Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

As I said, the tunnel that was proposed by the National Party, as part of the previous New South Wales government, would have been 11 kilometres long, the longest tunnel in the country. The Commonwealth and New South Wales governments had agreed to jointly fund $2.5 billion for the east and west sections, on the basis that the former New South Wales government would be responsible for the middle bit. However, not a single dollar of funding was ever committed to that project—not a single dollar. I well remember the previous minister John Barilaro making some comments about how he felt that somehow the Commonwealth should stump up 80 per cent of what would possibly have turned out to be an $11 billion 11-kilometre tunnel—we suspect more.

So, unfortunately, the delivery of this project has not been possible. We will continue to work with the New South Wales government about what we can do along that corridor to ensure the safety of people who use that. But that, of course, means that we are investing significantly in the regions already: doubling Roads to Recovery, increasing funding to the Black Spots Program and creating a new program for local councils to apply for to ensure that we've got safer roads. (Time expired)

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