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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-24 Daily Xml
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WARNERTOWN ROAD RAIL CROSSING

Mr BROCK (Frome) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister please advise what is the progress of the conversion of the rail crossing coming into Port Pirie on the Warnertown Road to allow road train access into Port Pirie from the south? At the moment road trains cannot get into Port Pirie and we have had an application before the department for some time. The only way they can come in is to go down to George's Corner, which is an atrocious corner. There have been a lot of fatalities there and it is a very dangerous section. At the moment we cannot get road trains in for the grain harvest coming up, which we all understand will be a bumper season.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:03): I thank the member for his question and I thank the member for Elder for his support.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is fair to say that the member for Frome has been very anxious to get an outcome for his community on this issue and I accept that the representations that he is making to the government are indeed sincere and that they are very worthy of consideration.

The interesting point about this piece of infrastructure is that we are doing our very best within our existing allocation of funds to do as much as we can for regional impacts in South Australia in terms of trying to get the best outcomes. I am working with the department to see what outcome we can get for the member. Alas, I have nothing for him today in terms of an outcome, but I know how important this is to his community, especially with harvests coming up and I understand—and I know the department understands as well—how important it is to get an outcome for you quickly.

I am looking forward to dealing with, of course, the new transport minister, Mr Truss. I understand he has a very deep concern and care about regional issues and I know that he is very keen to get a foot in South Australia, especially in regional areas about what they can do to try to help with some road infrastructure. I was, of course, very disappointed that both major political parties made almost no regional infrastructure spending announcements in South Australia.

I indeed note that the seats of Grey, Barker and Mayo were won by the Liberal Party in a canter and not one piece of regional road infrastructure was announced during the election campaign, but I know that Mr Truss is a very good man. He cares very deeply about regional issues and I will be doing everything I can to ensure he is better informed about the concerns of regional South Australia and see what our new Deputy Prime Minister can offer the regional residents of South Australia.

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