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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-12-01 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

ROAD MAINTENANCE, FAR NORTH

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:28): Thank you, Mr Speaker.

An honourable member: Is this the last one?

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Well, you never know your luck in this place. On this occasion I want to talk about the inaction of the Minister for Transport and his department in relation to fixing up the roads in the north. The Labor Party and its candidates have been racing around the state putting out documents. I have one here from the Labor candidate for Stuart. On the bottom of it he has got:

PS. An extra $23 million over the next four years will be invested in building safer roads, including $5.2 million in 2009-10.

Let me give members some examples.

Mr Kenyon: He is a worthy successor.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: He'll need a long apprenticeship before he gets anywhere near the place. You'll have to get him a safe seat! You have one road within 30 kilometres of Port Augusta, and the landholders out there have been told by the department of transport that there is no money to grade their roads. They want to shift their stock out—'No money. We're not allowed to spend any money.' The City of Port Augusta has graded its section. They are 30 kilometres from Port Augusta. Then you have got people east of Blinman, out towards Wertaloona, and their roads are in such a condition that they need grading—no activity. Then you go out from Oodnadatta, Hamilton Station and Mount Sarah, and vehicles cannot get along the road. The locals have offered to put their graders on the road, and the instruction from Adelaide is that there are to be no contractors employed. The department's graders are sitting idle but there has been no activity.

We want to know when some activity is going to take place. If we have all this money to get the trams to the Entertainment Centre and down the road, surely we can have a few dollars to grade the roads and get them back in order so that tourists and the local community can drive on them. It is good that there have been huge quantities of rain in the north, but that has an effect on the roads, and all these people ask for is a few graders. They are prepared—at reasonable cost, some of them—to put their own graders on the roads, but that has not been approved.

I want to know why there is a delay and what has happened to the money. We are told about this lavish amount of money that has been spruiked in the little dodgers that have been sent around. There is plenty of imagination and spin in these documents. One would think that they are the only people who have ever done anything in the north. In relation to my constituents' concerns about just having a reasonable road to drive on, at this stage there is lack of action. I call on the minister to take positive steps to fix this problem because, at the end of the day, when you have rain, there is a limited amount of time to get the best value for money in putting a grader on the road. My constituents want to see some action, and I call on the minister to take positive steps to rectify this problem as soon as possible.

People are ringing my office all the time in relation to the Hamilton Station, Mount Sarah and Wertaloona roads. It is not a big undertaking to get a few graders on the road. There are plenty of contractors who want to do it, as well as plenty of other people out there. The north may be out of sight but it should not be out of mind, and there is no excuse. I am told that the hotel at William Creek is having difficulty getting supplies through to the hotel. We know the airstrip has had a problem and needs upgrading. At the end of the day, the roads are in a deplorable condition. We know the condition of the road north of Beverley going up to the Far North and Innamincka needs grading. It is in a deplorable condition, and I have complained about that before. We expect a reasonable cut of the cake. You cannot tell me the government does not have sufficient money, because there is money for other matters.

We have these glossy documents floating around the electorate. It is one thing to spin out this sort of guff, but the other and most important thing is to get some real action so that people who want to do good things for South Australia—that is, create opportunities, both for tourists and for local communities to get their produce to market—are given a fair go to achieve those objectives.

Time expired.

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