Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister. Minister, you are on record as stating that the government is not going to build a second airport at Badgerys Creek. Can we have this in writing and can we have this sent to local councils in south-west Sydney and to the state government so that the residents, who have their lives on hold and have had their lives on hold for such a long period of time, can do something with the land out there, which they have owned for such a long period of time, and so that they can realise for their families the value of their properties? If you are serious about a second airport being built to support the demands on Sydney airport, why haven’t you committed any funding for it? Where will that funding come from, when will work commence and when will this airport be operational?

I also mention that last year the people of Western Sydney had $150 million committed by the coalition government to the upgrade of the F5, which would have seen southbound lanes upgraded between Raby Road and Narellan Road. Kevin Rudd, Chris Hayes and the Labor candidate for Macarthur committed $140 million to the same project and promised to commence work on this road immediately if elected. However, any commitment to this promise seems to have evaporated. Far from there being an improvement in the traffic congestion on the major arterial road between Melbourne and Sydney, things have worsened. You only have to ask the commuters, who have to endure the drive every single morning on their way to work and then of course in the afternoon on their way back home from work because there are not the jobs or the infrastructure out in Western Sydney. They need this infrastructure built and they need it now.

So my question to you, Minister, is quite simply this: when will the Labor government commit to the upgrade of the F5 and by what method will the government fund this upgrade? When will the work on the F5 upgrade commence, seeing that you have been in government for seven months and we have not seen a surveyor out there, let alone any bitumen laid? This is despite a promise by the Labor Party that work would start immediately after the election.

During the election campaign, Labor promised $140 million to upgrade the road. How has the government costed this? It has been suggested that the upgrade will be substantially more than the $140 million that was committed. Is that a final costing to it all? What strategies and policies will the government introduce to reduce traffic congestion in Western Sydney? What targets has it set for itself? Exactly when will the government—

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