Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Hansard source

I find it quite amazing that the opposition would be critical of more money being spent on local roads and state roads around Australia. The particular project to which he refers—the intersection of the Mirrabooka-Reid Highway intersection—was in fact the No. 1 priority for the Labor Party and I just happen to have the Labor Party calling on us to fund that particular intersection. I am very pleased that we have been able to do that. I understand that there have been some interim works done in that region. But,even in April-May 2006, you had Labor’s Lindsay Tanner and the state member, Bob Kucera, calling on the Australian government to fund it, saying that it was still a very significant black spot and that we needed to do something with that. I am very pleased that the Australian government have been able to fund that particular project.

The strategic regional program has been a great success. It has been well received not only by councils but also by state governments around Australia. We have certainly had a number of rounds of the strategic regional funding program and we will continue to look at that in the future. We will be having further rounds of $150 million twice in the next AusLink program, increasing that to another $300 million. Of course, many of the projects that have been announced have been delivered and obviously many of those projects are under construction. If there are any projects that are not yet under construction, I am happy to provide the details to the member. But the important thing is—

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