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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-14 Daily Xml
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Question Time

TRANSPORT PLAN

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning, representing the Minister for Transport, a question about a secret transport plan.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.V. Finnigan: Where did you get it from, L. Ron Hubbard? Is it that sort of secret?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Chuck him out, Mr President! This government, now seven years old, has never been able to table a comprehensive transport plan for South Australia or Adelaide. In fact, under the leadership of the Hon. Michael Wright, a former transport minister—I recall that, when he was minister, he had some 1,200 items of unanswered correspondence—they were unable to develop a transport plan. Likewise, the Hon. Trish White was unable to develop one. In fact, a draft transport plan was withdrawn.

I was at a function some little time after the Hon. Patrick Conlon became transport minister, where he told a UDIA lunch time meeting, I think it was, at the Adelaide Town Hall that it was useless to have a transport plan because things change, and the government did not particularly want to have one but, if it wanted one, he would give it one. We have an infrastructure plan, which is a pretty loose document. We have seen—

The Hon. B.V. Finnigan interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Finnigan will come to order.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: When I was listening to the Bald Brothers on 891 at 7.37 yesterday morning, I was surprised when the transport minister came on to respond to questions about the federal budget. The commentator said:

One announcement which seems to have taken a number of people by surprise was the plan to extend the O-Bahn into the city by the year 2011. Patrick Conlon is the State Transport Minister. Minister good morning…I guess it didn't take you by surprise?

The minister replied:

No, not entirely. We were hoping for confirmation of it. But just in general if I could explain what has occurred in terms of transport. We, shortly after the federal government and even before we'd announced our $2 billion rail expansion…[last year]went up to meet Anthony Albanese, the federal minister, and we spread out the plans that we were hoping to be able to announce in the budget...[He said] 'Look, you know we'd like the commonwealth to be a partner in this and allow us to do more'...the reason that the O-Bahn is in there is because, when you look at a comprehensive plan of the transport public system and corridors you can see that...[there is some reason for it]

He then went on to explain that it was not completed in 1979. Clearly, the government does have a transport plan and, clearly, it is keeping it secret from the people of South Australia and industry that needs to know to which transport corridors the government will give priority. Will the minister please make public the current transport plan?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:23): I think it is absolutely extraordinary that, in the very week the federal government has announced support for the most comprehensive range of transport projects this state has ever seen, which are long overdue, members opposite should ask for a plan. I would have thought they would realise that this government is ahead of the plan. We are actually implementing major infrastructure.

Do I have to go through, for the benefit of the opposition, all those things the government is doing? I could refer first of all to the tram extension. What members opposite had as a transport plan was to keep using 1929 trams, with the tramline ending in the city. The tram extension is already under way and, of course, the government has spent and is in the process of spending hundreds of millions of dollars resleepering our railway system because it was left in such a decrepit state over many decades. I am told that, previously, some of the sleepers on the system went back to the 1950s and 1960s. As a first step to the electrification—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: That's right; they are nearly that old. I would have thought that the honourable member, having asked the question, would be willing to hear the answer—and, whether or not he wants to hear the answer, he is going to hear it. We had a resleeper of the railway system as a forerunner to not only extending it but this government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on upgrading—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Ridgway might want to listen to the minister's answer.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: —our rail system, and the first thing we are doing is resleepering. As we speak, work is underway on the Belair line, and with the support of the commonwealth government we will be able to have the first extension in many years to the rail system, with a new bridge over the Onkaparinga River, the extension to Seaford. That will be combined with electrification, which will make it all work and put it all together.

There is the electrification of the city, and the purchase of a number of new buses is underway. There was this week the announcement, with the support of the federal government, to extend the O-Bahn route to make it more efficient in terms of getting into the city. We are not only looking after people in the southern suburbs of Adelaide with the rail extension, electrification and improved services to the south but we doing it in the northeast and doing it for the people in Glenelg. And of course now we will be able to extend it in the north, which will be one of our fastest growing areas in future.

The O-Bahn will improve transport to the north-east. We are talking of total infrastructure plans of something like $8 billion for major infrastructure projects over the next few years, of which approximately $3 billion of funding is committed to transport improvements over the next four to five years.

Compared with what has happened in the past in transport, when part of the transport budget was spent on the arts one year, I would have thought that there was a staggering contrast. I am told that it has been estimated that there will be more than 5,000 jobs directly associated with this massive program of works and a further 5,000 jobs indirectly created as a significant contribution to sustaining our total industry capacity and resident skills base.

We could also talk about some of the other roadworks. It has not just been in public transport with the massive projects—the electrification, the new bridge, the O-Bahn and the tram extension—but also, if one looks at some of the roadworks, we had the Bakewell underpass, constructed on budget and opened on time and receiving two prestigious awards—a South Australian engineering excellence award and a Civil Contractors Federation Earth Award—and we had the Port River Expressway, consisting of a 5.5km, four-lane expressway link between South Road and Francis Street, opened to traffic in July 2005. Then we had the Tom 'Diver' Derrick Bridge, a four-lane opening road bridge across the Port River between docks 1 and 2, open to the public on time on 1 August last year. A second railway bridge that crosses the Port River was built and traffic is now flowing.

I have driven through the new Gallipoli underpass at the intersection of South Road and Anzac Highway, with further works to be completed by this year, which will lead to significant improvements at the southern end of this project. All around the city, and in regional areas, this government has committed significant amounts of money—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: You only have to look at the Sturt Highway. The honourable member lives in the northern suburbs and I believe is the shadow spokesperson for the area. What about the Sturt Highway and the Northern Expressway, which are also due? There has been a massive investment by this government in relation to transport.

It is also important, in conclusion, if we are talking about transport planning, to note that part of the planning review was to try to integrate our planning system with transport needs, and that is why that report strongly supported the electrification as a necessary element in our planning system, in improving our city and ensuring we can achieve medium level densities along our transport corridors. A necessary element of that was the upgrade of the rail system, which is happening. That has all been integrated through our transit oriented development project, and I am pleased to be heading off—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: To the Waldorf?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: —with the Minister for Infrastructure—no, we will not be staying at the Waldorf. I certainly will not be staying there. I am pleased to be heading off tomorrow with, I think it is, more than 30 key people from our development industry and urban planning industry (representing people from the property council, UDIA and other organisations) to look at the very best practice in transit oriented development so that we can bring that practice back here. That is the key to transport planning. It is overall planning. It is planning to integrate not only with the transport system but also with better water-sensitive urban design and other key factors.

This government is about delivering, and it is about good planning. We have done that through the integrated planning review, but we are also delivering on one of the most ambitious transport proposals in this state probably for generations, if ever. That includes all elements—not just public transport and the major upgrades in that area but also our road network as well.

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