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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-03 Daily Xml
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Infrastructure Funding

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:13): My question is for the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister please inform the house on how last night's federal budget infrastructure spend will benefit road users in metropolitan Adelaide?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the minister, I warn the member for Playford and the member for Reynell. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:13): I would like to thank the member for Morphett for his question and certainly note his advocacy, especially in relation to one project down on Brighton Road that I know he has been a strong advocate for, even before he was in this place, advocating for his local community. I would like to set a bit of a scene here and talk about—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —what happened when we came to government last year. We had the comments in 2017 from the then treasurer, who said that the 2017 federal budget did not deliver anything in infrastructure for South Australia. In 2018, we saw a pretty empty cupboard. The cupboard was extremely bare, and in the first few months we moved to secure funding for four major projects: the Port Wakefield overpass and duplication, the Joy Baluch Bridge in Port Augusta, the Pym Street to Regency Road section and the Gawler line electrification.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The difficulty is they say they are their projects, but there is one element that was missing: the money to complete them. In the budget last year, they said, 'You've only got $120 million inside the forward estimates. This is a disaster. There's a valley of death.' Guess what? We were able to negotiate to bring all $600 million forward into the forward estimates. Did we hear anything about that straw man having been knocked over from those opposite? No, not one word.

We move forward and, after their first valley of death claim has been refuted, in the last few weeks they have mentioned the same thing over and over again. As of last night, there is no more valley of death. In fact, we have the opposite. We now have an infrastructure pipeline—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —that is going to secure—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —civil construction jobs for over the next decade. Let me enunciate to you the ways in which this pipeline has been built. We moved quickly. By the end of this year we will see diggers in the ground on the Regency Road to Pym Street section. We will see the Joy Baluch Bridge get underway next year. We will see the Port Wakefield overpass get underway next year and the Gawler line electrification stage 2 also continue as of next year.

What we need to do is build the pipeline beyond that because 12, 18 or even 24 months doesn't provide certainty for civil construction workers, which is why the nine metropolitan intersections that we got funding for out of last night's budget—which is all in the forward estimates—actually delivers for the South Australian public.

Whether that be the grade separation at the Brighton/Hove crossing, whether that be Scotty's Corner, whether that be the Fullarton Road and Glen Osmond Road intersection, whether that be the three intersections we have announced over the previous weeks, whether that be the Torrens Road overpass at Ovingham, as well as a number of other projects, we have delivered and especially for the 2021-22 financial year have put money on the table with projects that are ready to go, that are able to be delivered by local construction workers to give them certainty that they have jobs. The reason we have done that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier and the member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —is because there is this big thing called the north-south corridor. It's a pretty big project. It takes a few years to get off the ground. To dispel the myth, there is actually a $252 million bucket of money that is inside the forward estimates, contributed equally by the state and federal governments, to do the early work to get this project off the ground—$252 million to make sure that we can do the planning, the geotechnical work and the early land acquisition to make sure that this project gets off the ground.

Every single project that was funded last night starts in the forward estimates. These projects are going ahead. The only risk to any of these projects is a Bill Shorten government, who I notice today has not committed to the extra $1½ billion that the federal government put on the table.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: South Australians have to know that, unless they get a commitment from Bill Shorten, this pipeline of projects is at risk.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned and he has the call.

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