Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand to raise the issue of upgrading South Road in this chamber and the incompetence of the South Australian state Labor government. The state government will not be releasing the South Road planning study. This is a complex planning study involving the stretch of road from Regency Park to the Gallipoli underpass. The planning study was meant to be completed and released in December 2012. The South Australian public have a right to understand the proposals that are there, even if the state government is unable to fund them due to its economic mismanagement. The RAA, the peak motoring organisation in South Australia has called on the state government to release this planning study. The planning study was done with federal money and I echo that call.

The soon to be completed South Road Superway and the Southern Expressway duplication are only going to funnel more traffic along the middle stretch of South Road that is yet to be upgraded. This is the stretch between Darlington and Regency Park. There is still no funding or time frames for this stretch of upgrade to be completed. This will have an important impact on other arterial roads. A properly upgraded north-south corridor along South Road has the potential to reduce the traffic burden along many of the other arterial roads during peak time. Adelaide used to be known as '20-minute city'. However, that has long since passed.

The latest RAA traffic survey shows that Belair and Unley Road is the worst of the major roads surveyed. According to the report, people living in Torrens Park travelling to and from the CBD now spend an extra three working days—that is, 24 hours in total—compared with a decade ago. This is incredible, considering it is only a six-kilometre commute from Torrens Park to the centre of the CBD. The average speed between Eynesbury Avenue in Kingswood and Cross Road along Belair Road was just nine kilometres per hour during the morning rush.

Upgrading South Road will reduce the burden on other major arterial roads, like Belair, Unley Road, Goodwood Road, Morphett Road, Marion Road and Brighton Road, all of which run through my electorate, during those peak periods. That is why I am currently running a petition across South Australia highlighting the need to complete the north-south corridor, including a grade separation at the South Road-Sturt Road intersection within my electorate, which was promised by the Labor Party in 2006 and in 2007 and has not been delivered. The petition is available from my office or can be downloaded from my website.