Wyong Electorate Pacific Highway Upgrade

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-102817

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

Wyong Electorate Pacific Highway Upgrade

Mr DAVID HARRIS (Wyong) (18:01:19):

Today I talk about a developing scandal in my electorate. I held fire on the issue, waiting for the budget to see whether the Government had properly funded the section of the Pacific Highway that goes through Wyong. I was insulted the day after the budget when Mr Scot MacDonald in the other place went on local radio and said that the Government was taking steps to make sure the project is ready to be funded in full, implying that it was not shovel ready. I can inform Mr Scot MacDonald and the Government that I obtained information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act, which I have had for quite a while, and I know the real situation. In 2016 the Government finished planning the project. It got the business case approved and bought the property. It readied the design and construct tender documents—and then they were shelved.

Government members have the audacity to tell my community that the project is not ready to progress. The documents are there, the work is done, and it is ready to be funded and moved forward. According to the NRMA, this road is one of the worst in New South Wales. It is 1.2 kilometres long and has a traffic jam every day. In 2011 I started the process by making sure the options studies were done. All the time this Government has been in power—including when a Liberal member represented the electorate—it has done nothing. It has not started the project and people in my area are absolutely fed up.

The problem is that Transport for NSW and Roads and Maritime Services [RMS] have put in place a new process called "project optimisation". The Government would not allow me to have that document—it rejected my application. But it gave me all the emails that travelled back and forth from the department, talking about the project optimisation report—which is nothing more than a stalling tactic to not fund the project. When it was proposed—I have it in the emails that I received—the project was, so to speak, a poster child. The Government held up the project as being one of its best that—this is what it said—"actually already demonstrated what projects need to do to assure vibrant town centres". It acknowledged that the people in RMS had done a good job and that the process that had been followed was a good one.

Following the election, another $1.5 million was spent on planning. But planning what? My constituents have a right to ask that question because since 2016 more than $3 million has been spent on continued planning. Over the life of this project, $27 million has been spent on planning. Members who are waiting for things to happen in their electorate must question why $27 million was spent without a single shovel in the ground. It gets on my goat. I gave the Government the opportunity to come forward with proper funding in this budget. I thought, "The business case is there, the land has been bought, everything is in place and the contracts have been written, so all they have to do is move forward with it." But they did not. The Government came back with more money for planning.

What is the Government planning now? According to the emails I receive, it keeps throwing the engineers little challenges to distract them. They call them "what-ifs". What if this happened? What if we did this? What if we did that? What if we did this? What if we did that? It is a delaying tactic. The local economy and progress in the town of Wyong is being held up because this Government does not want to commit the funds needed to complete this project. If real planning were being done, I would not have a problem. But I know that the work was finished in 2016. Two years later, we are still waiting. It is absolute rubbish. My community will not put up with it, and the Government will start hearing about it big time from now on.

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (18:06:38):

One thing that really gets my goat is members of the previous Government lecturing us about the infrastructure and transport spend. Those guys had 16 years.

Mr Gareth Ward:

How many?

Mr MARK COURE:

Sixteen years, and they still did not get it right.

Mr David Harris:

In my electorate we spent $700 million on roads.

Mr MARK COURE:

Listen here, Curly, do not come into this Chamber and lecture us about the transport and infrastructure spend. The Labor government failed to deliver metros or one single transport plan. In fact, Labor did not even take a transport policy to the 2007 State election. It had up to 10 transport plans and could not deliver one of them. Curly, do not come into this Chamber and lecture us about your failures during 16 years in government—a government that you were part of.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Greg Aplin):

Order! I call the member for Kiama to order. The member for Wyong is on his final warning. He was extended courtesy during his speech and he should give the same courtesy to the member for Oatley.