GlobeLink

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:27): Further supplementary: is the minister—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Have we all finished the casual conversations? I would like to hear the Hon. Ms Scriven's supplementary question.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Is the minister concerned that diverting air freight may affect our international flight attraction?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:27): That is why we have commissioned the $20 million study to actually have a look at GlobeLink. We have seen a great example in Queensland where the Wellcamp Airport has provided a second alternative. I know that Adelaide Airport are really focused on growing their freight and passengers. The other thing I think members opposite have to understand is that GlobeLink, first and foremost, was about getting the noisy train out of the suburbs and coming through Adelaide and then maybe making the route a little bit safer, with semis and B-doubles coming down the freeway.

The third component is that because Monarto was planned by the sort of godfather of the Labor Party, Don Dunstan, land was set aside for an airport. The track record of this state, mostly in the time the Labor Party were in government, would be to sell off pieces of land. We had a corridor through our city for the Metropolitan Adelaide Transport Study, right through the western suburbs. Former premier Steele Hall says that the most dangerous thing and the most nasty thing ever done to our state was to sell that corridor, done by the Labor Party.

The announcement by the Marshall government to have a look at GlobeLink, including rail, road and air freight, was to make sure that that parcel of land is quarantined when it stacks up, if it stacks up. That is why we are spending $20 million for the airport. That bit of land is quarantined.

We have seen time and time again where people do things, sell things, and then 30 years later go, 'Gee, we have to spend billions of dollars.' Look at the north-south corridor. We had a corridor that would have served this state well, and it has been sold off. Look at the billions and billions of dollars we have to spend as a state and a nation on our north-south corridor. Why we wanted to announce this policy was to make sure we had future opportunities and room for expansion in the future.