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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Gawler Line Electrification

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Has the minister received any advice that there are further delays on the Gawler line electrification project?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:22): I thank the member for the question. We have been quite public in this project. Of course, it's a huge project, one that Labor had on the table and took off the table and put on the table more times than I care to remember. We have said and we have made it very clear—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Who's off the rails?

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: That is true: under Labor, it was very much off the rails. We have said that it will be finished early next year. We are working really hard on that. We have had with this project a number of situations as far as getting specialists across to work on the project during COVID times, and that has been difficult in a number of sectors. In fact, if you look at our $17.9 billion infrastructure spend, a record spend for South Australia, by the way—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —$17.9 billion—you wouldn't believe it, more than those opposite ever thought to put into infrastructure—we are building a number of projects right across South Australia. I can run through them all—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —but out of all of those projects—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —there were a couple that were impacted by COVID. Gawler rail was one—

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Giles!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and we have made that very public. We are getting on with doing that job, and we will get that done as quickly as we possibly can. The Granite Island Causeway I think was one that was potentially impacted as well.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Ramsay!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: A few others had some slight impacts—

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Light!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —but the great thing was that the crews here in South Australia we had working on all these projects right across the state had done such a good job that they had got themselves ahead of schedule, so any slight impact from COVID they were able to make up. I am really proud of the work that these crews have done—

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —right across all of our infrastructure projects. We will continue to power ahead and deliver more of the infrastructure that South Australia needs because it's important—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —to keep building what matters.

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