James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We South Australians all waited with bated breath last night to see what would be committed in the budget to invest in our state, and I congratulate the member for Spence in the chamber for what he achieved, because 100 per cent of the infrastructure funding for the state of South Australia announced the budget was in his electorate. It was $125 million, a little less than the $7.2 billion that Queensland got for the Bruce Highway. Regrettably, it's a sad reflection on South Australia's regard under this federal Labor government. To have $125 million in new infrastructure funding for South Australia is absolutely devastating given the opportunity that was presented in last night's budget to invest in the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass to get heavy trucks off streets like Portrush Road in my electorate. We can now see from the budget papers in the infrastructure statements that there is one project for South Australia referenced and another that seems to be out of existing funds, which is no doubt a very worthy project for the Port Augusta wharf redevelopment of $12 million.

What is going on when South Australia only gets $125 million out of $17.1 billion? There is $17.1 billion of new expenditure, and $125 million of it is going to the state of South Australia. This is nowhere near—even if you concede, which I would never would, that we should get only our per capita allocation in new spending. We have 11 per cent of the nation's roads running through South Australia, and we heard last night that we were getting $125 million out of $17.1 billion. It's bitterly disappointing for the people of Sturt, with no commitments in our electorate whatsoever. As I said, there is only one electorate in the whole state getting new money allocated to a project, according to the budget papers. This is confirmation of what the people of South Australia, particularly the people of Sturt, regrettably already knew about this government's commitment to infrastructure spending in South Australia.

We need to build the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. What we now know is that, under Labor, it won't happen. Their budget is for the next four years—no money towards that project whatsoever. We in the Liberal Party have been fighting to get funding that we put into the budget restored to build the Truro Bypass as part of the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. Labor ripped that money away in their infrastructure review, and it's never been seen or talked about since. It is disgraceful that the people of the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, and also those in other electorates like Boothby, Mayo and Adelaide, are all affected by this heavy freight rumbling through our suburban streets. If you're on Highway 1 and you're taking freight from Melbourne to Perth, it shouldn't be going through suburban Adelaide. This government has shown that their vision for our future is more congestion through the streets of Adelaide.