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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-08 Daily Xml
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Regional Jetties

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Will the government take over the financial responsibility for the maintenance and repair of regional jetties? Mr Speaker, with your leave and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: The government is investing $20 million in jetty funding across the state, and councils are expected to co-contribute to funding. I understand upgrades and repairs to the Kingston jetty have been estimated at around $20 million; however, the Kingston council's revenue for 2023-24 is approximately $5.2 million.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:18): That is an excellent question, and I thank the member for his question because—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is offensive to another member, sir.

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey, order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: To accuse me of writing the member for MacKillop's question is offensive.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's probably another reason why the crossbench is growing and the party room is shrinking. It's another great tactic by the Liberal Party: attack the crossbench as much as you possibly can. It's great tactics from the shadow treasurer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: They do it well: Brown, Olsen, Speirs—good tactics. The Kingston jetty—and I want to focus on this as an interesting case, because there has been a lot of talk about this jetty. The council say that a refurbishment and rebuild would cost $20 million. Of course, the pilot program that members opposite initiated showed that to reopen the jetty and make it usable for that local community is $5.6 million.

Under the program established by the Treasury, in coordination with Infrastructure and Transport, we have a $20 million fund available for co-funding. That would mean the council would need about $2.83 million to have that jetty reopened for its local community, which is well within its resource. Of course, if the council wants a brand-new jetty or something larger, a larger scope than they currently have like Tumby Bay are asking for now, that becomes a different question altogether.

Remember, when it comes to the outsourcing or the contracting of these jetties to councils over a long period of time, one of the requirements that those councils took up when they took it was regular maintenance. There is a clause in the contract—and I make this very clear to all our regional councils in South Australia—and that clause requires that those jetties be returned to the state government in a fit and proper manner; that is, that they are fit for purpose. If they are not, it is the responsibility of the council.

We understand why Yorke Peninsula Council has nine jetties that need upgrades: special cases. Tumby Bay, for example, is another jetty. They are asking for a $20 million upgrade for a brand-new jetty, but we understand that the jetty could be reopened to the public with a lot less. The question that we have to contemplate is there are so many jetties across regional South Australia that, if we just accepted the ask of every council for a brand-new jetty, we would be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure. The question is: with scarce resources, how do we get the best outcome for taxpayers?

What we have done in the most recent budget is put up $20 million which should leverage $40 million worth of investment in regional jetties. Before we came to office, do you know how much was available for regional jetties? Zero. There was no co-contribution scheme, there was no funding plan, there was nothing—nothing in place.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Regions matter, apparently.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, hashtags don't count for funding but apparently hashtags are the only thing. What I want to say is that I am prepared to work with the Kingston council about the Kingston jetty and look at whether or not we contribute out of this fund half the money required for upgrades and reopening, and making the jetty safe for purpose. But the idea of building a brand-new jetty for each and every single small community that wants one—no doubt they have great arguments for it—the truth is that with scarce dollars we have to be very wise about how we spend this money, and I think the public would expect that from us.

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