South Eastern Freeway

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. What does the minister say about recent comments coming from the SA Road Transport Association regarding the South Eastern Freeway? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Steve Shearer, Executive Director, South Australian Road Transport Association, told ABC radio recently, 'There's really just one other thing we are keen to see happen, which is still on the table, which is a third arrester bed.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:59): Nature abhors a vacuum, and given that there is one it is good to see a leader rise. I could be cheeky and just read back—something that I don't usually do—to my good friend the shadow minister for infrastructure and transport the comments of the former minister for infrastructure and transport the Hon. Stephan Knoll, who said that a third arrester bed wasn't a priority of the former government. I won't do that to my young friend, because I do have so much time for him.

What I would say to the shadow minister is that the South Eastern Freeway is getting a massive cash injection from the commonwealth and state governments through managed motorways and upgrades to the tunnels, of course, and we are implementing a whole series of changes to upgrade the South Eastern Freeway. The question really is: will a third arrester bed actually fix what the first and second fail to do?

The question is: if someone is coming down the freeway out of control well before the first arrester bed, then passes that first arrester bed with their truck out of control, then passes the second one with their truck out of control, what makes anyone think they are going to use the third?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He must be really missing his leader. You didn't get invited to the wedding? Didn't get a gig? That's sad. We will be basing our investments on the South Eastern Freeway on evidence. The evidence that we received through the roundtable work is that the third arrester bed is something that would be, I think, nice to have, but I am not sure that it would actually fix the issues that we have.

A previous government built a continuous decline culminating in an intersection leading into suburbia, and no amount of arrester beds are going to fix the fact that there are trucks that use the South Eastern Freeway. No matter what bypasses exist at Truro, they are going to use the South Eastern Freeway because they are delivering freight and produce to the city of Adelaide. They are taking that produce backwards and forwards between the Adelaide Hills and the city, so the South Eastern Freeway is always going to have trucks on it.

I think people are sick and tired of members opposite pretending that there is going to be some plan in the future that will remove all trucks from the South Eastern Freeway, like GlobeLink. I think we are past GlobeLink. We are past GlobeLink, we are past the airport at Monarto, and we are past the pretence and the claims of what could occur on the South Eastern Freeway.

What I would say to my young friend is that I am giving him every opportunity to succeed. The parliament sat late last night. They were all here. He could have walked into that party room at any minute.

The SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.