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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-05-12 Daily Xml
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Bills

Supply Bill 2015

Supply Grievances

Debate resumed.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:16): I rise to speak to the Supply Bill once again with my grieve contribution. I want to add a couple of points, after the member for Chaffey's discussion about the lack of action by this state Labor government in regard to the regional diversification fund for the River Murray and the loss of $25 million that this government is quite happy to just walk away from. In the worst-case scenario—and I think it was a complete furphy—this government said we would receive only $4 million. In the worst-case scenario, this Labor government has turned its back on at least $4 million, and I believe a lot more, because it is not their constituency. It is $25 million; $25 million is the real figure. The government just wants this money for other things—in city electorates, in marginal seats. It does not want to look after the Riverland or the Murraylands. As I said in a contribution last week, it was alright when the government was shoring up a former Labor minister, who was the member for Chaffey at the time.

I am extremely disappointed that the regional development minister did not have any influence at all, which just shows their worth to this government. Look at what has happened in the last couple of weeks in this state: 100 jobs have disappeared from our dairy manufacturing sector, from United Dairy Power in Murray Bridge and Jervois. We have seen 60 jobs go at JBS, the meat processing plant in Bordertown. It is an absolute disgrace how this government treats regional South Australia. And in the words from the Premier down, it will not get any better because it is not their natural constituency. They go out and have their so-called regional cabinet meetings, but it is all just flip-flop and talk—nothing happens, nothing at all.

What I would also like to talk about is a problem at a school that I attended for most of my years of education, and that is Coomandook Area School. The kids and staff there have a problem with accessing the internet. I was talking with one parent who informed me that internet access is so bad for the kids who have to do distance education that some of them are kept at home by their parents so they can do their work from home. The parents only do that because it is the only place they can get reliable internet access. In this day and age it is just not good enough. The problem for these children is that they are formally recognised as being truant from school. Work that out! They stay at home so they can do their work, but they are on the truancy list. It just keeps getting worse.

Many years ago a tower was put up on the western side of the silos at Coomandook—I guess the south-western side to a degree—to access internet for the school, and it is suppose to shoot the signal over the top of the silo. The school believes that the location of the Viterra silos, which are now owned by Glencore, block out the signal. It is just a real problem. It is about whoever owns the silos at the time—it was Viterra when they were in their Canadian mode, and now they are in Swiss mode under Glencore—whether they want to have a change of heart and put those transmitter boosters on top of the standing structure. It is something I will follow up, because it was something done in early days at Coonalpyn and Tintinara with a leasing arrangement to use a structure that is over 130 feet high in the old language. That is certainly something I will be chasing up.

As I stated, no-one in Coomandook is able to access the internet through Internode. At the same time as the tower that I talked about earlier was put in place, Internode put an antennae on the school, which they thought would fix the problem. However, because of its placement (it is in the wrong place), the tower and the antennae do not talk to each other, which means that it is of no value. Internode is completely frustrated and has walked away. Other providers have come and looked at the situation, but they have also looked at where the tower is and said that they cannot help.

When the students can access the internet it is very weak and drops out constantly, causing much frustration for teachers and students in the classroom. It makes delivering much needed open access subjects impossible. It is severely restricting the types of lessons Coomandook Area School students can access, and limits their chances of completing the core prerequisite subjects required for certain university degrees, like physics.

Just the other day they were trying to log four wired computers onto the internet so that some of the junior school children could access a program called Reading Eggs. They spent the lesson trying to log on, without success. However, sitting next to them in the library was a group of senior school students who were pulling in a weak signal on their laptops. When the bell went the senior school kids closed their laptops, and all of a sudden the junior school children could access the Reading Eggs program. Too late!

This shows that the bottleneck is not with the Coomandook school system but with the internet coming into the school. I note that the principal has taken this issue to the district office and the department of education head office, which do not appear to have the funds or the inclination—and I think that is a disgrace—to get this tower moved and get proper access so that these children can have a decent education out in the bush.

The information is that the department put a single booster on the admin office at Coomandook Area School so that staff could use their mobile phones. This was a crucial need, as mobile phones are used to notify parents of important information, whether it be changes with bus breakdowns or changes to schedule, etc. I will be taking up this issue with Glencore (or Viterra, as they are branded) about whether something can be done with a tower movement or to use the top of the silo as a base.

Another option that has been put to me by a parent is that a fibre optic cable runs right past the school; however, the node is about six kilometres away at Yumali. To run the cable back, Coomandook requires running cable through existing copper lines. However, the information is that this is not possible because the copper lines are so old and it would be a total waste of time. The preferred solution would be for a new node to be installed at Coomandook, which would allow the whole town and school to access the fibre optic NBN that runs straight past the school.

It certainly baffles me, as it baffles this parent, why this has to be so hard. I certainly will be working with all parents and the school to make sure we get this resolved, because it has a heavy impact on people making decisions about whether they keep their children at Coomandook. It is something the education minister should be picking up and getting on with the job, so that there is more equality in education across the regions.

In the last couple of minutes I have left I want to talk on something else that affects the lower end of my electorate, namely, the wish for members of that community to have a connector between Lake Albert and the Coorong. The minister keeps saying, 'No, it can't happen; it won't happen,' and all these kinds of things. I have a few quotes from a Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources document entitled 'Cost benefit analysis of proposed Lake Albert Management actions'. There are some interesting quotes, including:

1. During drought periods, the Coorong Connector reduces the time for salinity levels to fall from very high drought levels back to (or beyond) historical salinity levels. The Coorong Connector would therefore result in some environmental benefit in the event of major drought in future, by reducing the length of drought events.

2. The discharge of fresher water from Lake Albert to the Coorong may result in an environmental improvement in the Coorong (which is substantially more saline than Lake Albert at the proposed discharge point). This potential environmental benefit is complicated by several other factors which have not yet been fully investigated (in particular, such as the impact on the salinity profile in the Coorong, and the impact of turbidity and other discharged water from Lake Albert). This potential impact should be investigated in more detail at a later date.

The minister in the other place keeps saying, 'No, this isn't going to happen; this won't happen,' even though the potential impact is huge for the region, huge for the economy and certainly huge for the outcomes of the community as a whole around Meningie and the Narrung Peninsula. We need this government to get more on board and have a look at these issues, including the Lake Albert connector; the diversification plan for the River Murray, which the government has walked away from; and certainly to deliver high-class education to regional students in this state.

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (12:26): A few weeks ago, the shadow minister for transport (the member for Mitchell) revealed that the government has a backlog of incomplete road maintenance totalling around $1 billion. This worryingly creates safety concerns and has a profound economic impact in relation to the transportation of freight across and out of our state. As the shadow transport minister has said publicly, 'Road safety and maintenance is not sexy, but it is critical to ensuring South Australians are safe on our roads and our economy is productive.'

There is one continuous arterial road running from north to south through my electorate. It is variously known as Brighton Road, from Glenelg through to Seacliff Park, before turning into Ocean Boulevard and then becoming Lonsdale Road. I regularly receive complaints from the community about various aspects of this road. Of recent concern is a stretch of Lonsdale Road which lies between Perry Barr Road and Barramundi Drive at Hallett Cove. Here the underlying soil quality and lack of appropriate foundation for the road results in regular subsidence and extreme undulation. I have recently written to the transport minister about this undulation and the safety concerns it poses, but my concerns were promptly dismissed. I would invite the minister to visit my electorate and see the undulation for himself, because it certainly is not safe.

While there are concerns about Lonsdale Road, it is the Brighton Road stretch which causes most consternation in the community. This stretch of the road, which passes through Seacliff, South Brighton, Brighton, Hove, North Brighton and Somerton Park, takes some 45,000 vehicles per day. It is in very poor condition, with the road surface breaking up and potholed, and the median strip cracked, broken and littered with dirty old AstroTurf, long faded and disintegrating.

During the 2014 state election campaign, I established a community engagement website to bring local residents and road users into a discussion about the many problems facing Brighton Road. This website can be found at www.fixbrightonroad.com.au. The 'Fix Brighton Road' campaign has now been going for over a year and it has collected a large amount of anecdotal information from road users' experiences of the myriad of road maintenance, congestion, aesthetic and safety concerns with Brighton Road.

Brighton Road users were recently delighted when roadwork signs were erected, trucks rolled in and the road began to be resurfaced between Sturt Road, Brighton and Arthur Street, Seacliff Park. This southbound stretch of road was in desperate need of resurfacing and over the coming weeks locals were treated to a new, smooth coat of tarmac. The change in driving conditions has been stark.

After one side had been done, I made the naïve assumption that the northbound lane would be completed at the same time. After all, the northbound lane is in significantly poorer condition, with the area outside Brighton Central shopping centre in the worst condition I have ever seen an arterial road. How wrong I was!

The contractors disappeared when the southbound lane was resurfaced and have not been seen again since. We now have one lane which is smooth and improved; the other is like a corrugated country track, getting worse by the day as 45,000 vehicles rumble over it. Why resurface only half? It feels like our community is being teased. There is no doubt in my mind that there are patches of Brighton Road, particularly that patch outside Brighton Central shopping centre, which are a major safety risk to drivers, particularly motorcyclists, because of the surface condition.

I implore the Minister for Transport and his department to direct attention to the condition of our city's major arterial thoroughfares, as well as our rural and regional roads, and to tackle the crisis in road maintenance facing our state. The northbound lanes of Brighton Road, through Seacliff and Brighton, ought to be at the top of this list.

Deputy Speaker, no speech I make in this parliament would be complete without an update on the train horn saga which has made the life of hundreds of residents in my electorate a misery since early 2014. I am pleased to report that this problem is significantly improving after a long community-led campaign. The high-pitched invasive horn, which we have been fighting against for many months, has been tamed through a new approach—a rare win for the community in the face of an out-of-touch government bureaucracy.

This was never a battle which should have pitted rail safety against community amenity; that was a false construct of the transport department. No-one ever said that the trains should not have a warning device, but hundreds of people found themselves asking why the horns on the electric trains needed to be so loud and so disturbing and so frequently blasted compared to the dull and completely adequate horn on the old diesel trains. I would estimate there has been around an 80 per cent improvement in the level of disturbance caused by the horns—

Ms Chapman: Great local member!

Mr SPEIRS: A great win, as the member for Bragg suggests. This 80 per cent improvement has come about by a change of policy in terms of horn usage by drivers, and our community is incredibly grateful for this change. The remaining problems, which are thankfully much less frequent, seem to be down to a few maverick drivers who have decided not to acquiesce to departmental policy. Thankfully, the local community has become wise to such behaviour and has taken to closely monitoring train horn activity. I note that a recent email from transport department chief executive, Michael Deegan, in response to a complaint from a resident, reads as follows:

Further to recent emails the driver to whom you referred over a particular incident has been counselled and has apologised. I have a senior driver working with the driver in cab to ensure protocols are followed.

The email was signed by Michael Deegan, Chief Executive, Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. So, we are making progress with the train horns, but why did it take so long? It was not until the community got enraged, went out and protested, signed petitions and helped me to hijack the government's ridiculously gimmicky GOVchat forum that action was taken. While I am grateful that the department has finally done something, it beggars belief that it has taken 17 months of arrogant dismissal to get to this point.

Another issue I would like to briefly discuss now is the proposed development of multistorey buildings on the secondary dunes at Minda Incorporated's site at North Brighton. This is an issue which has caused much consternation in the community, as concerns have been raised about environmental damage and lack of appropriate infrastructure to support a series of high-rise towers, with over 600 potential apartments, which are effectively accessed by a network of small and already congested side streets leading from Brighton Road towards the sea.

I am not opposed to development on the Minda site per se. I admire and support the work that Minda puts into the community and the efforts of its chief executive, Cathy Miller, and its board to give the organisation a financially sustainable future. However, I am concerned about the size and scale of the proposed development and the inappropriateness of the current suburban infrastructure, which I believe will be unable to deal with an influx of new residents and their vehicles at a level which this development will allow.

I am also concerned that the development plan amendment for this site seeks to categorise future development as category 1, so that building approval is not subject to notification of neighbouring properties. I am very concerned that such significant development will go ahead without appropriate notification and the community feels cheated out of the opportunity to have their say on the design, bulk and scale of future development. I have appreciated having the opportunity to sit down and talk about this issue with the Deputy Premier in his capacity as Minister for Planning and I hope that a pragmatic compromise can be reached with regard to this potential development.

The final issue I want to discuss briefly concerns the Brighton sporting precinct. I am reminded that it is now a year since the government revealed its decision not to honour Chloe Fox's thought bubble, which she translated into a written election promise to provide $1 million to the Brighton rugby club to kickstart the redevelopment of the Brighton sporting club precinct. I am surprised by how regularly this broken promise is raised with me in the electorate: on the doorstep, in the local media and community services, and at sporting club events.

I visited the precinct last week and continue to believe that its condition is amongst the worst that I have seen in the southern suburbs. The sporting precinct is home to rugby, football, lacrosse, cricket and croquet clubs, with rugby, football, lacrosse and cricket all requiring significant improvement works. I would implore the government to work alongside the City of Holdfast Bay and these clubs and fulfil that broken election promise given to the clubs in writing in the final days of the 2014 election campaign.

Motion carried.

Third Reading

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (12:36): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

I thank members for their contributions to the house. I note that opposition members have offered to the house many spending initiatives, with no concurrent savings measures to pay for them. I note the outrage the member for Bright has about a $1 million grant to the Brighton sporting precinct, yet offers no opposition commitment that if they are elected in 2018 they will fund $1 million into that precinct. I look forward to that commitment from the member for Bright. He can make it any time he likes, but thus far, after 12 months in opposition, he has made no promise whatsoever to that community, other than to complain.

I am sure members opposite understand that governing is more about delivering, rather than complaining. There has been a recent example in the United Kingdom where an opposition party thought it would do much better than it actually did because all it offered were complaints about the incumbent government. I have to say, they remind me a lot of a certain opposition in South Australia. I commend the bill to the house.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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