Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. There are two main elements to the bill before the House. The first relates to the Roads to Recovery program and the second relates to the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program. Firstly, I would like to address the elements relating to Roads to Recovery.

The bill will deliver a record $1.75 billion in new money to improve local roads around Australia. It will do this by securing the Roads to Recovery program for another five years, to 2014. As many members would be aware, this program was due to cease on 30 June 2009, so this further commitment of $1.75 billion is important. This bill not only secures this program for a further five years but also includes a significant rise in the money allocated to it. The allocation of $1.75 billion includes an increase of $50 million a year for five years, which is $250 million in total, compared to the previous annual allocations under the Howard government.

This funding will deliver benefits to my electorate of Charlton, as well as many other electorates around the country. This financial year alone the Rudd Labor government will deliver over $1.1 million to Lake Macquarie City Council, which covers a large area of my electorate of Charlton. This will be dedicated towards urgent safety upgrades and repairs to local roads. It will help my constituents who use these roads every day to do all the things that you would expect—dropping their kids off at school, going to work or doing the shopping. A number of roads across the electorate have already been upgraded with funding under this program. These include Government Road, in Barnsley; Oakville Road, in Edgeworth; and Rose Street, in Blackalls Park, to name just a few. Future allocations of the money provided under this bill to councils will be determined later in the year by the state and territory grants commissions. I commend this initiative and congratulate the minister for ensuring that this government is investing in safer roads for local motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

As I indicated earlier, the bill also makes a number of legislative changes to ensure the implementation of the government’s $70 million Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, which was announced in the budget by the Treasurer. This program will provide additional heavy vehicle rest areas on key interstate routes, heavy vehicle parking and decoupling areas and facilities in outer urban and regional centres, new technology in vehicle electronic systems and road capacity enhancement to allow access by high-productivity vehicles to more of the road network. The bill before us today ensures that this program can be implemented by broadening the definition of a ‘road’ to allow funds to be used for the funding of rest and parking areas, heavy vehicle bays, decoupling areas and weigh stations. That is one important expansion of the application of this program. As the minister indicated in his second reading speech, this is an important initiative as one in five road deaths involve heavy vehicles. In 2007 alone there were over 200 road deaths involving heavy vehicles, with speed and fatigue being significant contributing factors, so in that context the funding available to broaden the program for heavy vehicle safety is extremely important.

Despite those figures, the opposition appears determined to ensure that the government is unable to deliver the program. On 14 May this year, the coalition in the Senate blocked a proposed increase in the heavy vehicle road user charge. This increase provides the funding basis for the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, and without it the program will not be able to proceed. It is confusing, to say the least, to try to understand why the coalition would block this charge in order to give rise to greater safety in the heavy vehicle area, because it is extremely important for the reasons that I have outlined. The coalition’s position is even more confusing, though, considering that only in June last year the now Leader of the Nationals, Mr Truss, a former transport minister, in fact advocated a similar rise in the charge. I listened to the Leader of the Nationals addressing the House earlier today on this particular issue and, noting his complete reversal of position, I was no greater illuminated as to the reason that the coalition was blocking this charge. The rise in this charge will ensure that heavy vehicle road users get much-needed safety and road infrastructure improvements, and therefore it is critical that the coalition rethinks its position and ensures the passage of the charge through the Senate.

There are a number of other aspects of AusLink funding that have been delivered by the government in my electorate of Charlton under the Black Spot Program. In the budget this year, the government allocated $750,000 for improving the safety of Dorrington and Wangi Roads at Rathmines within my electorate. There have been a number of accidents there, including two fatalities. The funding was granted through the Commonwealth Black Spot Program, which of course comes under AusLink. Black Spot Program projects target those road locations where accidents, injuries and fatalities recur, and this program saves the community many times the cost of the relatively minor road improvements that are sometimes implemented. Since being elected in Charlton in November last year, I have been lobbying the state, the federal Rudd government and the relevant minister to secure the necessary funding to make this particular intersection safe. In fact the former member for Charlton was involved in an accident at this intersection not too long ago. The funding that has now been provided under the Black Spot Program will help repair and improve this intersection so that hopefully we can avoid future accidents, injuries or fatalities. As I indicated a moment ago, there have been a number of collisions there. There have been 34 accidents, two fatalities and 21 injury-causing crashes in the last eight years, so I am very pleased that we have been able to secure the funding at a federal and state level to improve the safety of that intersection.

But, apart from the Dorrington Road intersection and the funding announced in the budget, I was also pleased to announce last month that three further projects within my electorate will receive funding under the Black Spot Program. These include funding to the tune of $170,000 to make a number of improvements to the roundabout on the Newcastle Link Road and Cameron Park Drive intersection in Cameron Park, $100,000 to install a concrete median strip on Excelsior Parade to prevent right turns out of Jindalee Street in Toronto and $60,000 for works on Cary Street in Toronto to prevent through and right movements out of James Street and Donnelly Avenue and right turns into Donnelly Avenue in Toronto—for those familiar with the particular locality. These projects were assessed and recommended by a panel of independent road safety experts including the NRMA, the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of New South Wales, the Council on the Ageing and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia. I am very pleased that Charlton is getting this much-needed funding and look forward to safer roads for my constituents.

But, at a broader regional level, it is also important to note that, in a recent report by the Property Council of New South Wales dealing with the infrastructure requirements of the Hunter region, three of the five top infrastructure projects—described as ‘catalyst’ projects because they can give rise to far greater economic activity in the region and create jobs and improve living standards—identified by the Property Council are in fact roads projects, or projects strongly related to roads projects, that may ultimately command consideration under future AusLink funding. These include the need for the F3 to Branxton freeway connection that commences in my electorate and crosses into the neighbouring electorate of Hunter, held by the current Minister for Defence. They also include the Lake Macquarie Integrated Transport Centre at Glendale in my electorate, which involves an important facility to connect residential, retail and industrial areas—an area where at least 10,000 people are currently working and many thousands are living but which is severely disadvantaged in its transport infrastructure. The third of the top five infrastructure projects includes the F3 to Raymond Terrace freeway connection, the F3 of course being the principal freeway from Sydney north.

The Rudd government is committed to road safety and local road infrastructure. That is evidenced by the bill that is currently before the House.  As I have outlined, AusLink, under the Roads to Recovery and the Black Spot programs, is delivering for my electorate and for many other electorates around the country. While my focus of course is on the projects within my electorate—I suspect the rather lengthy list of speakers to follow me may also evidence a similar focus—it is important, though, to emphasise that AusLink is a national program that provides tremendous benefit to the community around the country and does much to improve road safety and reduce injury, accidents and fatalities. For that reason I am very pleased to support the bill as part of the government’s commitment to improvements in road infrastructure.

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