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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-30 Daily Xml
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Question Time

GlobeLink

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:34): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier or his government made any submissions to the Prime Minister or Infrastructure Australia for funding for his signature infrastructure policy, GlobeLink?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:35): I thank the member for West Torrens for his question because it allows us to highlight one of the fundamental differences between the former government and the current government. This government actually wants to take an evidence-based business case led process to deciding on infrastructure projects in South Australia. We are the ones who actually put in place an Infrastructure South Australia policy—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —passed by this parliament, to make sure that when we are spending taxpayers' dollars we do so with all of the information, listening to expert advice and not wasting a cent of taxpayers' dollars, as opposed to what we had before the election—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: my question is relevance, sir. This is debate—

The SPEAKER: Yes, I have your question. I write them down when you say them, you realise that, so that I have them here, but thank you.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am glad, sir.

The SPEAKER: So the point of order is for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir. May I explain?

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I have allowed the minister 30 seconds to warm up. I understand the question had a couple of facets; one was about GlobeLink, and a submission to the Prime Minister, and Infrastructure SA. I have allowed him some opportunity. I then ask him to come back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Just to be clear, to try and tie those two things together, normally what you do before you go to IA is you go through ISA. That's normally the way the process should work, that you talk to your state body and discuss with them an idea before you take it to Infrastructure Australia. More than that, what used to happen is that we had—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —pet projects around marginal seats in electoral cycles. What we now have is an orderly business case development process that helps to identify the best use of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars, making sure that it goes exactly where it needs to go. I also remind the house and the member for West Torrens that what we have done is undertaken and we are undertaking, by KPMG, a stage 1 and stage 2 business case analysis. That's the part of the process that we are in at the moment.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: That's not what I asked. I asked if you had asked the Prime Minister for money.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: What you need to do is you actually need to make sure that document is fulsome and make sure that document answers all the questions that it needs to, and we have been able to consider it both at an Infrastructure South Australia level and at a cabinet level before going off to ask the feds for money, as opposed to what we have seen in the past—that is, stick your hand out and ask for the money without doing any of your homework.

In fact, one of the most difficult things upon coming to the government and this portfolio has been the fact that there hasn't been any homework done. So, when you go to the federal government and ask for money, they say, 'Well, show us why we should fund this project.' The answer is that the work wasn't done before, which is precisely why this government took to the election a policy—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: two minutes now. I asked a very simple question: any submission—

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir. Has he made a submission or hasn't he?

The SPEAKER: I believe that the minister is within the remit of the substance of the question. He is talking about infrastructure, and I will listen carefully to ensure he sticks to that substance. Minister.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Education, I do not require your assistance at this point, thank you.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I am alluding to infrastructure quite a lot in the answer. So there is a sequential process, rather than a haphazard electoral cycle process, that this government is going down. We are delivering precisely what we promised the people at the state election that we would do—that is, look into what is dealing with the increasing freight task as it exists here in South Australia, dealing with the fact that we see our trucking movements heading down the South Eastern Freeway.

We know the issues that exist with trucks on the South Eastern Freeway and the fact that we as a government have taken numerous steps to try and improve safety on that stretch of road. On this side of the house, we're the ones who actually had an idea to help improve freight productivity in South Australia. On this side of the house, we're not scared to explore big ideas—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: we're at three minutes, sir. Has a submission been made to Infrastructure Australia or the Prime Minister?

The SPEAKER: Yes, I have the point of order, thank you, member for West Torrens. I ask for the interjections to please cease because I am struggling to hear the minister's answer.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: It's just clear that sometimes when you don't like the answer an interjection or a point of order is the way to go, but the answer here is that we need to develop a business case before we can submit something to Infrastructure South Australia. That's what we're doing at the moment.

That is precisely what we're doing at the moment, but on this side of the house we're the ones who are willing to explore big ideas and to actually invest taxpayers' dollars to investigate those ideas, rather than go on flights of fancy and just ask the federal government to fund things that haven't gone through the due diligence process and may not be the highest priority for taxpayers' dollars.

Early next year, we will see our first 20-year infrastructure strategy released. It will provide a blueprint for where Infrastructure South Australia thinks we need to head—another evidence point that we can use to show taxpayers that we are being prudent with their dollars and doing our homework before we stick our hand out to the feds.

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