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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-13 Daily Xml
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O-BAHN EXTENSION

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Transport.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Dr McFETRIDGE: Why was the O-Bahn extension not identified as a priority in the state Infrastructure Plan or the South Australian Strategic Plan, and why did the government advance the project to the federal government for funding ahead of other infrastructure projects it has identified?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (15:07): I am not as big a pedant as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, so I will not point out that you are supposed to address the questions through the chair. You should have paid attention to your own deputy leader.

Do I understand the opposition to be opposed to the federal funding of the extension of the O-Bahn? For the benefit of the member for Morphett, I will go back and supply him with the documents from last year's budget that show our rail revitalisation plan. If you go back and look at that graphic, it shows that the O-Bahn line finishes short of the city and fails to connect with everything. If you had a look at that you would have noticed it. I cannot tell the member for Morphett why it was that the Liberal government, which built the O-Bahn, chose not to finish it. However, there is a bit of a pattern here, is there not? They build one-way roads, they build O-Bahns that do not finish. When examining—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Oh, they are back to the State Bank—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I know. I take umbrage at being savaged by a man with that haircut. He looks like Mr Bean; it is just that he is not funny. We make no apology that when we looked at a comprehensive—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Finniss is warned.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: We make no apologies for the fact that, when we looked at the entire public transport system (and we have looked at buses and how they will connect up in the future with our rail corridors and bus routes and stuff), it was clear that the Liberal government, like so many Liberal governments, had failed to finish a job they started and the O-Bahn was not finished. We decided that, if we were going to win commonwealth support, we had better have the best public transport plan it has ever seen, because the commonwealth has never funded public transport before. So, we decided we had better to do everything, we had better complete the picture and complete what was left undone in 1980.

I have some breaking news for the opposition. It may well be that we may do things that are not in the 2005 Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is a guide to infrastructure investment and identifies some priorities. It is not, shall we say, a prison or a straightjacket. We will, from time to time, identify other things.

Why anyone would criticise us for completing the O-Bahn is beyond me, but we will make sure that everyone finds out that members opposite have, just as they opposed all schools getting a school building. We will make sure that everyone finds out that the members opposite were opposed to extending the O-Bahn with commonwealth money.

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