Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The Albanese Labor government has ripped six projects away from the people of Lindsay. These are projects that the coalition government committed to funding, projects that I fought for, and projects that our community desperately needs when it comes to infrastructure upgrades: Mulgoa Road upgrade stage 2, the Werrington Arterial stage 2 project, Western Sydney road transport network development, the M7-M12 interchange, and upgrades to railway stations at Kingswood and St Marys. These projects are now gone.

First and foremost, I know that the Glenmore Park, Regentville and Jamisontown communities will be really unhappy. Some people will be extremely upset by the culling of the Mulgoa Road stage 2 upgrade. This will see more than $230 million of federal money ripped out of the project. I doubt the New South Wales Labor government will take on the full $465 million cost, and this means that our community will miss out on this project.

The Mulgoa Road corridor is a vital link for suburban Penrith through to Mulgoa and Luddenham and the motorway connection to the city and the Blue Mountains. It is currently an absolute bottleneck at the best of times—dropping kids at school, going to weekend sports. We know how desperate people are to have the Mulgoa Road upgrade completely finished. People have been waiting on this.

Commuter car park upgrades for St Marys and Kingswood have been axed—$55 million cut from local infrastructure. This is despite the fact that Penrith council is already using the funding to upgrade both these car parks, and the St Marys community, which is growing continuously is the key Metro rail station for the Western Sydney International Airport. The upgrade to the car park was meant to be a key feature to support the additional people travelling to and from the airport.

Werrington Arterial Stage 2 has also been cut. This was funding in partnership with the New South Wales government and was such an important thing for our community, which has so much congestion. It's why I fought for and secured the money for Dunheved Road. We're waiting for council work to start on that upgrade very shortly—we hope.

In addition, the Western Sydney road transport network development plan has also been found unsuitable by the minister for infrastructure. This is absolutely absurd; with the new airport set to service Western Sydney in a few years, this money was meant to develop a network of roads and other infrastructure to ensure better connectivity. The precinct will not only have the airport but major freight and logistics facilities; manufacturing; health, tourism; and agribusiness, all of which rely on vehicles. Importantly, it was going to service a business case for upgrading Luddenham Road.

Another project which has been cut was for the M7 and M12 interchange. It's ridiculous that I have to keep reeling off multiple projects that meant so much to my community of Lindsay! This interchange was a missing link, and construction was going to get underway as part of the airport infrastructure project. Even the Labor state Treasurer has said that he's disappointed by this decision, and the roads minister has said that he wants the connection to be maintained.

The New South Wales Labor government and Penrith City Council should be livid about this decision cutting over $300 million of Commonwealth funding for infrastructure for the Lindsay community. It just seems like we don't matter at all to this government. The minister stood up in question time and said that her favourite project is being funded; apparently, the people of Western Sydney are not her favourites. But Western Sydney is the new heartland of the Liberal Party, and we will proudly fund infrastructure projects in my community. That's why I fought so hard for each and every one of these projects—because our community said that we needed them.

And it isn't only infrastructure projects: it's the flight paths where we were hoodwinked. At midnight there will be flight paths going over Lindsay. There are more flight paths out of Western Sydney International Airport over Lindsay than over any other community. It seems like Western Sydney really does not matter to the Albanese Labor government.

On the other hand, we will always back in projects for our growing community and we're going to be extremely loud in ensuring the government hears our calls and doesn't cut infrastructure projects critical to the growth of the community of Lindsay.