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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-03 Daily Xml
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Infrastructure Projects

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:33): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier accept that delays to major projects under his government are contributing to the state's economic malaise? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! The Premier is called to order.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The government has delayed the Women's and Children's Hospital project, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital upgrade project, the Main South Road duplication project, the Aboriginal Arts and Culture Centre project, the North-South Corridor upgrade, the Hove level crossing project, the Torrens Road level crossing project, the Fullarton Road-Cross Road intersection project and the Magill Road-Portrush Road intersection project, together worth billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to South Australians.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Interjections from my right will cease. The Minister for Education has a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir: firstly, arguing that there was 'malaise' taking place is argument in the question, and seeking leave to insert explanation doesn't shrive it of the fact that it was argument in the first place. Secondly, the explanation was full of argument, too, and a lack of any fact also.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The point of order is pursuant to standing order 97. The member for Lee sought and obtained leave to introduce facts and described a number of matters that were asserted as having been delayed. For present purposes, I am content to treat the interpolation of those matters as fact, and I will give the Premier the opportunity to answer the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:35): I thank the member for his question. It is an important question because, as those opposite know, we have a $16.7 billion building project at the moment. From time to time, there are projects that move forward and there are projects that move backwards. I was only out with the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport last week when we were looking very closely at the Regency to Pym project. Actually, what happened was it was coming in earlier than planned and under budget. That wasn't on the list.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I almost find it impossible to believe. They look through everything to find the bad news.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: 'Where's the bad news? I'm looking for the bad news.' The boss is out there whipping them harder: 'Find some more bad news.' People don’t want bad news. They want their projects delivered and they want a government that is going to build—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —what matters—$16.7 billion. They are humiliated that they didn't get on and do this work when they were in government.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Now they want to talk it down. Well, it's completely and utterly unacceptable. Let me tell you, when we came to government, the best way I can describe what we had from those opposite was 'hand to mouth, hand to mouth'. What we have tried to do since coming to government is first of all set up an infrastructure body in South Australia, Infrastructure SA, which is already delivering—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —fantastic information and resources to us. We have the entire department focused on—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will resume his seat. The member for Playford will leave for 20 minutes in accordance with standing order 137A. The member for Lee will leave for 20 minutes in accordance with standing order 137A.

The honourable members for Playford and Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: I remind all members that the minister, in answering the question, is entitled to be heard in silence. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are very proud of the work we have done to put the planning in place so we can deliver projects on time and on budget. That wasn't being done before. Take a look at one of the biggest projects, one of the most important projects to the people out in Gawler—the Gawler line electrification. This was a project that was promised, taken off, promised, taken off. Actually, we have put it back on, but the work wasn't done prior to coming to government. We still committed to it because it's an important project for the people who have been out in Gawler waiting for that important project for a long period of time. It's a priority project.

What you will see with the investments we are now making into the Department for Infrastructure and Transport is a lot of early works being done in terms of those planning and design studies. We have separately funded that work, which is being done. It was a recommendation that came from Tony Shepherd and the board of Infrastructure Australia. Don't forget we have an excellent independent board looking at all those projects, which we are putting in place going forward.

Part of that is making sure we have the right selection process around those projects that we select, not pet projects around marginal seats and electoral cycles, like we saw for a long period of time with the previous government. We are making sure we've got a robust methodology for selecting those projects. Importantly, we are doing that design work ahead of time—not hand to mouth, but doing that planning work. That is reflected in the Infrastructure Australia priority lists, which were published only—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader, and the member for Wright!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —last week. South Australia had six new projects put onto the high-priority or priority lists, which is the largest number South Australia has had in any previous report over the last five years. We are very proud of that, but that takes work. That takes time. We have rolled up our sleeves, we have done that work since coming to government and we are going to continue to do it into the future.

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