Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his interjection. He just told the House that this is a road of state responsibility. I thought only a year or so ago they brought down an AusLink document which abolished this concept of a national highway and therefore abolished the idea that the Commonwealth was only responsible for the national highway network. That is an issue I want to get onto. It should not be a surprise to anyone that as the member for Hunter I should be seeking an opportunity to talk on this motion, because I have many constituents who use the Pacific Highway on a regular basis and many more who use it on a not so regular basis each Christmas when they travel up to the North Coast of New South Wales. I also have another interest—that is, an interest in something called the F3 link. That is the other reason I am very pleased to see the minister at the table. That link should have been built 10 years ago and would have been built 10 years ago if it had not been for a change in government and the funding cuts which the Howard government first imposed in 1996 and has continued to impose ever since.

There is a lot we can do on the Pacific Highway to improve the safety and efficiency of that network, but there are some other things we can do to encourage traffic movement away from the Pacific Highway—that is, to improve what was the national highway network; in other words, to improve the New England Highway and to finally get on and construct the link between the F3 Freeway at Seahampton and the New England Highway north of Branxton. That project, some 10 years ago, was worth about $180 million, but because of delays imposed by this government it is now approaching $800 million. So what does Minister Lloyd tell us now? He hasn’t got the money to pay for it. He hasn’t got the money to fund the F3 link. But, if he thought more seriously about it, we would have the F3 link, we would be taking the pressure off the Pacific Highway and we would have fewer fatalities on the Pacific Highway. All the members of this place believe that we have to strive for a greater standard on the Pacific Highway, but there are other roads begging for funding as well, like the F3 link. The New South Wales government has made a commitment. It is now up to the federal government under Minister Lloyd to come forward with some money for the F3 link and to just get on with it. (Time expired)

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