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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-01 Daily Xml
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Torrens to Darlington Project

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): My question is again to the Premier. When was the decision made to reprofile cash flows for the Torrens to Darlington project and who asked the Department for Infrastructure and Transport to, and I quote, 'provide a rationale' for reprofiling of cash flows for the Torrens to Darlington project?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:44): I have to say that I find this whole line of questioning and, while though of course not unimportant, the rationale behind it amusing because those opposite are clutching to these conspiracy theories about how the government is going to keep its election commitments. We made a commitment, in fact, back in 2013 that we would be completing the north-south corridor. We made that commitment. Then, before the recent state election, we made a commitment that we supported getting on with the job of finishing the north-south corridor, the Torrens to Darlington section—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —that had seen no progress or work—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —in four years by those opposite. Do you know why it's important to get on with that? It's not just about it's better for motorists, it's not just about it's better for freight but, at a point in time, when you have the highest unemployment rate in the nation, wouldn't it be good to get some people on the tools, getting them working on this project, increasing the number of people employed?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: But when you're not ready to go to market—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hartley!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —when you're not ready to go to tender, when you're not ready to get a tender response, when you're not ready to award a contract, when you're not ready to start spending money to get going, it's simply not ready to go. Apparently, some of you have had something to do—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —with establishing a budget before. Some of you, apparently, have been a member of a Budget Cabinet Committee before.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: What you might know, if you had been involved in that or, perhaps, if you hadn't been sidelined from it, like perhaps you might have been, is that each time a budget is put together you go to each agency and say, 'Are you on track with your spending commitments in both operating and investing sense? Are you on track or not?'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Do you know what the first advice that we got was, what I got from Treasury and what the infrastructure minister got from his department? They were not on track with this project. They were not ready to go to market.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: They were not ready to go to tender.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: They were not then ready to award a tender and start construction work. If you haven't done the design work, you can't go to market. If you can't go to market, you can't start the project.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a second time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Do you know what the schedule said, Mr Speaker? How much money they were going to spend per year in only 18 months' time? More than $1.2 billion in 12 months.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Release the paper.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: You have to be ready to go to market if you want to spend that much money. Mr Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley is warned for a third and final time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Table it? I will be tabling 500 pages of decisions tomorrow and you can read it for yourself.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Because this is a government—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

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

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Morialta is very hot under the collar. I know we are used to that in this chamber, Mr Speaker.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a third and final time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: He's flustered, Mr Speaker. He's flustered, as usual. If you haven't done the work, if you haven't gone to tender, if you haven't awarded a tender, you can't spend money on construction. There was a period in the lead-up to the 2018 election, and we had three major projects all running simultaneously on the north-south corridor—Torrens to Torrens, Darlington and Northern Connector—all at major construction stage. We were not spending $1.2 billion in a 12-month period on those three running at once.

If you haven't done the work on a major project, you're not ready to go to market, you're not ready to award the contract and you're not ready to spend money on that contract. The fallacy that this is about saving us money out of the forward estimates—did it ever occur to you that this is half funded by the commonwealth, that we now have to give up 50 per cent of these revenues because you didn't do the work, because you weren't ready to go to market, because you weren't ready to start construction?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: You abrogated your responsibility to the community—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and now we're paying the price.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer has completed his answer, and it may be there is no utility on the point of order. Very well.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, you are on three warnings. I know that you are familiar with the standing orders because you raise them with me frequently. The member for Davenport has the call.

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