Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

For too long in this place have I banged on about the Penola bypass, because the state Labor government built half of it. It was the equivalent of building half a house. It sits there, and it ends. We've even had an occasion when someone from interstate thought for sure that the road continued, so they continued into a paddock and had a rather serious accident. In any event, it is a half-built road. I managed to put $9 million on the table for a state road; I sat it on the table. It's been on the table for years. The state infrastructure minister, Mulligan, when our community heralded the arrival of this $9 million contribution, said, 'That's great, but, nah, we don't want it.' They didn't want to complete a road that's half-complete. They didn't want to finish it. When I asked why, they said there would be GST implications—'We'd have to give up GST.' What that meant was that they didn't complete the Penola bypass. They had to give the money back to the federal government so that the state could maintain its GST payments.

Look, I get it. You're about pet projects in marginal seats in Adelaide. But then, thanks to the efforts of the member for Boothby, there was a rather significant announcement around the Oaklands Crossing. Stephen Mulligan, to much celebration, lauded the solution at the Oaklands Crossing, and I thought to myself, 'Hang on a minute, the Oaklands Crossing and the Penola bypass have the same assessment for the purposes of GST funding.' So the SA Labor government were prepared to accept $95 million from the federal government to complete the Oaklands crossing, or contribute to it, but they turned their back on $9 million for the people of Penola. If you need an example of what they care about, there it is. They care about marginal seats and pet projects.

I'm about standing up for my constituents. I'm about infrastructure programs that matter to them, like the Penola bypass and the $9 million that is there, ready to be used to complete that road. We've got a state Labor government that was prepared to reject that money. They're prepared to accept money for the Oaklands crossing that got the same GST treatment. They care about city constituents in marginal seats. They don't give a toss about people who live in the country.

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