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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-09 Daily Xml
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North-South Corridor

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure. What is the breakdown of funding over each year of the four years of the forward estimates from last night's federal budget for the River Torrens to Darlington section of the north-south corridor?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the minister, members will remain in silence. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:22): The River Torrens to Darlington section.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: You have the call, minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The reason that I am a little bit startled with it being characterised in that way is that we are talking about the remaining 11 kilometre—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —section from the River Torrens section right through to the Anzac tram overpass and then right through to Tonsley or to Darlington where Darlington finishes. It's interesting that the leader has profiled it in that way because that's not the way that the current design was designed to work. In fact, the work that I had presented to me on coming into government is that this project was broken down into—

Mr Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —what we call bundle 1, bundle 2 and bundle 3, with the Anzac tram overpass being the section that should be broken up into two sections. There still is a discussion that needs to happen within the department about how we deliver this project. There are a number of grade separations at major intersections that need to happen. Do these happen as separate projects? Do these happen together? Certainly, there is a broad consensus that bundle 2, which is the section north of the Anzac tram overpass, should be the next section.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: And the reason that that should be the next section—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —is that it's the most important part of the network for freight to be able to get to Adelaide Airport.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: That makes sense but, as the Premier pointed out in the press conference on Monday, there are those who would like to see their section of the corridor done first, and we can understand that. Everyone wants what is best for their local area to be done first. But, what I find most interesting about that is that there hasn't been any work done to be able to understand in what sort of time frame we need to progress this. I am being asked to answer a question that those opposite very well know I can't answer because they didn't do their work. This is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

Mr Malinauskas: Point of order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Basically—

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The minister will be seated. Point of order, member for West Torrens.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: On relevance, sir: the minister was asked how much money was allocated in the forward estimates of the commonwealth budget over the next four years.

The SPEAKER: Yes, member for West Torrens, I have written down the question. It was a very specific one, so I ask the minister to please bring it back to the substance of the question, and he will be heard in silence. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: In providing context to this question—we are talking about the exact relevant project—there is more work to be done to be able to answer when this project can be delivered. I think that we have been open and up front about that since day one. In fact, we were open and up front about this since before the election, which is why we said we needed—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —to put money on the table to develop a business case.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: But, what I would say is that there is as much federal funding in the next four years for the next stage of the north-south corridor as the state Labor government put in the budget last year—the same amount. Of course, this bundle 2, is what I think we are referring to, unless the opposition leader is now suggesting that somehow we can do the entire north-south corridor remaining sections in one go.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: I anticipate the point of order. Minister, please wrap it up.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I did answer the question.

The SPEAKER: Has the minister finished?

An honourable member: What's the number?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: As much as the state Labor government put in the budget last year.

The SPEAKER: The minister will be seated.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I think that's a pretty clear answer. It's your budget. You should have figured it out. But what I would say is that there is still a lot more work to be done because there are some design considerations and design options that we can undertake. We need to do that work, and we need to do that work before we go back out to the public because, at the moment, it is slated for hundreds and hundreds of properties to be acquired along this corridor. That is going to be a difficult situation and an uncertain situation for those along that corridor. Before we can settle on what the profile of this project is going to look like, we need to make decisions on the design so that when we go out we can provide a greater degree of certainty to those people whose homes we are going to have to acquire as part of this project.

I think that, as a responsible government, we should make sure that we do our work so that, when we go out there, we don't unduly distress home owners, that we do not unduly distress businesses whose livelihoods are at risk here. So, when we have done our work, when we have talked to the federal government about how we want to profile this, we will go out and make those things public.

The SPEAKER: Leader.

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