Tintinara Regional Road Usage

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:27): My question is to the Minister for Local Government. Could the minister explain to the house what is involved by him or the government to move a regional local council road into a state road or federal road? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: In my local area I have a council called the Coorong council. They have a township called Tintinara and at Tintinara they have a very large feedlot that is having a massive expansion in capacity. The local road, Carcuma Road, cannot cope with the freight in or out of this feedlot and the council is looking for any help where it can be found.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:28): On behalf of the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, who is in another place, can I say that it is my understanding that the Commissioner of Highways decides that, through a regulatory statutory process in coordination with local councils. Local councils give access to this freight, as they should, and we encourage councils to give access to their local roads for as much freight as possible. It is good for our economy, it is good for last-mile outcomes and it is good for the local region. But ultimately a lot of councils are very concerned about the impacts on their infrastructure and their ability to maintain those roads.

When it reaches a critical point where we need to intervene, the Commissioner of Highways can have an application from a council for a potential road swap where we might take some state roads that are having less use on our roads and hand them back to councils and take those roads from councils that are now changing in use to a much more frequent freight route into the state government road network.

If the local member has a concern, I encourage him to contact the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC, who is the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, to coordinate with Jon Whelan to see whether or not that is required. Most importantly, the council should know this, and the council should of course be going about this themselves. So if there are concerns from his constituents or concerns from local residents, they can pass them on to the department, and the department will do an assessment to see whether or not it is warranted.

Of course, that does not guarantee anything. If the council has made a decision itself to allow more freight onto the road and freight follow where the permits are—well, good on that council. I congratulate them for allowing more access. That does not necessarily mean that burden should fall on the rest of the taxpayers.