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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) (14:35): Supplementary: why is the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass planning study being delayed? With the leave of the house and yourself, sir, I will explain.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: I see a point of order. I anticipate it's for argument.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: Very well. I will give the member for Hartley the opportunity to recast his supplementary question.

Mr TARZIA: When will the planning study be delivered? With the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TARZIA: On 25 July 2022, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport told the Budget and Finance Committee, 'We are looking to get the first stage of that report by the end of 2022.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:36): I know I am being berated for not achieving in the first 13 months what the previous government didn't achieve in its four years. But, sir, like I said—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: What my young friend fails to appreciate is that we actually have experts now running our Department for Infrastructure and Transport. We have people—

Mr Tarzia: Like yourself.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, no. That's the difference: the minister does not run the Department for Infrastructure and Transport. What we do is we administer budgets and we set priorities and policies. That's the problem because what we used to have was Corey Wingard running our bus timetables. That's the difference: we have experts running this. We are the democratic face of the public sector—and that's how it should operate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: If my department need more time to do work to get it right, they will get more time. They will get more time. They will have to justify themselves—and they will. When my department deliver reports—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —when my department deliver projects—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —they do so properly. They don't do it half-heartedly, they don't do it in a mealy-mannered way, they don't do it to try to fit a political agenda: they do what they think is right and they leave the politics to us. We are the ones who decide what goes ahead and what doesn't go ahead, not public sector officials. We do. We ask for an independent, honest assessment of what is required.

There are plenty of examples of this across the public sector, not just in infrastructure and transport. Health: you might remember the day when the former health minister just made an order that ramping would end. Remember that? 'I instruct you. Ramping ends today at midnight.'

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: How did that go? What we have is an independent Public Service that have been reinvigorated with the election of the Malinauskas government. Why? All of a sudden, they are trusted again; all of a sudden, they are given the resources that they need again; all of a sudden, we respect their expert views. We take them up, we judge them and we allocate according to what we have in a budget that is affordable. That is what governments do.

We don't outsource our thinking to the public sector, but what we do is rely on independent advice, and that is the best way to run a government. You have the political overlay, the democratic overlay, to make sure we can get proper accountability from our public sector, but at the same time there is accountability of it. What my young friend has not done yet is outline an alternative policy.

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Why is it—

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for West Torrens, there is a point of order from the member for Morialta, which I will hear.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98, sir: we are not interested in advice from the leader of the house.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Well, why are you asking me questions?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens may well be engaging in a degree of rhetorical flourish, and I return him to the substance of the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have not received any advice that this report is delayed. If, at the time of the Budget and Finance Committee the report was due to be delivered, sometime late in 2022, that could mean at that time it was ready, but things come up. For example, at the most recent—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: At the most recent International Conference on Transport, the duration of electric trains has increased from about 80 kilometres to 120 kilometres, and that is changing yearly. We are seeing now hydrogen fuel cell trains having longer duration. We are seeing the ability of electrification working on buses with either hydrogen fuel cells or batteries. What we are seeing is changes of technologies, so if it takes longer, it takes longer.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired.

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