Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I am taking the unusual step of calling on a National Party minister to guarantee $9.4 million in funding in a Liberal Party seat, or, that is, a seat that is currently held by a Liberal Party MP. Unfortunately, she refuses to fight for the funding herself. I am talking, of course, about the seat of Gilmore, where, before the last election, the Liberals committed to fund a job-creating project that they could never honour. I am talking about the motorsports complex at Yerrigong, in the Shoalhaven. It was supposed to be a fantastic facility. The only problem is, it was never funded and it was never able to be approved.

I was angry about it at the time, because there were a number of shovel-ready projects in my own electorate that were overlooked, only to fund something that looked likely it was never going to get off the ground. It looked like a broken promise in the making. The election followed and the promise was made. There was a razor thin margin—1,500 people—in that electorate. No doubt a good number of them voted for the Liberal Party because they thought that project was going to be completed. Of course, it was not. It was rejected.

Not only did this occur but on 27 March this year the member finally acknowledged that the project has failed and, importantly and sadly, gave up the fight for the funds, which is why today I am calling on the parliament to support me and I am asking the member to reply to the letter I have written on behalf people who want a $9.4 million project in this electorate.