Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this adjournment debate at the end of another sitting period to speak about probably the most important issue facing my home community of Mount Barker in the electorate of Mayo, and that is the proposal that has now been around for some time to build a second freeway interchange for Mount Barker, off Bald Hills Road. Unfortunately it appears that the federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has indicated through his department to the council that at this stage it is not a priority for the federal government to fund the $25 million required to build the new interchange. That is disappointing because we were hoping that the federal government would be able to pick up the slack that the state government has left, not just here, of course, but in so many other areas—health, education, you name it. Many people are focused on just how bad the New South Wales state Labor government is, but that condition unfortunately afflicts us in South Australia as well—we just do not get as much attention focused on it.

This is a very important issue. The community of Mount Barker is growing very rapidly. In fact, in the last two years it has grown by 17 per cent, which in anyone’s language is quite substantial growth. The impact of that growth on the areas around Mount Barker is causing quite substantial concern in the community—the key, rich agricultural land contributing, of course, to the great challenge we have in meeting food demands going forward in this century, which Senator Heffernan outlined so very well in the other place. Of course, it is in an area where we face enormous water shortages. So we are concerned about the way the state government is, willy-nilly, opening up land. We have had the recent release of the 30-year growth plan for Adelaide, and in that we have seen more plans for opening up areas in and around Mount Barker, Littlehampton, and Nairne. The community is concerned about these decisions. I am concerned. My state member, Mark Goldsworthy, has raised this issue very well and is pushing the issue in the state parliament. In conjunction with the District Council of Mount Barker and the state member for Kavel, I am calling on the federal minister to reconsider this decision. If we are elected, we will be pushing for this to happen. Mark Goldsworthy and I have said that.

This is an important infrastructure need for my area—if for nothing else, to mitigate at least some of the problems with access to the freeway in the event of a major bushfire through the Mount Barker, Nairne and Littlehampton zones. The Adelaide Hills is the largest bushfire zone in South Australia. If there were a disastrous day, it would be through my area. Of course, in the past we have had Ash Wednesday, when we lost a number of lives. It is of concern that there is now only one exit onto the freeway, and in the event of this type of emergency I think it would be a genuine threat to people. So there are many reasons for it. With the growing community, the current interchange is not only busy but starting to jam up in the mornings, and that is only going to get worse as the development in this area grows. The community is demanding that this infrastructure investment occur.

The whole problem here is that we have a state government that is happy to open up land and get the benefits from developers—as they do, particularly in South Australia. There are some examples of that in Queensland, of course, that my colleague the member for Blair knows of. These state Labor governments get a lot of benefits from developers, but they are not putting back the infrastructure needs for the local communities. That is highlighted by transport. Of course, it is also seen with health, education and these sorts of issues.

In this case, we are calling for the federal minister, Minister Albanese, to reconsider this decision. I think it is an important priority area for the government’s infrastructure and transport investment. It is a growth area where the state Labor government is proactively pushing growth, which is raising significant concerns, as I have raised. We think we need this second interchange. It is a sore on the area, and we will continue to push. Mark Goldsworthy—the state Liberal member—the District Council of Mount Barker and I are working very hard and tirelessly to improve the local infrastructure even though the state government has abandoned the field, which is very disappointing.