Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Roads and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to continue the debate on the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. To do the mandatory summary of the bill is relatively simple—important, but simple. The bill extends that wonderful program called Roads to Recovery through until 2014. I might add that Roads to Recovery is considered by every member of local government across my huge electorate as the finest program to ever come out of federal government. So it is very wise of this government today to consider extending it. I congratulate them for having the common sense and for showing it on this rare occasion.

The second thing that this bill will achieve is to allow in cases where we still have unincorporated areas funds to be preserved for a particular state or territory whilst a determination is made as to which particular local government area those funds will be spent in. Thirdly, the bill amends the definition of ‘road’ to include adjacent areas directly associated with roadways, and the classic example is of course heavy transport parking bays. Having achieved all of those things, what it means in short is that we are going to have a continuation of this wonderful AusLink program—the umbrella over the Roads to Recovery program.

I said already that the Roads to Recovery program is the finest thing that has emanated from federal government in recent times. There is a particular strategic funding section of Roads to Recovery that I wish to discuss in further detail this evening. One of the great highway initiatives that has developed in the last decade in this nation is the Outback Way. The Outback Way is a road that links Winton in Queensland through to Laverton in Western Australia in the north-eastern goldfields. We set out aiming to promote the ‘Outback Highway’. Some took issue with the term ‘Highway’. We heard on good authority that some overseas visitors wanted to bring their Lamborghini and do the run on the ‘Outback Highway’ and we felt that we may be criticised if our roadmap showed that particular set of roadways as a highway because it may not handle the low chassis of the Lamborghini. So we modified our terminology and accepted that it may be referred to as the Outback Way.

What is the Outback Way, what does it do and why is it important to all Australians? To take the last part first, unfortunately it is not presently important to all Australians. Surprisingly, it is not apparently important to even Northern Territorians, because it has taken since 2004, when I secured $10 million worth of funding on a dollar for dollar basis for the Outback Way, for still nothing to be done on the Docker River to the Olgas section of the road. This is the third national link that joins north-eastern Australia with south-western Australia. There are only two others—one goes north-south and the other goes around the outside. When it comes to Central Australia, we are not big on road infrastructure. It has taken until now and still nothing has been done with that Docker River to Olgas section.

A road train attempted to get through there some weeks ago only to find that it needed to be in diff lock for 120 of 192 kilometres. When you are burning diesel and hauling a big load, that is a damned expensive exercise. Were there any apologies from the Northern Territory government? Not on your Nelly! They blame things like negotiation—they had to negotiate heritage titles with the Central Land Council, with the Northern Territory government and with the federal government. I know that that process can be laborious but it is not meant to be that laborious. We have a wonderful Australian adage that says, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ But where there is no will it is often, ‘No way.’ I hope that they will honour their last promise—that by the end of September there will be some start made on repairing and bringing up to a reasonable condition that dreadful section of road. They tell me that they are going to achieve all clearances by that date and get the job under way.

There is in excess of $2 million waiting to be spent on that section of road and that will be the last of the $10 million worth of funding. We need more funding for the Outback Way. As I said, it is the third link. Why is it necessary? Well, believe it or not there is something in the Red Heart. There is a thriving pastoral industry, there is a thriving mining industry and there are communities of Indigenous people that are supposed to be very important to the Northern Territory government and to the current federal government. I cast about constantly trying to find evidence of that. Those industries and those people are being neglected because there is no decent road infrastructure through the centre.

The Outback Way should be upgraded to an all-weather condition at least. Think of the grey nomads, of whom we are all very proud and for whom we would like to get a decent pension. When grey nomads plan their trip to see Australia, it is often their once-in-a-lifetime trip. They want surety. They are already saddled with the highest petrol prices this nation has ever seen. They are already trying to survive on the smell of a greasy rag, with jam and baked beans for dinner. They want to be able to plan a trip into Central Australia with some surety. They cannot afford to get stuck on the side of the road for three weeks waiting for the water to go down because the road has not been designed to deal with localised, short-term flooding.

I am not asking for a bitumen highway, nor are my supporters in Central Australia, but we would like a road that is engineered to make it safe and well drained so when we get that localised flooding the road is passable. It is not too much to ask, surely, in 2008. It is not too much to ask the Northern Territory to cooperate along with Queensland and Western Australia. Queensland and Western Australia cooperated and they contributed to analysing the 10 worst locations on the Outback Way and prioritising them from one to 10. Queensland got on with the job on a dollar-for-dollar basis; so did Western Australia. What about the Northern Territory? ‘We are very sorry. We’ve got things like native title, heritage clearances and federal government environmental issues to deal with.’ Everyone else could do it but the Territory sat on their hands.

When they finally do this stretch of road from Docker River, we need more funds so that the grey nomads and others who wish to tour the inland can plan their trip, and not be caught on the side of the road waiting for a waterway to go down or waiting for a mud surface to dry out sufficiently to get a vehicle across it. The road will be engineered in a manner that is well sheeted and well drained. People will be able to plan a trip into Central Australia and then execute that trip on the basis of just having to pay through the nose for fuel and having to deal with the lack of facilities in outback Australia, but at least the road will get them through—and that will be a wonderful change.

I fought very hard back in 2004 to get that funding. It disappoints me so much that (a) it has been unspent for such a long period of time and (b) the Outback Highway Development Council today in its constant interaction with government is not getting much traction. We are enjoying such an upbeat environment right now with the knowledge that minerals are making a lot of money for this nation. In the next five years, the Outback Highway Development Council is seeking to again do as they have done in the last four years but on the basis of a $10 million contribution in each of those five years. They are looking for $50 million from this federal government to support on a dollar-for-dollar basis the upgrading of some 2,800 kilometres of road. There is a lot of upgrading to do. But there is a lot of mining gear to shift through Central Australia, there are a lot of cattle to shift through Central Australia and there are a lot of opportunities to be created by Indigenous populations in communities so the travelling public can call in—to check out an art gallery possibly or to take a tour with local Indigenous persons who have so much to contribute to the touring experience in Central Australia. Their art is becoming internationally famous but they cannot get people to their front door. People will not come because they cannot plan with any surety because the road is in such a tragic condition. No-one in their right mind, save the outback explorer, would tackle the trip.

The Outback Way is the name of it, colleagues. It needs funding to the tune of just $10 million a year on a dollar-for-dollar basis from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. I recommend it to you as a highway that in the future will become an icon. Instead of having to go all the way around, you will be able to drive up to Winton on the bitumen, head south-west basically, go through the Red Heart, see the Rock, go to the Olgas, go through Giles and into the goldfields of Western Australia and then whip back across the Nullarbor. It would take a fraction of the time and expense and you could experience the Red Heart, see something of real Australia and be richer for the experience. Fifty million dollars over five years is not a lot to ask.

The achievements of Roads to Recovery under AusLink so far have been enormous. I have cited one truly national situation that if funded correctly would be a great boon to all travelling Australians. But there is another issue, a little tiny issue, that I would like to cite because it is a classic case of doing the right thing in the right place at the right time. The Howard led government came up with Roads to Recovery. It was the first time that direct funding was available for local government to fix problems that had never been able to be budgeted for and had never previously attracted funding from the states. A little place called Kookynie would have been a ghost town except for the existence of the Kookynie grand hotel—a wonderful pioneer structure. It was served always by dirt streets. Those streets were wide enough to turn camel trains in. When the gold ran out in Kookynie, corrugated iron houses were pulled down, thrown on the backs of camels and moved to the next strike. But the Kookynie grand hotel was a stone structure and it stayed there. Ever since, it has served as a little watering hole in the desert for travellers coming down from the north on the Goldfields Highway to get petrol and a cold beer. Now goldfielders living in Kalgoorlie like to go up and spend a weekend there. However, every time somebody came into town on the dirt streets, they were peppered with dust. Roads to Recovery funding paved the streets of Kookynie for the first time in over 100 years. The experience of going to Kookynie now is a pleasant thing to do on a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon. You can have a quiet beer in the beer garden at the grand hotel in Kookynie simply because the previous federal government was on the ground, knew the problems and funded programs that created solutions for local people in local situations.

I sincerely hope that this program will go a long way into the future, that it will be sustained past 2014, because apart from the little jobs like paving the roads in Kookynie this will link the ports, the rails and the roads of this nation. It will produce the arteries so vital for our export industries. Right now, within the archives of this parliament, sits a report from the Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services. The Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services did an investigation into the connectivity of road, rail and port facilities in this nation. Towards the end of 2007, those deliberations were concluded. This standing committee recommended, amongst other things, that additional funds be allocated to improve that road-rail-port connectivity. Our investigations around the nation found that the majority of the major ports had a flaw in their linkage that was creating a genuine bottleneck. That committee made a recommendation either that substantial additional funding be found, such as a contribution to AusLink for the purpose, or that a separate fund be created to improve that connectivity to stop those bottlenecks, to increase the smooth and efficient flow of exports out of this country that earn us such valuable dollars and to allow the efficient handling of imports into this country in the form of consumer goods. I do not know what has happened to that report. Thus far, I have seen none of those recommendations accepted by this government. Prior to the election, it told us how the blame game was certainly going to be solved and that there would be a great concentration on rebuilding the nation’s necessary infrastructure.

There is nothing more necessary than a decent, effective and efficient connectivity between road, rail and port. It has been done by private enterprise in Western Australia. Some of the most efficient railways in the world service the iron ore industry of the Pilbara and take that product to port for export overseas. That infrastructure was installed and paid for by shareholders of corporations. We have heard so much about, as I say, the ending of the blame game and the fascination with and importance of infrastructure, but it is a long time since this government was elected and I still wait for any announcement that goods will actually be delivered. It seems there is a great deal of difference between the rhetoric pre-election and the practical delivery afterwards. We wait with bated breath.

We have seen a great deal happening in legislation that is going to improve the lot of drivers and their safety on the road. Tied in with this bill is the issue of the heavy vehicle safety and productivity plan. There is connectivity in the acceptance of the heavy vehicle safety and productivity plan, because the changes proposed in that plan are going to be funded by the registration fees known as the 2007 Heavy Vehicle Charges Determination. For the minute remaining, I refer to that heavy vehicle safety and productivity plan. It is going to introduce a European transport style monitoring system to Australia. Even though I applaud anything to do with improved safety for the public and drivers, I wonder whether more research ought to be done when it comes to introducing a European plan to Australia. There are not a lot of stops between Port Hedland and Broome, and to impose a system that makes a comparison between that stretch and Berlin to Magdeburg is stretching it a little too far.

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