Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Dobell has already gone! Let me make the point that the substance of these arguments impacts vary significantly on Labor electorates. I am surprised that in Dobell and Robertson, where people are faced with the dilemma of how to travel to the western suburbs of Sydney, to Sydney city or to Melbourne, people are not rioting on the steps of their members’ electorate offices to ensure that this issue is addressed.

I have continued, over a period of time, to raise this issue with my colleagues in the councils of ‘The Hills’ and Hornsby and with my local colleagues in the electorates of Kuringai, Hornsby and Epping in particular, as well as Castle Hill and Hawkesbury. All of us recognise that this matter has to be dealt with. There are various views about the way forward, but the decisions have been made by the professionals that the next step to be taken should be to look at the underlying geology of the area between the M2 and the F3 to see whether or not the proposals being advanced are feasible.

I understand that the government have, under AusLink arrangements, abandoned the commitment to forward funding of this proposal but have agreed to $150 million to be spent on undertaking the geological and other environmental studies associated with this development. That might be an effective holding operation as far as they are concerned, but I suspect, in the context of the way in which Labor governments operate, it is not even a realistic holding operation. This funding was committed on condition that it was matched by $30 million from the New South Wales Labor government. I have not seen any announcements from the New South Wales Labor government; what I have seen is that, under any proposals that are likely to address transport needs of the north-western suburbs of Sydney, the state Labor government has been missing in action. I suspect we will find that money will be going back to Treasury because there will be no matching commitment from the New South Wales Labor government. This brings me to the point I have wanted to make in relation to this bill.

Residents of the north-western suburbs of Sydney have been deliberately disadvantaged over a long period. Labor has had no commitment to addressing this issue. Labor thinks that its own constituents in electorates like Bennelong, Robertson, Dobell and even the electorates of Newcastle and its surrounds will not worry about the fact that when they reach Sydney they will be in a choke point of this dimension. I suspect that in time the constituents of those electorates will recognise that their members have been missing in action in relation to addressing this question, which does significantly disadvantage them. I will continue to campaign actively on this matter. I will draw it to the attention of not only the constituents of the electorate of Berowra but also the constituents of surrounding electorates, which are significantly disadvantaged as a result of this failure of policy.

This is the most significant nation-building project that could be pursued by any government in Australia. I know that, when you get on this road and you are held up, as you inevitably are, with huge transport lorries on either side of you, a potential national tragedy is waiting to occur. I suspect that, if such an eventuality occurs, those who have been missing in action on this issue will be very severely judged.

Not many issues that impact upon my electorate are of such extraordinary national significance. I would encourage the minister’s colleague at the table, the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, who is familiar with these issues, to draw them to the attention of his ministerial colleague. I encourage the minister’s advisers to be aware that this issue is not going to disappear, that we will not be put off by a sop of some research without a major commitment to addressing this issue. The former government made that commitment. This government believes that it can save money by putting it to one side. Let me assure the parliamentary secretary at the table: I will not allow the government to forget what it is doing here.

This has been, in my 16 years as the member for Berowra, the one issue which has united all of my constituents. They recognise that it is a matter that has to be addressed. We recognise that there are higher costs in doing so, but we also recognise that not addressing the issue would be a significant impediment to effective nation building.

I have listened in this debate to many of my colleagues advance those issues that impact upon their constituents, and I understand why they address the issues in that way. But this is a matter that does not just affect the constituents of Berowra; this is a matter that affects all Australians. It affects their standard of living and their safe travel, not only in the north-western suburbs of Sydney but beyond. It impacts upon electorates Liberal and Labor. It is a matter that needs to be addressed effectively, and I would like to see the advice that comes forward on these matters.

I suspect the reason that New South Wales was disadvantaged in the level of funding committed to nation-building projects was the failure of the New South Wales government to do the work necessary to identify not only the projects that have to be pursued but also the steps that have to be taken to demonstrate that those projects are shovel ready—I think that is the terminology that is used. Labor federally, in my view, cannot absolve themselves from responsibility simply because of the failure of their colleagues at the state level in New South Wales.

As I said, this is an urgent matter. It requires addressing. It requires politics to be put to one side and it requires a genuine attempt at identifying the nation-building projects that ought to be pursued. I commend that matter for the urgent consideration of the minister.

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