Narungga was quite specific about why roadwork signs are being left out with no work being undertaken. The minister is merely debating the answer.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is with respect to standing order 98(a). The question which I listened to very carefully referred—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee can leave for the remainder of question time. The member for Lee is perfectly entitled to rise on a point of order and when he does so it's the obligation of the Chair to rule on the point of order, which is precisely what I am doing.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: I listened very carefully to the question from the member for Narungga. The question referred certainly to specific matters. It referred also to a range of roadworks going on throughout the state. I am listening very carefully to the minister's answer. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: These are the roads where the roadwork is happening that the member for Narungga alludes to. Again, I congratulate him on his advocacy for his community to make sure these projects get done. But I continue with those works that we are delivering and we are proud to be doing that. Of course, the Copper Coast Highway in the vicinity of Kulpara; the Spencer Highway, Maitland to Minlaton; Minlaton Road, Minlaton to Stansbury; Maitland Road, Ardrossan to Maitland; and the Yorke Highway, Ardrossan to Minlaton. These combine to about $13 million worth of projects.

With that little list, you can see why the member is concerned about the issue that he has raised and I understand why. Doing these roadworks, of course, creates jobs and it creates jobs in the traffic management industry. It's a very important industry to keep the all the road workers out there who are being supported by this investment we are making safe and it keeps the people using the roads safe as well. We want to do all we can to make sure that we don't impact communities and make sure that we keep productivity at a premium—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and keep speed limits as high as they can be. There was some legislation moved recently which had quite extensive fines for people who were doing the wrong thing. We did move some regulations to put in a smaller fine for people who are caught doing the wrong thing of around $1,250. We have brought it down to a far more reasonable level. The industry was actually very supportive of that to make sure that we get great outcomes. By putting that in place, making sure that people are doing the right thing, it will minimise the number of works.

We do not apologise for that big list of works that I talked about because we need to get these works done and people in our regions in particular where a lot of this is happening are appreciative of that work. We ask them to bear with us, but we will do all we can. If people have incidents where they feel that the roadworks or the signs have been left out a bit longer than they should, we ask them to contact the Traffic Management Centre.

Also, we need to understand, as it has been explained to me by the engineers, that when roadworks surfaces are laid there is a period when they need to be bedded down and that's related to time and also the number of vehicles that travel over that road. We want to make sure that the road improvement works that we are delivering are delivered on time and with a minimal amount of disruption to people in the community. Of course, we know that the RAA has supported this and so, too, has the Freight Council. We are working with communities to make sure that we get these works done, keep people safe as well and keep speed limits at the highest level while safety is of paramount importance.