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

I rise to bring to the attention of the Committee the failure of the New South Wales state government to deliver services to the people of rural and regional New South Wales. It is a sad fact that, despite the efforts of the federal government to put more services into regional areas, the New South Wales state government has deserted the people of our country regions. Unfortunately, it is a trend that has been continuing for some time and, as we move towards the next federal election, Labor will be campaigning hard in many regional seats. I say to the people of New South Wales that you need look no further than the performance of the New South Wales state government to see how services would be provided under federal Labor.

Consider the Bonville deviation in my local electorate of Cowper. The federal government had to provide $5 million to do safety works on the road, which was in fact a New South Wales state government responsibility. People are being killed on a far too regular basis. The New South Wales government has abandoned constituents. The Bonville deviation scheme was to be completed under the 10-year plan by the New South Wales state government. They failed. It was supposed to have been built years ago. They did nothing. It was the federal government which had to force their hand and require them to commit their funding under the RONI program to have this piece of road completed.

Also, the federal government had to assist by providing one-third of the cost of the Hogbin Drive extension in Coffs Harbour—again, a project that the state government was to fund. Everywhere you look the federal government has been required to step in and make up for the lack of commitment by the New South Wales state government—to the people of rural and regional New South Wales—and also, in fact, other state governments, to the people of rural and regional Australia.

On the issue of rural roads, the Roads to Recovery program is very popular with our rural and regional councils, but again there has been a dereliction of duty by the state government. They fail to step up to the plate. They fail to take on their proper responsibility of maintaining roads in regional areas or assisting councils to maintain roads in regional areas. Look at the timber bridges. Many councils are unable to maintain their timber bridges, despite the additional funding being provided under Roads to Recovery by the federal government. Timber bridges are the very linchpin of many small communities. The failure of a timber bridge can mean that various electricity infrastructure cannot be maintained because of load limits. Our emergency services cannot access many areas of rural and regional Australia without them. There are safety and service delivery issues here far beyond the actual bridges. They are a link to communities. It is about time the New South Wales state government fulfilled their responsibilities. (Time expired)