Published May 2024
I rise to speak on the Supply Bill 2024, which is an opportunity for me about a month out from the state budget to talk about some of my local priorities in the eastern suburbs and in the Hills, some of the things I will be looking out for, hopefully, in a state budget to be delivered in a few weeks' time.
There are three things in particular that I have been campaigning on over the past couple of years. The first is around road infrastructure and heavy vehicles on our local roads, including Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road, in my electorate. The second is a number of other road-safety improvements that I think are needed around our local schools in the eastern suburbs. The third is the need for more schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs and the need for a new school in the eastern suburbs to cater for ever-growing demand as well as population growth. I want to talk to each of those things initially.
First is the issue of trucks on our local roads. I make no apology for raising this issue in the house at every available opportunity because we have a very big problem, which is a huge number of heavy vehicles coming down the South Eastern Freeway every year. There are about 650,000 heavy vehicles coming down the freeway and then spewing out onto one of three residential roads, whether it is Cross Road, Glen Osmond Road or Portrush Road in my electorate.
We know that most of those heavy vehicles, or at least most of the B-doubles, choose to come out onto Portrush Road in my electorate. I think about 80 per cent of the B-doubles that come down the South Eastern Freeway are coming out onto Portrush Road. There are about 1,000 heavy vehicles per day coming down Portrush Road past schools in my electorate such as Loreto College, Seymour College and Linden Park Primary School. These heavy vehicles are passing nursing homes and shops in my electorate, past all things that really do not mix well with B-doubles.
We know it is a road congestion issue, an environmental issue, and a health issue but perhaps most importantly it is a road-safety issue. It feels like we only ever want to talk about this problem when there is a terrible tragedy on Portrush Road or at the bottom of the freeway. The most recent of them was very soon after I was elected. There was a giant crash involving a number of vehicles, a bus and, of course, a truck. Thankfully at that time there were no fatalities, but that was the fifth major crash at that intersection since 2010, including on a number of occasions, very sadly, fatalities.
We do not want to wait for another tragedy before we take some action on this issue because, quite frankly, this is an issue that has been deliberately set up this way in the sense that I think Adelaide is the only capital city in all of Australia where our major freight route runs straight through our metropolitan area, straight through residential suburbs in my electorate. I think, frankly, it is ludicrous that a truck that wants to travel from Melbourne to Perth has to do so by coming down Portrush Road, in my electorate, thundering past school children and residents.
I have spent basically the entirety of my time since being elected in parliament identifying this problem but not only, I think importantly, identifying the problem but also talking about a potential solution, which is in the form of the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, which is a plan that will ensure that these sort of heavy vehicles, the truck that needs to drive from Melbourne to Perth never gets to the bottom of the freeway and never has to travel down Portrush Road in my electorate.
We know that this is a good idea. We have had officials from the Department for Infrastructure and Transport tell a public meeting that I attended last year that it is a good idea. They used words such as 'economically positive'. They said there was actual demand in industry to use that road and it would be a benefit to their businesses, being the truck drivers. So not only a good thing for my local community but a good thing for the industry, and I think the state more generally. The other thing they unfortunately told us at that time was that this was not a project that was funded and, indeed, there was not a lot of action in terms of on-the-ground work to make it happen.
I think it is an incredibly frustrating thing when, on the one hand, my local community is being told there is a solution to a problem that we have identified and that it is economically positive and viable, but then on the other hand being told that it is not funded and it is not seeing a lot of action on the ground. They were doubly disappointed this year when we saw the only part of the project that was funded, the Truro freight route, having money ripped out of it by Labor governments. I think the Truro freight route is an important project in and of itself to the community there, and, importantly, it is also a very important first step in a much wider project which is the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass.
That was funded, and I think that project represented for the first time a departure from parliamentarians and communities talking about these sort of ideas for freight bypasses and actually putting some money on the table, which is why it was incredibly disappointing to see it ripped away by Labor earlier this year. Unfortunately, I think if there is no Truro freight route, there will be no Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, which means there is no plan to get trucks off local roads in the eastern suburbs such as those on Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road.
So you can understand why I will continue to very vigorously advocate for funding for this project to be restored, and also for a Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass to be realised so that trucks can stop thundering down our local roads. What I do not understand is why every member who has Portrush Road running through their electorate would not be advocating in the same vigorous fashion. I note the new member for Dunstan's comments in March of this year when she said, and I quote:
South Australia's a small State and having a bypass is a hugely expensive piece of infrastructure...trucks will always be to some degree on Portrush Road.
I think that just represents the new member for Dunstan throwing her hands in the air, giving up on getting trucks off Portrush Road and settling for what is really a very unsatisfactory situation where we have a major freight route running through our local streets.
What I also do not understand is why every member who has Cross Road running through their electorate would not be similarly and vigorously advocating for a freight bypass, because we know, when the north-south corridor is complete, the majority of these trucks will be going down Cross Road to try to reach that corridor.
We know that from the now Treasurer's comments, back in 2017 when he was shadow treasurer and he was on ABC Adelaide and it was put to him by Matthew Abraham: 'So they'll then go down Cross Road.' The now Treasurer said, 'Yes, that's right. That's the long-term plan which has been agreed to by the federal and state governments, which is currently being funded by the federal and state governments, and that's why it's a project priority.' Matthew Abraham replied, 'So you're going to have B-doubles rumbling down Portrush Road and, just for a bit of novelty, rumbling down Cross Road. So really running down heavily populated areas with lots of schools hanging off them.' Then the now Treasurer said, 'It's not a novelty…this is what's in the state's best economic interests.'
Our problem in the eastern suburbs, for my community living on and around Portrush Road, is very fast going to become the problem of all those living on and around Cross Road. That might be good news for my local community, who I think will see fewer trucks on Portrush Road, but all it is doing is shifting the problem elsewhere. The Treasurer might think that is okay but I do not, and I think the only long-term and sustainable solution to this problem is a proper freight route in the form of the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. I will keep advocating for that, even if others in this place bizarrely and sadly will not.
I mentioned that it is a road congestion issue, but of course it is also a road safety issue. That is the second thing I want to talk about today: another road safety issue, particularly around schools in the eastern suburbs and in my local electorate. I think this is a problem right across the state, but it was something that really had a light shone on it in my local area in fairly tragic circumstances, when two children, who were trying to do nothing more than get to school at Marryatville High School, were tragically hit when a truck failed to stop at that school crossing.
Since that time, I have been advocating for a lot of improvements at that particular school crossing. I do want to thank the former minister for road safety for his assistance in getting some really good improvements at that crossing, including a new red-light camera, which is something that that school community had been advocating for. I think the incident showed that this was not a problem that was just confined to Marryatville High School. Indeed, I think there is a lot of work that can be done right across the state and particularly right across my electorate to improve road safety at a number of school crossings.
I have undertaken a body of consultation work with every school in my electorate to get their specific feedback on what we should and could be doing. I have passed that on to the former minister for road safety, and just today I have written to the new Minister for Road Safety. I hope that he considers funding some of these projects, whether it be at Seymour College and issues around Gilles Road; whether it be at Loreto College, where there are lot of issues on Portrush Road and drivers running red lights, and there is also suggestion for a footbridge there; or whether it be at Pembroke School, in the electorate of Dunstan, where I know there are a lot issues at the dogleg intersection of Shipsters Road, The Parade and Gurrs Road.
At Glenunga International High School there are issues as well, particularly at the T-junction right at the front of that school, and Burnside Primary School has issues at a school crossing, or semi-school crossing, on Glynburn Road. St Peter's Girls' School have made some suggestions about Hallett Road, and Linden Park Primary School and the school crossing on Portrush Road was identified as one of the most dangerous in the state, so I have summarised a lot of that feedback and sent it through to the minister. I hope that some of those projects at least can be considered being funded. I have omitted, of course, Rose Park Primary School as well, which is my most recent letter to the new minister, with a number of suggestions that could take place there, particularly in light of yet another accident at that school.
I note that the government did announce on 20 December last year a new investment program in road safety around the state. They did not at that time outline what projects or locations would be funded, so I do hope that as part of that process perhaps some of these ideas for schools in the eastern suburbs might be considered.
Finally, I wanted to talk about schools more generally. We have some of the very best schools in the state, I think, in the eastern suburbs, and in my electorate. I am very proud to have a great number of our best schools, but we do have a problem, and it is a good problem to have, but it is a problem nevertheless; they are so good that they are bursting at the seams.
I think, at least until recently, all three primary schools in my electorate—Burnside, Rose Park and Linden Park—were subject to capacity management plans, and the two high schools in my electorate—Glenunga and Marryatville High School—are over capacity. Indeed, Glenunga International High School was projected to be 153 students over capacity at the beginning of this year, and Marryatville High School 136 students over capacity at the beginning of this year, and I note that Glenunga is also subject to a capacity management plan. What that means is that local kids cannot go to local schools.
As recently as last week, I met with two new constituents of mine who have just moved into Frewville. One of the reasons they have moved into Frewville is because it is about 300 metres from Glenunga International High School where they wanted to send their children, but because of the capacity management plan, because the school is full, they are being told that Glenunga cannot accept them. They are being told Marryatville cannot accept them, and they are being sent as their nearest available option to Springbank Secondary College, which is a bit of a distance from their house, which is just a matter of metres from Glenunga high school. It has a really real impact on our local community when local kids cannot get into local schools, and when these capacity management plans are in place.
I think local kids deserve to be able to go to local schools, and to be able to do that it is obvious we need to dramatically increase schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs. I have been calling for a new school in the eastern suburbs but, at the very least, we need to be able to invest in and increase the capacity of the schools that we have. We are in this problem now, and we are in this problem now well before we even talk about the Labor government's plan to dramatically increase density and population in the eastern suburbs.
I note in particular the Labor minister announcing the initiation of a new code amendment at Glenside that would see housing—apartment towers—built up to 20 storeys tall, which will dwarf the eight-storey buildings that were already planned for that site, and add a number of new dwellings to that site. The problem is the planning has all been done based on eight storeys. The planning for public infrastructure, whether it be car parking, whether it be open space, whether it indeed be the sewerage, is all on the basis of eight storeys, and a thousand new dwellings at that strategic infill site.
What we see now is the plan being changed at the last minute, and I say that that is bad planning from the Labor super minister. It is bad planning because it is not the plan. The plan was a thousand new dwellings and eight-storey towers. But what no-one has considered in this whole discussion—at least yet—is where the kids are going to go to school because Glenside is zoned to Glenunga International High School. Glenunga International High School is full, yet these towers have not even been built.
My constituents in Frewville, even without these new towers, are being turned away from Glenunga International High School. So it is all good and well to think, 'Here is a great strategic infill site with a thousand dwellings; let's just double it,' but you cannot do that in isolation without thinking about the public infrastructure around it. One of the biggest issues for us in the eastern suburbs—and there are many—will be our schooling capacity. There needs to be a really serious conversation about increasing that even before we talk about increasing the population for these school zones.
These are just some of the things that I will be looking out for in the budget that is upcoming in a month or so. I think we really need to make a concerted effort to invest in road infrastructure to see trucks off our local roads. I think we need to improve road safety at schools in the eastern suburbs, and I think we need to seriously increase the schooling capacity in the eastern suburbs, including through a new school. We need to do that now and we especially need to do it if there is going to be a dramatic increase in population and density in the eastern suburbs.
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