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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-07 Daily Xml
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South Road Upgrade

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (16:45): I rise today to talk about South Road. The fact is, when it comes to South Road, this government is doing things differently—very differently. For starters, we are listening. We are listening to what people tell us and have told us over recent years about the South Road project, about the designs and about how they want to be communicated with.

Excitingly, since this parliament last sat, our government has announced its changes to the South Road design. I am delighted that this government, the Malinauskas Labor government, has taken on board the feedback that we received while in opposition, largely in response to the work that we were doing with parliamentary committees, with local MPs such as myself getting out there on the ground and inviting comment from people. That all has been taken on board as part of the department's review of the design changes.

Now what we see are some marked differences—maybe not huge engineering differences but marked differences to the design in terms of its suitability for our local communities. That has only happened because this government has listened to what communities have been saying for several years. We have not just listened but inquired and acted, investigated and found solutions to the problems that people have been raising with us about the previous government's design.

The new design was released in December. My community has now had some time to have a look at it—and I will go into a little detail about that in a moment—and the key design changes as far as my electorate go, as far as Badcoe residents go, are twofold. Firstly, the hideously unsightly and, frankly, dangerous flyover that went from South Road and curved over the top of the Gallipoli overpass and then down through the middle of Anzac Highway, destroying some 120 heritage trees, has been removed. I could not be more delighted and my community could not be more delighted that that unsightly structure, which would have had an impact on not just those whose homes were acquired but also the residents remaining in the area, has now been done away with.

It is worth noting that that change has not resulted in a great deal more land acquisitions but has resulted in a great deal of feedback from my community about how necessary that change is and how satisfied people are that they have been listened to on that front. It was one of the key things that my community was disappointed about and surprised about. There was certainly no word from the previous government that this was an element that they were considering—aerial roadways.

I remember the day it was released because I had a street-corner meeting already planned for that day. People were absolutely beside themselves about the fact that they had woken up to see these images in the newspaper—they were not even advised of it directly—that this giant structure was going to be in front of their own homes at a key thoroughfare in our community.

The second element was something that went under the radar a little bit. A local resident actually raised with me that she noticed in some artists' impression images, which we are always told are indicative, there was a tiny, tiny sign that said, 'No Right Hand Turn'. In the image it was coming from the Bay on Anzac Highway turning onto South Road and it said, 'No Right Turn'.

She questioned that, as did I, with the department and we were told yes, this was reflective of the plans. There was no disclosure anywhere else that right-hand turns were going to be removed for our community, not just from the Bay but from the city as well. It was up to this resident to look at artists' impressions and discover that this change was being made.

You might think that is something fairly insignificant, but I can tell you it is incredibly significant if you cannot get around your own community. If you have to drive to the city and do a U-turn to drop your child off at school when you actually live only hundreds of metres away is an absolutely ridiculous outcome.

I commend the minister. I commend Jon Whelan in the department and his staff for listening to our community and making real changes to the design, which have a material impact on the lives of people in our community. Consultation is still open and I encourage everyone to engage in the ample opportunities that this government is providing for feedback about what is one of the largest infrastructure projects that our state will ever see.

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