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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-19 Daily Xml
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Verdun Interchange

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Regional Roads. Will the minister commit to delivering the Verdun interchange upgrade and, if so, when?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:59): The Verdun interchange and the Mount Barker interchange are part of a package that the state government is delivering with the commonwealth government as a package of projects that are being committed through what was then labelled by the previous government as the Hahndorf package. That package is under review by the commonwealth government, as well as other packages across the nation.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Still!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, the 90-day review into its 121st day is going well. The federal infrastructure review is looking at a lot of infrastructure across the country. As far as I can tell, the reason this review has been commissioned is a failure of the previous Liberal government and the previous commonwealth government for leading projects that were undercosted, inadequately prepared and overpromised. They were overpromised to the extent that the previous commonwealth government and the previous Marshall government promised projects that they simply could not deliver within the budgets and frameworks that they had announced.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: They were ambitious.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Ambition is one word you could use for it; stupid is another, but I suppose members opposite can choose which one they like. Promising something you know you can't deliver is not generally wise or ambitious. It's not quite Kennedyesque saying, 'We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.' It is more like, 'We think we can build this bridge for beans and mirrors,' versus it actually costing money.

I look forward to the outcome but, as far as the state government is concerned, we think the Verdun interchange is a good outcome and it is an important outcome. The Mount Barker interchange is an important piece of work that should be done. We look forward to doing it, but unfortunately the Hahndorf package that was announced by the previous government is simply undeliverable in its current package form.

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