Liberals would invest $2 million in Tailem Bend if elected
Party leader Ashton Hurn and Mackillop candidate Rebekah Rosser have dropped in for a visit, and they brought their chequebook.
The Liberal Party will spend $2 million upgrading Tailem Bend’s main street and surrounds if it wins government at this month’s state election.
Liberal leader Ashton Hurn, candidate for Mackillop Rebekah Rosser and upper-house MP Ben Hood visited the community on Monday morning to make a big-budget promise.
If they won the election, locals could look forward to:
- Improvements to median strips and verges along the highway
- An “entry statement” at each end of Railway Terrace
- A plaza at the heart of Railway Terrace, near the station
- Safer pedestrian crossings and footpaths
- Car park drainage and accessibility upgrades
- Refreshed building facades and “activation” of empty shopfronts
The various elements were proposed by the Coorong council in 2024, but not funded at that time.
The Liberals would also give $66,000 to the local RSL sub-branch “to improve its amenities and enhance the experience for locals and visitors”.
Ms Rosser hoped the upgrades would encourage more travellers to stop and spend their time – and money – in the town.
“Thousands of people pass through every week, we need to give them a reason to stop, stay and spend,” she said.
“This funding will help create a main street the community can be proud of: safer, greener and more welcoming for locals and visitors.
“This upgrade is about giving locals the quality facilities they deserve.”
Ms Hurn said the Liberals wanted Tailem Bend’s town centre to reflect the pride locals had in their community, which was becoming busier and busier as visitors flocked to the Bend Motorsport Park.
Ms Rosser is seeking to replace independent MP Nick McBride, a former Liberal, as Mackillop’s representative in South Australia’s Parliament.
The electorate shares its northwest boundaries with the Coorong council and stretches down into the South East.
Liberals re-commit to Swanport Bridge duplication and Murray Bridge bypass
Meanwhile, the Liberals have also re-committed to the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, a project which would result in more truck traffic being diverted around Murray Bridge.
The bypass would include a second Swanport Bridge and a freight route through Monarto, taking heavy traffic off Hindmarsh and Maurice Roads.
The Liberals would commit $211 million to that goal, Ms Hurn said.
“This is about making our roads safer and keeping South Australia moving,” she said.
“If this doesn’t go ahead, people will sit in more traffic, freight will slow down, and safety risks will only increase.”
Like Labor, a Liberal government would not pay for more than 20 per cent of the project’s cost.
That leaves a gap of $315 million between what the state and federal governments have committed so far.
Each level of government believes the other should pay the rest, though Labor has suggested it would push ahead with the project on a much-reduced budget.
