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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml
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iPAVe

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister explain why the iPAVe 3 road survey vehicle returned to the Limestone Coast? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: The iPAVe 3 road survey was undertaken across MacKillop nearly 12 months ago and data from the survey is due in the second quarter of this year. Constituents have reported seeing the vehicle in the region recently, raising concerns the initial survey was not completed and that results will be further delayed.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:15): Obviously, the connections in the Limestone Coast run pretty deep with the crossbench and nothing slips by them. It shows you why they continue to win those seats as opposed to the legacy members.

The vehicle completed approximately 65 per cent of the survey of the department's sealed road network before it was redeployed to Queensland by the National Transport Research Organisation. I hope the member for MacKillop will be pleased to know that my department has advised me that almost all the roads in the Limestone Coast have been surveyed. The only remaining section of road yet to be surveyed is a 21-kilometre stretch of the Princes Highway from Mount Gambier to Victoria. It's anticipated that that section will be surveyed in late February, early March of this year. IPAVe is now preparing for its next survey on the Eyre Highway, following the completion of its recent survey near Port Augusta.

I am pleased that the department is sending it back to complete the survey after its task was cut short, but in terms of the Limestone Coast and the two parts that the crossbench were very interested in it is almost entirely done, other than that one section between Mount Gambier and Victoria. I think that means that almost the entirety of MacKillop has been completed. I think that should allay some of the concerns of your constituents.

Of course, what concerns me the most about the road conditions in the South-East is the outsourcing of road maintenance by the previous government that has left us in a terrible situation where they attempted to make dramatic savings on the outsourcing. Apparently, the roads in Texas are just fine, but the roads of the South-East are someone else's concern.

I am very concerned about the road maintenance contracts we have in the South-East. The contracts that we were left attempted to make dramatic savings, making huge cuts to the amount that was being spent in the South-East by the previous government. We have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of money we are having to spend on road maintenance in the South-East. Given the lack of rainfall this year, one perverse outcome from the drought might be some better road conditions, but that is not something to celebrate.

What we need is a proper, fit-for-purpose road maintenance contract that is not about trying to save money like members opposite did but actually make sure our roads are in a proper condition for regional communities. It is one thing to get up and talk about how you represent the regions and care about them, it is another thing to take money out of the regions and bring it into the city like members opposite did.

I have to say, if it were not for the crossbench and the Independent members who fight for regional South Australia, regional South Australia have almost no voice, other than obviously the member for Giles, who does an exceptional job.

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