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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-24 Daily Xml
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SOUTH ROAD

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Transport. When will the government deliver upon its promise, made by the minister on 6 April 2005, to commit '$47 million to widen South Road between Port Road and Torrens Road'?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure) (15:15): It is very surprising because the same member went out and did a press release about public transport. I have his rather ungrammatical press release, but he does not want to talk about that in here because he wants to go out and make up stories for the media and ask a different question. I have been looking forward to a question from him so I could address the complete misinformation he put out about public transport, but he is not going to go near that—are you?

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order. The member for Goyder has asked a very important question about a government promise to widen South Road, and the minister obviously is intent on talking about something completely unrelated.

The SPEAKER: I refer the minister back to the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I do make the point, because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: You don't know what I have said yet. I am going to talk about South Road.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will get back to the question about South Road.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I am going to answer the substance of the question. For the benefit of members, the standing order says that you do the substance of the question and you do not engage in debate. It does not say that you cannot answer something—it does not say the substance of the question. I think it is nothing but the substance of the question. They have been here for years and they still do not understand—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: —the standing orders.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: Madam Speaker, standing order 127 actually refers to the member not digressing from the subject matter of the question, and I would put to you that that is what he is doing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister can choose to answer the question anyway he chooses; however, I refer him back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: They didn't point out that they now refer to a standing order about debate—

The SPEAKER: The minister will get on with it.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: —but it does not matter, you don't need to know the standing orders. You just turn up, get your salary and go home again. You don't need—

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, back to the question.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: How did you get through? Who were the other two voters? That is all I want to know: who were the other two?

The SPEAKER: Minister!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Who were they?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Hang your heads in shame!

The SPEAKER: Minister!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Hang your heads in shame!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: On the substance of the question—

An honourable member: Six years ago.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Six years ago. They talk about keeping a promise. I point out that it was the member for Schubert and the member for Morphett, who is not with us today, who came in here and moved a motion that we should extend—

Mr PISONI: Point of order. It is unparliamentary to draw attention to the fact that members are not in the chamber.

The SPEAKER: I am not sure that it is unparliamentary. I thought you were going to talk about relevance. Minister, will you get on and answer the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: If someone interjects and says, 'You promised to do it six years ago,' I would just point out that it is ill in the mouth when their party moves a motion calling upon you to extend the tramline to North Terrace and then votes against it. It is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The truth is—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Not only have we kept our promise on the north-south corridor, we have exceeded those commitments we made years ago, and let me explain it to you. Let's also bell the cat on this. What we are doing is the tiniest puff of dog-whistle politics, because we are talking about accidents, accidents that are still under investigation. It is just a gentle little puff on the dog whistle from the member for Goyder—the gentlest of little puffs—but it is good to see him come out of the shell in the 12 months since the election.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Now, let me go back to what we promised—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: They're angry, aren't they? Let's go back to what was promised by this government. A number of years ago, we promised to make a number of improvements to the north-south corridor. We decided that this state had under-invested in infrastructure for far too long and that the entire north-south corridor had not been addressed for far too long, so we went—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has great concern for the people of Port Adelaide along South Road. It is a shame that he could not find that concern for the people of Penola when he was sitting on the balcony up in Darwin with his feet up sipping on a pina colada, or whatever it is he prefers. What we did those years ago—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: At Hindmarsh, and I apologise to the member for Croydon. We made some promises on the north-south corridor. We went away and we—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Oh, goodness me!

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will finish answering the question and stop responding.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I would like to be able to give my answer, if they would stop interjecting. We looked at the under-investment in infrastructure in this state—the under-investment on the north-south corridor, something no-one had every tackled. We went beyond that small promise to widen a small section, and we committed to addressing the entire north-south corridor. Can I say that the first section of that completed, on the Gallipoli Underpass, a wonderful piece of infrastructure; another section of it completed, lifting the tramline over South Road down there. A section—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: They whack on about $47 million. We have let the biggest road contract in the state's history on the north-south corridor on the $800 million on the superway. We have released the Darlington plan on the north-south corridor—a massive project and important infrastructure for the state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: We initially committed our funds and we dragged out of the commonwealth $500 million towards it—and they want to talk about $47 million! Not only have we kept our commitment to the north-south corridor, we have increased it by about a thousand per cent. This state has a record level of infrastructure on roads, a record level of infrastructure on public transport. Despite your going out and saying that we are not doing that, our buses are more than 25 years old, we have a record number of buses in service in this state, travelling more kilometres than ever. We have more trams than this state has ever had before. We are buying 60—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Do you have a point of order?

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. Very interesting information, but the question was: when will you deliver on your promise—when, minister?

The SPEAKER: Order! I think everyone has finished. Thank goodness it's the end of the week. I'm sure that Mr Perry Brook, after today's question time, is very glad that he is leaving this place. The house will now note grievances. The member for Adelaide.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We will listen to the member for Adelaide in silence.

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