Grievance Debate

Morialta Electorate

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:09): In my electorate, there are regularly opportunities for residents to talk to me about important issues to them, whether through street-corner meetings, through doorknocking, through coming to my office or in a range of environments.

A topic that has been front and centre for residents, particularly in the southern half of my electorate in recent years, but especially over the last 12 months, is that of road safety and, indeed, terrible traffic inconvenience in a particular defined area along Magill Road, from the start of Norton Summit Road to the corner with St Bernards Road in particular, from that intersection up St Bernards Road to the Arthur Street and Moules Road intersection, up Moules Road to the intersection with Glen Stuart Road, and from Glen Stuart Road to Norton Summit Road, and a brief period from there to Magill Road, as described.

It is an area much of which was dealt with by suggestions and recommendations in a road management plan put forward about a decade ago by the Department for Transport in which the member for Hartley and I have taken a keen interest over the last decade and which the member for Hartley spoke about yesterday. That road management plan undertaken in 2012 suggested a range of recommendations for the long period of road from Penfolds Road up to Sudholz Road and, indeed, particularly in the last couple of years had a recommendation related to the Arthur Street intersection of removing traffic, removing parking from outside the shops opposite the intersection with Arthur Street.

That was a recommendation that Campbelltown council has now taken up, which is working well and which residents are very grateful for. However, there are significant disruptions that residents are now experiencing. The data from that report 10 years ago is now significantly out of date due to a number of factors that have changed over the last 10 years which have massively exacerbated the traffic issues here and which have heightened the need for the government to fix a number of these problems.

The benefit of doing a new road management plan—and this is something I wrote to the Minister for Transport, Minister Koutsantonis, about in the last month urging that the government undertake this new work—is that it will ensure that new data is collected, that the eyes of the experts and engineers within the department who are best suited to come up with solutions to the problems with these intersections can be put front and centre on these problem intersections and problem areas.

Particularly, the experience from a decade ago was that there was significant community consultation. Residents in Magill, in Rostrevor, in Woodford, in Teringie and in surrounding areas will have, if the government heeds my call to do this road management plan, a terrific opportunity to feed in their particular problems and insights. I bring to the house's attention a solution for part of the problem from the road management plan 10 years ago that I have also urged the minister to take up immediately.

Outside Morialta Secondary College, what was then the middle campus of Norwood Morialta high school, there is a bus stop and in peak times it causes disruption. It is just before you get to Moules Road and part of that very significant challenge area in those intersections. The road management plan recommended that the bus stop be indented. This is a solution that would take buses off the road while they are stopping traffic and it could be undertaken very quickly. I have urged the minister to do that prior to the road management plan. He could do it very soon.

It is worth bearing in mind that since the last road management plan was conducted, the Magill training centre land has been sold, and the former planning minister, John Rau, put in place a ministerial code amendment for that area, which has enabled the construction of about 400 houses. Many of those houses and apartments have now been built, including high density which is putting significant pressure on local roads and many more will be soon.

The nearby seminary development in Rostrevor and other massive infill projects, allowed by again former planning minister Rau's planning rules that were in place between 2012 and 2019, have seen dramatic urban infill in the area and massive increases in the number of dwellings and the amount of traffic.

I mention the new Morialta Secondary College. We previously had a campus of about 700 students for the middle campus. Then there was a year when the school was being knocked down, and now we have 200 students. Next year, there will be 400 students. The year after, it will increase until we get to 1,200 students.

The Magill Village project is the other significant change that has occurred. All of these changes have put significant pressure on the local community. Many residents talk to me regularly about this. We have put forward a constructive suggestion to the minister. We urge the government to take this up so that future investments can be targeted towards solutions that will help and will meet the needs of my local community.