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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-04 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Truro Bypass

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Brown:

That the 19th report of the committee, entitled Truro Bypass Project, be noted.

(Continued from 9 February 2023.)

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:23): As I was saying previously when this matter was discussed in the chamber, an ecologically sustainable development (ESD) report has been prepared by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport outlining the environmental objectives, principles and provisions of this project. The department has the current endorsement of its ESD system for the Department for Environment and Water. A community and stakeholder management plan has been prepared by the department. It provides an overview of the communication activities to be undertaken to ensure all stakeholders are consulted and engaged adequately.

Stakeholders include but are not limited to the Mid Murray Council, landowners and lessees affected by property acquisitions, and surrounding residents and businesses. Construction is scheduled to commence in late 2023 with completion, operation and maintenance from late 2025 onwards.

The committee has examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Truro bypass project. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were the member for Schubert; Mr Andrew Excell, Executive Director, Transport, Planning and Program Development, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; and Mr Dariusz Fanok, Delivery Manager, Department for Infrastructure and Transport. I thank the witnesses for their time.

Based upon the evidence considered, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works.

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (11:25): I rise to speak to the report concerning the Truro freight route project. We know that this Truro project aims to provide freight and other high-productivity vehicles with improved access between Sydney and Adelaide as well as the regions that fall between them adjacent to the route. Both the state and federal governments have committed a total of $202 million at 80:20 to the construction and design of a bypass for the Sturt Highway, and it is a crucial link for our freight to and from Sydney and other places as well.

We know that Truro is one of the most significant towns between Adelaide and Renmark, with freight and other heavy vehicles using the main road. One key aim of the Truro bypass project is to allow heavy vehicles to utilise a new alignment on the Sturt Highway that would take this freight traffic away from the town centre. We know several thousand vehicles will travel through Truro, with over a quarter of those being heavy vehicles and freight, and we have been told that this includes up to 700 B-doubles and road trains every day.

When I went out there to Truro with the very hardworking member for Schubert and also the federal member for Barker, let me tell you I saw some of those B-doubles. It is a scary sight at times along that very narrow road route. I have no doubt that this project does need to occur. Of course, we also want to see dual lanes, but I will talk about that in a moment.

Between 2017 and 2021, there were multiple reported crashes on a section of the Sturt Highway between Truro Road and Baldon Road. There is a clear need to address and improve the safety and the amenity of the Truro township roads. Improving road safety for all users through Truro is a key aim for this project, including enhancing the amenity of those roads in and around Truro.

This project aims to improve productivity in South Australia. Currently, we are lacking a fully developed high-productivity vehicle network, and this project aims to contribute to that and establish a standard that will create a highly efficient link between places like Adelaide and Sydney. We are calling on the state government to also add a dual carriageway to this project. We need to get this project right the first time. We need to see heavy vehicles off the main streets of Truro when we can.

Unfortunately, there has been a development since this report was published, and it has been quite a negative one, in relation to the federal Labor Party's razor gang that is targeting infrastructure projects right across the country, not only in South Australia but right across the country. But, of course, this is what Labor governments do. They have been in for around a year, they mismanage their budgets, they blow things out, they kick important projects down the road like the north-south corridor and now, of course, like the Truro freight route.

Unfortunately, the Truro freight route now faces grave uncertainty—grave uncertainty—and what we see from the federal Labor Party are more delays, more cost blowouts and a razor gang that is attacking the heart of what should be bipartisan infrastructure projects that are here to deliver economic productivity benefits for this state and for this country. That is very disappointing.

I am in the process of penning a letter to the federal infrastructure minister, writing to her with the federal member for Barker expressing our angst and our disappointment about this review because, unfortunately, this federal Labor government review is going to lead to many of these very important projects being put on the cutting board, and that is going to be to the detriment of South Australians, not just about residents but also about freight. I can tell you right now that when our trucks stop moving Australia stops moving. We have to do everything we can to make sure that we continue to invest in this freight route. It is extremely important.

While we are at it, we also want to see a name change for this project, because we were informed—the member for Schubert does a great job in listening to her local community—that the name of this project could be better considered. They do not want necessarily this to be the name; they want the name to be changed to the Truro Freight Route.

I look forward to seeing the project team work in cooperation with local residents and impacted landowners to realise this fantastic project with great potential for our state. But I cannot emphasise enough that it is really disappointing that, because of the federal Labor government's infrastructure review, the Truro bypass freight route is now on the chopping board. Not only is this project on the chopping board but there are projects right around South Australia, right around Australia, that should be occurring that are now going either to be cut, delayed, blown out or just removed altogether, and that is very disappointing.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:30): In addressing my remarks to Order of the Day No. 2 it has been brought to my attention this very concerning result of the Labor budget razor gang federally that we have seen announced only in recent days, on 1 May this year, so just a few days ago. It is timely in the context of the important work of the Public Works Committee bringing this 19th report to the parliament today for all of us here—and I say all of us; all 47 members of this chamber and I expect all members of another place, speaking up as they do for South Australians—to be on our feet today to take this chance to say to the new federal Labor government, 'Hands off cuts to the Truro bypass.' That should be put loud and clear, and today is a key opportunity to do so.

I welcome the member for Florey's remarks. I welcome his bringing this report to the house as he does today, and I congratulate him and the members of the Public Works Committee on stepping through the necessary probity arrangements in order to see that this work is completed.

I am standing here now saying it. I expect over the course of the debate in relation to this important report that there will be plenty on this side who will be quick to stand up and emphasise the importance of this particular project in the context of so many other important capital works brought to fruition by Liberal governments, state and federal, working together towards the advancement of South Australia over the course of the last many years under the effective leadership of Premier Marshall—I do not think we have seen the likes of it, frankly, since the days of Playford—working hand in hand with the Prime Minister in Canberra, demonstrating what state and federal Liberal governments can do.

This is no joke. It may sound like words of pride in our state. It may sound as though these are words parochially promoting our state. If they are, then well should they be interpreted as such because—

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

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

Mr TEAGUE: —ensuring the delivery of these important state building infrastructure projects was absolutely at the core of the Marshall Liberal government's work over those years. For Labor federally to come along and to indicate anything other than a complete and full commitment to the delivery of its end of those arrangements in order to ensure that the Truro bypass works are brought to fruition would be nothing short of a travesty.

Let's say it loud and clear and let's say it every day, not just on the occasion of the Public Works Committee presenting the results of its work. Let's say it every day until these important works indeed are brought to fruition. The Public Works Committee by its 19th report has certainly made clear that these are important works that are going to make an enormous difference in terms of the carriage of freight, particularly from the east and particularly ex-Sydney. We knew that already and it is good that the Public Works Committee has come along and said so.

I can add my voice from a local perspective of course as well, because I know the benefits that the Truro bypass will bring for the Adelaide Hills. I am on the record over the last couple of years calling for the complementary hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that are necessary and prudent in order to establish the link to the Truro bypass from the Hills, in order to ensure the generational improvement and relief of congestion and improvement of safety that will result from the reduction of freight using the South Eastern Freeway as the one and only effective means to get through from the South-East and then, in turn, via the increasingly congested urban pathways of Portrush Road, Glen Osmond Road and Cross Road down to metro connections.

It is such an important project for the state and it is of particular importance to my constituents and my region in the Adelaide Hills: those areas within Heysen and certainly neighbouring communities throughout the Hills and the Fleurieu. It is one that we have watched closely and it perhaps illustrates how important state planning infrastructure works when investments are delivered and have flow-on effects for the rest of the state.

I emphasised at the outset of these brief remarks that it is for that reason that we should be hearing from so many voices on this occasion. We should be hearing from so many members of this place providing their own perspectives on the benefits that this important project ought to be delivering. It is the reason why the Marshall Liberal government made it a priority and worked to ensure that the federal funding was there alongside it in order to ensure that it would occur.

It is a matter of dismay and it ought to be a matter of great concern to all South Australians that we have heard federal Labor just in recent days saying that, well, perhaps South Australia is not quite so much to the fore, that perhaps critical infrastructure for South Australia is not quite so much to the fore and that perhaps we are at risk of not seeing these commitments through.

To those who would say, 'Quieten down and don't be raising the alarm,' I just say to them: alright, well, let's hear the guarantee. Let's hear it from state Labor and let's hear it from federal Labor that voices of concern that have been raised are misplaced, including by the member for Hartley just now and in his recent public pronouncements, and of course by my federal colleague, the member for Barker and shadow assistant minister for infrastructure and transport in recent days.

If those alarm bells are overblown and their anxiety is misplaced, then tell us that, and to those on the other side of this place who occupy the government benches for the time being, tell your federal colleagues that, and let's hear it from federal Labor that these works will be committed to, these works will be complete and South Australian infrastructure will not be left in the backwater under Labor, state and federal.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:41): I, of course, will rise to make a contribution to the Public Works Committee report with regard to the Truro bypass. It is a stretch of infrastructure that has long been discussed, long been talked about, because we know that the stretch of road that comes away from Halfway House Road up to Truro and beyond to Ebenezer Hill and then up to the Barossa and Nuriootpa is a main thoroughfare for heavy vehicles, it is a main thoroughfare for the east to the west, but it is also a connecting highway from the east to the north.

We see many, many tourists, travellers, trucks and freight that come via the Sturt Highway through the Goyder Highway then over to the Mid North and then up the Stuart Highway. I think it is a critical piece of infrastructure that we need to make sure is on the to-do list, that it is not just one of these projects touted as a must-do project. It sounds like the current government is kicking the can a bit, but I would urge not only the minister, the Premier and this state government but also the federal government to make sure that it is a priority, just like it is for Infrastructure Australia, because it has been on their priority list for a long period of time.

Obviously, the Sturt Highway and its efficiencies have become more critical now than ever. The reason I say that is that under the former Labor government we saw the cessation of rail out of Tookayerta, out of Loxton, that took grain down to Tailem Bend. We saw that rail line wound up. Then we saw that the other rail line from Pinnaroo, down the Mallee Highway to Tailem Bend, which was primarily a grain freight route, was also closed. That obviously has now put significant truck movements both ways—both trucks with grain heading out of the Mallee and then, of course, trucks have to return.

Some of those trucks return with inputs—freight—but a lot of those trucks return empty. We know that the empty trucks, in many cases, can do a lot of damage to those highways because those empty trailers do chatter on highways, and the more that they chatter the more damage we see done to roads. That is why the efficiency gains need to be achieved through this very important Truro bypass.

It is a $202 million project, which was given approval under the former Marshall Liberal government and it was music to many, many people's ears—not only constituents who use it as a passenger highway but those heavy industrial operators that are now seeing a significant number of freight movements, including increased grain on the Sturt Highway.

Not only are we seeing increased grain; we are also seeing, now, large commodities that are utilising that highway. As to the wine industry, we are seeing more and more wine that is being processed, being bottled at Glossop through the Accolade brand. We see a lot of the trucks particularly coming out of Sunraysia. My very good friend Damien Matthews, the managing director of G1 Logistics, is one of the larger freight operators on the Sturt Highway. He is one of the largest freight operators in the nation. What we see coming down the Sturt Highway out of Sunraysia, out of the Riverland to the ports, to the warehousing down in Adelaide, is nothing short of remarkable.

I caught up with Damien only a couple of weeks ago, and he tells me that they loaded 600 trailers on one Friday. That is 600 trailer movements. Potentially that would mean that we would see some 300 B-doubles or potentially slightly fewer road trains. That is still a significant amount of truck movement, heavy vehicle movements, coming out of one operator's yard. So that is the reason the Truro bypass is so important to him, for efficiency gains, but it is also the impact of safety.

Many, many times I drive the Sturt Highway from the Riverland down to Adelaide, and we see a number of instances of congestion from Halfway House Road all the way through to the Barossa. That is because we have a significantly old style of highway that runs up through Accommodation Hill and then in through Truro. Obviously the highway there is restricted to 50 km/h. Also it is restricted by fairly tight navigable bends. Then, when we see road trains and B-doubles that are making their way up Accommodation Hill, they are down to 60 km/h on an open highway. So there is the loss of efficiencies there.

There is also the impending safety issues. A lot of cars navigate the highway. There is an overtaking lane up Accommodation Hill, but in terms of passing a truck doing 60 km/h, fully laden, in a passenger vehicle or other light vehicle or also having to navigate past such a truck doing the speed limit—and that might be the 110 km/h or 90 km/h in other instances—it is critically important that we look at the way the Truro bypass would help make the Sturt Highway safer. It would give us those efficiency measures that every freight operator is needing.

I will talk about another very reputable freight operator in Booth Transport. Peter Booth is another very good friend of mine who also does a lot of freight movements, particularly tanker movements on the Sturt Highway, and he, too, has been very, very concerned about the navigable challenges with Accommodation Hill or going through Truro, into the Barossa and on to Adelaide. Peter has expressed his concerns to me many times about the need for the Truro bypass to go ahead.

There are some murmurings with it being revealed that the Truro bypass project could be at risk, and I would urge the current state and federal Labor governments not to err on the side of redirecting that money into other projects. That is a vitally important piece of infrastructure that needs to be upgraded, and it needs to be upgraded sooner rather than later.

We know that the project was meant to start last year, and it has been pushed back. I would urge not only the Public Works Committee to recommend that this project go ahead as soon as possible but also the transport minister, the Premier and every member of the Labor government here in South Australia and every member of the federal Labor government that this is a project that is needed; it is worthy. An average of 4½ thousand vehicles travel through Truro every day as a chosen route. Overwhelmingly, the majority of Riverlanders, when they travel from Chaffey to Adelaide, go by the Sturt Highway.

Of the 4½ thousand vehicles, 30 per cent are heavy commercial vehicles. Obviously, that would see somewhere in the vicinity of 700 B-doubles or road trains every day travelling through Truro, travelling on the Sturt Highway. That puts people at risk. I do not like talking about road fatalities on our regional roads, but we know that two out of every three deaths happen on our regional roads.

The Sturt Highway is no stranger to that; it is currently ranked as the second deadliest road due to its high fatality rate. As I think the member for Hammond said yesterday, from 2018 to 2022 36 people lost their lives on the Sturt Highway. It is a statistic that should ring alarm bells for governments of any persuasion. We also need to understand that this year alone there have been a further four deaths on that highway, bringing the total to 40. This is another justification as to why the Truro bypass project must go ahead.

I urge the government, I urge the Public Works Committee, to recommend that this project be advanced, be put in train, so that we can complement the rest of the Sturt Highway that is currently going through a safety upgrade—$87.9 million for overtaking lanes, rest areas, safety barriers and more signage. It is part of a road network that is becoming busier with more heavy vehicles, becoming busier with more traffic, more tourists, because people are now starting to travel from the east to the west, from the east to the north and from the west to the north. People are using that Sturt Highway, so it is imperative that the Truro bypass go ahead. It is a project that is vitally important to the efficiency of South Australia's economy and the freight distribution network.

Time expired.

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