North-South Corridor

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:35): My question is for the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister please update the house about how the Marshall Liberal government is delivering the north-south corridor project and creating thousands of jobs right here in our great state of South Australia?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:35): I thank the member for her very important question and note there is no greater advocate for this project than the member for Elder. She knows that it will help her constituents bypass 21 sets of traffic lights, save 24 minutes in travel time and improve safety on our roads as well. That's what we are about on this side: we want to improve efficiency and improve road safety. On that side, they may not be that keen.

This will help her community. It will take 110,000 vehicles a day off the graded part of South Road and put them underground, into the tunnels, and that's why we went with this project. Again, those vehicles—those trucks and cars—coming off the road and going into the tunnels will be a great win for her community. The government made a very important announcement over the weekend and we said that, as we go along with this, we are releasing different parts of the north-south corridor project as we get the final details around this reference design.

The reference design in total will be released at the end of the year but, as we know for sure and certain, along the way we are letting the people of the community know. As soon as we know, we will let the community know. Of course, we announced the northern entry to the southern tunnel, the exit points at the integration there with Anzac Highway and the direct connection into the city, which is a great win again for the communities in particular in the member for Elder's electorate.

It was very important that we worked through the project not only to focus on busting congestion and improving safety but also to maintain east-west connectivity with this project, and that's what became very clear to us as we went with the hybrid+ solution. Of course, it is the north-south corridor, but we have to think about the east-west connectivity across the way as well. That's why we put tunnels on the table.

We know those opposite put tunnels in the too-hard basket. Their solution was an open motorway that cut a swathe right through the middle of Adelaide, right through the middle of South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —dissecting these communities and not allowing that east-west connectivity. But, no, we looked a little bit further and we went—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —to tunnels. This is the 10.5 kilometre stretch. We are very proud of this.

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The tunnels are part of the north-south corridor, and we are delivering it.

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98, sir:

(a) In answering a question, a Minister or other Member replies to the substance of the question and may not debate the matter…

The minister is making assertions about Labor Party policy, which is debate, and I ask that you bring him back to the answer.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister is coming to the substance of the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I certainly am, Mr Speaker. Talking about the great results that we are delivering, I was doing a compare and contrast of what the people of that community would have been facing had they gone with the open-cut motorway that they don't want to talk about now because we've got a better solution. An open-cut motorway would have taken an extra 480 properties. We didn't go with that. We went with the hybrid+ solution.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: That will make it easier for commuters to get into town and, when they hook over and join into Anzac Highway, it will be very much appreciated.

I would like to take this opportunity to also thank the department and the north-south corridor team, led by Susana Fueyo, and the design work they did to minimise the acquisitions that I talked about and to deliver the solutions that we have. We know there was some conversation about the connection with Anzac Highway taking a number of homes there. The team went away and did some more work and, while some trees will be taken, they have managed to save a number of homes and properties and heritage buildings, which we think is a really great outcome.

As to city shaping, with this project we know there's a great opportunity to increase the tree canopy. I know the Minister for Environment is very keen on that, doing a great job with the Green Adelaide project and making sure we improve that tree canopy so we have the opportunity to increase the tree canopy across this project by some 20 per cent of what is there at the moment. That will be a really great result.

We don't have enough time to talk about all the great features of this project, but we do note that this is integrating with Anzac Highway and the Gallipoli Underpass. Of course, we are working very closely with the RSL and veterans as well to use this project to even further enhance the great respect and memory that we have of the ANZACs and our service people at this intersection, and they will be remembered.