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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-29 Daily Xml
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Regional Roads

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Regional Roads. Has the minister received assurances from the federal government that funding for the Truro bypass, Princes Highway corridor upgrade and road maintenance and safety programs will not be cut? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PEDERICK: As part of the 2023 federal budget, a 90-day review of the $120 billion infrastructure projects across Australia was announced. Several South Australian projects now face uncertainty.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:14): I thank the shadow minister for his question. The 90-day review, I understand, is complete and is now being considered by the commonwealth government. We look forward to the findings of that 90-day review. The consequence of this review is that they believe that there were a number of promises made in the lead-up to the most recent federal election that may have been unachievable and have led to inflationary impacts on the economy.

It is no secret that escalation is playing havoc across budgets across Australia and indeed internationally as well, given the supply shortages and inflationary problems that are being faced in North America, Europe and Australia. The review is not about—from my understanding and from what the Prime Minister's comments have been about—necessarily cuts but about timing. I look forward to the outcome of those reviews. My colleague the Minister for Regional Roads and I are in regular contact with the commonwealth government about this. We are looking forward to what they do with their assessment of it and releasing their findings.

Overwhelmingly, these are contributions that the commonwealth government is making into road projects. Some of them are 80:20. Luckily, the north-south corridor was not part of any such review, nor were election commitments made at the last election, so there are a number of projects that are going ahead at speed here in South Australia. The Truro bypass is important, as is the Hahndorf project, as is every other project that is under review.

The member for Stuart and I love all of our children equally. All these projects are very important. We want to see all these projects obviously come to fruition, but we look forward to the outcome of the report and will see what the commonwealth government has to say.

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