Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I will always rise in this place to support a bill such as the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014 that extends road funding. There is no more important issue in my electorate than roads. It is a geographically large electorate and therefore has many roads. I suspect no matter how hard any government tries, road funding will always be underdone. It is an economic issue we need to address. I was listening intently to the member for Paterson. I have to say that not the last part of this speech but the part of his speech nearing the end was more sensible and more accurate than the pieces that preceded it. He was talking about the Hunter Expressway. With him, I acknowledge the contributions of all those who have been involved. This was an initiative that started under a Labor government. As a candidate in 1995, I remember very vividly visiting the site with the then Minister for Roads, Laurie Brereton, to confirm Labor's commitment to what is the most important land infrastructure project in the Hunter's history. Alas, Labor lost the 1996 election and then we had 11½ years of nothing except—

See this speech in context