Narungga Electorate Road Upgrades

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:30): I find myself rising to speak about a discrete number of issues quite frequently. To that end, today I am talking again about roads, which I have done repeatedly in this place, but it is obviously one of the most important things to the constituents in my electorate.

To that end, we have made tremendous progress over the past six years. I think we have managed to achieve a great deal of funding that we might not otherwise have done, and there have been a significant number of road kilometres that have since been paved that have made for far better driving conditions in our electorate. I think most notably the road right down the middle, all the way from Arthurton to Minlaton, has been sealed in the past six years and that has given me a great deal of delight. I remember doorknocking in the lead-up to the 2018 election and promising that that was, rightly, at the top of my list of priorities. To see that now delivered is a tremendously heartwarming thing.

There have been other roads right across the electorate. A couple of notable ones are Bay Road at Moonta which, although a council road, has been the beneficiary of significant government funding and that has resulted in a tremendous finished product. It was a truly awful road before, ill-fitting of the tourist thoroughfare that it is, and to see that finished product now and the wonderful entrance to our beautiful town of Moonta—a winner of the Top Tourism Town—is excellent.

I am proud of the progress we have made across the electorate, but there is always still more to be done, and work being done there is. I mentioned the road from Arthurton to Minlaton; that is being extended all the way from north Arthurton to Kulpara. That will mean the entirety of that road, when that part is finished, from Kulpara all the way through to Minlaton will have been sealed in the last seven years by then. That is an extraordinary stretch of road and a very important stretch of road for a great deal many primary producers, and it will be a wonderful thing to have that nice, smooth, wide and safe for people to use. So that is excellent.

The Bute to Port Broughton road is being done at the same time. It is technically the same stretch of road but, again, it was a really poor stretch that was bumpy and narrow and is well deserving of an upgrade. So there is work being done, there is work that has been done and there is work that still needs to be done. To that end, we would like to make clear to those in this parliament that whilst we are very much appreciative of all those things that have come before it, we will continue to push for more road funding because there is that much to do.

Regarding the work that has been done, that will have been done, between Arthurton and Minlaton, I would love to see that extended just that little bit further and go south of Minlaton to Yorketown. That is an exceedingly narrow stretch of road. I know from truck drivers who contact me regularly, and Chris Thompson on Facebook regularly, that it is a difficult thing to get two trucks next to each other side by side and go past one another, so that would be a wonderful thing to have that done.

I would love to see the Snowtown to Bute road done—again, that is very narrow. I know that Nick Ottens, from the silo committee there, has been in regular contact about that. That would be a tremendously beneficial road not only for our primary producers but for those people travelling north up out of my electorate to the northern part of the state it would be a wonderful thing. There are a great deal many other roads; this is by no means an exhaustive list, but there are a couple of examples of other ones that will be on our next list and we look forward to pushing for those.

I will be writing to the minister soon because we are now in need of an update about what is happening and the timeline we can expect at the Wallaroo entrance road. This was something that I was thrilled to have committed to prior to the last election. The council and the state government at the time worked together to ensure that there was a solution in place for that. It has been honoured since and works have been underway, albeit rather slowly.

I intend to write to the minister, and I have been in contact with the council to try to ascertain where we are up to because it is a bit of a hodgepodge of responsibility between the two entities. There is work going on. Unfortunately, the next tranche appears to be starting right on the cusp of harvest. Again, it is an unfortunate thing, where the next stage is the freight routes with harvest just around the corner, albeit in a difficult season. It is unfortunate timing, but we appreciate the road getting done nonetheless.

The other one I want to bring to this chamber's attention—and it is a new one on our list but one we will advocate for fiercely—is the intersection at Thrington Road and Mine Road. With the growth at Moonta, Moonta Bay and Port Hughes, that intersection of the road that people use to come from Adelaide to Moonta is becoming increasingly busy. It is not a particularly well-developed intersection. It is a legacy intersection from a time when it was not such a popular route and it is now not a safe one. Those coming from Adelaide have to turn their neck well past 90 degrees to see traffic coming, and those turning right towards Adelaide do not have a slip lane to enter into. I was contacted by the CFS the other day highlighting their concerns, which coincided with my writing to the minister to get an answer. No money was promised but we will continue to push for it as time progresses.