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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Southern Expressway

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): Thanks, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. With two rock-throwing incidents in the past 24 hours, four in the past fortnight, will the minister now take immediate action and install temporary fencing until the permanent grate-style fencing is installed?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:16): Thank you for the question. Can I say in answer to this that, it is interesting that it is today that, in response to these number of incidents that have happened over the last few weeks, we have seen action by others within our community, action by those who have put forward ideas who seemingly were bereft of putting forward these ideas prior to 17 March. Can I tell you that what this government will not do—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —is to provide ad hoc, kneejerk solutions as problems arise. What we have done is to realise that this is a longstanding issue in the community. This issue didn't start happening in the last couple of weeks: this issue has been around for a long, long time, and it is the first opportunity we have had upon coming to government to work on a permanent solution. That is why we have worked since day one to put these measures in place, and in the coming weeks what we will see are those first steps in our solution come to fruition.

This is as a result of work that has been undertaken since we have come to government. Again, can I stress and reiterate that what is happening here is that the opposition would have us believe that somehow providing more infrastructure is going to solve this problem. It is not. It is part of the solution. What we are dealing with is a specific problem on the Southern Expressway, but can I tell you that not all the incidents that the Leader of the Opposition is talking about have happened on bridges. In fact, some of them seem to have happened from the side of the Southern Expressway.

Now, if the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting that we need to put up 44 kilometres worth of fencing the length and breadth of the Southern Expressway, then why are we stopping there? Why are we not putting up a fence then across every single road in South Australia, because that's what we are talking about. At the end of the day, somebody can stand on the side of any single road across South Australia and throw a rock at a car. We are dealing with an infrastructure solution for the Southern Expressway because it is where we have seen a spate of attacks.

It is interesting that initially it was the Honeypot Road and the Beach Road bridges that were in question. Now we see incidents happening down Majors Road and other parts of the Southern Expressway. The difficulty we've got is that we cannot fence South Australia. That is why the second half of our response has been the work that SAPOL has done. The trigger response plan that they have put in place is what is going to help stop this issue.

It's about us identifying: is this a small band of young people who are out there and get a kick out of having this issue being on the nightly news and therefore try to feed this issue as it goes along? Are we talking about copycats who have seen the fact that this has come up on the nightly news and, 'Hey, wouldn't it be really cool if I chucked a rock at a car and see what happens?' as the TV crews chase politicians around for the next day or two? That is why our society is based upon individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, and where they don't we need to punish them and bring them to justice.

It's why we back our South Australia Police and the response they have taken today. They have put every resource that is necessary and available. They have used dogs. They have used choppers. They have responded extremely quickly when these incidents happen. But, more than that, what we also need to do is help the police by providing them with better evidence, and that's where the CCTV cameras come into play. If we can provide evidence that puts a picture of this idiot who's chucking a rock, and can show the fact that he waited for a car to come past before chucking the rock, then our ability to charge people with more serious offences is opened up. That's why that has to be the other half of the solution.

I don't want South Australians to somehow think that we can fence all of South Australia and that that is the answer. At the end of the day, our society functions best when individuals take responsibility for their own actions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call for a supplementary, I call the following members to order: the member for Wright, the Minister for Child Protection and the member for Reynell, and I warn for the first time the members for Badcoe and West Torrens.

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