Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. This bill reflects the Rudd government’s commitment to ensuring safer roads around Australia. The bill has two main functions: to allow the extension of the Roads to Recovery program for a further five years as part of AusLink and to change the definition of a road to allow for the funding of heavy vehicle facilities.

AusLink forms an important part of this government’s overall strategy to address the long-term infrastructure needs of this nation. If we are to meet major challenges facing our economy and facing our nation over coming decades, then this country needs a government that is dedicated to investment in infrastructure. We have seen huge backlogs in infrastructure investment over the Howard years, in areas such as digital infrastructure, energy infrastructure and water infrastructure. This lack of investment by the previous government over the past decade in vital projects is now more evident than ever.

Today I would like to address the importance of this bill to the Rudd government’s long-term strategy to invest in road and transport infrastructure. This funding will be used to continue to fund urgent upgrades and repairs to local roads across Australia via the Roads to Recovery program. AusLink funding is also used to invest in major projects of national importance, black spot projects, strategic regional projects and research and technological projects. This bill now delivers a record $1.75 billion in new money to improve local roads by securing the Roads to Recovery program for another five years to 2014. This bill will extend the life of this program and enable a new list of funding recipients and their allocations to be determined from 1 July 2009. Prior to the commitment by the Rudd government, this program was due to expire on 30 June 2009.

Local government is responsible for more than 800,000 kilometres of local roads, and this is an important bill for local government. The continued funding of the Roads to Recovery program will assist councils with their long-term planning of upgrades and maintenance of local roads. We have given the guarantee to local governments in Australia that the Rudd government will continue to invest in local road infrastructure for the next five years. As a result, local government will be able to sit down and develop a long-term strategy to maintain, repair and build local roads in their districts. This $1.75 billion will go a long way towards improving roads right across Australia. This funding is $250 million greater—$50 million per year greater—than those allocations set by members in opposition.

The funding is welcome news for residents in my electorate of Ballarat. On 28 August 2008 it was my pleasure to announce funding allocations to councils in my electorate. It was also a great pleasure to inform local councils in the Ballarat electorate that the Rudd government is committed to securing the Roads to Recovery program for another five years. An example of this funding is to the City of Ballarat itself. In the 2008-09 financial year, the City of Ballarat will receive funding under the Roads to Recovery program to the tune of $850,000. This funding will go a long way to assist in the maintenance and upgrade of the local roads throughout the Ballarat electorate. Areas like Alfredton, Delacombe and Miners Rest are all experiencing high levels of population growth, and it is important for families to have confidence in the state of their local road infrastructure.

Over $1 million in funding was also allocated to the Moorabool shire. This is an area that is in strong need of financial assistance for local roads. Areas like Bacchus Marsh, Darley and Maddingley will experience strong population growth over the next four years—they are almost an outer metropolitan area now—at an average growth rate of 3.4 per cent per year. The rapid increase in motorists on these roads will put significant strain on local infrastructure, and it is important for families in these areas to have ongoing support from the federal government to ensure the long-term safety of local roads. Equally, Moorabool shire covers less urbanised areas—many rural areas—where road infrastructure is degrading at a very rapid rate.

I note from the previous member’s contribution that the bridges are of some concern to local governments, particularly those in rural areas, as many of them are over 100 years old now and well and truly past their use-by dates. Hepburn Shire Council and Golden Plains Shire Council also received funding under Roads to Recovery—over $587,000 and $828,000 respectively. Later in the year, each council’s individual allocation for the 2009-10 financial year will be determined by the state and territory grants commissions.

Another major aspect of the AusLink program is its funding of the Black Spot Program. On 19 August 2008, I announced that $350,000 would be invested to fix a local Ballarat road under the Black Spot Program. The Black Spot Program comes under AusLink and has been shown to have prevented at least 32 fatalities and over 1,500 injuries in its first three years. The project in Ballarat will see the funds invested in the building of a roundabout at the Ripon Street and Darling Street intersection, an area where there have been a number of accidents. My own experience of driving there has been that it is a very dangerous intersection. This is a serious investment in safer roads for Ballarat motorists and their families in my electorate.

This area was identified by a panel of independent road safety experts that included the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, the Victorian Transport Association, the Victorian Police and the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association. The panel identified this section of local road as posing a risk to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, and the funding will hopefully assist in improving safety in this area. This is one of many projects that have been funded under the Black Spot Program in my electorate of Ballarat. This latest project is part of $50.5 million in funding that the Rudd government is delivering to fix black spots on local roads across Australia.

The AusLink program also targets national projects that will deliver high national benefits through investment in road infrastructure. I want to talk about a few of those. Many of them have been very dear to my heart, but I suspect that I shall need to do that after the division.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Before the suspension, I was finishing part of my speech and I said that I wanted to talk about some of the national projects that have been funded and are about to be funded in my district. The first of those is the Deer Park bypass. Federal Labor has shown a long-term commitment to the Deer Park bypass, and the project was finally funded under AusLink 1 as part of the national projects. The Deer Park bypass is an example of the importance of investing funding in major infrastructure projects across Australia.

Deer Park is due for completion by the end of 2009 and it is progressing extremely well. It is well ahead of schedule and, in fact, is nearing completion. Just before I went on maternity leave—I was fairly heavily pregnant at the time—I headed out in a four-wheel drive and had a look at the Deer Park bypass. The boys in the car were a little bit nervous that there might have been an early delivery, but we were okay, thank goodness! I just could not believe the scale of the project. It is an enormous engineering feat and will really provide terrific facilities for not only the people of Deer Park but all those road users who use the Western Highway.

It has been a terrific project and I certainly, alongside both the state minister for roads and the federal minister for roads, am very much looking forward to being able to drive my car on that when it opens. It was pretty unfortunate, I have to say, that it took so long for that project to actually go ahead. It did take a couple of election cycles, with Labor promising it and finally getting the previous government to commit the funding to that road to actually make it happen. It was a very, very long campaign. The project, had it been funded when Labor wanted it to be funded and had Labor been elected in that election, would well and truly have been completed by now, but unfortunately that was not the case. But we are certainly looking forward to it being finished.

It is a very important piece of infrastructure, not just for my electorate but for all of those people who live along the entirety of the Western Highway. The Western Highway at Deer Park is the major link between Melbourne and Adelaide and the road is used by some 70,000 vehicles per day, with an estimated 10 per cent being heavy vehicles. Once the bypass has been completed, commuters will avoid 20 intersections and many traffic signals and be able to travel at freeway speeds. It is anticipated that peak period journey times will be reduced by at least 15 minutes. More than that, the bypass will actually give the people of Deer Park—which is not in my electorate—back their local roads and their local streets.

The Deer Park bypass will reduce travel times and improve road safety for those who travel through this strip of road. Motorists have been fed up for a long time with the traffic congestion around Deer Park. Environmental benefits also exist from the construction of the Deer Park bypass through reduced emissions from vehicles idling at intersections. It is a relief for motorists that this project is running almost six months ahead of schedule, and I am looking forward to being part of the opening of the bypass, which is anticipated to take place in mid-2009. The opening will be received with much relief by motorists throughout my electorate and others.

I would also like to give recognition to the completion of the Leakes Road Interchange—again, well and truly ahead of schedule. This, whilst not having been officially opened, is now finished and is well and truly open for traffic. It has also been an important improvement to the Western Highway and, with the relocation of the local school along this highway, will provide a much safer environment for people who live in this area.

Following on from AusLink 1, the Rudd government has also committed to the continuation of funding through the AusLink 2 program. The Rudd Labor government made a commitment in the election campaign to the Ballarat electorate to fund alongside the state government the realignment of Anthony’s Cutting between Bacchus Marsh and Melton under the AusLink 2 funding agreement. This project is of great significance throughout my electorate, especially for residents who travel from Ballarat, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh and Darley and who use this road regularly to travel towards Melbourne. There are a large number of people, particularly from the Bacchus Marsh and Darley areas, who commute each day into the western suburbs of Melbourne and into the city of Melbourne itself for work, and there are a number of people in Ballarat who do the same. It is an important project both from a safety point of view and from the point of view of commuter time.

This upgrade to the Western Highway has always been of significant importance to me since I was elected to the seat of Ballarat, and the upgrade of Anthony’s Cutting has always been at the forefront of my objectives. It is a natural next step for improvement along the Western Highway following the construction of the Deer Park bypass and the Leakes Road Interchange. This project has been given strong support by local councils in my area, the Western Highway Action Committee, state members of parliament and, most recently, the Committee for Ballarat. The Western Highway carries some 28,000 vehicles per day between Bacchus Marsh and Melton alone, and this project will cut transport times, ease infrastructure bottlenecks and significantly increase the safety of many people who use this road.

The project is expected to save Australia $186 million in transport costs alone and is expected to increase tourist traffic for the region by an estimated $7.5 million annually. Not only do people within my electorate benefit but people from surrounding areas have also welcomed this major project. Areas such as the Grampians, the Pyrenees wine region, the goldfields, the Great Ocean Road, the Limestone Coast, and the Murray Riverland—all fantastic tourism areas—will benefit greatly from the growing tourism and the ongoing Rudd government support to upgrade the Western Highway.

Over the past months, unfortunately, we have heard a bit of noise from the representative of the Liberal Party in my area, Senator Julian McGauran, about the funding and timing of this project. Let me say that Senator McGauran and the Liberal Party had over 11 years to commence work on Anthony’s Cutting and they did nothing. Since coming to government, not only have we promised the funding but we have worked to secure state government funding as well. So far, Senator McGauran’s sole contribution to this important project has been criticism. The funding for Anthony’s Cutting is to be delivered in the early years of the AusLink 2 program and is a priority for both federal and state governments. The Rudd Labor government stands by its election commitment to fund Anthony’s Cutting, and the Rudd Labor government is working in partnership with the Victorian government to deliver this project under AusLink 2. We are currently undertaking a process of negotiation with the state government to ensure the project is delivered within the agreed time frame.

On the local level, I have received representation from Moorabool shire regarding their preference to have an interchange at Woolpack Road incorporated into the Anthony’s Cutting project. This would provide an opportunity to remove heavy vehicle traffic from the centre of Bacchus Marsh itself, an area that is expanding rapidly. It really is a one-off opportunity for Bacchus Marsh to deal with traffic issues, particularly those regarding heavy vehicles passing through the centre of town. I am encouraged that the Moorabool shire and VicRoads are in constructive dialogue on this issue. There will be some planning work required to pursue the option of Woolpack Road, but given its importance to the community of Bacchus Marsh it is work that is well worth supporting and well worth doing.

Prior to the last election, federal Labor also made a commitment to fund $404 million for the duplication of the Western Highway from Ballarat to Stawell. The duplication of the highway from Ballarat to Stawell will allow safe overtaking and eliminate traffic queuing. As the highway is the major transport link between Melbourne and Adelaide, this area has a large number of heavy vehicles using it. Crash rates are significant on that section of road, with driver fatigue a significant factor all the way from Ballarat to Bordertown. Planning for this major project was funded as part of AusLink 1, and it is with pleasure that I continue working with all levels of government to ensure the project comes to fruition under AusLink 2. The combination of these significant road infrastructure projects echoes the Rudd government’s strategy to ease infrastructure bottlenecks and to reduce the level of capacity constraints on our economy.

The other main provision within this bill is to amend the definition of ‘road’ contained in the act to enable funding for projects for the development of off-road facilities used by heavy vehicles. Many people who live in regional areas have experienced a large volume of heavy vehicle traffic going off highways and onto local and smaller roads. The Rudd government announced in the last budget the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program. This program will provide additional heavy vehicle rest areas on key interstate routes; heavy vehicle parking and decoupling areas and facilities in outer and regional areas; new technology in vehicle electronic systems; and road capacity enhancements to allow access by high productivity vehicles to more of the road network. This program is subject to the Senate allowing the increase to the road user charge, and I strongly urge opposition members to urge their Liberal and National Party colleagues to show strong support for this bill.

In 2007 there were 344 deaths on roads in my state of Victoria. Forty-three deaths in 2007 involved articulated trucks. Heavy vehicle safety is an important issue for our local communities. The program will fund additional heavy vehicle rest areas which will assist in combating road fatalities from driver fatigue. Unfortunately, this will not cut out all accidents on our roads. A reduction in the risk of driver fatigue, however, should contribute to a downturn in the number of accidents on our roads. By supporting this bill, members are supporting the safety of all road users—those that use heavy vehicles and those that are subject to accidents from heavy vehicles. That is why I urge opposition members to support this bill. In doing so, they will be supporting road safety.

The former Howard government neglected investment in infrastructure. The former government failed to properly invest in the needs of regional Australia—of which the Ballarat electorate is a perfect example. The Rudd government is committed to investing in regional Australia, and this is shown in the Australian parliament with the introduction of this bill by the minister. We are committed to investing in the safety of our local roads and maintaining and upgrading this vital infrastructure that is so important to so many residents in rural and regional Australia.

AusLink continues and will continue to deliver sound funding for residents in the Ballarat electorate. Not only does this program deliver for the electorate of Ballarat; it also delivers for the many electorates around the country, which can be seen by the many members on this side, at least, who have spoken on this bill. Our country aims to be the most liveable in the world. To achieve this we need to have a government that is interested in investing in the nation’s infrastructure. In my role as the federal member for Ballarat, I will continue to work to maximise investment in regional infrastructure and to push for my region to become the most liveable across the nation. This bill reflects the Rudd government’s strong desire to improve infrastructure across the nation and I am pleased to commend the bill to the House.

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