Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 28 January this year I called on the South Australian Liberal government to urgently commission a planning study to find a heavy-vehicle bypass route to get trucks off the South Eastern Freeway and out of our suburbs. Today, we were again reminded why this is not just necessary, but also urgent. Around 3.30 this morning a truck rolled near the Crafers exit, blocking all three lanes until well after peak hour. This is the fourth time since October there has been a dangerous major incident like this on the freeway.

Enough is enough. We need to get trucks off the South Eastern Freeway and out of our suburbs. This is something the previous state Labor government failed to do. They failed to spend a cent investigating this issue, planning for change or fixing the problem. State Labor left Adelaide with the slowest overall road travel times and worst traffic slow speeds compared to any other capital city. It left Adelaide as the only capital city where half of its major urban freight routes operate along ordinary suburban roads. And, indeed, state Labor planned to make the problem worse by sending heavy trucks not just down Portrush Road but also Cross Road.

As I said, enough is enough. All of this has come at a huge cost to our truckies and our community. The South Australian Liberal government must urgently commission a planning study to fix yet another problem left by 16 long and disastrous years of state Labor governments in South Australia.