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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-08 Daily Xml
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Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister advise whether the recent South Eastern Freeway round table considered expediting the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass Planning Study in order to reduce the number of trucks on the freeway and local roads, including Portrush and Glen Osmond roads?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:24): Wow! I think I just saw the future. Sorry, too soon?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sure. That is a good question, and we are looking at multiple aspects. The problem is going to be that the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass won't deal with the majority of the problem. The majority of the problem is not the heavier vehicles, the larger vehicles; they know how to deal with the decline. The problem we have is people moving freight to and from the Adelaide Hills who want to go directly into the city where their customers are. The Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass won't deal with those issues, but it is an important part of solving the problem.

I do congratulate the member. He wrote to me offering some suggestions, as did the shadow minister, who wanted to be involved, as did you, Mr Speaker, who, when I say 'wrote', rang, spoke and rang. Yes, he was quite forceful in his presentations; however, it is good that we are getting lots of community feedback. I note that the previous government ruled out a third arrester bed and now Flippy has decided that it is a good idea to bring it back in.

I think that we are going to have a holistic approach to this. We are going to speak to the experts. The round table is not the end of the consultation; it's the beginning. The problem is that some of the engineering solutions to the immediate problem will take time to implement, which will not remove the problem. There are some things we can do faster, like relocating the intersections at the bottom of the freeway.

The truth is that, when this freeway was built, it was poorly designed. Post the tunnels, there is a continuous decline all the way down, culminating in the intersection at the bottom of the hill. It is almost unique in Australia in terms of its danger. Generally, the people who come a cropper on that intersection either (1) have never used it before or (2) have deliberately decided not to use the arrester beds because of some other issues that are occurring, either in the back of the truck or on the truck, or some licensing issue.

There are a lot of myths about using arrester beds. One of those myths is that there is a substantial fee for removal of the vehicles from the arrester beds. There is no fee. There is no fee and it is important that we get that message out to South Australians that, if you are using the South Eastern Freeway decline and you cannot control your vehicle, there is no penalty in place for using the off ramps.

There is a lot of survival optimism from drivers who do lose control who think they can save it. The advice we had at the round table was that pretty much from the moment the key is put in the ignition—

Mr Tarzia: Thanks for the invite.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We didn't want it to be political. There are lots of people—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —who wanted to attend, including the Speaker and local members of parliament. We decided not to have parliamentarians there, other than the minister, but not because I don't want you involved in the process. I do want the opposition involved in the process, which is why I'm not being combative in my answer; I'm actually being cooperative, but if you would like me to be combative, I've got a couple here ready to go.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We are looking for a cooperative solution here, but I think the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, to answer the question, is accelerating, but it won't fix the problem. It is one part of the solution.

There are a number of solutions we have to have here in place and even then—even then—after everything we have put in place, it still won't rule out the possibility of someone still thinking that they can save their vehicle and still plough into an intersection or, if they get past that intersection, they take the problem further down Glen Osmond Road, which is catastrophic because now we are talking about homes, schools and shopping centres. We have to try to put in as much infrastructure and other policies to try to make sure we can minimise the risks. Congratulations on your first question. You will remember this day because it was me.

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