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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-17 Daily Xml
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Majors Road Interchange

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister inform the house of progress on the Majors Road interchange and of recent publicly expressed views on the project?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:47): It won't take long, it will hurt, but it will be okay in the end.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I'm sure you will recover. This is an important project—an important project. There has been a lot said about this project locally. In fact, a prominent local was out there, urging people to sign a petition—to sign a petition—to stop this project. Not only that, this prominent individual claimed that 80 per cent of people oppose this project. Eighty per cent of locals don't support this project, apparently.

This person went on to post this on Facebook and put some money behind it to promote it, to get it out there, to encourage people to sign this petition. I want to read some of the comments on this Facebook post. Will Cook wrote:

I live in this community and I definitely want it.

Well, not going as planned, one quote. Then, another person wrote:

As a ratepayer in the area, I welcome the ramps.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Simon Wills wrote:

I'm keen for it to happen as well and was happy when you were pushing for it as well. Politics is an interesting game at times.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Jesse—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Jesse made the comment, 'some double standards champ', and then posted a quote from the person who put this post up, who said:

This is my number one priority to deliver an on-off ramp for the Southern Expressway at O'Halloran Hill.

As Mr Speirs told his Facebook followers.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Another person wrote, 'Hey, David, is this you?', with a copy of a link to a video of David driving along on the Southern Expressway.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sarah Goldsmith said:

Maybe the people David is quizzing about the on-off ramp at Hallett Cove shops are not the demographic that need the on-off ramp addition to help us get home and to our families faster.

But I admire the conviction of the Leader of the Opposition. What do you do in the face of all this criticism? He stood firm. He pressed delete so quickly on that post. It's another example of the flip-flop.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of Government Business, order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I thought you wanted to have fun.

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens, order! Member for Florey!

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

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta under 134. I anticipate 127.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98: the minister has moved from the substance.

The SPEAKER: That may be. As well, standing order 127 prevents personal reflections on members, or at least it is intended to. I bring the Leader of Government Business to the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is my favourite standing order, sir. It's the one that I abide by the most in this house.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The one I think about the most, yes. Majors Road is an important election commitment this government made. We made it because we believe it's important for the southern suburbs to have access to the Southern Expressway. We shared the views of the previous member for Black, who has undergone some serious alterations to policies since that time.

We believe it is important and it's good to have the backing of locals, who when they see their local member go out and say, 'Eighty per cent of people oppose this,' call him out on it. When they call him out on it, his response is not to double-down and show the evidence. His response is to delete the post. There are comments on that Facebook page about the way that the Leader of the Opposition's office was editing those comments by deleting them.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: It was an ad, not a post.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have heard this before. He was for it before he was against it.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired.

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