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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-22 Daily Xml
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Infrastructure Projects

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government are building what matters across South Australia?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee! When there's silence, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:18): Thank you, sir, and a wonderful question from the member for King, as they always are because she's interested in the more money that we are investing into infrastructure in South Australia.

Ms Hildyard: It's the same question over and over and over again. Here come the clichés.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The member for Reynell chips in and says, 'You've had this question before,' and, yes, she's right. Do you know why? Because under the old question the amount of money we were spending on infrastructure in South Australia was $16.7 billion—impressive, I know—more than they have ever spent on infrastructure in their history. Now, though, this is where the question gets different, because now, after the budget—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and the Treasurer has been very kind, giving us a little bit of a heads up—comes down today, that figure of $17.9 billion—$17.9 billion—will be spent on infrastructure in South Australia. The quantum is big and the quantum is sometimes hard for people to comprehend, we get that, but let's put it in tangible benefits. What we are doing is building and fixing roads for the people of South Australia, not only in metropolitan Adelaide—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —but in the regions as well, and don't they appreciate that. Schools, hospitals and sporting infrastructure as well, we are impacting the lives of people in South Australia and that is what is important. This is going to change the face of South Australia as we know it—the significant investment into these key areas, key areas that people engage with every day.

Families, young people looking to stay in South Australia—and aren't they loving to do that right now—and people who are coming back to South Australia as well love and appreciate the work we are doing, as I said, investing in those key areas. The Treasurer will be down to give a little bit more detail in a few moments' time, and I know the member for Reynell will love it. She will probably chip away a little bit, but she will love it. She will love—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell will cease interjecting.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —what the Treasurer has to say because we are building thousands of kilometres of roads, dozens and dozens of schools and hospitals. We are building and fixing the mess they left. I'm not sure if anyone here remembers Transforming Health. What a debacle that was—those opposite shutting down the Repat and shutting down our hospitals. We are investing to rebuild those hospitals and what that does is it creates a stronger South Australia, creating jobs—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume his seat for a moment. Interjections on my right and on my left will cease. I'm having some difficulty hearing the minister's answer and that's the result—

Ms Hildyard: It's the same answer as last time.

The SPEAKER: Order! That's the result of interjections on both my right and my left. The minister is entitled to be heard in silence and I should be in a position to be able to hear clearly what the minister is saying in response to the question. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Those opposite don't like hearing about the $17.9 billion we are investing in infrastructure and the jobs we are creating in the process, building what matters for the people of South Australia. We know how important that is. Let's compare records. I mentioned the $16.7 billion figure before, a record figure for South Australia over a four-year period—more than $4 billion than those opposite ever delivered for the people of South Australia. But it's gone up. I can't stress that point enough. They may not like it on the other side, but $17.9 billion is $5 billion more than those opposite could ever fathom.

The SPEAKER: The minster will resume his seat. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Indeed, perhaps it's more of a point of clarification: do I take it from the minister's answer that the house no longer needs to abide by the embargo over the state budget? We are free to start talking about it, tweeting about it and talking to the media about it?

The Hon. S.S. Marshall: The 17.9 was announced four days ago.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The member for Lee will resume his seat.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! The minister will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens rises on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, the Premier just called a member of this house a bozo. Grow up and apologise.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens knows the correct approach should he be raising a point of order in relation to an interjection or words used by any member. If the member for West Torrens is seeking the opportunity to do so in the appropriate way, I will give him the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir, and I am. I ask that the Premier withdraw and apologise for his unparliamentary language to another member of parliament.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford will cease interjecting.

Mr Brown: It should be a good day for you. Why are you so angry?

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! I will rule on the point of order. The member for West Torrens has raised a point of order in relation to words that he says the Premier used that he indicates may have been unparliamentary and the member for West Torrens has placed on the record the word that he says was heard. In the circumstances, with a view to resolving the matter for the time being, I will give the Premier the opportunity to withdraw the use of that word, if it's necessary. If it's necessary to address the matter further, I will do so after considering the matter further. I give the Premier the opportunity to withdraw the use of that word.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I withdraw the reflection of 'bozo' that the opposition finds so offensive.

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We will return to business because the member for Lee might be red-faced, and probably has a red nose because of the embarrassing statement he just made. The $17.9 billion figure has been around in the media for a number of days and we have been proudly talking about it, about what we are doing to deliver for the people of South Australia. Talk about our regions and the money we are investing in our regions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We know the contempt those opposite have for the regions. In fact, I remember former Premier Weatherill saying that there were no votes in the regions for Labor, so they didn't care about the regions. Well, that's not the way we feel. We are improving country roads. We are improving regional roads. We are making it safer and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —for higher productivity roads out there in the regions for the people of South Australia. Again, those opposite just don't care for the people in the regions. There are a number of projects and we have put these in the media. The member for Lee may not be aware of them so I will remind him of them: the park-and-ride (the member for Newland is a huge advocate for the park-and-ride in Tea Tree Plaza), an amazing piece of infrastructure that we are delivering for the people of South Australia; a $45 million upgrade at Marion Road and Sir Donald Bradman Drive, again to get traffic moving smoother—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and $27 million—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —for planning studies for the Greater Adelaide freight bypass and the next stage of the Augusta Highway duplication and Eyre Highway upgrades as well. We know, again, how important our regional roads are.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Giles!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Of course, under those opposite no planning work was done. When we came into government, no planning works had been done and therefore it made it very hard to get projects going off the ground. But we are doing those works, we are getting these projects up already so we can keep delivering more for the people of South Australia and continue to build what matters for South Australia.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for West Torrens, I remind all members, notwithstanding a degree of energy in the place on this special day, that is no reason for there to be sustained or any interjections. The member asking a question is entitled to be heard in silence and the minister in answering the question is entitled to be heard in silence. The member for West Torrens is seeking the call.

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