Curtis Road duplication is constantly raised with my office. I understand that the road is currently the responsibility of the City of Playford. However, I am aware that the Council looking to handover the responsibility to State Government due to cost associated with the duplication.
The Gawler East Link Road is a road that the previous government committed just over $50 million to fund. This government added another $4 million to $5 million to that project in some agreement with local council. The Gawler East Link Road was supposed to be one of those roads that would help reduce congestion on Adelaide Road, Murray Street and Carlton Road. It was designed to link the east parts of Gawler to the southern parts of Gawler so that people would not have to travel through the central parts of Gawler to get from one end to the other. It is a worthwhile and important project that has been funded not only by the state government but also by council and the developers involved.
Substitute buses are necessary. A number of people use public transport to get to work and to shop or to get to hospital, and I must say that the government has responded to some feedback and put on some express bus services from Gawler to the city, which has helped, but it has limited services. Clearly the message I am getting from the community is that people do not work from just nine to five; people work from 11 to four, from three to nine - people work at different hours, so having an express bus service from Gawler just at peak times does not work for that community.
The Barossa German Language Association are very keen to re-establish a bilingual German program either as a subject or subjects to be taught in German or as a bilingual program throughout the Barossa. With appropriate government support, I believe a pilot program could be initiated to see what the uptake would be.
Sadly, at the moment South Australia has the highest unemployment rate at 6.3 per cent. We have also the highest youth unemployment rate at 16.4 per cent.
During National Youth Week 2021, local young people are keen to get a better understanding of the values and beliefs that drive unacceptable behaviour like sexual harassment, bullying, racism, homophobia, and the like, in our community.
Tony Piccolo has introduced legislation into State Parliament to give farmers and rural landowners a stronger voice on planning decisions made by the SA Planning Commission. Mr Piccolo’s Bill is based on feedback from broad acre farmers in the Barossa Valley in the context of the confusion and anxiety created by the botched introduction of the Planning and Design Code by the Marshall Liberal Government.