Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's been some rain in South Australia. It's my duty to tell the chamber today that the Strzelecki Track is cut. That is the road between Lyndhurst and Innamincka, 472 kilometres of dirt. It's the only dirt stretch between Adelaide and Brisbane. But there is good news, because there was $100 million allocated in Tuesday night's budget for the sealing of the Strzelecki Track, accompanied by $25 million from the state government, and we will get the job done. This will be an absolute game changer for South Australia.

The Cooper Basin is largely a South Australian asset, and for most of its life it's been supplied out of Adelaide because Adelaide is the closest port to the Cooper Basin. In recent years, because the Strzelecki Track has become so impossible for trucks and transport, the bulk of that supply line has been coming from half as far away again, over on the east coast. It takes 16 hours for a truck to do about 370 kilometres up the Strzelecki Track to Gidgealpa. We're going to fix that. It will open up one of the great tourist routes of outback Australia, where tourists will be able to come in and choose between Cooper Creek and Coongie Lakes and, going a little bit further south, Lake Eyre on your right and Flinders Ranges on your left. It will be a game changer for South Australia and it will get the cattle out of South-East Queensland down to the brucellosis-free abattoirs in South Australia.

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