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

Contents

Transport Infrastructure

Mr KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Transport. Can the minister provide details on the occasions, other than yesterday and today, when he has made public remarks stating that the Regency Road to Pym Street sections of South Road will take longer than 2020 to complete? On 9 May, in an answer to a question from the Leader of the Opposition as to whether it would be completed by 2020, the minister said yes. He went on to say, 'We expect to deliver this project on time, but this is the easy project to do it on.'

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:50): Yes, and if I can read back, maybe, the next sentence of what I would have said in that answer—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —was the fact that the reason—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will be heard in silence.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —that this is the easier project to be able to deliver on is because this is one of the few projects that did actually have a stage 4 business case, but the other projects in relation to the Joy Baluch Bridge and the remaining sections of the north-south corridor did not have any work done on business case. So there are many ways to deliver—

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The minister will be seated.

Members interjecting:

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Relevance. Sir, the question was: on what occasions—

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Relevance, sir.

The SPEAKER: Relevance, okay.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: On what occasions? When did you say? When?

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will be seated. I will listen carefully. Minister, could you please direct your answer directly relevant to the question.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Energy will not assist the minister; he will be heard in silence. Minister, please continue.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I am trying to find a way maybe to enlighten the member for West Torrens—

The SPEAKER: Don't do that. Answer the question, please.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —about how it is that we got here and answer the question that he asked.

The SPEAKER: Answer the question.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The direct answer is: I don't remember every word that I have said and the day on which I said it since 17 March. What I do know is the fact that, with regard to infrastructure projects, there are a number of ways to deliver an infrastructure project across different time frames depending on whether you bunch that work up and do it in a more concentrated fashion, and maybe the member for Lee would be able to inform the member for West Torrens what he tried to do with the tram extension project and to try to compress a construction time frame.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: relevance. The question is about when did he inform the house—

The SPEAKER: The minister is—

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: —at any other time that it will take longer than 2020 to complete?

The SPEAKER Order!

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: When? When did you say it?

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will not use points of order to deliver speeches and, if he does, he will be exiting the chamber. The minister is attempting to answer the question, and I am sure he will bring it very soon back to the substance of the question. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Thank you. As members did try to do, and unsuccessfully tried to do in relation to the tram extension project, that is, to compress a construction time frame, there are ways when you develop infrastructure time frames and profiles for infrastructure funding, on which we are currently negotiating with the federal government, to essentially work out what is the best construction profile for a given project.

I said in the house five minutes ago that this will take longer than 2020 to complete. We are looking at a more elongated profile to this construction project, and when we have more updated answers in relation to how the negotiations are going with the federal government we will do so.