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

I certainly welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance because I believe, and certainly my constituents believe, that the Pacific Highway is indeed the most important infrastructure project in this country. In his contribution, the minister mentioned the very tragic accidents that have occurred on the Pacific Highway that are indeed quite famous: the bus crash at Grafton and then not long afterwards, as the minister chronicled, the tragic Clybucca bus crash. But regrettably there have been many more crashes and, as someone who lives in close proximity to the highway, I often hear the sirens of emergency service vehicles racing up the road and all too often they are racing out to an accident on the Pacific Highway. I think most people in our electorate know someone who has been injured or someone who has lost a family member on that road. It is a road that has been overwhelmed by the massive growth in the transport task along the east coast. To the government's credit they have continued the Howard government's initiative to speed up the duplication of the Pacific Highway, a much-needed project. But regrettably, one thing that did occur when the Howard government made that additional investment in the highway is that the New South Wales Labor government at the time dropped the ball, reducing their commitment and largely walking away from their commitment to the highway, which was a bitter disappointment. So I am hopeful there will be fruitful discussions between the federal government and the New South Wales government to achieve the goal of all people in New South Wales to see the upgrade of the Pacific Highway completed as quickly as possible.

There is another concern and that it is the target date of 2016. We are getting close to the point where the date of 2016 is rapidly becoming an impossibility. I believe that there are insufficient funds in the federal road budget to allow it to occur. If we think of the critical path that would need to be followed to achieve 2016, it would mean that within just a couple of years virtually every project on the highway would need to be started. And whilst we have made some welcome improvements in recent years, I think that that degree of activity is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve based on the budget that we had presented last Tuesday.

But we have seen some welcome improvements. We have seen a substantial increase in the amount of dual carriageway but there is still so much more work to do. I welcome the commitment to the Frederickton to Urunga stretch that continues on from the Kempsey bypass. We will be watching progress very carefully. But the shortfall as identified by the NRMA is of concern and it does cast a great doubt on the ability of both governments to be able to complete that project by 2016.

There are some good projects underway in my electorate. We recently saw the completion of the Bonville deviation, with Pine Creek a notorious black spot. That was a project that I fought very hard for, to get that upgrade conducted, and through our federal transport minister and our federal roads minister we were able to work with the states to make that happen. The Kempsey bypass is underway, not only bypassing the town of Kempsey but bypassing the bridge at Kempsey, a bridge that really is not up to the extent of traffic that travels along it. We see the current construction of the Sapphire to Woolgoolga upgrade, another upgrade that I had lobbied for very heavily. And there is the upgrade occurring at Glenugie. So there are some good projects underway, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

There are a number of objectives in the work program that is underway. We have the objective, quite clearly, of making the roads safer and getting that much-needed division of the traffic so that we do not have traffic travelling on single carriageways. We also need to get the trucks out of the main street. It is vitally important. In towns such as in Kempsey, Macksville, Urunga, Coffs Harbour, Ulmarra and Woolgoolga there is a very dangerous mix of heavy transport, long-distance traffic and local traffic. It is vital that we address as quickly as possible, through the upgrade that is occurring on the Pacific Highway, that separation of through-traffic and local traffic.

Another important issue—and there has been some debate over the amount of money that has been the invested in planning—not only for the Pacific Highway but for projects right around the country, is the urgent need for state and federal governments to get together and streamline the planning process. Regrettably, it takes far too long to get from a concept to an actual completed road. That is something we need to work on for the benefit of all other road upgrades in the future. Yes, it is important that we consult the community and it is important that we maintain environmental qualities in and around the places where these major road upgrades occur, but it is also vitally important that we get the planning and approval process to occur in a reasonable time frame, and that is something that is taking far, far too long. We can point the finger all we like but there needs to be a dramatic overhaul of the processes that occur and of the time for consultation that occurs. We need to encourage engagement in the community to take place in a much more timely fashion. We need to encourage environmental assessment to take place in a much more timely fashion. I am not allocating blame on this. I just think that it is a process that has added massively to the cost of the Pacific Highway and is adding massively to other projects right around the country. That is something that we need to address.

The other issue that I will talk about briefly in regard to the highway is the issue of wire rope barriers. Tragically, near Taree we had an accident recently where a motorcyclist had his leg amputated as a result of an accident in which he fell on a wire rope barrier. I think an important element that needs to be incorporated into our planning processes is consideration of safety aspects for motorcyclists. They are a high-risk road user, but there are almost a million registered motorcycles in Australia. There are a large number of motorcyclists who I believe are being put at greater risk by the expansion of the network of wire rope barriers. There are good reasons for having wire rope barriers—to separate oncoming traffic. They are vitally important. But I think it is important that we have a look at the design of wire rope barriers, the location of wire rope barriers, whether they are actually enhancing safety outcomes and the implications of wire rope barriers for motorcyclists. As cars and trucks share the road with motorcycles, it is important that we place a far greater focus on safety outcomes for motorcyclists as a result of the placement of those wire rope barriers. Can we make those barriers safer, perhaps by covering certain key areas of wire rope barriers with an impact-absorbing plastic so that if a motorcyclist falls on it he will not suffer the same fate as the motorcyclist recently injured in Taree? This is a very important issue.

I would also like to comment on the budget papers. I note the minister's insistence that the investment is in fact new money, but I would like to quote from the budget papers. In regard to the $1 billion that has been suggested is new money, they say:

Of the contribution, $700 million had been previously provisioned for in the Budget, with $400 million brought forward from 2014-15 to 2011-12 ($81.0 million), 2012-13 ($99.0 million) and 2013-14 ($220.0 million) to accelerate planning, route assessment and other works.

The budget papers go on to say:

An additional $50 million has been provided in 2011-12 Budget, and a further $270 million has been redirected, with the agreement of the NSW Government, from the NSW allocation of the Nation Building Program.

I certainly welcome any investment in the Pacific Highway. I welcome all measures that are going to speed up the planning and construction of the highway. I certainly welcome any improvements that can be made in relation to the safety of motorists and I commend to the minister my suggestion to have a look at the issue of wire rope barriers for motorcyclists and ways in which we can perhaps make them safer.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The minister rightly points out it is the responsibility of the RTA, but I would just put that safety issue on the radar screen as something that you might be mindful of. As a motorcyclist myself, I certainly appreciate anything that can be done to make motorcycle transport much safer.

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