Southern Ports Highway

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister advise if the recent funding announcement regarding the Southern Ports Highway will be used to rebuild or repair the road? Mr Speaker, with your leave and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: Two weeks ago following my strong advocation you advised the house two sections of the Southern Ports Highway are proposed to receive $18.3 million of upgrades as part of the National Road Safety program. These works are proposed to cover around 30 kilometres along two sections. While this is welcome and appreciated, I would like assurances that the funding will be used to rebuild the road where required.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:05): Again, I thank the member for his advocacy. We had a meeting today with the chief executive of Infrastructure and Transport and the member for MacKillop and his staff online and we had a long discussion about the impacts of what is happening on this section of road. There has been some confusion, I think, and a little bit of a misunderstanding about what it is that we are actually doing.

We will be rebuilding sections of the road and actually doing what the member has articulated and asked for, but there has been some temporary seal laid down as well and I think people are confusing the temporary seal with the actual works that we are doing that have been delayed due to the weather. We have been waiting for the spring and summer to do these works and, as I told the member earlier today, when we do do those works in this section of road that he is advocating on behalf, those works will be done in accordance with the manner and method that he and his community are looking for.

That is not to be confused with the temporary seal that we have done, which a lot of people have assumed is the final fix for those sections of road and I can understand exactly why they are thinking that. What we have done is that, because some of the roads needed to be upgraded quickly, we have gone in with a temporary seal. Obviously weather has deteriorated those temporary seals and people have misconstrued that as being what we are going to do for the remaining sections. That is not accurate. The remaining parts that we will be doing as part of this program will be done in accordance with a proper rebuild, as the member has asked for, to make sure that the base is appropriate, to make sure that the seal is done properly and we get the appropriate work done.

I think the member went to a public meeting recently where there were a lot of concerns about the temporary seal that was done and the confusion that the community had about that. I hope this alleviates a lot of the concerns that the member has. He can take this back to his community and let them know that the government is committed to this.

The reason we are committed to it is because of his strong advocacy and the work that he has done to make sure that his community gets this work done where it is needed, because without the advocacy of the member for MacKillop and the regional independent members, regional communities would be missing out, because they are the true voice of regional South Australia. They are the ones who are out there fighting for regional South Australia. They are not out fighting for the Liberal Party or the Labor Party; they are out there fighting for their communities and I think it is very, very impressive the work that they are doing.