Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the minister update the House on what the government is doing to accelerate the construction of WestConnex and the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. How will these vital infrastructure projects boost jobs and create opportunities for people in my electorate?

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a major commitment of the government, led by the member for Macarthur at the election, to invest in the WestConnex project and also in the Western Sydney plan. The infrastructure Prime Minister made clear before the election that we would invest $1½ billion in WestConnex stage 1, which, in the budget, we have ensured that we have followed through with. Also in the budget, we announced that WestConnex stage 2 would go ahead, 18 months early, because of the first ever federal government concessional loan for a road project to bring that project forward by 18 months and all the benefits that it brings with it. Last week, New South Wales Minister Duncan Gay and I announced that the first stage of WestConnex stage 2 will get underway, with the planning application for the King Georges Road intersection and the M5 being lodged and the community consultation process beginning.

This is a project which will transform Sydney utterly. It will see, in combination with WestConnex stage 1, reduced travel times between Parramatta Road and Sydney airport by 40 minutes, halving bus travel times in the inner west of the city and bypassing up to 52 sets of traffic lights. It will remove 3,000 trucks a day from Parramatta Road by putting them underground, leading to neighbourhood revitalisation. And it will create 10,000 jobs during construction.

In addition to that, we have also started work on our Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan, our $3½ billion plan, to build the infrastructure in Western Sydney. Last Friday, we announced that the contract had been awarded on the planning for Bringelly Road to begin that project later this year, led by the New South Wales government. It is a project which the Labor Party is opposed to—amazingly. The member for Chifley and the local members in the western part of Sydney are opposed to the $3½ billion being spent in Western Sydney. It is quite extraordinary. They are also opposed to the WestConnex project. They are opposed utterly to the WestConnex project. The Victorian members are opposed to the East West project—$3 billion from this government to get the East West project going. The member for Kingston is opposed to the Darlington Upgrade in South Australia, which will benefit her electorate more than any other. She is opposed to it. The member for Perth, who has had other things on her mind today, is opposed, with the Greens, to the Perth Freight Link project.

What we are seeing here is an opposition which is utterly obsessed by politics and which does not understand policy at all. It wants to get utterly in the way of ensuring that we have a stronger Australia, led by an infrastructure Prime Minister. We are going to get on with it. We are going to get on with ensuring that we build the infrastructure of the 21st century.