David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about a critical piece of infrastructure for my electorate of Banks: the WestConnex project, which is absolutely fundamental to the motorists of my region. The record of those opposite in the space of the WestConnex and the M5 East duplication is appalling. It was, of course, the state Labor government that built the M5 East with two lanes when it really did not take a Rhodes scholar to work out that two lanes were inadequate. In fact, within six months of it opening in 2001, its capacity had been exceeded. It was built for a maximum of 77,000 cars per day; it is actually servicing more than 100,000 cars every day. As a consequence, the people of my electorate experience gridlock on the M5 East on a daily basis, and that includes Saturdays and Sundays.

It is a very bad situation that was exacerbated by the previous federal government which said to the state government: 'You know what, we will support you in your plans to build the WestConnex project, including the duplication of the M5 East, and we'll allocate $1.8 billion to it. But there are a couple of problems. There will be no money until 2018'—this was back in 2013—'and, in addition, we will impose a whole series of onerous requirements on the provision of that $1.8 billion in six years that will add $6 billion to the cost of the project.' That is not terribly helpful. As a consequence, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird rightly said that this was extremely unhelpful and that it was not a real promise of money. It was like saying, 'We are taking the family to Disneyland, but we have not actually bought any tickets.'

That is completely unhelpful, but so typical of Labor's record in the infrastructure space. If you look at the great monstrosity that was the NBN, under Labor, a theme emerges of mismanagement and a misunderstanding of how to do infrastructure. But this government does understand infrastructure. Led by the infrastructure Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and so ably assisted by the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, we are getting on with the job of building infrastructure right around the nation.

Nowhere is more important than the WestConnex, the biggest infrastructure road project in our history. And critically for my electorate, the WestConnex will mean the duplication of the M5 East. An entire new tunnel will be built. You currently have two lanes in each direction, and a new tunnel with three lanes in each direction—six in total—will be built. So we will go from four lanes to 10. If you are living in Padstow, or Revesby, or Beverly Hills, or Mortdale, or Riverwood, or Oatley, or Lugarno or Peakhurst or a wide range of other places in my electorate, that is an absolutely critical reform. Because what it means, according to the best engineering advice, is that the peak-hour trip to the city will be reduced by 25 minutes or more. There are two elements to the benefits that flow from that reduction in time. One is the productivity benefit, which is great for the economy: less time sitting in traffic in doing nothing, more time to get to your meetings, to get to that next client, or maybe sell some more of the products of the small businesses in my electorate. And, of course, there is also the opportunity for people to get home more quickly at the end of a night's work and spend more time with their families.

So it is absolutely critical. Another great element of the project is the widening of the King Georges interchange at Beverly Hills. Anyone who has driven around Sydney much knows that Beverly Hills—and it is a point that I share in my electorate with a couple of other MPs—is a terrible bottleneck. This project will add an additional lane at the interchange and will make the entry and exit ramps much longer. So rather than there being a big amalgamation of traffic at that entry point, there will be a much more gradual transition to the exits at Beverly Hills. This is very important, and it will really save a lot of headaches for the people of Banks.

We are getting on with the infrastructure job. The WestConnex is critical for my electorate, and I am proud to be part of a government that will be delivering that important infrastructure.

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