O-Bahn Tunnel | Motion
17/06/2015
Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. J.A. Darley:
1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into and report on the state government’s O-Bahn access project, with reference to—
(a) any alternative transport routes and/or proposals prepared by the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, in respect of the O-Bahn extension proposal;
(b) any alternative transport routes and/or proposals in respect of the O-Bahn extension proposal, including any considered by the state government;
(c) any alternative proposals to save time for commuters, that do not include major road works, including pre-validation of fares;
(d) any investigations, undertaken by the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, into road traffic movement in Grenfell Street;
(e) any cost-benefit analyses related to the O-Bahn extension proposal;
(f) the community impacts of the O-Bahn city access project proposal, including any adverse effects on local residents, local traders and businesses and, community events;
(g) the impacts of any likely disruption during the construction phase of the O-Bahn city access project proposal;
(h) any likely adverse impacts on Rymill Park after construction of the proposed busway tunnel and highway connection to Grenfell Street;
(i) any potential impacts of the O-Bahn city access project proposal on the current Royal Adelaide Hospital site, the Adelaide Zoo and other surrounding sites;
(j) how the O-Bahn extension proposal fits in with the state government’s Integrated Transport and Land Use Plan;
(k) the cost benefit of extending the O-Bahn to suburbs including Golden Grove and/or surrounding suburbs; and
(l) any other relevant matters.
2. That standing order 389 be so far suspended as to enable the Chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only.
3. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.
4. That standing order 396 be suspended to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT : Dignity for Disability, of course, joins other members in supporting the establishment of this select committee and in welcoming this initiative because, as with almost any project of this size, there are many options available as to how it might look—but previous speakers have described what those options might be, so I will not go into detail. With a project of this size and with as many options available for how it might roll out, I think it is only right and proper that alternatives are examined and the process is examined and those options are weighed up.
The minister put the government’s case for the O-Bahn extension to me in a briefing that my office had with him as a way of ‘stopping buses taking up space from cars’. South Australia purports to be getting with the times, and certainly I think in some ways we are. One example is our uptake of alternative energy as being something that has drawn positive feedback, but private vehicle use certainly in general has to decline if we are to meet our environmental obligations into the future. As policymakers we cannot just keep saying that we need to make room for cars.
Adelaideans—and I will confine my comments to the capital here because public transport outside of this city is woefully inadequate and, in some ways, another matter altogether—by and large, seem to have been slow in comparison to residents from other cities in Australia and the world to take up public transport. I believe that we are now seeing an increase in patronage, and certainly the use of smart phone technology, I think, has increased commuter confidence from what I can tell in using the public transport network. Bus journeys, I am told, currently make up 80 per cent of Adelaide’s public transport trips and mass transportation is the only way we can look to the future to move large numbers of commuters in and out of our CBD.
I think it is something of a mixed message to be blaming the bus for taking up road space when, in fact, we want to encourage more people to take up public transport options. Dignity for Disability would certainly like to see a study on reducing car usage to create an equal or improved travel time for the O-Bahn. In relation to the proposed extension of the track, perhaps there are some more effective solutions—and for such a short distance the amount of money envisaged seems to be somewhat obscene.
The desecration of our parklands seems unnecessary and the benefits to both O-Bahn passengers and other road users seem to have been exaggerated. We certainly appreciate that there have been some negotiations and improvements to these plans in recent days and we welcome those based on community feedback, but we do think that we also need to take a project of this size very seriously. With those few words, Dignity for Disability commends the motion to the chamber.
