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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-07-01 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Public Transport

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): My question is to the Premier. Why is the government seeking to impose a car park tax to get people onto public transport but then imposing a public transport tax to keep them at home?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:31): I must say I was fascinated to see the analysis undertaken by the Hon. Robert Lucas. He is out there with some numbers that seem to imply that somebody is actually going to drive to work, stay in a car park, then presumably take the bus home and take the bus back again to pick up the car they had parked in the car park. It is the only way their analysis stacks up. You have just been caught out exaggerating the effect of the state budget on ordinary, everyday South Australians.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The thing that you miss in all of this is that the levy goes directly into improving the quality of public transport. We unashamedly—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for the first time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We have the largest number of car parks per capita than any other state in the nation. There are car parks everywhere in this state. I know those opposite want South Australia just to be that sleepy old country town that you drive through where you can get a car park out the front of Harris Scarfe's, but those days are over. If you have an ambition to be a modern metropolis where you move people and goods and services effectively in and out of your city, what you need is a high quality public transport system. That is why we are investing in a high quality public transport system.

That is why, when we came into government and found a public transport network which was on its knees—we had our train network effectively running on splinters—we decided to re-invest in it. We put in concrete sleepering throughout the whole of the network, extended the network out to Seaford, reintroduced trams into the centre of the city and invested in lifting the quality of our public transport.

Those opposite are stuck back in the 1950s with old Sir Tom Playford, who drove the trams out of the state because he did the business with the car companies—it seemed like a good idea at the time, everyone was doing it. You can't blame him because everyone was doing it. They turned their back on trams and public transport in favour of the motor car. Every self-respecting capital city in the world is reintroducing trams into the centre of their city. They are investing in public transport because that's what modern, international cities do. That is driving the vibrancy of our city. Just for once, get on board.

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