Labor’s northern suburbs rail line promise labelled ‘overhyped’
Critics have blasted Labor’s latest announcement on northern suburbs public transport. Meanwhile, the new leader of the Federal Liberal party is in town supporting Ashton Hurn’s defence policy.
The latest pre-election announcement from the state Labor party would see it reserve land to link the existing rail network further north, where much of Adelaide’s new housing stock is set to be built.
It plan, if elected, would involve a 33 km-long mass transit corridor running from Dry Creek, winding through Waterloo Corner and Riverlea, and finishing at Two Wells.
The Labor party expects more than 113,000 new dwellings to be built in the northern suburbs to house 250,000 people.
Securing the corridor would preserve the area for rail infrastructure, but further planning work and investigation would now occur to refine options, Labor said.
“We will not make the mistakes of past governments by not delivering infrastructure at the same rate of housing growth,” Labor’s housing spokesperson Nick Champion said.
The plan was slammed by Greens MLC Robert Simms, who labelled the announcement as an “overhyped planning exercise that falls well short of the genuine rail investment that SA needs”.
“While the preservation of land for future infrastructure can be sensible long-term planning, today’s announcement delivers no funding, no timeline, and no commitment to actually build rail,” Simms said.
“Instead, it simply begins a bureaucratic process to reserve a corridor, something that could take years before any construction decision is even considered.”
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Simms was concerned the northern suburbs could be facing a repeat of “the planning disaster of Mount Barker, where residents have been left to languish without a passenger rail link connecting them to the city and suburbs”.
“If the government is serious about busting congestion and supporting liveability, it must invest in actual rail infrastructure with funded timelines,” he said.
“Without that, today’s announcement is more about headlines than outcomes.”
The SA Liberal Shadow Treasurer Ben Hood said the question for Labor was “when”.
“When can residents in the north expect answers on what land and where,” he said.
“When will taxpayers know the cost. When can they expect rail to their suburbs.
“This is another self-congratulatory media release with an empty promise, from a government who have been in power for 20 of the last 24 years and presided over failure to plan at every turn.”
New Liberal leader in town to back Hurn campaign
As election campaigning continues, SA Liberal leader Ashton Hurn was joined by her federal counterpart Angus Taylor, who recently scooped the top job in a coup to unseat former leader Sussan Ley.
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The pair fronted the press at South Australian defence and technology company REDARC, spruiking a pre-election pledge to spend $13.2 million over four years to expand the Advanced Manufacturing and Defence Uplift initiative.
Hurn said the expanded program will help ensure South Australian businesses are front and centre when it comes to major defence projects, including AUKUS.
Asked whether internal Federal Liberal party leadership squabbles harmed Hurn’s campaign momentum, Taylor said, “we have to do better”.
“There’s no doubt about that. I’m acutely conscious of that,” he said.
“Our focus now is on fighting for Australians, on protecting their way of life, restoring their standard of living.
“I know Ashton believes in those things as well. That will continue to be my focus, because we need to restore Australians’ confidence in the Liberal Party.”
Hurn said the chaos in Canberra was like “water off a duck’s back for me”.
“I’m just focused on putting South Australians first.”
Rent To Own project unveiled
It comes alongside another policy announcement from the Malinauskas-led Labor Party, which today promised to “take thousands of South Australians out of the rental market and allow them to achieve their dream of owning their own home” via a new ‘Rent To Own’ scheme.
Through a $413.5 million investment, 2000 homes would be delivered over the next eight years, with eligible buyers able to move into the new home and pay a reduced rent at 75 per cent of the market rate before purchasing the home.
The purchase price would be fixed at the start of the rental period, with renters given two years to buy the home. If not bought by then, it would be sold to the private market.
“By giving renters a hand with a reduced, fixed-price rent now, we’re giving them a real shot at owning their own home in the future,” Labor leader Peter Malinauskas said.
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