Labor to trial battery-powered trains, One Nation makes preferences call
Labor will spend $3.5 million to trial public transport tech in an Australian-first, while One Nation has made a call on how it will preference the major parties. Read all of today’s state election news.
The state Labor party today announced it would spend $3.5 million to trial an Australian-first battery passenger train trial if re-elected, while the SA Liberals were out bagging their rival’s ambulance ramping record.
Labor would trial a battery passenger train on the Belair rail line, which currently uses modified diesel hybrid trains. The party said there were no battery passenger trains in operation in Australia.
The party promised to work with industry to develop the specific requirements for the Belair line, which is not compatible with traditional overhead electric infrastructure.
Labor pointed to successful networks of battery passenger trains in Japan, Ireland, Croatia and America.
“If the trial is successful, it could save taxpayers millions of dollars, removing the need for overhead infrastructure to electrify passenger rail lines,” Labor’s Emily Bourke said.
“Following the success of the battery bus trial, we are replacing the old diesel buses with new electric ones, and we have the same ambition to phase out the diesel hybrid trains.”
The Liberals’ public transport policy to date is a commitment to making all regular Adelaide Metro fares 50 cents.
The Greens this week announced a plan to return passenger rail to the Adelaide Hills via an extension of the Belair Line to Mount Barker, saying it would cost $700 million, with trains to run every half hour.
One Nation makes preference deal call
Conservative party One Nation has ruled out preferencing any candidate at all on its how-to-vote cards at the March state election, claiming “the ‘major’ parties had failed to deliver for South Australians”.
Rumours have swirled in recent weeks about the SA Liberals seeking to strike an agreement with One Nation, the party’s state director Alex Hyde issuing a statement on social media in late February clarifying the party’s position on preferences.
You might like
Hyde said the party’s approach was clear: “to elect as many Liberals, and as many centre-right parliamentarians, as possible”.
“There is no agreement or deal to preference One Nation last, there has been no discussion of a deal and there will not be,” the statement read.
One Nation SA leader Cory Bernardi claimed both Labor and Liberal approached his party, “but we’ve decided there will be no preference deals”.
But Labor Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis today said the party was “specifically prohibited from doing a deal with One Nation within our rules and national executive”.
“We would never do a deal with One Nation.”
The SA Liberals have maintained they’ve spoken to all minor parties in the lead-up to the March election.
Today, Liberal spokesperson Ben Hood said it was “a highly destructive move by One Nation that will only ensure more Labor MPs and condemn South Australia to a lifetime of debt”.
Koutsantonis said: “I don’t know if the party spoke to them about preferences, but we can’t do a deal with preferences”.
Libs slam ramping record
The SA Liberals were out this morning at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to criticise Labor’s ramping record.
Premier Peter Malinauskas went to the 2022 state election with a plan to “fix ramping”, but the Liberals claim ramping is “100,000 hours worse” under Labor.
“During the election campaign he ran the mother of all scare campaigns, telling people he’d ‘fix ramping’ to urging people to vote Labor like their life depends on it,” Liberal leader Ashton Hurn said.
“The reality is these are more than numbers – they represent tragedies, stress and heartache of thousands and thousands of families who have been let down by Labor.”
Asked at a press conference if the Liberals could “fix ramping”, Hurn said: “Our promise is to make the health system better”.
“My responsibility as the leader of the Liberal Party is to present honest policies that can be delivered,” she said.
Stay informed, daily
Health Minister Chris Picton said Labor was focused on “building a bigger health system with hundreds of extra hospital beds and thousands more health workers to create more capacity for South Australians and reduce the bed-block that contributes to ramping”.
Bonaros calls for Royal Commission
Legislative Council candidate Connie Bonaros has today called for a Royal Commission into electricity prices and for the entire utility to return to public hands.
Bonaros, running under the SA Best banner, pointed to recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing electricity costs rose 32.2 per cent in the 12 months to January 2026.
“Every South Australian should be up in arms over these spiralling costs,” she said.
She said a Royal Commission, led by an independent chair, would “let the public understand first-hand what is going on and can offer real solutions”.
Greens propose day care plan
The Greens have pitched plans for a $180 million investment in 20 new day-care centres across SA, adding 2000 more places into the system.
The centres would be concentrated in areas of highest need, and the plan would be implemented over five years.
SA Greens leader Robert Simms said the “cost-of-living crisis and lack of available childcare places is forcing parents to make impossible choices: put careers on hold, miss out on income, or skip early education altogether”.
“This can mean children lose out on vital learning and development in the most critical early years,” Simms said.
“Access to high-quality childcare shouldn’t depend on income and postcode. Early childhood education should be treated the same as primary and secondary school – the Greens will push to ensure that there are new publicly owned childcare centres across our state to ensure access isn’t a postcode lottery.”
Fresh Labor claims on Liberal spending
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis stood up this morning to scrutinise SA Liberal policy costings, claiming policies announced by the party would “add more than $5 billion to South Australia’s borrowing by 2030”.
“Ashton Hurn has made a point saying she doesn’t trust any of these costings,” Koutsantonis said.
“I challenge her to point to one, or Ben Hood to point to one, saying which one is wrong, and I’ll debate it … because I don’t think they can justify any of these and say that they’re inflated or not accurate.”
He said Labor was running at $684 million in operating costs and a debt increase of $1.785 billion, based on policy announcements made so far.
Hood said Koutsantonis “needs to step away … and speak to real people about how much they’re hurting under Labor”.
“All our costings will be released before polling day,” said Hood.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
