Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. When will work on the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, to get trucks off Portrush Road, commence, and when will it be completed? And with leave I will explain.

The SPEAKER: Two questions and leave has now been sought. Is leave granted?

Leave granted.

Mr BATTY: A federal Labor candidate last week posted on Facebook that Labor will 'help get trucks off Portrush Road', but did not provide details on the investment. Budget forward estimates suggest only $88 million will be spent before 2030. Thousands of trucks continue to pass homes, schools and local businesses every day on Portrush Road, and without a funded bypass plan my local community is left exposed.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:50): Work has already begun, the planning, the business case, the detailed hard work.

Mr Batty interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's with Infrastructure Australia. Hang on a second. Has work begun? Yes. Where is it? It's with Infrastructure Australia. 'Well, why isn't it with me?' Why isn't it with an opposition frontbencher? Why isn't it over there? Of what benefit would it be to be with you? What would the member for Bragg do with a business case other than hand it to me to hand over to Infrastructure Australia? What are you going to do with it? What value could you possibly add to a business case? Could you imagine the member for Bragg adding value to anything? I am just trying to work out how this thing works. I will tell you what I will do: I will get my agency to consult you about all our business cases.

I will give you the process, Mr Speaker. What we do is we want to get trucks because we want to improve freight productivity. What we have done is that the commonwealth government gave us money that we have matched to do the business case. That work is underway. That was announced in previous budgets. That work has been ongoing. That work has been submitted to Infrastructure Australia for their consideration. Through that budget process, the commonwealth government has made an allocation of over half a billion dollars to this productivity network. That is an exceptional contribution made, the first time the commonwealth government has ever made that type of contribution.

I also point out, Mr Speaker, that unlike GlobeLink, unlike the 24-hour airport that was going to be at Monarto, unlike ripping up the freight line that goes through Adelaide and building a brand-new one sweeping across the Adelaide Plains and behind the Adelaide Hills to go to the port of Adelaide and off to Perth and Darwin, there is detailed work being done. They had no business case, no plan, no route, no funding. They did a very brief investigation and abandoned it, and are now demanding why hasn't it been done yet?

I am not the one who went to the 2018 election promising a massive freight bypass and then abandoning it. Members opposite abandoned and dropped it faster than they dropped their transport infrastructure minister Stefan Knoll. So, don't complain to us; we're getting on with the work. While we are getting on with the work of this freight bypass, what were they planning to do? They were planning to compulsorily acquire 190 properties on Cross Road in order to move that freight down through Cross Road, and are now complaining to us about the speed of this.

I have to say, members opposite haven't thought this through. We are the ones who are doing the hard work and the heavy lifting to get this done. Members opposite have just come up with slogans. No money, no plan, no business cases, no submissions to Infrastructure Australia, no submissions to the commonwealth government. Their colleagues in Canberra said they don't even think Adelaide is a major capital city. Bridget McKenzie today said that every major Australian capital city has a dedicated rail network to its airport. 'Oh, but Adelaide doesn't.' What does that imply, that we're not a major capital city? How about members opposite, rather than complaining to us, getting on their phones to their colleagues and talking to them and saying, 'Adelaide's an important city, we deserve to have some funding.' I have yet to see any major infrastructure commitment from members opposite, in the federal opposition, to South Australia. Members opposite are telling us that Peter Dutton will be Prime Minister, living in Sydney, any time now. Well, where are the commitments on that?

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order: the minister might have forgotten that there was a second half to the question, which is: when will it be completed? He has 10 seconds left. He needs to tell the house when it will be completed and end this rant.

The SPEAKER: Well, it could have been asked as a separate question instead of trying to put two questions into one. There's only about 10 seconds left.

Mr TEAGUE: Plenty of time.

The SPEAKER: No.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: As I said, we have our own budget process. We need to go through our budget process, and once that budget process is complete the Treasurer will stand up, he will deliver to the house, then we will have an estimates process and in that estimates process members can ask questions.