House debates

Monday, 21 May 2018

Statements by Members

South Australia: Infrastructure

4:23 pm

Photo of Amanda RishworthAmanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | | Hansard source

I was incredibly disappointed to see in the recent budget no new real investment in infrastructure in South Australia. There was some money repurposed, but where did the promise of finishing the north-south corridor within 10 years go? It is just not there in the budget papers in front of us. That was a promise that the new Liberal government made, and they are failing to deliver.

But what has disturbed me even more is the fact that the new Liberal state government, which was elected only two months ago, is putting the brakes on public transport proposals that were seen as important by the previous state government. The worst outcome has been the stalling of the rail extension to Aldinga. It pains me that I received a letter that said:

The new Liberal state government is also proposing a review and update of the public transport strategy. Therefore, the proposal to preserve the future rail corridor has been halted pending the outcome of the review.

This is not good enough. The people of Aldinga and the southern suburbs have been waiting long enough. The previous state government had the plans to go forward with this rail corridor and now the new Liberal government, not backed up by Canberra, is failing to deliver this important project.