Public Works Committee: Mount Barker Road and River Road Junction Upgrade

Adjourned debate on motion of Ms Hood:

That the 118^th report of the committee, entitled Mount Barker and River Road Junction Upgrade, be noted.

(Continued from 6 March 2025.)

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:32): I rise to continue where I left off when I sought leave on the previous occasion. I think this provides an opportunity to reflect on yet more time that has passed since the member for Adelaide brought the motion to the chamber, because each day it seems to me—just about every day—it is raised to me by residents on River Road just what an ongoing disastrous mistake the government has made by directing these heavy trucks along River Road.

Of course there is a serious debate to be had about a commitment to funding and delivering the necessary bypass to Hahndorf, and I am glad, together with the community, that we have dragged the federal Labor government back kicking and screaming to reinstate the works necessary for the Verdun interchange. That is important, that needs to proceed, but in the meantime state Labor, with that precipitous decision out of nowhere, getting on towards two years ago, to just send the heavy trucks down River Road, this quiet little road, as some sort of means to deal with the issue at Hahndorf is just proving to be a daily disaster.

I pay tribute to those hugely skilled, responsible, dedicated operators of the trucks that need to navigate that path and, in particular, I say thank you to Ben Simounds of Simounds Transport—I have ridden in his truck with him—and I say thank you to Pete Magarey of Magarey Transport, based locally, shifting logs from Kuitpo Forest and from further south. I have ridden in the truck with him, as has the member for Hammond, and as has the Leader of the Opposition, who joined with me, unlike the Minister for Transport, unlike the Premier, who were each invited on multiple occasions to come and see it for themselves, to come and see what is real.

So this Public Works examination of the works that might be necessary to improve on the Mount Barker and River Road junction corner—works that are absolutely necessary as I have seen, as the member for Hammond has seen and as everyone who has used that corner has seen—just proves what a tangled web is woven when state Labor comes along and just looks to precipitate some change on a local community. It is a tangled web, because it had not been thought through from the start and there is more to say. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.