Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

And he is acknowledging it again now. So I ask the member for Paterson: which project should we not have done? Should we not have built the Hunter Expressway? Should we not have built the new school facilities, which so disparagingly are called the 'school halls program'? I often visit schools which are still so grateful for the opportunity that the Labor government gave them, creating school infrastructure they could only have dreamt of previously. I will leave it to him to nominate at a later date which infrastructure projects he would not have rubber stamped had he been part of the government of the day.

I want to close by going back to where I began—roads infrastructure in my electorate. The Hunter Expressway is not the end of it. We need to address the traffic problems through Singleton. We need to address the traffic problems through Muswellbrook. The Muswellbrook bypass is pretty much shovel-ready. The Labor government continued to progress it and allocated $10 million last year to get it shovel-ready. It is an important economic project. The ball is in your court now, Member for Paterson. I have spoken to Deputy Prime Minister Truss about it. I want to take a bipartisan approach to it. I want the government to acknowledge the economic importance of this project and the adverse effect on the amenity of the township by not having a bypass.

We in the Hunter Valley are the engine room of New South Wales. We produce all the coal and generate most of the power and we deserve to have more of that money coming back to our community. That was what the mining tax was about: taking the economic rent from mines to return to local infrastructure.

Mr Baldwin interjecting—

I am glad the member for Paterson mentions the Scone overpass, because that is where I am going next. Labor committed money to the Scone overpass; it was in the budget. We are still waiting for the community to decide whether they want an overpass or a bypass of the town. Eventually, we will need both. There is a ridiculous situation at the moment where a substantial township, sitting on one of the country's primary highways, is cut in half for up to eight minutes at a time by coal trains at the railway level crossing. It is unheard of and there are all sorts of safety implications. We need to go over that railway line but the township will still need a bypass in the not too distant future. I appeal to the government to take the issue very seriously. It is a project that must be done.

I proudly boast that the Hunter wine country forms part of my electorate. It is a wonderful thing. We make the world's best wines and we hold the world's best concerts, but an area like that has to be supported by economic infrastructure. The roads around the vineyards have been a disgrace for too long. I acknowledge the New South Wales conservative government is now doing something about it and I welcome that. But, to get the job done properly, we will also need federal assistance. Maybe this bill will provide that opportunity, through the Roads to Recovery program. On that basis I support the bill, I support the ongoing Roads to Recovery program and I make an appeal to the government and the minister to very seriously consider directing some of that money into Hunter wine country. It is an investment from which they will gain very significant economic returns and an investment which will be widely welcomed by the local community and businesses.

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