Meadows Intersection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:04): In light of that answer, will the minister indicate whether the traffic modelling for the Meadows intersection redevelopment takes into account significant increases in traffic that occur at that location on major holidays and school holiday periods?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:04): This is another wicked problem all governments have—building to peak demand. That is a very, very big problem. When I was a young lad a long, long, long time ago, the question was who would get to school early enough to get a bike rack position because everyone rode their bikes to school and there were no kiss and drop areas. No-one got dropped off to school. Things have changed dramatically.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Was there a smoking area behind the bike rack?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes. That was part of my finest political moment, when I campaigned to become a prefect at Adelaide High School to put ashtrays in the toilets.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, I did. I topped the poll, but you need a teacher to vote for you, and I didn't get the vote of the teachers. Anyway, back to the point.

We are more and more building to the peak, and when you build to the peak you do get suboptimal outcomes. I was trying to talk about this earlier, about the Portrush Road and Magill Road intersection, where we spent nearly 90 per cent of the money on that entire project on home acquisitions. A small slip lane might sound like an easy solution, but when you are buying numerous properties and businesses it can get into the tens of millions of dollars to do these upgrades and you're not actually dealing with the core problem, which is that our network fundamentally isn't working.

I am reluctant to go to the Treasurer more and more often to build to peak demand because it doesn't serve the purpose. What we need to do is structurally fix our road network, which is why that is a much cleverer way, and public transport is a big part of that. I will get the details of the peak modelling for public holidays and, I assume, other important days around public holidays, and it might also be morning traffic and evening traffic as well. I will get all those for the member if it is appropriate to hand over.