Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people of Warringah are frustrated with outdated road infrastructure that fouls our area's needs. Heavy traffic congestion plagues residents across the electorate and will continue to impact the North Sydney area once the Western Harbour Tunnel has been completed. Both New South Wales Labor and Liberal governments have shelved the Northern Beaches link tunnel and have proposed no other solutions. While transport remains a state issue, it's essential that clean public transport be prioritised.

More can be done federally to improve these issues. In 2019, Infrastructure Australia recognised that the Northern Beaches to North Sydney corridor was the fourth most congested in Sydney's evening peaks, and it remains on the Infrastructure Australia priority list. Last year, I was briefed by the New South Wales government on the outcomes of their Northern Beaches network review. Two items of very high priority, with $20 million of funding for planning for upgrades, are the Warringah Road-Pittwater Road Officeworks intersection and the Pacific Highway Chatswood-Roseville intersection. The Officeworks intersection was on Infrastructure Australia's infrastructure priority list in July 2021. This intersection is a key bottleneck along the Northern Beaches to North Sydney corridor, so I require the federal government's support. The state government have indicated that they would welcome a sharing of the costs and partnership, so I call on the government to commit to working with the New South Wales government on a 50/50 split for funding these works.