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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-03 Daily Xml
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Motions

Rural Road Safety Month

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (11:33): By leave, on behalf of the member for Hammond, I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises that September is Rural Road Safety Month;

(b) notes that, on average, more lives are lost on rural roads in Australia;

(c) thanks the Australian Road Safety Foundation for the work they put into their annual campaign to spread awareness; and

(d) calls on the Malinauskas government to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads.

This is an important motion to put into context, not just in September, which is Rural Road Safety Month, but in the context of a road toll that so far this year continues to be truly worrying. We know that the distance that is travelled on regional roads and rural roads means that indeed there are incidents and accidents that, sadly, do happen. As the member for Flinders, an electorate which covers over 220,000 square kilometres, believe it or not, I cover a fair few kilometres in my trusty car. Somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 kilometres I drive every year, and I see a range of rural roads. I really worry that our underinvestment in most of them will mean that there is not going to be a safe passageway for people who are using that road.

Thankfully, I am someone who has one of those red posts on the side of the road, which signifies a spot where I was involved in a significant accident in my teenage years. Thankfully, it was not a black one. There are too many of those black posts with a little red cross on them littered around the roadsides of South Australia, signifying the number of deaths which have happened on rural roads. As I said, thankfully my little post is a red one and I am here to be able to tell the story. It really does highlight that in regional South Australia, even if we have not been involved ourselves, we all know someone or have family members or loved ones who have been involved in serious or significant crashes, many of which sadly end up in a fatality. As I said, the road toll continues to be something which I hope weighs heavily on the minds and the hearts of decision-makers.

Proper investment in rural roads is crucial when we are looking at not just ensuring that our roads are safe but also ensuring that our roads continue to be safe into the future—safe and productive. We know that so much of our state's economy is driven, quite literally, by those regional areas that need significant continual investment into their road infrastructure. This is why paragraph (d) of the motion is especially crucial:

(d) calls on the Malinauskas government to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads.

I proudly look at the work that was done in the four short years of the Marshall Liberal government, in my region in particular. Those who know Eyre Peninsula well know the framework that is provided by the road infrastructure of state roads. We have the Lincoln Highway that runs sort of north-south on the eastern side, we have the Tod Highway that runs north-south through the middle, we have the Flinders Highway that runs north-west and south-east on the West Coast, and we have the Eyre Highway, National Highway 1, which cuts across the top, all the way from Port Augusta through to the border with Western Australia.

The previous Marshall Liberal government invested significantly in this productive infrastructure. There was shoulder sealing on the Tod Highway—and I recognise the advocacy of the previous member for Flinders, Peter Treloar, who, like me, drove on these roads a lot. He would drive on that Tod Highway and realise that the very narrow carriageway that cars are having to traverse, with the significant shoulder drop-off at the edge, was causing a really dangerous situation.

I have been in a car many a time—and one incident sticks in my mind in particular—where there were two road trains going past each other on the Tod Highway and I was behind one of them. In passing, both of them had to drop their back trailers off the shoulder on the side of the road. There was dust everywhere, there were rocks flying everywhere and there was a really dangerous situation for both those truck drivers.

They were experienced operators of their trucks, but I do know, sadly, that there are situations where there are inexperienced drivers. Say, for instance, someone decides to make the great change of transitioning from work life to travel life and buys a four-wheel drive, buys a big caravan and sets off on the road. We do see these situations well and truly writ large in regional South Australia, especially out west. They hop behind the wheel of a vehicle that they are not used to driving and come into situations where they start to have interaction with heavy vehicles in particular. We have seen many incidents and accidents on regional roads with the inexperienced traveller dealing with such a situation.

Under the Marshall Liberal government there was significant investment in the Tod Highway and now, if you drive all the way from Cummins to Kyancutta, you will be on a carriageway which is much wider. A wider road really is a safer road. It provides the opportunity for people not just to ensure they have a safe carriageway but to also have a relaxed state of mind, and allows fatigue to be lessened because they are not on edge with the challenge of those shoulders and the drop-off.

We also saw significant sealing of shoulders from Port Augusta all the way west of Ceduna. That road now is actually a joy to drive on. The amount of heavy vehicle traffic movements that run east to west these days really would astound you, I believe. For those who do not know that road well, you might think there are 1,000 trucks a day, but there are literally thousands—3,000 truck movements a day east-west along that road.

They often go between the Eastern States and Perth, or between Adelaide and Perth, and they are long-haul truck movements. You see all sorts going across Eyre Highway: boats and caravans on the back of trucks, big pieces of mining equipment, swimming pools, houses and whatever it might be. A fair bit of movement happens on that road east-west.

It is a road that is not just for transport east-west, or the grey nomads on their caravanning trips, it is also local people from my area. We have seen some interactions with school buses, for instance, or parents doing school runs or on their way to work along Eyre Highway, facing some really dangerous situations. That investment of $125 million west of Port Augusta was significant for my region under the last Marshall Liberal government because it meant that the roadway, the carriageway, was so much safer for road users of all descriptions.

This is why it really is so important that continual investment into infrastructure on our rural roads continues. It needs to be something that is done by governments of whatever persuasion because these are productive, high-use areas that continue to add so much to our state's economy.

The next really important investment that needs to happen, in my region in particular, is in the Flinders Highway. That road goes from Port Lincoln all the way up to Ceduna. If you have the great privilege, as I do, of driving on that road you will realise there are some dangerous spots when you are actually trying to go around them. I have photos and videos, and I see it whenever I travel. There are significant drop-offs on the edges of these roads, 300 millimetres or more.

It only takes just a small break in concentration, or a small deviation—maybe dodging a wombat up near Elliston—where you drop the wheels off the side of the road and it is very easy for people to lose control. I have come across different incidents and accidents in my traversing of that road. That road really does need to have an upgrade, especially from Wangary South where I know there is a lot of movement. In the section from Wangary to Elliston there are some really dangerous spots where caravans, heavy vehicles and just normal domestic road users have to traverse.

There is also the section between Streaky Bay and Ceduna. Streaky Bay is a really fast-growing town, Ceduna is the service hub of the Far West Coast, and Flinders Highway, in between those two towns, really does leave a lot to be desired. It is not only the shoulders that cause significant and dangerous situations to be faced; it is also the actual carriageway itself.

If there is not proper investment into our rural roads the carriageway itself—where the tyres go along—becomes indented. You may not see it when it is dry but as soon as there is rain those carriageways become channels. They become little mini rivers on the road where all the water sits, and it really highlights these areas which need to have a significant upgrade in order to make sure that things are kept safe for road users of all persuasions.

I do recognise that indeed September is Rural Road Safety Month, and I encourage all people in regional areas, and also our city cousins who traverse our roads, to be safe when we are travelling along the roads. There are situations that are faced with interactions with other vehicles or wildlife. In dry situations, it is often the kangaroos and the emus that are starting to get closer and closer to roadsides to find the grass that has grown on the side of the road or the pools of water from the rain. These are dangerous situations, so we need to be safe.

I want to highlight some of the really important investments that the previous Liberal government made, not just in my area but also further along. I really encourage the current Labor government to take the next step when it comes to investing into some of these roads. If you look at the important work that was done with the duplication, which was only just recently opened, of the road from Port Wakefield to Lochiel, it has finally been done.

I am not one to defend the amount of time that was taken to do the work but, indeed, finally it is done and we can drive on that road most of the time without a speed restriction. It is really important to provide a modern roadway for a modern South Australia in an area that has increasing use, and I for one will continue to advocate for further duplications. I am sure the member for Giles would drive it as much or more than I do even. We should continue to invest in that long-term strategic base infrastructure, which is so important for South Australia's future.

I want to thank the Australian Road Safety Foundation for the work they put into their annual campaign to spread awareness, because a high proportion of South Australians do not drive that much on rural roads and, when they do, it might be for a short period of time. However, for those of us who have to do it all the time, we truly know the challenges that are faced. There is no easy silver bullet when it comes to investment into rural roads. It is significant, it is long term and it is strategic.

We need to make sure that the work that is done actually puts the foundations into having a proper asset assessment. Certainly, the work that has been done in some areas—and I encourage it to be spread out to all of South Australia—to do a fulsome analysis of not just the top of the road but also the base is important. The challenge is that we need to always be on the cutting edge of making sure we get the technology right when it comes to the construction of new roads.

I, for one, was incredibly frustrated with some of the delays and workmanship of some of the work that has been done in my area. I recognise that the overtaking lanes, which were invested into at the southern end of Eyre Peninsula along the Lincoln Highway, as well as the overtaking lane as you enter into Port Lincoln along the Western Approach Road, are really important infrastructure and a really important investment, but there was an incredible delay and incredible frustration within my community at the questionable workmanship that had to be redone two, three, four or five times even.

The roadway lifts up as soon as things heat up a bit or as soon as there is a truck that goes along it. This is why that accountability needs to continue to be back to the taxpayers of South Australia so we are getting bang for buck and we can be strategic with the investment that we are putting into our rural roads.

We really do call on the Malinauskas government to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads, not just for those regional members of the community in South Australia but for South Australia as whole, for our future and for the infrastructure needs that we know we need to continue to invest in for the long-term prosperity of our state both financially and socially.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:49): I think this is an important motion. We will be amending it, but I think the core of the motion is incredibly well intentioned and, as a regional member who travels the roads far, far too much, I get to see a lot. The member for Flinders mentioned the size of his electorate, a very big electorate. I guess my electorate is over 350,000 kilometres, so it is vast, with roads varying from National Highway 1 to dirt roads that are often of a poor quality.

One of the issues when it does come to roads in this state is that it is such a vast network with a very small, widely spread population. It does present challenges, and historically the federal contribution has not matched the size of the road network we have. With those few words I will get onto the amendment. I move to amend the motion by the member to read as follows:

That this house:

(a) recognises that September is Rural Road Safety Month;

(b) notes that, on average, more lives are lost on rural roads in Australia;

(c) thanks the Australian Road Safety Foundation for the work they put into their annual campaign to spread awareness; and—

this is the change:

(d) acknowledges the ongoing investments and commitment to improving the safety of our rural and regional roads.

I think it is important, especially when we are talking about safety, that we make that effort to get beyond a partisan approach. Governments of both persuasions invest in our road network, if sometimes the priorities might differ somewhat. However, I take up what the member for Flinders said: that it does need to be strategic, it needs to be long term, and it needs to be guided—especially in the country—by the accident data.

What are the roads that present a real risk? The member for Flinders has mentioned the Port Augusta Highway, and those of us who travel it extensively know what a risky road that is for a significant stretch, because you have that concentration of heavy vehicles, caravans and light passenger vehicles all travelling on the road, a national highway of that nature. When you get to Lochiel and you do that section from Lochiel now all the way to Adelaide with the duplication it makes a massive difference.

It is one of those major highways, National Highway 1, in our state that ultimately needs to be duplicated all the way to Port Augusta. That is a priority, and it is a priority driven by just the mortality and injury rates on that highway, the number of deaths and the number of serious accidents on that highway. It is probably either the worst or the second worst in the state when it comes to fatalities. That needs to be a priority.

The government has invested. When you look at country roads, they are different from the metropolitan roads, obviously, and speed is one of the issues. You are generally travelling at 100 km/h or 110 km/h—and you see people travel lot faster than that. Speed is sometimes the cause of the accident but sometimes other factors are the cause; however, because you are travelling at such a speed, in general the outcome is going to be terrible.

For those of us who travel country roads, we know it is also often the distances that we travel—there is fatigue, there is distraction. Unfortunately, some people still may be under the influence of either drugs or alcohol when they are on our roads, and some people still neglect to put on their seatbelts. Given the factors that are at play on country roads, the chances of a serious accident are greatly increased. Indeed, I think two out of three of the serious accidents and fatalities in the state happen on country roads.

We can obviously make investment in the physical infrastructure to improve the situation. As I have discussed, that duplication from Lochiel to Adelaide makes a great deal of difference. I speak to some of the people who travel that particular road—and you can apply this to other major country roads as well—about the amount of stress that some people have in driving a road before it does become duplicated.

Over the years, we have seen improvements. There are a lot more overtaking lanes, which are good and do help. I have been one of those people who has been an advocate for being able to go faster in the overtaking lane when overtaking trucks—and I have written to the minister on this—because I think that is the safest thing to do. The other thing that really pisses me off is when one truck overtakes another truck and there is all this traffic behind and you go, 'Oh my God, please!'

I am also a big fan of having your headlights on when on country roads, especially with an ageing population. The colours of some vehicles blend into the background. When a car or a truck has its headlights on, you can see it from a good distance away. These are minor changes but I think they should be seriously entertained.

Unfortunately, in my life I have been involved in two serious accidents. One was within Whyalla itself, so I will not go into that, but one was on the highway. We are just incredibly fortunate that nobody died, but somebody was incredibly seriously injured. It highlights one of the things that the member for Flinders talked about. On this stretch of road, it was a combination of an inexperienced driver, no shoulder widening and no audio tactile marking. It might have made a difference in this particular accident if those investments had been in place way back then.

The other factor in that accident that does reflect upon the nature of country driving is that it was a single-vehicle accident. Over 50 per cent of the accidents on country roads are single-vehicle accidents. The road make-up can make a contribution to that. There is fatigue and there is distraction. In my community of Whyalla, the end of that journey from Adelaide between Port Augusta and Whyalla is a bit of a boring stretch. One mate had his arm totally cut off at the shoulder in an accident. A number of young people who I knew died on that road in single-vehicle accidents. If they had had a break in Port Augusta and not continued on, they might have survived; who knows?

There are a whole range of factors when it comes to country roads and why they produce so many fatalities, and governments of whatever persuasion do look at the accident data. We do need to make those investments to make country roads safer.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (11:58): I rise to support the motion in its original form, quite transparently, and in so doing would like to start by acknowledging the wonderful work that we have done over the past 7½ years—almost eight years—on roads in my electorate. We have had some tremendous fortune in getting some of our real problem roads fixed, and they are now a really encouraging sign for our community of what can be done when the government comes to the party and ensures that those trouble roads are fixed up and improved for our community.

I have a non-exhaustive list that I have jotted down of some of those roads that have been fixed, but I am most proud of the fact that the road the entire way from Port Broughton through Bute, Kulpara, Arthurton, Maitland and Minlaton has been fixed in the past eight or nine years. It is quite an extraordinary feat and it was one that I doorknocked on as a candidate a little while ago now, promising to get that road down the middle fixed up to make it in a drivable state. To have that road fixed for that length is an extraordinary feat and I know one that the community appreciates a great deal.

It is a very busy thoroughfare that hosts a great deal of traffic, both domestic and grain traffic down that middle road, and it is now a really smooth and enjoyable trip for the most part. The first stretch that was fixed, from Minlaton to Urania, is starting to break up and become a little bit bouncy, but, for the most part, it is a really wonderful piece of road and, as I said, tremendously appreciated by the community that have put up with a bumpy, narrow section of road for far too long. I am incredibly proud about that.

The Spencer Highway, from Wallaroo to Maitland and through Moonta, has had its shoulders done over the past few years. Obviously, the big-ticket item at Port Wakefield, the overpass and duplication all the way through to Lochiel, has gone tremendously well for many people. There is hope, even within my community, of ensuring that now travels from Lochiel through to Port Augusta. But I have to say, as the local member of parliament that represents the town of Lochiel, there is some concern in that community about what the roadway through that town will look like. Its existing road carriageway is far too narrow to host four lanes, in my view at least.

On one side of the town is obviously the famous salt pans, so you cannot cover that up with road, and then the question is whether we go behind the town through some paddocks on the other side to ensure that those four lanes, the double lane, can be accommodated through the town there. It would be a wonderful thing to see that completed all the way through to Port Augusta. Of course, what we have there now at Port Wakefield under the overpass and those duplications is a wonderful asset.

But it is not just those big state roads that we appreciate, of course; it is the ones in our community that have benefited from state government assistance as well, perhaps most famously in my community, Bay Road, Moonta, which is now a road truly befitting of the major tourism status that it holds and a really pleasant endeavour for those who visit our community to travel down to famous Moonta Bay, onto the jetty and whatnot. They now get to travel on a road that is not a patchwork quilt of different potholes and fix-ups; it is now a nice wide road with appropriate drainage and stormwater facilities, and a really attractive road with some plantings and whatnot there as well.

Of course, there are other little roads which have benefitted from a grant from the state government, like in my own town of Kadina, past the showgrounds, that is now upgraded. As I said, that is a non-exhaustive list, but they are some of the more impressive ones that we have had done and, of course, from the big to the small, it is a really wonderful thing to see it happen.

The government are attempting to amend this motion to celebrate the ongoing investments, and to that end I would like to note that there are some in our electorate that are ongoing. The Wallaroo Entrance Road is very much a work in progress. The council are out there doing the stormwater component of it now, and my understanding is that the state government will swoop in very soon to start the actual bituminising of the road to upgrade that.

Similarly, Bay Road—that will be much appreciated by that community, which will elevate it to an entrance road to a tourism town befitting its popularity. We look forward to seeing that happen because, golly, it has been a significant wait for that. It has been a project mooted for quite some time and to see it finally happen and the trucks and tractors out there right now doing some work is very encouraging.

We also have the Edithburgh to Yorketown stretch of road, which was the subject of a petition that I tabled in this place relatively recently. Rick Hutchinson from Edithburgh did all the legwork to secure a significant number of signatures to highlight to this place the perils of that road, the narrowness of it, the undulations and whatnot, and, as should happen, that petition seems to have worked. The government have since committed to doing some shoulder work there to widen that road and make it easier for trucks and caravans to get down. I know Rick is somewhat happy with that. It would have been nice to get a completely new road, but at least it will be widened and those shoulders will be fixed.

Then, of course, there is the Rex Minerals road realignment to allow for that mine site. Ostensibly not being the subject of any government funding, it will still be a new road for our electorate. The entrance into Pine Point was quite contentious and the subject of a lot of complaints to my office, and that will now be fixed up, presumably by Rex Minerals, to ensure that it is a far better road now as well, and we look forward to seeing those completed too.

However, the reason that I would like to support the motion in its original form and oppose the attempted amendment is that we clearly need more. The ongoing investments are nice, and we appreciate the work that is being done and mooted to be done, but there is still a lot to do in our community. Whilst we have had some significant fortune over the past 7½ or eight years, we need it to continue and we need, in the words of the original motion, to call 'on the Malinauskas government to invest more in upgrading our regional and rural roads'.

To that end I would like to identify some that I would like to see upgraded or committed to being upgraded at least in the next few months as we head toward the next election to ensure that our community can continue to keep pace with the requirements that it needs in its road network. The Bute to Snowtown road in the north of my electorate, which is again a major thoroughfare for grain trucks trying to get to the Snowtown silos near the railway line there, is a terrible piece of road. Undulated and narrow, it is in desperate need of an upgrade. We have been lobbying for it for some time, and it certainly needs to find its way to the top of the government list somehow.

We have roads out of Minlaton to Port Vincent and to Yorketown which are far too narrow and which would need significant upgrading. I would like to mention at this point Chris Thompson, who has been a staunch advocate for trying to widen the road from Minlaton to Yorketown.

More recently we have had contact from the Port Clinton Progress Association. This is not necessarily a complaint about the standard of the coast road there but a noting of the fact that there are three entrances to the community of Port Clinton, all from the highway, and that the turning facilities from the highway into the town are somewhat deficient. It is a 100 km/h zone on the highway going past, and the driveways and front yards of at least three houses open up onto the highway. It is a major thoroughfare for grain trucks heading to Port Adelaide or Ardrossan, and of course it is a dangerous thing.

Port Clinton is a decent-sized town with a strong community, and there are significant concerns from the progress association that there will be an accident there from a car waiting to turn into the community or from a child playing in their front yard adjacent to the main highway, so I have undertaken to do my best to help that community investigate safer ways for their town to be accommodated. It just goes to show that not all government investment needs to be in major roads and upgrades; it can be as simple as changing a speed sign or building a turning lane.

I have a couple of final thoughts that I would like to express for the consideration of this place. The first is that there seems to be an increasing frustration from motorists when it comes to roadworks. It certainly seems that over the duration of the eight years that I have been in this place, there has been an increasing onus on those people who put out the roadworks signs to make them more complicated and cumbersome. I had a bill in the previous parliament to try to whittle that back a bit so that those requirements only applied whilst there were roadworkers present at an actual roadworks site.

I have not reintroduced that this time, but it seems to me that those signs are continuing at pace and that there needs to be some work done to balance the utility of the road user with the safety of the roadworker. It would certainly seem that it has got out of hand and that there could be some restabilisation to ensure that comes in back into balance.

The other thing that I would like to observe is that some time ago our roads were all dropped to 100 km/h. This was done in the name of road safety at the time and it was an acknowledgement of the fact that our roads were not up to a standard of being able to safely host traffic at 110 km/h. Well, I would like to make note of the fact that there has not been any appreciable difference in the road toll since that occurred. I would love for someone to do some research on whether that has actually had a positive impact on road safety or no impact or a negligible impact, because if it is negligible we would much appreciate those roads, at least the ones that are recently redeveloped, being returned to 110 km/h, because ultimately people on regional roads have places to be and things to do, and the quicker we can get there the better.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:08): I rise to contribute to the Rural Road Safety Month debate and support the original motion. The government's amended motion really does acknowledge that the government should be embarrassed about the lack of focus and funding for regional roads. For far too long this government has been fully focused on a city-centric roads program. Not only are we looking at many billions of dollars' increase in the cost of the north-south corridor; it is also that the minister responsible for infrastructure is now putting a tunnel underneath his electorate. I think it is outrageous that South Australian taxpayers are footing the bill for this government's agenda, which is city roads, and the regions get the rest.

On the weekend I travelled down to Cape Jervis to go over to Kangaroo Island to do some fire prevention maintenance work, and I was amazed at the level of work going on down south. It was 24/7. If I drive on some of the regional roads here in South Australia, there is no activity at night. There is no urgency for regional roads that are significantly underfunded and under pressure. They also deal with heavy freight, which is now putting more and more pressure on our roads because the current government have closed the rail lines in the majority of regional centres. That again is putting more pressure on our roads, on our shoulders, on the safety of our roads.

September is Rural Road Safety Month, and it is about reminding people that travelling on regional roads can be risky. It can be dangerous, whether it is travelling longer distances, whether it is dealing with fatigue. We also have to acknowledge that, particularly if you are a regional youth, if you are a young driver on a regional road, you deal with a lot of uncertainty. You deal with something that very few young city folk deal with, and that is speed limits of 110 km/h. Yes, some of the younger drivers are restricted, whether they are on L-plates or P-plates, but they are the vagaries of dealing with regional roads.

How does a government act responsibly? It provides adequate funding. I know that the Marshall Liberal government in two years put $1.16 billion into regional road maintenance, yet we see that the funding has diminished under this Labor government. I think it is an absolute crime that we continue to see the lack of funding, the lack of focus, in keeping our regional roads safe.

Yes, many roads have heavy vehicles or high-productivity vehicles on them, but that is a consequence to driving an economy. It is making sure we get freight from point A to point B. It is taking a lot of that freight from a farm to the city, whether it is for manufacturing or whether it is for putting food onto people's plates. That is what regional roads are all about. It is about keeping them safer so that we can make sure that people feel safe and are safe on our regional roads.

This year there were 57 fatalities and 534 serious injuries on our roads. Last year, 63 per cent of fatal crashes were on regional roads. That really says that more than half of the crashes on our regional roads are single-vehicle crashes. What contributes are rollovers, hitting trees or other objects. The number has increased from 2023, and it is clear that the condition of our roads is playing a huge role in those incidents. Tragically, 11 lives were lost last year of drivers aged between 16 and 24. I have already demonstrated what my children have been through driving on regional roads and what many other young drivers in regional communities are having to deal with. What we need to understand is how we make our roads safer not only for the less experienced drivers but for every road user.

September is the month when we need to put a focus on this initiative so that we can point the finger at the government of the day and make sure that they do provide adequate funding not only for safety but for maintenance and make sure that there is equity in a regional road versus a city project. I think that is something that we need to really focus on.

In the great electorate of Chaffey, there are many roads that have been neglected over these last three years, almost four years. But what I must say is that one of the roads in the worst condition is the Wentworth to Renmark road. It is an unsealed road. It gets graded once or potentially twice a year. That is now starting to become a common thoroughfare for tourists, for some heavy vehicles.

What it is showing us is that the copious letters that I have written to the minister have fallen on deaf ears. I want to thank his department; they have taken my correspondence and helped. Every little bit helps, and for some of those actions I thank them. But the response in the correspondence I get back from the minister—when it does eventually come back to me—is quite tardy, and it really does beggar belief in most instances. So that is something that should be looked at.

Of course, the most recent floods did a lot of damage to our regional roads. I live on the Lyrup causeway and some of that road was undercut by floodwaters. After three years of waiting, that road is down to one lane; it is on restricted traffic lights. A lot of heavy productivity vehicles use it. A lot of Riverlanders—whether they are travelling out of Lyrup, travelling out of the Riverland across the river—are always having to consider whether they take that road or spend another 20 minutes driving around that damaged piece of road. So I am glad to see that the council is now scheduled to rebuild that road, with completion in December 2026.

The duplication of the Sturt Highway is something else that really has been a bugbear. The Sturt Highway is a federal highway. The Sturt Highway sees a majority of heavy vehicles using that road regularly. I helped promote a campaign—12,000 signatures on a petition—for delivering the Truro freight route.

I know that the member for Schubert is in her electorate, and she is doing a great job of giving that project a voice, but what I must say is that my constituents are the people using that freight route, whether it be a heavy vehicle or whether it be people travelling to Adelaide, and they encounter near misses on regular occasion. So I think the member for Schubert, myself and every person who travels on the Sturt Highway should say loudly and clearly to the government that we need a solution there: a solution-based approach not only for productivity but particularly for safety.

I want to also highlight the issue of what we have seen on that stretch of highway since 2018. There have been 40 lives lost on that stretch of highway—40. That is 40 too many. The current government have kicked the can down the road on this stretch of highway that is absolutely screaming out for help: for safety upgrades, for productivity upgrades. They continue to ignore it. There is the blame game: 'Blame the feds, blame someone else.' The minister is very good at playing the blame game, but I am calling on him to fast-track this federal highway upgrade so that the Truro freight route is addressed and we see those safety concerns addressed and the productivity gains. It is about efficiencies, it is about bringing tourists into the regions, it is about getting people from the regions back to the city safely and it really does need the government's attention.

I want to thank the Australian Road Safety Foundation for their good work, their hard work, in their annual campaign and for spreading that awareness. They make a real impact in workplaces, schools and communities every year, and they support events right across Australia. It is no more important than here in South Australia and no more important than those campaigns being promoted in regional South Australia, because the regional road network is under pressure every day and, with the government's neglect, we are going to see more and more issues when travelling on those highways.

Road safety, as I say, is everyone's responsibility. There is an element of state, federal and local government responsibility, and I urge all of them to please act responsibly. Keep our roads safer than they are today, and make sure that people use rest stops when they are fatigued and that they slow down in times of need.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:19): I rise also to support the motion, unsurprisingly, in its original form, and I might just address the reason why the original form of the motion is particularly apt, standing in contradistinction to the amendment the member for Giles has brought to the house. I will do that by illustrating where the government has needed to be brought to us at a 180-degree turnaround to invest in the Hills and, very specifically, in the road safety upgrade necessary, right at the heart of Meadows at the centre of Heysen. I will come to that momentarily.

Of course, uncontroversially, the motion recognises this month as Rural Road Safety Month and highlights, as we are well to do, that there are more lives lost on rural roads in Australia, and that is true for South Australia as well. As those on country roads are appropriately reminded, it is the locals who are suffering in a greater proportion as well. It is local communities in the country in South Australia that we need to call on the Malinauskas Labor government to not forget about when we are calling on the investment necessary for those upgrades.

We are well to recognise the foundation for its work and for its annual campaign to spread awareness. It is necessary, of course, as we have done in the course of the motion, to focus on the necessary works, the physical investments and the significant capital that has devoted the money that is necessary to be prioritised and then devoted to those works. It is also not to be forgotten that it is important to have campaigns of communication to road users to drive safely and to ensure that we do all we can reasonably through each year to avoid those terrible incidents involving, as they do in the worst of circumstances, trauma and death on the roads.

The original form of the motion rightly calls on the Malinauskas Labor government to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads. There is a very good example of the need for that call to be reiterated in this Rural Road Safety Month. I make particular reference to the government's announcement, as recently as May this year, a statement dated 23 May, with a heading 'Road safety upgrade bonanza for Adelaide Hills'. It provides residents, including my constituents in Heysen, with news, which the government was proud at that time to trumpet, that residents and visitors will benefit from investment into various Hills roads, the result of the $150 million Adelaide Hills Productivity and Road Safety Package that is an 80:20 federal and state government commitment.

That fund is welcome, and the federal government's commitment to that is welcome. What we need to see is that that translates into action and that the Malinauskas Labor government is held to account to apply those funds to the improvement of roads in the Adelaide Hills, and that means holding Malinauskas Labor to even the most basic of standards to do what it said it would do.

We see, prominent in this statement about the bonanza in May, in fact, the first of the projects that is trumpeted as being on its way as the result of the application of these funds, is:

The intersection of Mawson Road, Battunga Road and Nottage Terrace, Meadows is being upgraded, with a new single-lane roundabout to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians. On average, more than 10,000 vehicles and 550 heavy vehicles pass through this intersection each day.

Now, that is a statement from the government just in May this year, and it is a 180-degree turnaround from what the minister had his chief executive advise Mount Barker council as recently as a few months prior to that, at the end of 2024. By a letter, the chief executive wrote—not to me, but to the council—to say, 'I am just going to advise you that that's actually not on the list of things to be done. It hasn't stacked up.'

I go back even a bit further, to January of 2024, when the minister wrote to the council—again, not to me, to the council—to say, 'This is being done, this upgrade.' After a bit of inquiry, I was able to get hold of the fact that, when the minister made that promise to my constituents via the local council, it was not just a kind of 'in principle, maybe, let's see how it all stacks up' kind of promise, but it was a promise that was made in the light of engineering drawings, plans and all the rest of it that were done and stamped November 2023.

So we had an informed promise from the government in January of 2024 that this would be done. Then at the end of last year, 2024, that same government—this time by a letter by the chief executive—says, 'Oh, actually, no, that's not quite getting there.' Unsurprisingly, cue outrage from me, my constituents, local council, and everyone who is even remotely aware of what it is like to have to navigate that intersection day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. We all just said, 'Hey, do what you said you would do. Do what you said you would do, and go and construct that safety upgrade at the centre of Meadows.'

Anyone passing through Meadows in the first half of this year leading up to about May and the bonanza would have, in all likelihood, had the misfortune of crossing paths with me or someone bearing a sign saying, 'Do what you said you'd do, government.' When there is a fund for the improvement of regional roads in the Adelaide Hills, and you are advertising what a great achievement that is, make sure it sounds in works actually completed, not in this kind of, you know, 'We have the engineering drawings and we will tell you it is on its way and then we will sort of back away from that and you might not see it.'

It is very important that this house sticks with the original paragraph (d) of this motion, and calls on Malinauskas Labor to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads, because if you do not call on it to do it, and if you do not keep up your calls, the risk is that Malinauskas Labor will just sort of drift away from it and you will have an announcement about some money and you will never see anything for it.

I am proud of my community, I am proud of the local council, and I am proud of all of those who have stood up together to make sure that by the time we get to 23 May this year and we hear about a bonanza, first cab off the rank is the government saying, 'Actually, yes, we will do that after all.' We need to keep up the calls. I will be keeping up the calls, and let's make sure that Malinauskas Labor does not forget about our regions, including particularly in the Hills.

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (12:29): I rise to speak in support of the original motion that was moved by the member for Hammond, namely:

That this house—

(a) recognises that September is Rural Road Safety Month;

(b) notes that, on average, more lives are lost on rural roads in Australia;

(c) thanks the Australian Road Safety Foundation for the work they put into their annual campaign to spread awareness; and—

importantly—

(d) calls on the Malinauskas Government to invest more in upgrading our rural and regional roads.

There are a number of things which I wholeheartedly agree with the member for Heysen on, but most particularly just recently the fact that this house must continue to urge the government to act on investment into our regional communities.

We serve as a constant reminder that there is always more to be done to improve road safety in regional communities, particularly having in mind the Barossa Valley and the Northern Adelaide Hills. And whilst it is all fantastic to have road safety awareness month and to talk about the importance of this dual responsibility to keep safe on our roads, that of course is about the drivers themselves and the state government and federal government investing in the roads. But we need more than talk; we need always to see more money poured into regional road safety.

The facts speak for themselves, which are that, in terms of rural road crashes, the stats are that 60 per cent of those crashes happen on rural roads. There are more lives lost in regional South Australia than in the city and that in itself is a very clear reason why we need to see more investment. It is not good enough just to talk about the statistics or the lives that are lost on our roads as numbers, because they represent members of our communities, they represent loved ones of people who tragically have lost a loved one as a result of accidents on our roads. That is why we need to do more.

For members of my community in the Barossa Valley and the Hills, driving long distances is a part of daily life, really. People use our roads as an intricate network of connection to their work, to schools, to sport on the weekends, and every pothole, every crumble in the road, every road without a proper shoulder sealing is noted by regional communities, and members in the regions particularly know the road networks like the back of their hand and when they are concerned about a road it is incumbent on the government to listen and, importantly, to act to rectify that.

I have spoken in this place on a number of occasions about the importance of genuine investment in our road network. There are a number of roads in my local community that I am constantly contacting the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport about, so much so that I have noted that there has been a slight change in tack and that I am now getting responses from the minister's team and not signed letters all the time from the minister himself. I think that is just a reminder to my local community to keep coming to me on all of your concerns. We will keep flooding the government with real-life examples about the gap in investment and that more needs to be done.

I have spoken recently in the chamber about the Eden Valley Road. This is a major freight route, a major transport route for tourists throughout my local community, and also a main thoroughfare connecting all the little townships in the Barossa Valley. At the moment its condition is simply deplorable. I have raised questions about this with the minister directly, and it seems to be that there has been a big change in the way that the road is actually sealed. It has a gravel-like substance on the top and it is causing more issues in my local community due to the fact that it has not been done properly.

I have spoken with local businesses and people who have had to have their windscreens replaced as a direct result of this gravel that is flying up from the roads. I have spoken about the intersection of Hurns Road and Eden Valley Road. That is a major problem point. Likewise at the front of Yalumba winery in Angaston. These are two hot spots that must be addressed.

Belvidere Road is a growing thoroughfare that connects people to the Sturt Highway. This is an issue I have written to the council about. It is an issue that I will continue to lobby on for action. There has been a big increase in the volume of traffic coming through Belvidere Road and it seems to me that a slip lane is desperately required there to accommodate the increase in traffic, particularly for heavy vehicles.

Sturt Highway in general is a national highway that carries freight, tourists and people from right across South Australia and connects them right across Australia. At the moment we have some really serious undulations occurring there and so much so that I have received reports of caravans becoming airborne. There was a local family whose relatives actually ended up in the Lyell McEwin Hospital as a result of their caravan flipping on these undulated surfaces.

This is an issue that has sparked a lot of community interest, so much so that a local community petition has been started by Michella and Jacqui. They are two passionate women from Greenock. They have thousands of signatures on this petition, which I look forward to tabling in the house in due course. It calls on the government to invest in a long-term solution to fix this road safety issue.

I am really hopeful that as a result of investigations that have been launched by the department we can get to the bottom of what would be required for a long-term fix. Patchworks and resurfacing last happened in 2019, and that served its purpose for some time, but clearly the issues are back and they are back worse than ever. There is an acknowledgement that this is a road-safety concern for the local community because now we have a reduction in speed from 110 down to 80 in numerous positions along the Sturt Highway and we also have a hazard up ahead sign. I encourage everyone in my local community to sign that petition, if they have not already. One is available in my local electorate office.

Both Cricks Mill Road and Gorge Road are in dire need of maintenance. I am constantly contacted by constituents in my local communities, particularly across the Adelaide Hills, who have been speaking about this poor condition, so much so that people have had to go to mechanics and have serious work done to their car for damage that has occurred due to hitting these potholes.

Gomersal Road is a very scenic route, one which I always love driving along as I am heading home to Angaston from the big smoke here in the city. It is pretty, but I have to say that the condition of the road at the moment is pretty average. Again, this is an issue I have raised with the minister on multiple occasions, the need to improve the condition and to look at ways that we can potentially have some overtaking lanes. There are minimal opportunities to overtake along Gomersal Road. It is a prime tourist stretch, which means we have people interested in going about things a little bit slower so they can take in the scenic view of the Barossa Valley.

Melrose Street in Mount Pleasant is an upgrade for which I secured a commitment from the government to get done. It is one that my local community is really excited about but, disappointingly, the government has advised those works have been pushed into the next financial year. Again, I will continue to hold the government to account on making sure that we can do everything possible to fast track investment into regional roads. We know that there is a multibillion dollar backlog when it comes to road maintenance right across regional South Australia, and indeed the city, and we must do more.

As I have said, it is not just about commuters and drivers who need to do what they can to keep safe on the road, there is an incumbency, a responsibility, if you like, for the government to invest and to ensure that they are playing their part in the bargain to keep people safe on our roads. Every life lost on our roads is one too many. Rural Road Safety Month is a reminder that when it comes to road safety the stakes could not be higher.

I commend the motion in its original form to the house. I thank members, particularly all those regional MPs on my side of the chamber who have made a contribution. You can see how passionate we are about ensuring that our regional communities have the road safety network and the roads that they deserve: safe roads, and safe roads ultimately save lives.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:39): I likewise rise to support the motion in its original form. It is really important that we do actually understand regional roads and the needs of them. I very much reflect on many sad, tragic accidents that have occurred in my part of the Fleurieu, particularly along the Victor Harbor Road. There are many that I remember over my lifetime, very tragic stories that have occurred in relation to those who have been involved in tragic accidents that have devastated the town and the community, in particular the families closely affected by the lives that have been lost through that process.

It is really, really important that we make sure our roads are funded well, make sure that they are actually maintained well, make sure that they are renewed, and make sure that networks are expanded when necessary. I guess that brings me to a particular concern in my electorate that has certainly been bubbling along for a number of years now. It is something I very much remember raising when I was involved in advocacy within the dairy industry. That is the traffic volumes that move along the coast, along the road from Victor Harbor through to Goolwa.

That is a really challenging part of the network, particularly between Waterport Road and Middleton itself. That piece of road is really pushed beyond its current limits. There are nearly 13,000 car movements a day along that piece of road. In my lifetime, it has gone from a 110 km/h speed limit down to an 80 km/h speed limit, and often the traffic is travelling at 60 km/h or below, just with the volume that is travelling along that part of the road.

An expansion with a second road bypassing both Middleton and Port Elliot, connecting across to Waterport Road to link up with Waterport Road, that then bypasses Victor Harbor itself to take you through to Encounter Bay is certainly something that I think is an important piece of infrastructure that needs to be invested in going forward. It is something that I will continue to keep advocating for. It is a very important piece of infrastructure that will actually make the network so much safer.

It may not even be a significant road accident that will actually cause problems in relation to human life, but if they occur at the wrong spots it is really a large diversion around those incidents. If there happens to be an issue that occurs in Middleton, at the Middleton Bridge, for example, where Middleton Creek goes, to divert around that on any decent sort of road is almost driving all the way to Mount Compass and so a significant barrier for getting people from Goolwa to health services they may need in Victor Harbor.

Likewise, if something happens at the corner of Waterport Road, again it is really difficult to find a diversion road around the back. No matter what size of vehicle we are talking about, there are very few options past that. It is very much a significant restriction in the network. To me, we have seen an enormous increase in the volume of traffic over the years and we see significant volumes travel on the regional roads through my electorate, probably, as I said, nearly 13,000 on Port Elliot Road between Middleton and Port Elliot.

Probably the one that most people think of is the Victor Harbor Road. As people head into Mount Compass, they are sharing the road with 14,200 cars a day. Just over 12,000 of those then go through Mount Compass. It is a huge volume of traffic that really puts pressure on the network, and that sheer volume then puts pressure on the road safety aspects in relation to that road. It is a sad thing about the Victor Harbor Road.

We have certainly seen some improvements, from McLaren Vale back to the start of the road at Old Noarlunga. It was a commitment by the previous government to invest in that road, and I am pleased to see that completed under this current government. There is great improvement in road safety through that area. It was a high-fatality zone, and the network has certainly improved significantly with that upgrade.

Then we go from McLaren Vale to Willunga. I can vaguely remember that road being built when I was a child—that puts it in the 55-plus years range of that road being in operation. We have seen overtaking lanes added and we have seen changes that have occurred in that time over the life of that road, but at the moment that road is appalling. It is built on a soil that makes it really quite difficult to maintain the road: the Bay of Biscay soil makes the road move significantly. We have seen the surface of the road break up significantly over the last couple of years, and it has been patched in the last few months. That patching has made the road very rough and very challenging to drive on. Most of the patching actually occurs in the overtaking lane, particularly heading south, and so we see a lot of people choosing to drive in the right-hand lane, whether they are overtaking or not, to try to get away from that rough surface.

We then travel all the way to the other end of the road, towards the Mount Jagged region, and again there are some significant issues. There is a little dirt road, called Isaacson Road, that comes off the Victor Harbor Road, and there is an overtaking lane there, heading north. There are so many potholes there that I would very much run out of all the fingers and toes in a busload of people, let alone a carload of people, to count how many there actually are in this section. It is really disappointing that this road has not been maintained to an adequate, safe standard. Again, the majority of regular users are no longer using that portion of the road because it is so bad. They go straight out into the right-hand lane, and it removes the ability for a sensible overtaking point, which has been put there to actually help with road safety.

Even recently, only a month or so ago, we saw a pothole that I have reported, three years in a row, to the relevant minister as being a significant safety issue. We saw that pothole again this year. We saw reasonable media attention in relation to that particular pothole, where there were multiple cars hitting that pothole. They were lined-up there, changing tyres after they had blown tyres upon hitting this pothole in wet conditions. It is certainly quite scary that the road is in a state where people unexpectedly hit such a hazard on a road that you would expect will be in good condition. It is really sad that roads are not kept at that level.

We have other roads in the electorate that are challenging as well, such as the Goolwa Road that goes from Mount Compass to Goolwa. My understanding is that the first five or so kilometres of that was never built with a decent foundation and is continually falling apart and getting patched up on a regular basis. Then we have the Inman Valley Road, where people are choosing to drive for an extra 10 kilometres on other roads because that road is so bad and so challenging to drive on. They are actually choosing local council roads, including some that are dirt, as an alternative because it is a safer option. Hindmarsh Tiers Road is another road that has over 1,000 cars a day and certainly is having challenging times as well.

So we need to make sure that this government and future governments invest in our regional roads. Human life is so special, and to have people lost through not having the network kept to a suitable standard is just not acceptable in today's terms. I really encourage governments to keep investing.

Ms PRATT (Frome) (12:49): Noting that we have some very special guests in the chamber who have been listening to our important debates this morning, and I am sure they will understand that country MPs have a lot to say about regional roads, I will make some brief remarks in support of the original motion, recognising that September is Rural Road Safety Month. In brief—as I promise to be—we continue to call on the Malinauskas Labor government to invest more funding into our roads to keep them safe.

The Horrocks Highway is really the arterial road that connects my electorate from north to south. I just want to reflect on some comments that were made by the member for West Torrens last week when he visited my communities, introducing himself as the minister of Horrocks Highway. It was delivered as a cheap laugh, and he got one, but it comes with a costly price tag, and that is the cost of repairs to our road network in the regions and the cost of lives lost. It is not a joking matter. We understand the complication of the terrain across the state, but this is a government that was elected to do its job, and there is a department that exists to maintain and repair our roads.

My communities expect no less, and it is certainly no different from the argument about painting the opera house bridge, if you like: it is a never-ending job; you start at the beginning, get to the end, and rinse and repeat. The community of Frome, from Roseworthy and Hewett all the way through to the Clare Valley and beyond, expect that the Horrocks Highway is taken seriously by this government, and through this motion we expect to see more money invested in keeping our roads and our drivers safe. I commend the original motion.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (12:51): I will speak briefly in wrapping up. I also recognise the situation with the Hospital Research Foundation team who are here, and I will give the health minister an opportunity to say a few words on the next motion. We, on this side, oppose the amendment that has been put by the member for Giles.

I thank the members for Chaffey, Heysen, Schubert, Frome and Finniss for their contributions to this really important motion. Indeed, I thank the member for Giles who, in the body of his speech, reflected the challenges but also the opportunities, if we get funding right, for rural roads. He drives on a lot of the same sorts of roads as I do. Under normal circumstances we would be calling for a division on the amendment but to expedite the process we will not—not for the sake of a minister but for the sake of the friends in the gallery. If it was my decision I would say, 'Minister, forget it.' I am happy to support the original motion, and indicate that the opposition opposes the amendment as put by the member for Giles.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

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