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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-23 Daily Xml
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Hove Level Crossing

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister confirm he did indeed ask the commonwealth government for additional funding on top of the commonwealth's original funding commitment, and can the minister detail to the house what that additional amount was?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:01): I think I outlined that in my last answer, but I am happy to repeat it for the member if he didn't quite catch it. Yes, we did. On a number of occasions, I asked the federal government to partner with us on an expanded project. It was just last week that we got back in writing that they were not willing to partner with us on either of the options to expand it, so that's why that project didn’t go ahead.

As I have pointed out, though, we have put together a 10-year plan to remove priority level crossings, so we will go away and do that work to identify the priority ones. We have the 31 on the Infrastructure Australia list, and this has come about through extensive public consultation. I make no apologies for that. We value the feedback that has come. I know there have been some people out there who are quite vitriolic and have had plenty to say about this project but, as the minister and as the local member, it is important we listen to everyone right across the board. The local people in the vicinity of the Hove crossing were important, but we did listen to people right across the board. Again, I think that is our job and that is our role.

I know the member for West Torrens was heavily involved with a group of people who were actually running a Facebook page. I think they were against any proposal right from the start. We did listen to what they had to say; in fact, anyone who contacted my office and wanted a meeting was offered a meeting. They came and sat in my office and we talked through all the projects. I made that really clear to the public and my community. We had a number of community consultation sessions, and I was there for all of those except for when they were on parliament sitting days, of course, when I couldn't be.

This group did make a fair bit of noise. I am a big fellow. I am in this job and I am in this role, so you expect this sort of thing. I've got fairly thick skin—my kids say I'm just fat, but I say it's thick skin—but I must say there was a little bit of disappointment and this did get taken into consideration too. My wife, for example, was bailed up at a funeral in front of the coffin and asked about the Hove crossing. I think that was probably a little step too far. I think my kids being harassed on social media was possibly a step too far.

There was some social media content that I thought was a little bit inappropriate too, and on the advice of police I did block a couple of people on social media. I don't like doing that but, again with police advice, that's what I did. I think walking down the street in Hahndorf at lunch with a couple of friends and having people run across the road, yelling at you as well—again, I can handle it, but I don't think my friends and colleagues need to as well. All of this is taken into consideration.

As I said, we put together that 10-year plan to remove the priority level crossings. The planning is what is important, and that's what we need to be doing and to get it right. We have experienced moments when the planning wasn't done before we came into government. We know that this planning is important, so we will continue to do that and look at the rest of Brighton Road because more needs to be done. We will work with the federal government around using that money to deliver other elements of Brighton Road and in the surrounds to improve traffic flow along there.

Across the board, our $8.8 billion infrastructure spend on transport and roads across South Australia is money this state has never seen before. We are incredibly proud of that. Of course, the Truro bypass—I do apologise, we are running out of time because we have to get to the crossbenchers—is one example, and there are lists and lists. I encourage everyone to have a look at them in the budget and to read them because I am so proud of what we are investing in transport and infrastructure in this state it's not funny.

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