Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to inform members of the progress of my campaign to increase car parking for the many thousands of commuters in my electorate. Increasing the capacity of car parking for commuters was a priority election commitment of mine in the lead-up to the 2007 election, which saw me elected as the member for Robertson. The Central Coast has a very large contingent of workers who commute by train every day to Sydney. Commuting is a vitally important issue to every one of these people, as well as to their families. It adds significantly to the length of the working day for tens of thousands of my constituents. That is why I take very seriously any means to assist in improving the daily commute for these people.

Most estimates of the number of people commuting every day of the week from Gosford, Woy Woy and other towns on the Central Coast are around 40,000. A large proportion of these people commute by train, and access to free, readily available commuter car parking at our local train stations is an issue of great importance to them.

My firm election commitment to the people of Robertson was to increase commuter car parking in the Gosford CBD. So I was delighted that the Rudd Labor government was able to support the people of my electorate through a $7 million grant from the Better Regions Program. This allocation of funding was designed to increase commuter car parking by 400 spaces in the Gosford CBD. The money was allocated to Gosford City Council, which would build and operate the increased capacity of car parking within the Gosford centre.

It is now approximately 18 months since council was informed that it could apply for the allocated money under the terms of the Better Regions grant. However, I have become increasingly concerned that Gosford City Council is not progressing with the necessary work on this project as quickly as the people of my electorate are entitled to expect. I fought hard for the people in my electorate to secure this campaign commitment and, since then, I have worked equally hard with Gosford City Council to bring this vitally important project to fruition. The delays to this project by Gosford City Council are creating uncertainty in the minds of my constituents as to when the project will be complete.

I am also very concerned that Gosford City Council seems intent on charging commuters for parking in the new spaces funded by the federal government. A proposal to charge commuters even a small fee, in my mind, is completely unacceptable. Many commuters, especially those working shifts or irregular hours, will be faced with a daily impost on their household budgets, and they are already spending an extra $50 a week to pay for their train tickets. I would also oppose any moves to introduce any so-called nominal charges based on the time that they enter the car park. These 400 new car parking spaces will be an enormous benefit to Gosford commuters. I will continue to campaign for them and their speedy completion. (Time expired)

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