Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to make my contribution to this debate on the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. The bill has two main purposes: to allow funding of heavy vehicle facilities and to extend the Roads to Recovery program for another five years. The bill amends the definition of a road so that it includes heavy vehicle facilities such as rest stops, parking bays, decoupling facilities and electronic monitoring systems. This will enable the government to provide funding for these facilities under its $70 million Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity package.

In my electorate of Solomon, this AusLink funding is very welcome. It delivers on a Rudd Labor commitment of ending the blame game, in this case between the Territory and federal governments of the past, and moves forward a major piece of infrastructure for the Northern Territory, particularly for Darwin and the Palmerston area. The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has worked closely with me, the member for Lingiari and Senator Crossin in sorting out the problems we have with the Tiger Brennan Drive extension. In this financial year, $11.2 million has been committed to the first stage of the Tiger Brennan Drive extension, and I can inform the House that the work is going along quite nicely at the moment. We are making some real progress. The wet season is starting to come towards us, and I hope that that progress will continue until it starts to rain.

A further $74 million will be committed by the federal government over the course of the next four years to complete the Tiger Brennan Drive extension, which will link our growing rural regions and the expanding Darwin and Palmerston areas. Being a Palmerston citizen, I often drive into work on that road, and it is gridlock. Believe it or not, in the Northern Territory we do occasionally have gridlock. Hopefully, the extension of Tiger Brennan Drive will relieve some of the problems we experience on our roads in peak periods. It is also about safety. We have a lot of near misses and other incidents in the current climate, and a lot of that is born of the frustration of motorists trying to get to work and finding it very difficult. That part of the project is very important to the people of Palmerston, of whom I am one. Hopefully, this will relieve the problem of gridlock.

A more national focus of the Tiger Brennan Drive extension is the improvement for business, industry and community. For instance, the industries which utilise the East Arm port and the trade development zone will have far better access. They will be able to go about their daily business in a safe, economical way, relieved of the infrastructure bottlenecks that they have been experiencing. The flyover, which will be the final stage of this, linking Tiger Brennan Drive to the Stuart Highway and replacing the current set-up of a very intense intersection with a constant flow of traffic, will be something that the people of the rural areas, as well as the truck drivers coming up the Stuart Highway, will greatly appreciate.

There is a vast expanse of land in the Northern Territory, and the Northern Territory is growing. In recent times we would not have thought this sort of money would need to be spent in the north of the country. But, as we have grown, roads and rail have become the lifeblood of the NT. We need to have seamless access from Adelaide to the East Arm port facility.

The Roads to Recovery program has been a good program. I know that those opposite are very proud of it. Some of their other initiatives, like Work Choices, have not been as well received by the Australian public. The Roads to Recovery program will continue for another five years. The $1.75 billion in new money to improve local roads around Australia, including those in the Northern Territory, will be welcomed. There will be an increase of $50 million a year, or $250 million over five years. These funds are urgently needed to upgrade and repair local roads.

We have heard from all speakers about the issues facing them in their electorates. I am sure that the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has become a very popular man among all the 149 other members. We heard a couple of weeks ago how popular he has become. We will all be competing for that money because we all believe in the areas that we represent. I believe in Solomon and I know that the member for Lingiari believes in his electorate. These urgent works in the Northern Territory will get about $4.6 million in 2008-09 alone, which will be well received. It is money that is urgently needed to upgrade and repair the local roads.

Three of the councils in my electorate in the Northern Territory will receive funds. Palmerston City Council will receive some $200,000. Coomalie council will receive some $136,000 and Belyuen council will receive around $43,000. Local roads are critical for efficient and safe freight movements. Often the last kilometres from the highway to the port are on roads controlled by local government. The Rudd Labor government is working in partnership with local councils in order to deliver safer roads.

I am the Chair of the Northern Territory Black Spot Consultative Panel. This year we were fortunate enough to have $672,000 committed to two dangerous intersections in Stuart Park in my electorate. Only a month ago Minister Albanese and I said that we were committed to reducing crashes on Top End roads. Unfortunately, our current road toll is high. Black spot funding, as well as repairing the roads, is one way to try to reduce our road toll. I know that the Northern Territory government is very frustrated and is working closely with the Northern Territory Police to try to educate drivers not to take unnecessary risks. Unfortunately, at the moment our road toll is extremely high and is something that we as a community need to address because the accidents are taking a huge toll on families and on the community. As well as family losses, they are a cost to our economy. It is something that we need to look at very seriously. The Black Spot Program complements funding I have already secured for Tiger Brennan Drive and the Stuart Highway. We are looking at trying to improve road safety at both the national and the local level.

Next year black spot funding will increase by 33 per cent, which will be $60 million nationally. When you travel through cities the number of flowers and floral tributes to people who have died on our roads you see is quite staggering. Any money that can be channelled into trying to turn this around would be well received. We have discussed roads a lot, but I think it is a case of consultation as much as anything. With regard to the black spot funding, we are consulting with the Australian Trucking Association, local government associations, the Automobile Association of the Northern Territory, the Office of Indigenous Policy and the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.

I know that the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, the member for Lingiari, is a very staunch supporter of bush roads and of the communities that he represents. I look at it as a tag team effort between him and me in securing funding for the Northern Territory. Obviously I am in Solomon and he is in the community areas of Lingiari. He was very happy with the road funding that he was able to secure in the current round of funding. He represents a large electorate and covers a lot of kilometres on the roads. He hears stories about deteriorating roads and the ones that need help. The Victoria Highway at the Victoria River bridge gets cut regularly during the wet season and often trucks can be sidelined for weeks. We have committed $10.7 million for a bridge replacement and upgrades to reduce the impact of the flooding. Other areas that will benefit from the funding are the Alice Springs Town Council, $657,000; the Barclay Shire Council, nearly $100,000; the Central Desert Shire Council, over $300,000; the East Arnhem Shire Council, nearly a quarter of a million dollars; Katherine Town Council, $270,000; Roper Gulf Shire Council, $632,000; and the Tiwi Islands Shire Council, $683,000. They are significant amounts of money. That will bring the total spent in the Roads to Recovery program in the seat of Lingiari to $6.8 million, which is a significant amount. Territorians have a problem with the distances that they have to travel. A lot of Territorians move around. They need to be moving around in a safe environment. The cattlemen, fishermen, women, police, teachers, nurses, tourists and mining and gas industry workers rely on the roads for the simple things as well as for going fishing, camping, having fun and spending time with relatives. We need the roads to be in good condition.

We welcome the effort that has been put into this bill by the minister. The minister understands, as does the Prime Minister, who has been to my electorate on four occasions already. I think there is a significant commitment from the Prime Minister as well as from the minister for infrastructure to helping areas such as the Northern Territory and the electorate of Solomon to improve what we already have and to build on a growing area. The people up there appreciate the time and effort that is being put in. This investment in our roads will promote economic growth and benefit not only the Territory but the nation as a whole. These initiatives are great examples of the federal and Territory governments working together to deliver vital pieces of infrastructure for the people of Solomon and the Territory. I think this bill demonstrates our ongoing commitment to road safety and local road infrastructure. It also confirms our commitment as a federal government to nation building. That cannot be underestimated. There has been a fair bit said in the first part of this new parliament by those opposite about infrastructure. Without dwelling on that, I think a very positive note to finish on is to say that there is a commitment to infrastructure and nation building. It is not something that we on this side of the House say flippantly. I think we have the best minister in that position to deliver it. I really believe that he is committed to making sure that we build all 150 electorates and that we do not just single out ones that we want to secure. The member for O’Connor mentioned the $100-odd million that he was allocated and said that was probably just to make sure that the Prime Minister had a henchman in the party room. We are committed to delivering this. We are fully committed to continuing what has been a good program. I commend the bill to the House.

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