Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It will all be a tragedy. I will be delighted to enter that debate. I know that the member in question was here over the weekend. The member resides along the Pacific Highway and I am absolutely delighted to see that the Independents, Rob Oakeshott, who actually has the Pacific Highway running through his seat, and I, are the cause of this great largesse that is going to be expended by the National Party, if in fact they do come to power at the next election. There seems to be some degree of debate about that in today's press.

I was so chuffed I left a message on the member for Lyne's phone to suggest that the Independents had had such a significant impact on these people that at a federal conference they would announce that they had even moved the Pacific Highway into my seat so that they can fund it and, in a theoretical sense, it will get rid of me at the next poll. I congratulate you, Member for Lyne. The recognition of the brand 'Independent' in this particular case is an outstanding one. I think the community along the Pacific Highway, as has quite rightly been pointed out, has been taken for granted for many years by past governments. It is on the agenda with both the current government and possibly with a future government, if they do come to power.

I would like the shadow minister for transport, if he could, to clarify the portion of the Pacific Highway that actually does go through my electorate so that I can make some release on the funding stream that will come across to what I call the New England Highway, but apparently it is being renamed.

Safety is a very important issue for the road transport industry. Irrespective of whether or not we agree with the Transport Workers' Union or various players within the industry, such owners of large fleets, all of us recognise the pressures that owner-drivers, particularly, and others, are put under from time to time in the delivery of their products. I am delighted to see that $40 million out of these funds was going towards safety—lay-bys et cetera—that the road transport industry can take advantage of. In my discussions with the minister for transport he has indicated that another $10 million will go towards the livestock and road transport industry, particularly in relation to sale yard safety, loading ramps, wash-down bays, the sort of things that the industry for many years has been crying out for. Even though, in a sense, this is about cost recovery—and the various states and the Commonwealth have agreed to that—part of that cost recovery is a benefit back to those industry groups that are using the roads and have been subjected to quite great stresses in terms of safety. Whether it is wash-down bays, loading ramps or gates at sale yards where trucks are loaded, there will be an additional funding, which I think will be announced in December, available to various shires and interest groups and the industry itself to apply for to incorporate into the benefit that will flow to the industry in terms of safety.

I am very pleased to have been associated with this. I believe that the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association, the CEO of which is Philip Halton, will be indicating by way of press release some of the issues they have raised—legitimate issues—through this process. I am pleased to see that they have been able to obtain some recompense for some of the issues they raised in terms of this additional $10 million, as well as the $40 million that was also going to be made available out of this funding, to go towards shoring up lay-bys and making sure that the roads are safer, particularly for the heavy vehicle road users, who use the system so effectively.

In conclusion, I refer people to a bit of historical documentation on this. We can all play the short-term game of politics, but there has been a fairly long established process that has been brought in by both sides of parliament. We need to try to adhere to those processes otherwise you have this convoluted tennis match going on where you can just score points against the other. It is quite obvious to me. I have great respect for Warren Truss. I hope he stays here and the other fellow stays where he is, because I think Australia would be better off with Warren Truss in this particular part of the parliament than some of the others who aspire to get here.

I say to Warren Truss that this is not the time to play a game with this particular process. This has obviously been adhered to by the states and territories and by the Commonwealth and I would be very reluctant to support bombing that process out. Hence I will not be supporting the disallowance.

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