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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-05-13 Daily Xml
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Infrastructure Projects

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:53): Infrastructure SA today released its 20-year vision for South Australia. The independent advisory group was established by this government to provide informed and evidence-based advice to allow the government to make decisions on infrastructure planning, investment and delivery. While the blueprint contains a raft of big building ideas costing a bucketload of money, much of the report deals with upgrading infrastructure on our road assets, left lagging by previous governments.

The transport minister lauds the exercise, particularly when there are potential projects in his own electorate in the Barossa Valley. Of course, he has derailed plans for a tourist train there. A proposal to upgrade the Strzelecki Track is welcome. Indeed, bituminising the famous outback road was part of SA-Best's election platform. There is also talk of an underground rail line in the city. That has been talked about for decades, but no government to date has had the gumption to commit to such grandiosity, particularly now in this COVID-19 era and the long-term impacts it could have on the bottom line.

The government boasts about its $12.9 billion of infrastructure works in the pipeline over four years. Schools—tick. Hospitals—tick. Roads—tick. Making us smarter, wealthier, healthier and making it easier to move around all sound good on paper. Yet, like everything it is what actually gets done that matters. Actions speak louder than ambitious words by Thinkers in Residence.

I suspect the 20-year vision outlined today will also gather dust, as priorities are directed at getting us to the other side of the pandemic. As Phil Sutherland, the Chief Executive of the prominent Civil Contractors Federation, said today, 'Without diminishing the value of the strategy, it was not the blueprint industry was expecting.' Let me sum that up: an underwhelming yawn.

There is one glaring omission from Infrastructure SA's blueprint: there is not one mention of rail transport infrastructure, apart from that pipedream of an idea underground. South Australia has been left lagging so far behind when it comes to rail freight networks that we may as well be back in the age before Robert Stephenson's Rocket train led the Industrial Revolution charge back in 1829. This government, like Labor, despises rail and what it can do for the state's sagging economy and regional development. Rail is a vile four-letter word.

Our once proud and bustling regional network has fallen into ruin in the hands of the American company contracted to maintain it to an operational standard. Other states have a powerful network of rail extending beyond the suburbs and continue to expand on it. Just look at Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. On the eastern seaboard they are even talking about superfast trains servicing cities and regions. What about South Australia? Pipedreams that go nowhere, just like GlobeLink, a bold but costly project.

Across the world, the backbone of leading economies and struggling ones is rail. They continue to grow them. They still see an important role for this mode of transport, so why are key decision-makers here so blinded? If you want real nation building projects, rail needs to be high on that list. I am sure that one day a myopic government will see that we are missing out, particularly in our regions where populations continue to dwindle.

Rail can also transform tourism in places like the transport minister's own electorate, the renowned Barossa Valley. Instead, he wants to rip up the tracks there. I seek leave to table a very insightful and comprehensive submission that was given to Infrastructure SA, titled 'South Australia: building for the future'.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Authored by Maurice Parry on behalf of the South Australian Transport Action Group, the purpose of the report was to present a transport infrastructure plan to revitalise South Australia's flagging economy and provide a foundation for future mining and manufacturing expansion. It makes for interesting reading, with innovative thinking like a standard gauge line connecting Whyalla, Kimba and Wudinna or extending the network of rail in the Adelaide Hills. I have this thought for our transport minister, the Hon. Stephan Knoll, and the brains trust at Infrastructure SA: the right train of thought can take you to a better station in life.

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