North Coast Road

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:57): I rise today to talk about North Coast Road, which is a stretch of road that runs from Point Turton to Corny Point, right along the beautiful coastline of Yorke Peninsula. If we imagine Yorke Peninsula as a leg, which it resembles, it is the part of the foot where you might kick a football—that is the part on which North Coast Road travels. It is a council road and also a high-traffic one and increasingly so a tourism route, which as I said draws a large number of vehicles. It is part of the state government-promoted Coastal Way and runs along some of the best coastline in Narungga.

Despite the fact that it is a council road, I have been doing everything in my power to make sure it is sealed. I have written to the minister, both former and current, seeking a funding contribution. I have also written to the Tourism Commission asking that they help fund the road that they promote so heavily. I have spoken about it in parliament previously and I have lobbied council. I genuinely believe that I have done everything humanly possible to see it funded.

The reason that it needs to be sealed is that it has a tendency to become heavily undulated in rather quick time. Within weeks, if not days, of the council grader coming through, the corrugations have returned and the road is well on its way to becoming undriveable once again. The undulation itself is a serious safety issue for road users, but for residents the dust that is thrown from the traffic is becoming unbearable.

With increasing regional travel, more and more cars are driving past and filling residents' houses, tanks and yards—everything—with layers and layers of dust. It is fair to say that those residents and those shack owners who visit are furious that it remains unsealed and are desperate to see something done. I know that it is beyond the capability of council to achieve the sealing by themselves. This 11-kilometre stretch of road is a significantly difficult part of the electorate to seal. Even if you put aside the many hundreds of kilometres of road the YP Council is responsible for, this particular section is quite tricky. The houses are close to the road at different points, there are a large number of trees quite close to the road at different points, and so on. This section of road needs a funding partner.

For the last three years, council has put in a submission to the Special Local Roads Program, hoping to secure federal government funding in order to assist in its sealing. In what is an extraordinarily bureaucratic process for federal funding, our local government group, Legatus, put forward their preferences. The Local Government Transport Advisory Panel then undertakes an analysis of recommendations using strict criteria and terms of reference to rate the merit of preferences before signing off on them for funding administered by the Minister for Local Government—a truly bureaucratic process.

Extraordinarily, in this case, instead of merely just signing off on the locally recommended projects the Local Government Transport Advisory Panel has forsaken the incredibly important North Coast Road project, in spite of its high ranking after analysis, in favour of one down the list that was found in Light Regional Council. That is the same Light Regional Council that has benefited from approximately 40 per cent of the total funding over the past four years, despite the fact that there are some 15 member councils. A really large percentage of the funding has gone to one council area, when it could have been spread far better over many more.

How or why North Coast Road was removed from the list is not immediately clear to Yorke Peninsula Council. The YP Council has complained to the LGA, but it seems that funding will proceed without North Coast Road regardless. Council, looking to appeal the decision or even lodge a complaint about the decision-making process, has been told on all occasions that there is no opportunity to do so.

That being the case, I am now calling on the state government to fully fund North Coast Road sealing. There is no longer any excuse not to do so. For three years in a row, North Coast Road has missed out on funding after putting forward meritorious applications through the proper channels, the last of which was actively removed despite being recommended for funding. Residents in my electorate and those shack owners who come to visit are rightly sick of being ignored in place of projects that seem to be predominantly in Light Regional Council, which is swallowing up a major share of the funding.

I take this opportunity to inform the residents who live along North Coast Road that I will be writing to the Attorney-General, in her capacity as the Minister for Local Government, seeking a fully funded fix on North Coast Road. As I have previously said, the state government is now out of excuses and it is time to act and seal this road once and for all.