Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. I am pleased that the Roads to Recovery program will be continued for another five years. AusLink is one of the great achievements of the Howard government. The Prime Minister continues to make grand statements about his government’s so-called nation-building agenda, but the real nation-building agenda was pursued by the previous government.

Prior to the AusLink white paper, Australia had never developed a comprehensive land transport strategy. It was the Howard government that initiated this plan, and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson was instrumental in the development of AusLink. We should also remember that AusLink was possible only because of the coalition’s responsible economic management, which paid off Labor’s debt and established a culture of saving. If you drive north from Sydney, you will see AusLink at work. The New South Wales state government has been underfunding our roads for many years, and the AusLink program has been a godsend for the people up and down the coast of New South Wales, who have been enduring the substandard Pacific Highway for far too long. Great lengths of the highway have already been upgraded to dual carriageway, and there are significant lengths of dual carriageway under construction. Massive projects like the Bulahdelah bypass and the Coopernook to Moorland upgrade are currently under construction.

But, despite the work currently underway, the completion of a dual carriageway from Sydney to Brisbane, a task that is urgently needed to be completed, remains absolutely daunting. Towns such as Kempsey, Macksville, Urunga, Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga and Ulmarra are all in urgent need of a bypass. These communities have tolerated heavy vehicles in their main streets for far too long. I will continue to advocate on behalf of my constituents to complete these urgent projects.

The Kempsey Bridge is a source of long traffic delays during busy holiday periods, and the Macksville bridge, which was built in the thirties, belongs in another era. The load limits which apply to this outdated piece of infrastructure are restricting the ability of firms on the North Coast to transport extremely heavy loads by road. The Macksville bridge is narrow, dangerous and way past its use-by date and it must be replaced as a matter of urgency.

There is some good news, however. On the weekend, Bonville deviation was officially opened. It replaces the notorious Pine Creek section of the highway, which was responsible for the loss of too many lives. The New South Wales government was not interested in building this road until the federal government stepped in and forced the issue.

In building Australia in the 21st century, we need to focus not only on road but also on rail. If rail were not upgraded our road system would choke under the weight of the massive increases in the freight task which is forecast to occur. Rail is the key to moving freight efficiently and AusLink has addressed this. Rail infrastructure around Australia benefited from the AusLink program. On 28 March this year the ARTC laid one million new sleepers on the Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne rail corridor.

Whilst rail has proven competitive on the east-west corridor, rail has performed far less favourably with road freight on the east coast corridor. In order to compete with road, AusLink has invested to make rail more efficient, to improve on-time running and to reduce journey times for trains. Of particular interest to the people in my electorate has been the investment in the upgrade of the line between Sydney and Brisbane, taking trucks off the Pacific Highway and out of the main streets of towns and putting that freight on rail where much of it belongs. Funds have been invested in extending passing loops, bringing the signalling system into the 21st century, reducing the radius of curves and replacing sleepers. This investment will allow longer and heavier trains onto the rail network and reduce the Brisbane-Sydney travel time by around three hours.

One of the great programs within AusLink is Roads to Recovery. The program provides funding directly to local communities to pay for vital road improvements. For many years the New South Wales government has been chronically underfunding local government. Councils have also been expected to take responsibility for major regional roads without receiving the necessary resources from the state government to achieve that task. Many councils simply do not have the funds to conduct necessary road improvements and maintenance. Roads to Recovery requires limited administration and allows the money to be spent where it is needed most. This program provides real bang for the taxpayers’ buck. It bypasses the state government bureaucracy and sends the money where it is needed—to the front line, to local government. Put simply, it allows local people to make the decisions, instead of faceless bureaucrats in Macquarie Street.

Local councils understand what local communities need in terms of infrastructure. If an old timber bridge is about to fall down, the council will know that first. If rain causes potholes on a road, the council will be first to know about it. Councils have the equipment and the knowledge to meet local needs but often do not have the funding to meet those needs. That is where Roads to Recovery steps in and fills this gap. So far councils have used Roads to Recovery funding on over 27,000 different projects. In my electorate scores of projects have been completed using Roads to Recovery. In 2007-08 alone, some $3.6 million has been allocated to Cowper’s five local government areas.

To give you an example of the difference this program has made, in 2004 Bellingen Shire Council used Roads to Recovery funding to rehabilitate Lenehans Bridge on Darkwood Road. The mid-north coast is home to hundreds of small creeks and several major rivers. Many of these waterways are crossed countless times by ageing timber bridges. Over the decades many of these bridges have deteriorated to the point where they need to be replaced or significantly repaired. Most councils do not have enough money to replace the dozens of bridges under their control. Roads to Recovery allowed Bellingen council to repair this bridge and has assisted in the repair or replacement of other bridges on the mid-north coast and Northern Rivers.

For some councils, even the most prominent of road developments are out of reach without federal assistance. In 2004-05, the Nambucca Shire Council used $100,000 in Roads to Recovery funding to help pay for improvements to the streetscape in the main street of Nambucca Heads. The development also improved traffic flow through the centre of the town. In Coffs Harbour the city council has used Roads to Recovery funding to upgrade the link road which connects Sawtell in the south with Park Beach in the north. Kempsey council faces the challenge of running a large area with a low socioeconomic base and ageing infrastructure. Roads to Recovery has allowed the council to undertake projects that are often taken for granted, like resealing residential streets and fixing potholes.

I welcome the government’s decision to match the coalition’s promise to continue the Roads to Recovery program with $350 million for the next five years. This is good news, especially for regional Australia. I also welcome the clarification that AusLink funding can be spent in unincorporated areas. Although this part of the bill does not affect my electorate, remote locations around Australia have been abandoned by the Rudd government and I am sure that these areas are grateful for this consideration.

The other major issue addressed in this bill is rest stops for truck drivers. I strongly support the move to use AusLink funding for heavy vehicle safety initiatives. The recent report by Austroads found that none of Australia’s major freight routes meet national guidelines for rest stop frequency and spacing. Sixty per cent of the routes surveyed were substantially deficient in rest areas. With the exception of Victoria, the states and territories lack rest stops for truck drivers. The situation was worst in Queensland and the Northern Territory. This lack of action by state and territory governments is placing at risk the lives of truckies. The Australian Trucking Association chief executive, Stuart St Clair, said that heavy vehicle driver fatigue is responsible for about 30 fatal crashes, 150 serious crashes and 3,200 minor crashes each year. This represents a huge human and economic cost. State and territory governments have recently introduced new, tough laws to combat fatigue. Unfortunately, they have rushed these plans into place without providing enough rest stops to meet the needs of the trucking community. Once again the Commonwealth has been forced to bail out the states, and provide funding to construct rest stops along our major highways.

I am strongly in favour of improving safety for our truck drivers but I do not support the Rudd government’s attempts to slug the trucking industry with higher taxes and increased registration charges to pay for this safety campaign. The National Transport Commission has advised the government that Australia’s truck drivers are not paying for the wear and tear that they cause on our roads and infrastructure. The trucking industry dispute these findings and advise that these claims come from unverified data from the states and territories. The industry believe that they are already overcharged by some $130 million a year. Increased diesel excise and registration costs would impose an enormous burden on the industry, especially smaller operators and owner-drivers. Increased charges for truckies would eventually flow through to the consumer and have an impact on inflation.

Even the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Mr Albanese, admitted that this increase in taxes and charges would be passed on in the form of higher grocery prices. After all of Labor’s rhetoric on cheaper groceries for working families, this makes no sense whatsoever. Living in his taxpayer funded world, Mr Rudd does not realise that the papers he reads in question time were delivered by a truck; the food prepared by the chef at the Lodge was delivered by a truck; the petrol that powers the Prime Minister’s Comcar was delivered by a truck. The Prime Minister does not understand why increasing operating costs for truckies are a problem because he does not have to pay those bills. But ask young families in my electorate what they think of higher grocery prices caused by this tax hike; ask the small business owners in Maclean, Woolgoolga and Macksville what they think of high delivery charges. It just takes a quick look through your home or your office to see that almost everything we use has come to us on the back of a truck. Increasing a tax on trucks will only increase the cost of doing business and increase the cost of running a family.

I certainly welcome this legislation, this increased or extended investment in the Roads to Recovery program and the investment in new truck stops for increased safety. These are both worthwhile programs and worthwhile initiatives, and I commend the bill to the chamber.

Debate (on motion by Mr Marles) adjourned.

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