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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-19 Daily Xml
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OAKLANDS PARK RAIL OVERPASS

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. I am going to reassure: I am not leaving you, Patrick. Will plans to upgrade the Oaklands Park rail crossing receive the same fate as the government's upgrade plans for the Britannia roundabout, the South Road/Port Road intersection, the South Road/Grange Road intersection and the South Road/Sturt Road intersection, all of which have been announced by Labor and cancelled?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:54): With great pleasure I will talk about those matters, because we are proud of this—

Mr Williams: Of the cancellations.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: That's the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the man that takes points of order all the time—a stickler for standing orders—who can't stop interjecting.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I'm fond of him. I am fond of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, but I don't want to get too fond.

The SPEAKER: Minister, back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: They tend to die in your arms.

The SPEAKER: Minister, will you answer the question?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: We are extremely proud of our infrastructure program—the greatest infrastructure program in this state since World War II. Already spent on the north-south corridor—the very subject matter raised—has been, of course, the outstanding Gallipoli Underpass, the lifting of the tramline over South Road down there and, currently, the construction of the most expensive construction project in this state's history in the South Road superway. What we have done is committed to creating—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Yes, that's on South Road as well, I inform the member for Unley, who has broken off his communications with the Scientologists to make a point.

The SPEAKER: Order, minister!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Thank you, member for Unley. We hope he is not getting any more emails from them.

The SPEAKER: Minister, you will get back to the question or you will leave the chamber!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I am sorry, Madam Speaker, for responding to those terribly rude interjections.

Mr PISONI: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order?

Mr PISONI: I think the transport minister needs to clean his ear out. I have been sitting here not saying a word.

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr PISONI: I've been listening to what he has to say.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, there is no point of order there.

Mr PISONI: I think he's past it.

The SPEAKER: Sit down.

Mr PISONI: He's past it.

The SPEAKER: Sit down. Minister.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The truth is that, as to what is purported by the member for Bragg to have been cancelled on the South Road, we in fact put, for the first time, the north-south corridor on the agenda and we funded it. What we did—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Yes, we remember the projects they did in opposition, as they interject again. We remember that Laurie Brereton gave them $100 million to build a tunnel and they had a black-tie party inside it, because it's the only thing they built—apart from, of course, a one-way expressway which, of course, we are fixing too.

Mr PENGILLY: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

Mr PENGILLY: The minister is debating the issue: he is not answering the question.

The SPEAKER: Order! He is responding to interjections that are coming across the floor. Minister, back to the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I apologise. What occurred is we put the north-south corridor on the agenda. We committed funding to it and, as a result, we shamed John Howard into committing funding to it and, when he lost, we got funding from the federal government. From that, we took $70 million to do the most comprehensive planning study on that road and, as a result of that planning study, moved to a project of $800 million—much bigger than the one she refers to and which, I point out, is responsible for maintaining a great level of employment in the construction industry in South Australia.

It is true that we cancelled the Britannia roundabout; that is because I sent an engineer out with a camera to photograph the trees. I visited them myself and I believed that it was an unnecessary wreckage of our Parklands and our boulevard into the city. I stand by it and, if I had to do it again, I would do it again because those trees were magnificent. I invite anyone who is interested to go and have a look at them. They should never have been cut down. We remain—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: We remain committed to looking for a program on Britannia roundabout that addresses the issues there, but it won't be at the expense of this magnificent corridor of trees in the Parklands.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: What about the trees? That is the thing: they don't know the difference. We are planting more trees than the arborists employed by the council have suggested—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: —we take away. We are planting more trees.

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Is this a point of order?

Mr WILLIAMS: Thankfully, Madam Speaker, four minutes has expired.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. The minister's time has expired, exactly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I don't know what it is about you, Minister for Transport, but the noise you create in this chamber is incredible. I hope you don't have the same problem with your children. The member for Taylor.

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