Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

$25 million. That is what was being spent on the Pacific Highway in those days. It was the Greiner government that decided to put money back into roads. Before that, it was considered that it was not very vote catching to put money into roads. In fact, it was the Greiner government that brought in the three-by-three tax, which still stands in New South Wales as a way of getting funds for roads. I say to the member for Hunter that I do remember the former member for Cowper, Garry Nehl, I think it was, pushing very hard for some money to be spent on the Pacific Highway. Why? Because, in those days, it was pretty much a goat track from Sydney to Brisbane. And we were very pleased in the New South Wales government that the federal opposition in those days came forward and said that they were prepared to put some money into the Pacific Highway, but I do believe, to be fair, that in the dying days of the Labor government there was a commitment made from that side as well to put some money into the Pacific Highway.

One of the problems here has always been the overruns that have occurred on many of these projects, and I think this is something that the new agreements are trying to address. It is a great piece of road between Chinderah and Billinudgel, but in fact there was a 20 to 30 per cent overrun on that particular project. We have been trying to rein in these overruns to make sure we get more for the dollars that are being spent.

In that first 10-year program, which was a commitment of over $600 million from the federal government, there was a promise for the Ballina bypass. It was part of the agreement that we would have a Ballina bypass where there is a huge bottleneck on the Pacific Highway at the present time. But of course we did not get very far with that because there were no funds available, so the New South Wales government said, even though they had committed to the Ballina bypass.

I often muse over this, because, in the last budget we had in New South Wales in 1995, $25 billion was available from the taxes that were collected in New South Wales. In the last NSW budget, 10 years down the track, New South Wales had $44 billion available, yet there is no money for health, no money for schools and no money for roads. Is it any wonder that people are asking: where is the management in New South Wales and where is the money going to? We do not seem to be getting any value at all from the extra money that has been collected.

I have often been critical of some of the planning processes because I think that they waste a lot of money, quite frankly. I dare say that, in fact, a good example of that is in my electorate and the member for Cowper’s electorate, from Dirty Creek Range through to the Harwood Bridge. In the planning process, they have done a lot of survey work, a lot of costing—they have three or four different options—and then they have gone out to the public for comment. I would have thought that the RTA would have a pretty good idea of where they thought the route should go. Instead of wasting all this money, they could have identified the route, then let us have the discussion later. But I think it is a divide and conquer process, quite frankly, and they do not care how much money they spend with it. Naturally, people do not like to see their properties divided. They should be well compensated, because it is in the national interest, but there are a lot of things that need to be tidied up.

I congratulate the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, Mr Lloyd, on eventually getting an agreement with New South Wales on this highway. We just hope that there are some better results in the years ahead, to see that this great highway is upgraded. Let me remind you that it was the Greiner government that had Motorway Pacific. If the Carr government had taken that option, we would have a tollway from Brisbane to Sydney now.

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