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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-06-08 Daily Xml
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Northern Connector

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:34): As you will be aware, the Australian and South Australian governments have committed nearly $1 billion towards the Northern Connector project, which is a road connecting the Northern Expressway and the southern Superway and runs through the member for Taylor's electorate and the member for Port Adelaide's electorate down the bottom there.

To recap, the Northern Connector is a 15.5 kilometre road. It has three lanes in each direction and it is posted the entire length at 110 km/h. There will be four interchanges. The first one, the northern interchange, is at the intersection of Port Wakefield Road and the Northern Expressway; the second is at the corner of Port Wakefield Road and Waterloo Corner Road; the Bolivar interchange is at the intersection of Port Wakefield Road and Bolivar Road; and the southern interchange is at the intersection of the Port River Expressway, the South Road Superway and the connector. I am happy to say that there will also be a shared-use pedestrian and bike path extending its full length, which will also connect with the Northern Expressway's Stuart O'Grady Bikeway.

There are obvious time and productivity savings for commuters and freight. Drivers will save up to seven minutes, based on the current average peak travel time on the current route, from the end of the Northern Expressway, down Port Wakefield Road and along the Salisbury connector highway to the South Road Superway. That will be replaced by travelling the whole time at 110 km/h along the Northern Connector, and it will save up to about eight minutes, based on maximum peak-hour travel time on the same route.

As the minister said in an answer to a question from me today, last week the government did announce that Lendlease had won the tender to build the Northern Connector after an exhaustive tender process and that major works were expected to commence in the third quarter of 2016, with the project scheduled for completion in December 2019. Of course, for me, and for the other local MPs in the north, the main focus will be on the jobs and on the work for local industry, particularly obviously in the northern suburbs.

As the head of the Northern Connector jobs task force, I have been working over the last six months meeting with local government, with jobs providers and training providers. I have also been meeting with people in the industry and in DPTI, working towards this announcement last week and then thinking about feeding local workers, particularly displaced automotive workers, into this new project both in terms of gainful employment and the training opportunities it provides.

The project will support on average 480 full-time equivalent jobs each year. It is my aim, and the stated aim of Lendlease, to make sure that the lion's share of those jobs comes from people in the northern suburbs. The tender process was also conducted in line with the state government's Industry Participation Policy, with the economic benefit to South Australia making up 20 per cent of the tender evaluation, which also boosts the opportunities for local subcontractors and suppliers to be involved in the project.

I am also pleased that a minimum of 20 per cent of the total labour hours are to be carried out by apprentices and trainees, Aboriginal workers, displaced automotive employees and people facing barriers to employment. I mentioned automotive employees, and they are doubly represented because they largely live in the northern suburbs that we are talking about—although not entirely, of course.

The exciting thing about this project, and what makes me confident that Lendlease will meet its targets, is that, as the minister alluded to, they will establish what they have called the NorthHub. That is an employment, skills and training centre to help northern jobseekers secure employment on the project, particularly, as I said, displaced automotive workers. This NorthHub will be a one-stop shop located at the main site offices, and it will be a place where education, training and other service providers can meet on site with industry partners, subcontractors and workers.

The NorthHub will include a dedicated employment development team which will be established to work closely with me and DPTI and the Northern Connector jobs task force to maximise opportunities for local workers. This team will be made up of the employment development coordinators from all the Lendlease industry partners, including CATCON, McMahon, LR&M and SEM. As has been mentioned earlier, they are all companies with well-entrenched local experience.

With the time left available to me, I want to address another important component of this project. Thanks to the member for Giles and the action that he and the Premier and the government have taken since the last election in changing the participation policy, Lendlease has established a partnership with Arrium to supply reinforcing steel for the project. Approximately 9,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel is required in total, of which approximately 6,500 tonnes will use Whyalla billet. The remainder of reinforcing steel will be sourced from within Australia. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of structural steel is also required for the project, and this is expected to be sourced from within Australia.

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