Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nearly 70 days ago, I wrote to the minister for infrastructure seeking funding for, in particular, bottlenecks that exist in the Chifley electorate on the road network. In our part of north-west Sydney, 200,000 people are moving in. It is a massive challenge trying to ensure that people can move either by road or by public transport. I can't understand why, in 70 days, I can't get any type of response from the Deputy Prime Minister. Just 11 days after writing to him, he announced $1 billion of funding for joint projects with the New South Wales government, including $240 million for congestion hotspots, but none of these hotspots seem to appear on the radar for the minister. Basically, to put it frankly, they're in Labor electorates. While he may choose to ignore me and stick his head in the sand over the bottlenecks, the government can't afford to ignore this, because people are getting really uptight. For example, if I look at the data from February, I see that one particular bottleneck, at Francis Road, is regularly at more than 150 per cent of its capacity during peak times—150 per cent! The one-lane road acts a major access point for Mount Druitt Hospital. It also connects West HQ, which features a massive new entertainment facility, and congestion is a regular problem there. I just completed a community survey in my area where residents around Marsden Park and Coleby are hopping mad about the fact that Richmond Road, which had been upgraded and widened, is already a slow-moving car park in our part of north-western Sydney. How did planners manage to get this so wrong?

What we need to see out of infrastructure investment in our part of north-western Sydney is major roads like Richmond Road upgraded, the M9 built, the extension of the Metro North West down to St Mary's, and the decongestion of the western Sydney rail line—the one that goes from Penrith to the city and passes through the Chifley electorate. These are major projects that need to be completed and they need federal and state governments to work together. We don't need dollars for an ad campaign; we need dollars for actual infrastructure. Just to let you know: on the issue of Richmond Road, even if all the planets were to align and the money were set aside, if work started today it would take three years to complete that work for a growing part of Sydney. It shows that you can't just make the announcement and then not follow through. I'm sick of seeing a government that's big on announcements and short on delivery. Certainly residents in my part of western Sydney are sick of it as well.