James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in the second reading debate of Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2021-2022 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2021-2022 to talk about some of the excellent investments this government is making in my electorate of Sturt. I'll start with the most significant in dollar terms. In my electorate there are three really critical congestion-busting projects happening because of the Urban Congestion Fund. Three intersections were identified. I remember well back in early 2019 the Commonwealth government coming to the state government, which I was involved in at the time, and asking what intersections in metropolitan Adelaide were most in need of upgrades to help families get home quicker and safer and to help businesses move around their commercial activities more efficiently. The state government department of infrastructure were able to take an evidence based approach, a data-driven approach, to identify the intersections that were most in need of congestion relief. Three of those, happily, are in my electorate of Sturt. They are the Portrush Road-Magill Road intersection, the Fullarton Road-Cross Road intersection and the Fullarton Road-Glen Osmond Road intersection.

There were also many other intersections put forward outside of my electorate of Sturt as part of that process. The 2019 budget was the first time the Commonwealth committed to a range of those projects, and there were 16 across metropolitan Adelaide and three in my electorate of Sturt. That was before the election. As the new candidate for Sturt, I was able to join Premier Steven Marshall in announcing a commitment to those projects. Other federal ministers had been through the campaign as well prosecuting the need for those upgrades. Having been elected in the 2019 election, I have been pretty dedicated ever since to these and other commitments we made at the election. I have been very focused on the delivery of those commitments that we made.

The most important and significant of those is the Magill Road-Portrush Road intersection. That's a $98 million 50-50 funded project between the Marshall government and the Morrison government. It's in the heart of my electorate. Magill Road essentially bisects the seat of Sturt. Portrush Road at times is the boundary and it certainly runs through the middle of the seat at times as well. Portrush Road also happens to be Highway 1. I am lucky—maybe not—to have Highway 1 running through my electorate. It's in many ways the busiest carriageway and that intersection is the busiest intersection in the metropolitan area, with 65,000 vehicle movements a day through that intersection.

Just last weekend I had the pleasure of joining the Premier on site to inspect the essentially finished product. Three years later, just before the federal election we're about to go to in the months ahead, we have delivered on that promise. That $98 million intersection upgrade is now all but completed. There are some minor landscaping works et cetera to occur, but all the major civil engineering is done. The final topcoat of asphalt went on just a few weeks ago. This has made an enormous difference to that intersection. It benefits not only my constituents in Sturt but really the whole of metropolitan Adelaide because it helps with the flow of traffic in one of the busiest intersections. As I said, we're constantly investing in those choke points to allow us to relieve traffic congestion and have people spend less time in cars and more time in their productive working life, with their families or doing what they want be doing with their time. Not many people would say: 'I love sitting in traffic. That's the thing I like to do in my waking hours.' That's an excellent outcome.

The other two intersections are progressing apace as well. The Fullarton Road-Cross Road intersection is a $61 million investment—again 50-50 between the two governments. They've undertaken all the land acquisition. That's at the corner of my electorate. It also abuts the seats of Adelaide and Boothby. It's right on the corner of the three electorates there. That's of course not why it was chosen for upgrade. It's a vital carriageway in both directions. It's been a dangerous intersection. There was an awful tragedy there around 12 months ago, where two people were killed in a vehicle collision. But it carries an enormous number of vehicle movements a day, and during peak hour it does congest quite significantly. It's probably worst for the people who live in the seat of Boothby who use it to come up towards the CBD and, of course, go back out again in the evening time. I'm grateful for the impact this will have for my constituents in Sturt, but I'm also very grateful for the broader impact it will have.

We had some heritage issues there that were initially controversial in how they were proposed to be dealt with. I'm glad that the state government agreed with representations from people such as me; the member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint; local state MPs et cetera to move, safely, a heritage gatehouse from the Waite Arboretum rather than having it demolished. It would have been a lost piece of heritage. Now that is being safely relocated. That's a site that is owned by the University of Adelaide, and I thank them for their participation and goodwill in working with us to see that relocated. It has to move to another location on their site at the Waite campus. They've been very good about that, and I think we've achieved an excellent outcome. So we're going to see that intersection upgraded, and that is imminent. The major civil works will be commenced and completed over the coming months.

The third one I mentioned was the Glen Osmond Road-Fullarton Road intersection. There are two intersections on Fullarton Road that we are working on in this program—the intersection with Cross Road and the intersection with Glen Osmond Road. As you can imagine, if you fix one intersection, you're in danger of just moving the problem to the next intersection up the road. So I'm very pleased that we identified that next intersection along as well, which is again on the boundary of my electorate and the seat of Adelaide. That will ensure that the good work we do at Fullarton Road and Cross Road doesn't simply move the problem further up to the Fullarton Road-Glen Osmond Road intersection. Glen Osmond Road carries a lot of traffic from the Adelaide Hills. Anyone who lives in the Adelaide Hills has to go down Glen Osmond Road to get to the city—or it's certainly the preferred route for people. There has been enormous population growth in the Adelaide Hills. We need to anticipate the increased pressure of traffic along that carriageway, which we're doing by investing in that intersection as well as upgrading sections of Fullarton Road.

In each case we are expanding the capacity of these intersections in both directions. We're doing sensible things. They're all, funnily enough, quite similar. They were all designed and built many, many decades ago—probably way back when we still had a tram network in Adelaide—and haven't really been improved in any way since. Now, in the year 2022, we're seeing that all three intersections need substantial upgrades, which is why in all cases there is land acquisition, adding of lanes, adding of turn lanes, lengthening of slip lanes—all the things you can imagine that will increase the capacity to carry vehicle movements through those intersections. We're also making sure we're properly provisioning for bike lanes and pedestrians and making sure the safety outcomes are there. I'm very proud of the progress we've made on all three of those infrastructure investments. Together that's nearly $200 million worth of investment in congestion-busting in my electorate.

I'm also very pleased to have campaigned for, had commitments on and now be delivering some significant recreational upgrades in the electorate. Just over a month ago I was able to be at the ribbon-cutting at the Kensington Gardens Reserve. It was initially a $6 million project, which was $3 million from the Commonwealth and $3 million from the Burnside local council. That initial project was expanded in scope when an opportunity came about to apply for some stimulus funding through the state government, as part of their COVID response economic stimulus package, so it's now ended up being a project worth a little over $7 million. It's a fantastic outcome for the communities and neighbours of the Kensington Gardens Reserve. It's an environmental project that has seen the Stonyfell Creek and the awful duck pond that was there turned into a beautiful environmental wetland, which provides some natural cleaning of the water streams and the intermittent creeks that flow through that site. There are Indigenous plantings, and the wetland has the effect of cleaning pollutants out of the water before it continues on to become a part of the Torrens catchment and end up in the Torrens River.

We've also resurfaced and realigned the tennis courts at the East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club, which has brought them up to Tennis Australia standard. That has been a great outcome for the club, as have some upgrades to the amenity of their clubhouse. We've also got a parkrun-compliant track there now, which is already being used. There's a nature play space for the kids and an important Kaurna Indigenous interpretive experience for educational purposes as well. It's something that we consulted on very constructively with the local Kaurna elders in the region. The Kensington Gardens Reserve has always been a very significant place for the Kaurna people, and it has become a very enhanced cultural site for them through the investment that we've made there as well. I was honoured to be at the ribbon-cutting for that project, which is another great example of the three levels of government in my electorate working together. It happens to be in the Premier's electorate as well, so he was there, as well as Vicki Chapman, the member for Bragg, and of course Mayor Anne Monceaux and other local councillors from Burnside council.

We've also invested $2 million in the Magill Village Precinct upgrade. This is a bit different again. It's another very exciting rejuvenation project that was brought to me when I was a candidate by two local government areas—the Campbelltown council and the Burnside council—for an area on Magill Road that forms their boundary. They had a proposal to bury the overhead cables along a segment of the Magill Road streetscape, a segment where there are a lot of cafes and a little village atmosphere, and to rejuvenate that into a proper precinct that would be a great retail hub and also a great place for families to enjoy the local amenity. The project has involved undergrounding powerlines; repaving the street; doing a lot of plantings, putting in a new avenue canopy as well as ground covers; putting in place street furniture, like park benches et cetera; and traffic softening so that it's a safe place for families—they can leave the house on a Sunday morning, walk down with the kids, get a cup of coffee or some brunch and just enjoy the beautiful Magill Village, as we've called it. I'm very proud that we've invested in that, together with the other funding partners—again, state and local government. It's a $15 million project, and it's becoming a great icon example of ways we can work together on these sorts of projects throughout Adelaide but particularly in my electorate. Already there are some other ideas that have been brought to me from councils in the area, with similar projects to achieve the same sort of outcome.

Finally, in the time that I have left—we've also been investing in some really important environmental projects. One in particular I want to highlight, which is just finishing construction now, is the Second Creek gross pollutant trap. It is a reality of the urbanisation of the Torrens River drainage basin. Almost the entirety of my electorate is in the Torrens basin. There is a risk of a lot more solid rubbish being washed into the creeks that feed into the River Torrens. They're not complicated to remembers, these creeks: there's First Creek, Second Creek, Third Creek, Fourth Creek and Fifth Creek. I'm such a local member, I remember them all so easily! Second Creek is the one with this gross pollutant trap that we've invested in, together with the local government and the local Landcare board—Green Adelaide it's now called, as part of Landscape SA. We're making sure that we're keeping the Torrens clean and that we're capturing any gross pollutants, whether that's rubbish or just heavier foliage from deciduous trees—that are not native that have been planted through the streets of my electorate—that can build up and create algal blooms et cetera in the river.

These are the sorts of local projects I'm really proud to be associated with and really proud to be delivering for the people of my electorate. There's been much done over the last three years, but there's just as much to do in the years ahead. I look forward to making similar commitments to my electorate in the lead-up to the campaign. I hope to have the honour of being re-elected by the people of Sturt and continuing to deliver for them into the future.

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