Road Upgrades

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:24): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Minister, can you please confirm that the important road works at the corner of James Road and Old Belair Road in my community will begin at the beginning of next year as scheduled?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:24): I will have to go away and check that time, I am happy to come back to the member, but there is a lot of work that has been done there as far as consultation with the community as well. I know this is a very important project and we want to make sure we are doing all we can to keep those communities up there safe. Of course, we are working through the fire season as well, so we want to make sure that we are working with the community around that. I will take the specifics on notice and go and get the timing and the scheduling for that for the member and come back to him.

We have invested quite a bit of money in and around the Hills, and we talk about the South Eastern Freeway and the millions and millions of dollars we have invested there, and I want to thank the people of that community for putting up with the works that are going on. I know that as we are getting through the stages of that work they are appreciating the far smoother, far safer road that we are putting in place, and that is always our focus when we are doing these projects, to have road safety at the forefront of what we are doing to make the journeys much quicker for that local community and safer at the same time.