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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-15 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Infrastructure Projects

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received a briefing from the commonwealth about the South Australian infrastructure projects that may be impacted by the 90-day review? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The Australian Financial Review reported on 14 November 2023 that the review split existing projects into four categories: those to be cut, those to be delayed or consolidated and those that should not proceed.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:08): Yes, I am the infrastructure minister, you may have noticed. I think it's fair to say that the commonwealth have not yet finalised what they are planning as part of this 90-day review. The advice that we have has been—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, member for Elizabeth, member—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The impatience of youth, sir. I am looking forward to seeing the final outcome of the commonwealth government's review. The government will make a statement when it's made public. We won't be responding to rumour. We won't be responding to media reports. We will consider it like the mature government we are. We will consider its impacts. We will consider what it is that is best for the people of South Australia and we will respond. What we won't do is engage in the petty politics being displayed opposite, and I think—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Like on cue. Like it's on cue. What the commonwealth government is attempting to do is to try to balance up the complete politicisation of infrastructure spending, like, for example, sir, you might see with the north-south corridor. Members opposite were trying to tell us—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —they could complete the north-south corridor for $9.9 billion, and obviously they knew that that wasn't right but they took that to the election pretending it was. So you can—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —imagine, Mr Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —what the commonwealth government is dealing with around the country with the Liberal commonwealth government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —attempting to pretend that these infrastructure programs were costed and available.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When we came into office and we looked at the actual costs of rolling out this infrastructure, it is considerably more. Another example is the so-called Hahndorf bypass where members opposite were offered a solution by the then department and chose none of them, wanting to push it beyond the election—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —because they were fearful of what the retribution might have been by their local community.

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

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: While the deputy leader interjects, this is not the South Australian government's review. It is not our review.

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He says, 'Sure'—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —while he accuses us of cancelling projects.

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

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: And if the member for Morialta wants to hear my response, perhaps he should sit quietly and listen to it, instead of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta! The member for Chaffey!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am giving an answer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: So I await to see the final outcome of this review. We will respond to it appropriately, maturely, and we will consider it and then we will come back with our views, but it is fair to say that the South Australian government wants to build infrastructure for the people of South Australia.

South Australia does punch above its weight when it comes to infrastructure, and a lot of that infrastructure spending in our state has brought a national benefit, so the South Australian taxpayer is actually helping the entire country improve its freight productivity and we want to see that continue.

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