Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Traffic congestion on the New England Highway through my electorate is a nightmare mainly driven by the mining industry. I am very pleased to be able to report that part of that problem, particularly in the Lower Hunter, was addressed on the weekend when we finally opened the Labor government's $1.7 billion Hunter Expressway. However, the work is not complete and the problems continue further up the valley in Muswellbrook, Singleton and Scone.

I welcomed the Deputy Prime Minister to my electorate on Friday to officially open the Hunter Expressway and I thank him for the very productive discussions we had on those additional problems.

The Muswellbrook bypass has been in the making for far too long and it is time to complete the project. The Scone level railway crossing has been a problem for far too long. The design is in place, so it is time to finish that project and of course the RMS in New South Wales, as I understand it, is now close to completing a solution to the problem in Singleton. It is time therefore the New South Wales and Commonwealth sat down to talk about ways to fund that project.

These are the priorities for my electorate: the Muswellbrook bypass, a bypass of Scone and/or an overpass at the level crossing and, just as importantly, a bypass of Singleton. These are serious problems for the Hunter and I call upon the government to work with— (Time expired)