Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address a crisis that is putting the lives of regional South Australians at risk—the terrible state of our country roads. I begin by acknowledging the important work of my colleague Dr Anne Webster and her motion regarding the dire state of roads in regional Victoria. It's a sad reality that, like Victoria, South Australia is a city centric state, where the government's focus is almost entirely confined to Adelaide and surrounds. In fact, the government's priorities are so skewed I have often thought we should save ourselves the hassle and change our state's name to simply 'the state of Adelaide'.

Statistically, South Australia receives the lowest amount of federal road funding of any state, both on a per capita basis and a per kilometre of road basis, and it shows. But this isn't just about statistics; it is about lives. Here are a few stories from my electorate that serve to highlight how dangerous and poorly maintained the South Australian regional road network really is. Tony, a prominent and well-respected pastoralist in northern South Australia, said, 'Ten years ago five gangs of two graders were operating on the outback road network and now there is only one grade crew consisting of two graders to service 10,000 kilometres of outback roads.' This is ludicrous.

From a constituent in Clare: 'We came over from Clare today to do some shopping in Port Pirie, and to say the cattle track to Crystal Brook needs major repairs is beyond a joke. You even have to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid the dozens of deep potholes.' From Robin, a fellow truckie from Booleroo Centre, talking about the recently upgraded Augusta Highway, 'As a road train operator that uses this road multiple times a week, I am disgusted that this section of road has only been open for six months and it is already falling apart.' There are safety concerns around Snowtown, Two Wells intersections and complaints about the condition of the Strzelecki Track, a vital road for our resources sector—it's been four years. I could go on and on and on. These are not just potholes. These are examples of fundamental failures in planning and construction. Many that I speak to feel like the roads we built in the 1980s and 1990s under the old highways department were better quality than the roads we build today. That is a damning indictment.

The answer to this failure is clear. We need to introduce performance based contracts. Let me explain. For argument's sake, if we spend $1 million per kilometre to build a road and that road fails in two years, that is not an investment. It is a waste of taxpayer money. In the case of Augusta Highway, it failed after two weeks. A performance based contract would require the builder to guarantee the road's quality for a set period. If it fails, they would fix it at their own cost, or, indeed, if it maintains standards, they would get a performance pay-out. This puts the onus on the contractor to build it right the first time. It's not rocket science, but it seems governments are currently obsessed with mega projects in the cities rather than basic road safety projects that could easily be delivered.

How does Labor propose to fix this critically failing road network? How do you think they address the safety issues at hand? Well, the solution is an absolute cracker, even by Labor's standards. They suggest we reduce the speed limit on regional roads to 80 kilometres an hour. Well, I'll one-up them. Let's reduce the speed of all roads to just five kilometres an hour, then our road toll would go to zero. Rather than investing to make roads safer, they say 'stuff you' and reduce the speed limit to 80—unbelievable, unrealistic, out of touch.

The state government has the empirical evidence of our roads' poor quality. They have this information, but they are not willing to share it. Why? Because that would be inconvenient for their constant pork-barrelling purposes. My commonsense approach would be simple: take the quality of the road network, the data they are hiding, and combine it with the grading of that road—how busy it is. Put those two together and now you have the funding for our road network. But don't talk common sense to our socialist Labor government. They cringe at the thought of it—and don't get me started on the teals. We need a government that is serious about regional safety, serious about smart investment and serious about building roads that last. The people of regional South Australia deserve better than a government whose priority is the next tram stop in metropolitan Adelaide.

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