House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time North-South Corridor North-South Corridor The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS House of Assembly Black Leader of the Opposition North-South Corridor The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): A supplementary question to the Premier: has the Premier sought assurances from the Prime Minister that the federal government will contribute 50 per cent of the funding required to complete the north-south corridor. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer North-South Corridor The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:22): I'm pleased to report to the house that there is no change in the funding arrangements between the state and the federal governments on the north-south corridor. There has been no change from the state government in the total budget for the north-south corridor completion, the Torrens to Darlington project— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and we are still waiting, as we have explained in this place and also many times out in the community. We are still waiting— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member of the Hartley! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —for work to be provided to the government. We already know, for example, that the plans that were left to us by the other side, who of course were insisting right up to 18 March of this year that the project was 'shovel ready'— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! Member for Flinders! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —it was ready to go, and of course on coming to government the opposite was true. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The opposite, of course, was true. It wasn't shovel ready. It wasn't yet ready to go to tender. Do you know why? Because they hadn't even finalised the scope. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: They didn't even know what they were planning to build. The only thing— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is called to order. Member for Hartley! Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The only thing they seemed to come up with, that they were destined to deliver—which of course we had to decide to get rid of—was the extraordinary plan to take traffic out of a left lane of a motorway, fly it over a large intersection— Mr Tarzia House of Assembly Hartley Mr Tarzia: You're an engineer! He's an engineer. He's an engineer now. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is warned. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —including over several residences and land it in the middle of Anzac Highway and, in doing so, in bringing it down to Anzac Highway, have two lanes merge into one and then— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —land in the middle of a corridor and have to ask motorists not to merge left— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Unley! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —but to merge from the right. It's just extraordinary. So that was what apparently was shovel ready. To mix the metaphor, something was ready for a shovel with what they prepared— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —but certainly the project wasn't shovel ready, it wasn't prepared to go to tender. But I am happy to confirm that there hasn't been any change— Mr Whetstone House of Assembly Chaffey Mr Whetstone: You're not an engineer—that's what you can confirm. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —to the funding arrangements between the federal and state governments. Indeed, the federal budget is predicated on a fifty-fifty cost-sharing arrangement between the two governments.