Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition talk about a $2 billion story. I have got a $2 billion story to tell as well. At the last election there was a big distinction on the North Coast of New South Wales between the commitments of each side to the duplication of the Pacific Highway. Let's make this very clear. Labor went to the last election with $3.5 billion on the table to complete the duplication. They wanted the state government to go fifty-fifty and also put $3½ billion on the table. This is even though, when there was a state Labor government—this is an important part of the story—the federal Labor government were happy to fund that duplication at 80 federal and 20 state. When there was a change of government in New South Wales, suddenly federal Labor only wanted to fund the duplication at fifty-fifty. So they were going from 80-20 back to fifty-fifty.

We talk about $2 billion story. What did we do? As a coalition in opposition at the time, we said, 'If we win government we will maintain the funding at 80-20.' So the $2 billion story here is this: at the last election, the coalition opposition said that we would put over $5 billion of federal money on the table to complete the duplication, and the then Labor government went with $3 billion. So that is a $2 billion story.

The reason for this is very important. We know that duplication of a highway saves lives. There are lots of jobs created during construction. There is better transport, along with the commerce that that brings. Given that we put $5.5 billion on the table to complete this highway—$2 billion more than the Labor government promised—we are getting on with the job. Just last month we announced the winning tender for the 165-kilometre section of the highway from Woolgoolga to Ballina. Pacific Complete have won that tender. It is under a new delivery model, the tailored delivery partnership model. From the Ballina to Woolgoolga section, that will provide 3,000 direct jobs. As we know, there is always a multiple of two. Over 10,000 jobs will be created when we take into account the indirect jobs. So that is the $2 billion story there. The money is budgeted for. It is in the forward estimates that we as a federal government will be committing over $5 billion for the duplication of this highway. The Labor government was going to commit $2 billion less—again, for blatant political purposes. When there was a change from a state Labor government to a state coalition government, federal Labor suddenly pulled $2 billion from that project.

As the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development has mentioned, we have also increased funding for Roads to Recovery, which is very important in my electorate. This year Ballina Shire Council will get over $1 million. They normally get about $600,000. They are getting double that this year. The Lismore City Council is getting double—over $800,000 more. Clarence Valley Council is going to get $1½ million more than they normally do. Richmond Valley Council is going to get an extra $700,000. Kyogle Council is going to get an extra $700,000 as well. Again, there is an increased infrastructure spend in my electorate. We have increased black spot funding. A few weeks ago I announced a number of projects in my electorate for black spot funding. We have change the formula for that funding, so more money will go to it—nearly $900,000 to Ballina Shire Council, $500,000 to Lismore City Council, and Kyogle Council and Richmond Valley Council will each get a few hundred thousand dollars.

So there is a $2 billion story, and the big $2 billion story for me and for my electorate was that the previous federal Labor government pulled $2 billion from the project. They did it simply for political purposes. They wanted to go from an 80-20 split to a fifty-fifty split because of a change in government. My electorate saw that as quite a cynical ploy. I was very pleased that the opposition Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Warren Truss, agreed to keep the funding split at 80-20, which was an increase of $2 billion towards that project.

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