James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will not—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Sturt, please continue.

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Now I am committed to getting investments into infrastructure in South Australia, and particularly ones that deliver productivity outcomes and safety outcomes. I'd like to get that heavy freight off Portrush Road in my electorate and have it not coming down the freeway and causing extreme risk, and at times death. It's not a safe road for heavy vehicles and it's not a logical thoroughfare for heavy freight. There's a way of rerouting those heavy vehicles and that heavy freight back around the Adelaide Hills, up to Truro and down into the north, either to Port Adelaide or to the other locations where the majority of that heavy freight is going. To do that, we need to start by building the Truro bypass and we need to invest in the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass program.

The previous government, with the state government in South Australia, announced commitments and investments into the Truro bypass. That is now on hold. That is part of what was a 90-day review—that commenced, curiously, more than 90 days ago, I might add—and we now don't know whether that project, and many other projects, are going to be scrapped by this government. If that project is scrapped then that means the heavy vehicles that go through the suburbs of Adelaide, that put at risk traffic from the local neighbourhoods, the schools that are located along the corridor, will continue. That will be on the head of the minister and the government that have undertaken a review and said, 'We're not going to proceed with that project and we're not going to proceed with getting heavy freight out of the suburbs of Adelaide.'

What's worse is that there's also no suggestion that anything else, if that is scrapped, will replace it. So the evaporation of economic activity out of Adelaide, as would be the case anywhere else if these investments being reviewed are scrapped, will be significant. We will have a valley of death when it comes to infrastructure activity in my home state of South Australia, and economic impact of that will be just as significant as the loss benefit from investing in that freight bypass which will get that heavy freight out of the Adelaide suburbs of my electorate.

I support the number for Riverina in bringing this matter to the House, and I ask those opposite to do the best you can to convince your government to change their tune and actually invest in the productive infrastructure this country needs.

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