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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-16 Daily Xml
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Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Is the government building the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass and, if so, when? With leave, sir, of you and the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TARZIA: There are flyers being distributed in the eastern suburbs stating, and I quote, 'Finally, the state government has committed to building the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. It's great news that finally the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass will become a reality.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:26): Many politicians have come to this house and promised all sorts of things.

The Hon. C.J. Picton: 'Globlink.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: 'Globlink' was one of the great lies if it were perpetrated on the people of the Adelaide Hills. Just to reinstate to the house what my young friend is talking about, the Greater Adelaide bypass is the theory that somehow the South Eastern Freeway can be liberated of all its freight movements and that the freight line, which runs through the Adelaide Hills down into Adelaide, along the freight line, all the way through the city of Adelaide, which has had two grade separations spent on it, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on those grade separations—there is the Goodwood Junction and Torrens Junction—that somehow they would be ripped up and that there would be another rail line built around the back of Adelaide costing billions and billions of dollars—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Just for freight.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —just for freight—all on the power of the personality of the member for Dunstan—not a dollar behind it: just through the sheer power of that personality, just through the sheer power of the spoken word.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: This bypass could move mountains—

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

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order, which I will hear from the member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98—the question was very straightforward: 'Is the government building the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass and, if so, when?' and then the explanation included a description of a flyer saying that the government was building it. This is debate and it is not answering that question.

The SPEAKER: I remind the minister of the standing orders. I will listen carefully. We are early in the minister's response.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will give you some context from my answer, 30 seconds in, and I think it's important to build the context for the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass and where did this idea firstly originate. The idea firstly originated when there was a fear of losing Adelaide Hills seats to the Xenophon group, so through sheer panic and the power of his personality the member for Dunstan came up with a policy called GlobeLink.

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

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Mawson!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: A unique achievement in Australian politics.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Any freight work done on the national highway projects, whether it be through rail, air or road, cannot be funded by the state alone and must be funded alongside the commonwealth government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order. Order, member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will just say, Premier, where you are is a matter of context for the member for the Riverland.

Mr Whetstone: What did you get out of it?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Where you are is subjective at any particular time. As I said earlier, any funding that is allocated to any freight bypass is something that is done with the commonwealth government.

I would be very happy for the member to let me know of this pamphlet he has. I would like to see a copy of it; it would be great to see it. I look forward to further questions, other than to say that there is no government in the history of South Australia that has spent more on infrastructure than this current government. We are spending a great deal on infrastructure.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We are righting—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley, order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —the wrongs of the past. We are upgrading what has been left behind. We are making sure that the plans are workable and buildable and, of course, once they are built, are not white elephants.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Mawson is warned. The member for Chaffey is warned. I will turn to the member for Hartley, although I observe that I am still waiting for GlobeLink. I would like any government to deliver it.

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