Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this adjournment debate to speak on the very important issue of the east coast freight corridor between Sydney and Brisbane, in particular the Pacific Highway. Residents who live along the Pacific Highway are constantly faced with the ever-increasing level of traffic. Also, the Pacific Highway is of great concern with regard to safety in those areas where the highway is not currently duplicated. It is of great concern to the people of my electorate that the duplication of the Pacific Highway to dual carriageway status be done at the earliest possible opportunity. Sadly, the New South Wales state government and the RTA have been dragging their feet with regard to progress on the Pacific Highway.

I welcome the announcement in the budget of Auslink 2 and the substantial increase in infrastructure spending and I have been lobbying very hard for part of that funding to be dedicated to the acceleration of the upgrade of the Pacific Highway. One cannot just upgrade highways of themselves. It is vitally important that we look at the total transport task, as is the case under Auslink, and at the ways in which we can reduce pressure on the Pacific Highway. The federal government has focused very heavily on rail, spending in the order of $500 million to upgrade the east coast rail line—including upgrading signalling, reducing gradients, replacing sleepers and extending passing loops—reducing the travel time for freight between Sydney and Brisbane by about four hours. It is a commendable achievement aimed at moving the amount of freight going by road onto rail so that rail bears its fair share of the total transport task. It is very important that the federal government has taken that on because unfortunately, under the management of the state government, our rail system has been allowed basically to fall into a state of disrepair. It is pleasing to the people who live along the Pacific Highway to see this very substantial shift in the commitment to rail. We are working towards moving 120,000 containers off road and onto rail by the year 2011.

This is not going to solve the problem completely. The upgrade of the Sydney-Brisbane rail corridor will not solve the problem. That is why I was delighted to see the feasibility study for the western rail link between Melbourne and Queensland, which would transport from Melbourne direct to Brisbane much more of the freight that normally would be destined for transport by road. It is a tremendous idea, and I am pleased to see that the federal government is undertaking a scoping study to see if we can get even more freight onto rail. It is anticipated that such a rail link would handle about 75 per cent of the freight that would need to travel between Melbourne and Brisbane. It would avoid the rail congestion that exists in travelling through Sydney, which would certainly be welcomed by other users of the rail network.

No matter how successful we are in relation to rail, road is always going to carry a huge proportion of the transport task. I was recently speaking with the chairman of the regional chambers of commerce in my electorate, Mr Peter Lubans, about the prospect of a study looking at an alternative road alignment to the Pacific Highway, west of the existing alignment, which could perhaps relieve some of the pressure on the Pacific Highway. I have discussed with staff of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Mark Vaile, the possibility of the federal government undertaking a study into an alternative alignment which could relieve some of the pressure for the freight that we cannot get off road and onto rail—the freight that still needs to travel the Pacific Highway.

The rapid economic growth in this country is producing more and more freight traffic. If we can move that off the Pacific Highway onto rail or by an alternative corridor, I know that that would be welcomed by the constituents in my electorate. The former Minister for Transport and Regional Services has written to the Minister for Roads in the New South Wales parliament, Eric Roozendaal, with regard to the prospect of looking for an alternative alignment around Coffs Harbour to handle long-term growth in the traffic task. Unfortunately, Mr Roozendaal is yet to respond to that letter. After an extended period, we are still waiting to hear from Mr Roozendaal. Be that the case, I have been encouraging the federal government to look at an alternative corridor, a way of relieving pressure on the Pacific Highway and a measure which would certainly be welcomed by members of my electorate. We want safer roads and we want them as quickly as possible. The New South Wales RTA needs to move far more quickly in the upgrade of the Pacific Highway. (Time expired)