Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the first week of June the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, the Hon. Jamie Briggs, confirmed that Gilmore had been successful in its applications for more than $3 million of black spot funding for seven different locations across our region. The biggest upgrade project totalled $2 million for the Princes Highway in the southern Shoalhaven and there is an additional $824,000 for the next stage of Turpentine Road, a road that will soon be one of the major arterial roads between Canberra and the South Coast. These funds will deliver a much-needed boost to safety and road quality in my electorate.

I would like to thank Glenn Chamberlain and Danny Kennedy, better known as Dingo and DK, of our local veterans' motorcycle club for bringing the Turpentine Road black spot to my attention after one of their club's members known as Trapper was badly injured, sustaining over 17 fractures in a very serious accident on the road. It is when you hear stories like this that you really start to think about how seriously we must take the state of our roads. You realise the importance of these investments in road safety. Often these upgrades are small safety improvements but they have big effects on lives in our local communities.

Finally, I would also like to thank our local councils and my community for participating in this latest round of black spot consultations and encourage anyone with local road black spots to get in contact so that we can keep Gilmore a priority region for the next funding round of this fantastic $500 million initiative. With this announcement, the total roads investment made in Gilmore by the coalition over the last nine months is close to $20 million.