House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-30 Daily Xml

Contents

South Road

Mr KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:47): Thank you for the reminder, sir. My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Does the minister stand by his answer to the house yesterday that he has previously publicly stated that the Regency Road to Pym Street section of South Road will take longer to complete than the 2020 timetable he initially announced?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:48): Yes, I think that's what I said yesterday. Again, maybe I will explain now for the fourth or fifth time. I think I have been pretty clear about the fact that, yes, there was one suggestion on radio where I said it would be finished in 2020, and I think I have said three times subsequently that it is going to take longer than that as we prove up the profile of how this construction project is going to go ahead.

So, yes, it will start construction in 2019; yes, it will continue through 2020; yes, it will go longer than 2020 into 2021. But, in terms of what the final profile is going to look like, they are discussions we are currently having with the federal government. They are discussions that we are currently having in the department and, potentially, with members opposite—and if they had done their homework on more projects we would be a bit further along in these discussions.

We are picking up the pieces to make sure that we do that work diligently and progress it as fast as possible, with an understanding that we have three major projects on the go at the moment, with Darlington, the Northern Connector and Torrens to Torrens. We want to make sure that with this Pym to Regency section, as those projects scale off and become completed, we can develop a proper productive pipeline of infrastructure so that workers in that sector can have confidence that they can move from job to job to job as we develop the remaining sections of the north-south corridor.