Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am rising to speak about a critical local issue in my electorate, and that is the mismanagement by the New South Wales state government of the WestConnex project. Billions of dollars of taxpayers' money from the state and federal governments is going into creating an enormous traffic jam in the suburbs of Alexandria, Erskineville, St Peters, Green Square and Kensington. All through the inner city, thousands of extra cars are being disgorged from this project into already crowded streets.

Daily car usage is set to multiply exponentially from just a few thousand cars on some of our busiest roads to in excess of 50,000 cars. Streets including McEvoy Street, Euston Road, Sydney Park Road, Gardeners Road, Anzac Parade, South Dowling Street, Moore Park Road and Botany Road are already very congested—particularly on the weekends as people are taking their children to sport, I have noticed recently. This project will disgorge thousands of extra cars onto those already congested roads. In fact, residents have been told that Euston Road will become a seven-lane road. It will go from four lanes to seven lanes as little as 1.8 metres from their front doors. It is inconceivable that as a community we will spend billions of dollars to bring traffic congestion to already congested suburbs. There are about 42,000 residents in the affected area at the moment. An extra 31,000 will go in in extra years, and what they can expect is an almighty traffic jam!