Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to infrastructure, the Left cannot be trusted, whether they call themselves Labor, Greens, Climate 200, fake Independents. Some people are coming up with preposterous names, like Simon Holmes a Court. That sounds like a character out of a French spy novel. But they're all Left.

When Labor came to power in Victoria in 2014 it tore up signed contracts to build a desperately needed roads project to connect the east and west of Melbourne, costing taxpayers over $1.1 billion. There's nothing the Left love more than spending money on things that don't happen. When they were elected in 2017, the Western Australian government, not to be outdone by their comrades in Victoria, decided that they were going to scrap the Perth Freight Link. Unfortunately, it didn't cost as much, so they cancelled a few other things.

It should come as no surprise, none whatsoever, that this is the headline act of the Minns' Labor, Greens, Climate 200, fake Independents, 'Voices of' group government to come to power or, if they ever get elected anywhere, they want to get rid of the Beaches Link on the Northern Beaches. This is a project that has been taken to two elections—a proposed 11-kilometre tunnel that will link the Northern Beaches to the Warringah Freeway in North Sydney—and that is now 40 years overdue.

We wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for the years of neglect under the former Labor governments of Bob Carr and Kristina Keneally. They were happy to grant licences for offshore oil platforms, because I guess they believed that no-one cares what the people of the Northern Beaches think. But I say, very clearly, that we want roads, not offshore oil platforms—a licence granted by the Labor Party, renewed by the Labor Party and supported by the Independents. They say: how dare we get an upgrade on the medieval drawbridge at Spit Junction and the pothole-riddled, flood-prone Wakehurst Parkway, which links the rest of Sydney. This drawbridge does have the advantage that, in times of national emergencies, when, from time to time, the Labor Party does get elected, we can of course raise it and keep out the hordes.

A potential New South Wales Labor government would rather spend it on 'more public transport in Western Sydney'. Leaving aside that Chris Minns doesn't seem to understand the difference between capital expenditure and operational expenditure, such a suggestion underlines that the New South Wales Labor Party was, remains, and always will be, intellectually bankrupt. Rather than capital projects that last generations and assure a better future, Labor would like to find something where the issue is less acute, to increase the risk, increase stress and increase debt on the budget, with an operational expenditure idea yet to be conceived.

Have they got a grudge? Do they hate the people of the Northern Beaches? They can't escape the facts on this one. They're ignoring one of the most congested roads in Sydney, being the A8 corridor. What is banking up on Pittwater Road stems back to the Warringah Freeway and clogs up Greater Sydney transport systems. They are turning away from fixing one of the worst road systems in the state—Wakehurst Parkway—which shuts down, on average, six times a year due to flooding. Find me another project across the country that yields higher commuter time savings than this one, slashing 27 minutes between Brookvale and the Sydney CBD and up to 56 minutes from Dee Why to Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport. And guess what, Mr Minns? That is the same for buses. When you compare those time savings to other transport projects in New South Wales, literally nothing beats it. The $26 billion metro system actually saves less than five minutes, the $8 billion Sydney Metro Northwest saves less than nine minutes, and the $25 billion Westconnex saves less than 20 minutes. And there are increases in productivity. Beaches Link will be pivotal in expanding Sydney's Eastern Economic Corridor, which contributed two-thirds of New South Wales' economic growth. But, no, Labor would rather make 60 per cent of the local Northern Beaches residents, who commute by car and bus, get up an hour earlier each day just to put food on the table, because they can't be bothered.