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

I'm disappointed, but not surprised, at the communication from the South Australia's transport department to the Lower Eyre Peninsula Council that the proposed and approved passing lanes on the Tod Highway south of Cummins are not going ahead because—guess what? They've run out of money, despite the fact that the previous government allocated a significant resource to Eyre Peninsula to deal with the closure of EP rail. It seems they've had numerous failures with projects—this is all managed by DTI in South Australia—and the contractors have been happy to go back again and again. For one particular intersection they're on the third rebuild at the moment.

This comes at a time when we're seeing resources being dragged away from support for regional roads. We've lost the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program is gone. The Bridges Renewal Program, which was only announced a couple of weeks ago, has gone. We are currently building dual lanes on the state's No. 1 priority project between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta. The previous government allocated $210 million of the 80-20 deal, and there's nothing in the forward estimates. There's nothing at all in the forward estimates, so it's quite clear that when the previous government's money runs out that will end. We are being gutted.