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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-17 Daily Xml
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North-South Corridor

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:50): My question is again to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister rule out any delays for the completion of the north-south corridor?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:50): Last time I checked, David Jones has a large amount of frontage on North Terrace; I think it has just been exceeded. The front of that question, after four years and not a shovel in the ground—not a shovel in the ground—to come in here not within the first 100 days and start demanding of us anything—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: the minister is reflecting on the question. Like that or in any way he is debating, it is contrary to standing order 98.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, do you wish to add anything?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, I do, sir. The north-south corridor from the River Torrens to Darlington is between two projects Labor started and finished. You would think, in their four years that they were in office, members opposite would have actually had the decency to begin the works on anything between those two projects, and they haven't. To come in here today and demand that we ensure that this project is delivered to a time line that they didn't start—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Your point of order is?

Mr GARDNER: Same standing order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the minister has completed his answer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, I will add more, sir. This is a project we need to get right. There are no do-overs with tunnels. There is no promising a right-hand turn and then getting it wrong. There's no promising GlobeLink and then abandoning it. There's no promising Majors Road and then not building the interchange. We've got to get this right. It's important that we get it right. In line with our commitments, there will be no capitulation and there will be no leaks.

We are talking about delivering one of the largest projects in the state's history, and I won't be lectured by anyone opposite about its delivery. We will be lining up our commitments in the budget, and in the budget we will outline our expenditure. We are working towards making sure we can do as much as we possibly can over the next four years, which will be a dramatic improvement over what members opposite did, which is absolutely nothing—absolutely nothing. If there was something at least they could point to—something—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: the minister has moved entirely to reflecting again on the opposition, and that is debate—standing order 98 again.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question did to some extent ask the minister for an opinion, when you look at the question—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Let me finish. Are you—

Mr Tarzia: It was a closed question, sir: yes or no?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, it wasn't a closed question. It asked for a judgement to be made and the minister is now giving his judgement.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, it's a bit difficult when the member asks a question about a review and when it's going to be completed and then demanding to know before the review is completed whether there will be delays. If we look at this chronologically and fairly, you would say there's a review going on within the department about some of the infrastructure components of the project the former government did not begin but had planned, so we are working through that. Once we have finished that, we will come up with a time line which will be represented in the budget. I have to say—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members on my left! Members will—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am sensing a bit of agitation from members opposite. It could be because they are reading about shadow cabinet deliberations in the paper. Who would leak such a piece of information to a journalist? Who would do—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the minister has completed his answer. The member for Hartley followed by the member for Mawson.

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