South Australia’s regional communities are still no closer to getting improved public transport services after another delay to the Malinauskas Labor Government’s regional public transport review.
After announcing funding to conduct a review more than two years ago, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport blamed its own slow work – to issue a tender – on the latest delay.
City of Mount Gambier Councillor, Paul Jenner, who moved a motion to write to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Tom Koutsantonis, said: “to say that it’s disgusting is probably a very nice way of saying it.”
While the state’s second-biggest city has been granted a minor extension to make the Mount Gambier Foodbank accessible via their public bus service, Council have told Tom Koutsantonis that it is just one of many priority sites requiring a service.
Another City of Mount Gambier Councillor, Max Bruins, labelled the extension as offensive and “akin to putting lipstick on a pig”.
With a population of around 30,000 people, the City of Mount Gambier’s 2021 review of public transport found services would be adequate for a small town of 3,000 people, which is just a tenth of the catchment area of the South East city.
Council’s review also found that $234 per capita is spent on public transport in Adelaide, compared to minuscule $11 per head in Mount Gambier.
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Vincent Tarzia, said the vast discrepancy in public transport services between the country and the city is alarming.
“It is entirely unacceptable that our regional communities – particularly one as big as Mount Gambier – are being left so far behind when it comes to essential public transport services,” Mr Tarzia said.
“Mount Gambier’s public bus service has remained almost identical for 30 years, and despite funding being allocated in Labor’s first budget in 2022, South Australia’s regions are no closer to getting an improved service.
“Buses only run five days a week, from 9am-5pm, meaning it is not accessible for daytime office workers, nighttime employees, or weekend workers.
“Those without a driver’s licence and who have accessibility issues are totally disadvantaged by the inadequate bus transport system, which doesn’t service – or barely services – key locations like the university, TAFE, Mount Gambier Hospital and the new Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.”
Shadow Minister for Regional South Australia, Ben Hood, said he has been advocating for improvements to Mount Gambier’s bus service for years, since his time serving as Deputy Mayor of the City of Mount Gambier.
“This is another election commitment by the Malinauskas Labor Government which has so far gone nowhere,” Mr Hood said.
“When I asked the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Clare Scriven, last year for an update on the public transport review, Parliament was told that it was already underway.
“Clearly, either Clare Scriven – who, like me, is a South East local – was speaking out of turn and beyond her brief, or the South Australian people were being misled.
“Labor signed onto a new eight-year contract in August 2023 that remains identical to the service we’ve already got, which everyone acknowledges is vastly inadequate and outdated.
“An example of just how inadequate our bus service is, if you want to get from the east end of Mount Gambier to the west – a journey of less than seven kilometres – it could take you up to two hours.”
