House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-27 Daily Xml

Contents

TRANSPORT FUNDING

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): Thank you, sir. My question is to the Minister for Finance. Can the minister confirm that there is no money in the forward estimates for the CityLink or EastLink trams?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:20): What I can confirm, sir, is that the opposition have secret plans for transport that they are not telling us about. Toll roads: they won't rule out toll roads, sir. They won't rule out—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, we have—

The SPEAKER: Minister, could you be seated? Before beating the opposition over the head, could you make some attempt to address the question?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The great thing about the 30-Year Plan is that it is a 30-year plan. So, let's take—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —let's take that question to its logical extension: does that mean, sir—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —does that mean, sir, that we would have every—

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Morialta to order. I do not recall calling you, leader.

Mr MARSHALL: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr MARSHALL: No. 98: relevance. It is a very simple question directed to the Minister for Finance about whether a certain bucket of money is actually in the forward estimates; it is as simple as that.

The SPEAKER: Okay; thank you for that impromptu speech. Minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, on Friday I was in the Prospect Town Hall talking to local residents about our transport plan, and I have to say they were very enthusiastic about the plan—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —very, very enthusiastic about the plan. I am glad the—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned for the first time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am glad the leader is using our language talking about our transport plan. That is encouraging; perhaps he may embrace it. I would say this, sir: when David O'Loughlin and I spoke at that forum, talking about our transport plan, the one thing that local community were very excited about is that they were actually being talked to about transport options over the next 30 years. Now, the logical extension of this question, sir—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The logical extension, sir, of the leader's question is: why isn't all of this in the forward estimates? The reality is that when a government brings out a comprehensive 30-year plan about what should be a menu of options available to this government, future governments, commonwealth governments, local governments and private sector investors about what it is exactly they should be investing in, surely, Mr Speaker, no-one would expect all that to be in the forward estimates eight weeks after its release.

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: If I hear the member for Adelaide's dulcet tones once more, she shall be out for an hour. The leader.