Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities. Will the minister update the House on the government's approach to cutting down on congestion in our urban areas, including in my electorate or Forde and around the nation? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question. He of course has a strong track record on delivering on congestion-busting projects, such are Gateway Merge project, along with Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes being widened to six lanes—which the member for McPherson also advocated very strongly for. Construction will commence halfway through this year, delivering congestion relief on the M1 corridor, one of the busiest in the nation with some 148,000 vehicles a day.

That's just part of the suite of congestion-relieving projects that the Turnbull government is delivering around the country, including the M80 Ring Road in Melbourne, where we've committed $500 million; the Monash Freeway, where we've committed $500 million; the North-South Corridor in Adelaide, where we've committed $1.6 billion; the three sections of NorthLink, where have committed $820.9 million in Perth. In Sydney, there is NorthConnex, a $412 million project which will save motorists 15 minutes and 21 sets of traffic lights, and WestConnex, a $16.8 billion project, where 45,000 vehicles will be taken off Parramatta Road between Concord and Haberfield by 2030 The trip time from Parramatta to Sydney Airport will be reduced by 40 minutes. These are congestion-busting projects, as indeed the member for Grayndler acknowledged when he said in May 2013 when announcing Labor's commitment to WestConnex: 'This infrastructure commitment is also helping western and south-western Sydney residents to cut back on travel times.' So true.

But I'm asked: are there any alternative approaches? There are alternative approaches to infrastructure. They might be described as the Labor-Greens appeasing backflip—because that is a standard tactic we see from Labor governments. We saw it when West Australian Labor cancelled the Perth Freight Link and Victorian Labor cancelled the East West Link. But what about the member for Grayndler? He was championing WestConnex in 2013 but, in 2016, under pressure from the Greens in his electorate of Grayndler, he couldn't walk away from WestConnex fast enough—he couldn't distance himself fast enough. He told a community meeting in his electorate that, if he became the transport minister, there would be not one dollar of federal money for WestConnex.

Labor cannot be trusted to deliver on these congestion-busting infrastructure projects in our big cities. Only the coalition, only the Turnbull government, can be trusted to deliver congestion relief for people in the middle ring and outer suburban areas of our big cities.