Halliburton South Australia- The South Coast Scenario

What follows, when you follow it to the other end, makes you wonder how much infrastructure work is being "disguised" throught the SA Tourism Budget, and how much of the money will end up in the hands of Halliburton/KBR. I'm also pondering what funds the current Treasurer, who was happy to stand on the Assembly floor and accuse the previous Minister For Transport of using road money "to buy stained glass windows" (I was there on the day) might be diverting across Cabinet portfolios to achieve desired objectives.

[extract]

Keep an eye on SA Tourism tender chances

With the South Australian elections over, one of the keen points of interest for Australia’s construction industry will be how SA joins other State Governments in maintaining and hopefully lifting the level of investment in State infrastructure. In the post-Olympic construction lull, and with inner city residential activity levelling off, 2002 should be a good year for State Governments to get value for money in providing a wide variety of needed and useful facilities.

In the SA tenders area, interested parties should be finding it easier to get comprehensive information, following an announcement back on May 15, 2001. The then Premier unveiled a policy development:

“A New Dimension in Contracting with the South Australian Government”.

Under this all major Government contracts, including industry incentives, asset sales and consultancies, would be earmarked for public release. On the reasonable assumption the incoming Administration will maintain this commitment to clear and open government, South Australia should be just that bit more attractive for those interested in tenders and government contracts.

Work on the Alice Springs to Darwin [Halliburton built and owned] railway link will be providing a lot of construction employment for some time, in SA and the NT.

Elsewhere in South Australia, tourism has so far been the best harbinger of possible future tenders.

These words were written after the second-last election

Those of you who've read my "Stranger" piece know that, in 2002 the CEO of the Goolwa-based local council was visiting the KBR's Infrastructure Division Global Headquarters to look at the plans from the local wharf (item 21 here. You'll also know that KBR have proposed as a PPP a freshwater reclaimation system in the adjoining lake, which runs near the town of Mount Barker, for which KBR laid out the housing expansion.

Now I learn that much of the money for the Goolwa wharf redevelopment is coming not via roadworks but through tourism. Further down the Tendersearch page you find the words "In December, 2001 the outgoing [Liberal] Government foreshadowed work on a number of tourist facilities to cater for an influx of visitors for South Australia’s 2002 Year of the Outback." closely followed by "Altogether, South Australia would benefit from over $6.7 million in new Outback infrastructure over the next few years."

I knew of course of the planned upgrade of the Adelaide-Victor Harbour (which is a stone's throw from Goolwa) road and had been told who its designers where, but was unaware until now of the turn-off that would transform this road into the Southern Suburbs eastern roadlink that I was looking for earlier. 25kms before you get to Victor Harbour, you can turn eastwards at the Nangkita turn-off. From there you could scoot, if you had a good road, eastwards to Murray Bridge, and from there North to Roxby, North-East to Sydney or East to Melbourne.

Let's return to the wharf of the Murray's Mouth, whose redevelopment was planned by Halliburton/KBR.

[another Tendersearch extract]

The historic Goolwa Wharf precinct, at the mouth of the Murray River, has been earmarked for redevelopment, to help maintain the tourist appeal of the Fleurieu peninsula, to the south of Adelaide. The old wool and wheat paddle steamers which once plied the Murray River, pre-railways, started up river from Goolwa. Now it is a focal point for tourist vessels.

The project, with $1.2 million from the South Australian Tourism Commission’s Major Infrastructure Fund plus another $1.5 million from the local Alexandrina Council, would be implemented over a nine month construction period.

The rejuvenation effort includes extending the wharf and jetty, new and resurfaced road, car parking, pipes and drains, landscaping including street furniture, lighting, signage and public art and four new sites for commercial tourism enterprises.

Did I mention that the plans for the mid-lake water reclamation facility includes marinas and houses?

Back over at at Narrung, on the Lake's other side, the locals tell me that there's a twelve-domicile townhouse development scheduled to go up next to the wetlands... I don't have any paperwork yet but given that its a resting-place for migratory birds, it won't be the brightest place to be if Bird Flu breaks out.

Back over on the Goolwa side, there's something fishy five miles down the road from Goolwa at Port Elliot (where my parents run a pub) involving a council-owned abandoned drive-in that has become, with all the Halliburton-guided development, potentially very lucrative real estate (item 30 here.)

As I've said before, development around this area has been "going gangbusters" in what appears in hindsight to have been utilisation of the knowledge (which many knew) of the Victor Harbor road development that our peak automotive body RAA were championing. A drive-in lot can hold a lot of townhouses. What was the conflict of interest here?

I spoke before the election with the local Labor candidate, Mary-Lou Corcoran (daughter of a previous Labor Premier Des, the still-undecided seat last filled by Liberal ex-Premier Dean Brown.) Ironically she's facing the Liberal mayor of Kangaroo Island, once abandonded as SA's capital due to lack of water supply, now irrigated by Halliburton (Page 28) She was very suprised to read the KBR Goolwa connections I posted on the "Stranger" thread (partially to make them available to her) but I bet her boss Mr Rann wasn't... he's been personally fielding enquiries from the council regarding the lake redevelopment(Items 15.1 and 15.2 ), so I doubt he'd be unaware that Halliburton were sketching the jetty that would launch residents and tourists out to it. It would also be difficult for Rann to be unaware that the money wasn't coming through Transport or Infrastructure but through Tourism.

If you look at this map (on which Goolwa is at the lower left and realise that the southern suburbs of Adelaide are around 50km northwest of that point, you'll get the picture.

Another picture to think about is that if the author of the Tendersearch piece is correct then these plans are making a successful transition from government to government, no matter which political party is in charge at the time.

Thick as thieves, the lot of em, and it's fairly obvious who's driving the bus down the road to prosperity.

By Richard Tonkin at 23 Mar 2006 - 10:15am