Infrastructure Investment

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (15:29): It is unfortunate that I have to say this, especially with you in the chair, Mr Acting President, but Labor's lies are out of control. What is worse, they are not standing up for SA; instead, they are bowing down to their federal Labor counterparts.

For years they did not even deny it, but now Tom Koutsantonis is trying to rewrite history. The truth is black and white: Labor has always wanted to turn Cross Road into a truck freight route. Their own strategy documents prove it, and yet Minister Tom Koutsantonis continues to spin fiction. Labor's bloodlust to make Cross Road a major freight corridor is not fake news: it is true.

In 2013, the state Labor government outlined their plans for A Functional Hierarchy for South Australia's Land Transport Network and the Integrated Transport and Land Use Plan. In 2015, the Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon. Stephen Mullighan, affirmed these plans in the North-South Corridor Strategy, and in 2017 the Hon. Stephen Mullighan confirmed them again, stating that freight trucks should go down Cross Road because it was in the state's best economic interest. No matter what Minister Koutsantonis says, Labor has never abandoned this plan.

Labor's handling of freight is a complete mess. While Minister Koutsantonis claims to be working on a business case for the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, Cressida O'Hanlon knows that her party will not do a thing about it, so she is pushing for a decibel camera on Portrush Road—another pointless distraction that does nothing to fix the real issue.

Mr Koutsantonis told South Australians last November that the freight bypass business case was being finalised. Now it is March, and we are still waiting. He claimed it was already with Infrastructure Australia, but Senate estimates revealed they only got it a couple of weeks ago. Labor will say anything to get through a news cycle, but they have no plan, just spin.

While South Australia is stuck waiting, federal Labor is fast-tracking the Muswellbrook Bypass in New South Wales while completely neglecting our road network. The Albanese Labor government—in consultation with the state Labor government, mind you—scrapped the Truro bypass as a result of their Infrastructure Investment Program Strategic Review in 2023. This review was with the consultation of the states and territories.

This set South Australia's freight routes back by years, and has left Adelaide as the only capital city in the country still forcing heavy trucks through suburban streets. Why, Minister Koutsantonis, did you not stand up for South Australia? Why did the minister take funding from Truro and divert it to the north-south corridor? How did the New South Wales government convince the Albanese Labor government to bring funding forward for the Hunter bypasses, but our minister rolled over on Truro?

The same review resulted in additional federal funding of $2 billion to the north-south corridor. The north-south corridor upgrade went from $9.9 billion to $15.4 billion under Labor, with Albanese coming up with the additional $2.7 billion to cover the commonwealth's 50 per cent. The same thing happened in Victoria when Albanese bailed out the Labor government there on the North East Link project after a cost blowout. This went from $10 billion in 2016 to $15.8 billion in 2019 and then $26.1 billion by 2024—all while being blamed on CFMEU disruptions and expensive design decisions that pander to environmental and community groups.

Labor's priorities are clear: they will splash cash in Labor strongholds while leaving South Australia to deal with congested roads, unsafe freight routes and a government that simply does not care. They have run out of ideas and they have run out of cash. I bet my bottom dollar that the Premier and Minister Koutsantonis's federal mates have told them there is no money in the federal budget for SA infrastructure—and why? Because they cut Louise Miller-Frost loose. They do not think they going to win Boothby so they are not going to spend any money. That is why they are flailing, lashing out and throwing out distractions to cover their failures.

The Premier's grand infrastructure blueprint is just that, a blueprint. You cannot drive a truck or a car on a plan, you cannot catch a strategy to work. Infrastructure needs money, and Labor simply does not have it. Instead, what they have is close to $24,000 per South Australian of debt.

After 19 years of Labor in government over the last 23 years it is quite clear that they have run out of ideas, run out of money, run out of excuses. They have scrapped Truro, they have scrapped the hydrogen plan, they have scrapped the Hahndorf bypass. They had a choice, a real solution to get trucks off Cross Road and Portrush Road, but they are choosing to keep sending them down there. Labor is taking South Australians for fools. The truth is out: only one party has ever wanted heavy trucks on Cross Road, and that is Labor.