Matters of Interest

Southern Ports Highway

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (15:27): The matter of interest that I have, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, is on the Southern Ports Highway, a great little road down our way which leads from Millicent to Beachport. Unfortunately, it is just not that great at the moment. In fact, it is a road one would deem completely and utterly unsafe.

I had a community forum about three weeks ago now in which 80 people from the Beachport community turned up to have their say about the shocking state of the Southern Ports Highway. We heard some pretty harrowing stories on the state of this road, stories like when a young lady—and she will like me saying 'young lady'—was bitten by a shark in Beachport and she had to jump in an ambulance and tear down the Southern Ports Highway. The ambo officers actually had to stop helping her and hang on for dear life because they were being bounced around so much on a road that was only really fixed up maybe four or five months ago.

Even more concerning than a shark attack and ambulance officers having to hang on for dear life is that our aged-care facility in Millicent cannot take residents on the road anymore—their wheelchair-bound residents—because they get bounced around too much and it causes them a fair bit of pain. We have stories of people's cars getting absolutely banged around, and some $1,500 worth of damage on a car where this person had to drive from Mount Gambier to Beachport for work, her suspension is shot and, as I said, damage of up to $1,500.

That constituent is wondering who she can go to. There is no-one. You cannot get any money back unfortunately, seeing these roads are not car-worthy, even though apparently we have to drive around in cars that are roadworthy. We have also seen caravans simply being warned off the highway, which is compromising the tourism industry of Beachport, a fantastic little seaside town. I love going down there in the summer with my family, enjoying all the beautiful small little businesses and cafes and the great pubs there as well.

Unfortunately, there are also a whole heap of safety issues around transporting kids. We had a bus driver, Marg, tell us there are significant safety issues, and they actually fear for transporting the kids on this road. There are no shoulders to pull off on, and it is only adding to the safety risks. The CEO of Wattle Range Council, Ben Gower, has rightly pointed out that the section of the road from Cherry Farm had a seal put on it and yet a mere three weeks later it is already cracking. The Independent member for MacKillop, Nick McBride, accepted my invitation to the forum. I was very happy that he did rock up, along with the Leader of the Opposition, Vincent Tarzia, and the Leader of the Opposition in this place, the Hon. Nicola Centofanti. Tony Pasin was there as well.

Nick said, 'The government is going to drop 18 million bucks into this road.' Everyone went, 'Oh, well.' You know what that is? That is lipstick on a pig. That is not going to do anything. It is just going to be the same old, same old. They are going to apply this 18 million bucks—it will be completely wasted. It is going to wash away at some other point into the future. What this road needs, what the community wants, is to rebuild it from the ground up. The road is about 30 years past its use-by date. It needs a rebuild. That is what it needs. It does not need good money after bad.

I was on the radio talking about this, and I mentioned that this government had decided to move us from an 80:20 split with the federal funding to a 50:50 split on regional road infrastructure. I mentioned that on radio and then people shot back saying, 'No, that's not true. This is still 80:20.' Well, that might be the case, but any road infrastructure going forward will be 50:50, and if you thought it was bloody hard to pay 20 per cent for regional roads, it is going to be a hell of a lot harder if you have to pay 50 per cent for regional roads.

What it means is that regions are getting dudded again and again and again. What we need at Beachport, what we need for the Southern Ports Highway is to fix the road—fix it from the ground up. Just do three kilometres at a time. Do not put lipstick on a pig. Like former Independent member for Mount Gambier Don Pegler said—I just love it; I am going to say it again—do not put lipstick on a pig. Spend the money properly, fix the road and I tell you what: a hell of a lot of people in Beachport, Southend and Millicent will be very, very happy. Let's get it done.