Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my disappointment, and the disappointment of the wider South Australian community, regarding the decision by those opposite, particularly Minister Catherine King, to cut funding for the Truro Bypass. The Truro Bypass is easily the most significant infrastructure project outside of those that are currently funded in South Australia. It's a critical component of South Australia's and the nation's freight task going forward. Truro is a small community on the Sturt Highway north of Adelaide, but this project is about much more than just the people of Truro. In fact, it's about much more than the people who live, work and commute along the Sturt Highway corridor. It's critical to all South Australians, particularly those who live in metropolitan Adelaide.

Why do I say that? The South Eastern Freeway connects Adelaide to Melbourne via the Dukes Highway in the south-east of South Australia, and a significant—and I mean significant—amount of heavy-vehicle freight traverses that road into Adelaide. These heavy vehicles pull themselves up the Adelaide Hills and down the Heysen Tunnels and are presented at the intersection of Cross Road and Portrush Road. Seventy per cent of these trucks are headed to Port Adelaide, and they're going right through the middle of Adelaide. It's the only metropolitan capital in this country where we have heavy freight travelling right through the city. It goes past dozens of primary and high schools. It interchanges with traffic and with people dropping kids off to school and travelling otherwise.

We as a state know that we need to establish the greater Adelaide freight plan to get trucks out of Adelaide. Seventy per cent of them will be able to go via the greater Adelaide freight route, via the bypass at Truro, into Port Adelaide, travelling at 100 kilometres per hour the whole way and providing a productivity and safety dividend. But you can't do that unless you fund the Truro freight route. It's the very first component of the greater freight plan, and those opposite have turned their backs on South Australians. The member for Boothby, I'm sure, is quietly filthy. The member for Sturt is campaigning with me and I've got to say that the member for Mayo's not happy either. We're going to make those opposite understand how damaging this decision is for them politically and for our state and nation.