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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-31 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Election Commitments

Mr SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:13): Just two months into this new government and the cracks are already starting to appear.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr SPEIRS: They laugh. The arrogance is there. Below the cracks is the arrogance; however, the honeymoon appears to be over. Labor went to the election with a range of lofty promises and now they are starting to step back from them, whether it is what we have just heard around early childhood education policy or their commitments to fix ramping or deal with the delivery of the north-south corridor or build a new $80 million State Aquatic Centre in North Adelaide. They are bit by bit stepping back from these commitments, walking away from them, putting weasel words in policy documents as they try to step back from delivery. These were lofty promises, and we are starting to see them try to wriggle out of these commitments.

Let's start with their commitment to fix the ramping crisis. We saw it on corflutes up and down streets and highways throughout our state, and this has now been watered down from that categoric commitment to fix ramping to instead become a range of policies that will help fix ramping—the watering down of this iconic commitment. Coincidentally, at the same time we have stopped getting those daily ramping updates from the ambulance union, which of course were ever present in March. We hear anecdotally from paramedics and emergency departments across this state that ramping is worse than it has ever been. We are not hearing that from the union at the moment, and we are not hearing that from the government, but we know that it is the case.

When it comes to moving the goalposts, the big surprise from the upcoming budget is the north-south corridor. This is a project that, if delayed, will have catastrophic productivity commitment—detrimental outcomes for this state. It will result in tradies taking longer to get to jobs, it will result in freight taking longer to get to its destination and it will add to bills right across this state. It will add more uncertainty to businesses up and down that corridor and it will add more uncertainty to residents who live in that corridor.

We had a report from Infrastructure Australia, probably the most significant assessment body when it comes to infrastructure projects in this nation. The report said that this project was ready to go. This report was informed by the state Department for Infrastructure and Transport. In fact, we had an assurance report just weeks before the election saying that not only could this project be delivered on time but it had been developed in accordance with industry standards and that the actual duration of the project could be shorter than indicated in the project program.

Then, just weeks later, the same officers who were involved in writing the report that said it could be shorter than indicated in the program that went to Infrastructure Australia, these same officers and these same people, are now saying that the project has overly optimistic time lines associated with it—their time lines. The only thing that changed was the arrival of Minister Koutsantonis in this portfolio. He gets involved and the project starts to fall apart, and you wonder what these officers are thinking when it comes to providing different advice to Minister Koutsantonis than they would to Infrastructure Australia.

Another project the member for West Torrens is getting his mitts on is the Adelaide Aquatic Centre. We saw this Premier dive headlong into this commitment, saying that this would be done by 2026. Then, when interviewed on radio, the member for West Torrens says, 'That's an aspiration only'—another project drifting off into the ether. I think that the good people of South Australia are very soon going to have buyer's regret from what they are getting from those opposite.

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