House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-06 Daily Xml

Contents

Question Time

iPAVe

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Regional Roads. Can the minister inform the house about the results of the iPAVe system and how they will be acted upon? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: The iPAVe vehicle has arrived in the Limestone Coast and will be surveying more than 50 roads in my electorate over the next seven to 10 days. Our regional road network has a backlog of road maintenance.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Regional Roads, Minister for Veterans Affairs) (14:53): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: The member for Flinders has interjected and said, 'It's the iPAVe 3'—and it is. This vehicle—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: I have mentioned the iPAVe 3 in this chamber before. It is going around all the state's regional roads to get a full understanding of the state of those particular roads. The member for MacKillop regularly—and unfortunately sometimes I get a bit sick of this—talks about the roads in the South-East. As with the member for Mount Gambier, they are always very concerned about that.

As I said, it comes as no surprise that the member for MacKillop particularly strongly is advocating for regional roads. As I indicated, the iPAVe 3 is down in the South-East at the moment. It will be there for five, maybe 10 days. It will be doing all of the state roads down there and getting an indication of the condition of those roads. One of the things we are very aware of is that council have lots of sealed roads—and these are for the sealed roads—and we are making certain that the iPAVe 3, which is a truck with the computers at the back, can actually identify the real condition of those particular roads.

When we get out there we will make certain, as we have for the member for Mount Gambier and the member for MacKillop, to advise all the councils in that particular region. When it goes into other areas across all regional South Australia, we will ensure that the local councils are aware of this particular vehicle being there, so they can utilise it at the same time to get a real indication.

Overall, this will require, as the member for MacKillop has indicated, 50 state roads to be done. I am hoping that the councils will liaise with the iPAVe 3 people down there while they are there for these particular days. The iPAVe 3 vehicle has covered over 7,500 kilometres already of the 18,000 kilometres of all our roads in regional South Australia. That's nearly half the distance of the joint survey already being carried out by the National Transport Research Organisation and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport.

We remain on track for the iPAVe 3 analysis of South Australian roads to be completed by the middle of this year. When we get the information back, we will get a true indication of the condition of those roads so that this government, or future governments, can make a true and detailed analysis of the roads that need to be done, and that will also help, hopefully, the councils to identify and be able to prioritise their roads—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: —on a needs basis, not on a political basis. So, to the member for McKillop and the member for Mount Gambier and other members in this house, I encourage you—when the iPAVe 3 vehicle is out there, we will communicate with the local members and also communicate with the councils. Certainly, this is going to identify the particular roads out there on a needs basis. This is a game changer, and this will be able to make certain that the government of the day will have the right information to make the decisions about all our regional roads.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!