Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The people of the central west are being treated like second-class citizens, and we've had enough. Our region is in an unprecedented state of economic siege caused by a double failure of infrastructure and essential fuel supply that is threatening the food bowl of our nation and the survival of our businesses. Right now farmers are staring at empty diesel tanks, at the very time that seeds need to hit the soil. If this government cannot even secure the fuel needed to sow a crop, it's failed its most basic duty to the Australian people. Let me be clear: if our farmers cannot plant, this nation does not eat.

But the pain doesn't end at the pump. The catastrophic indefinite closure of the Great Western Highway at Victoria Pass is also an absolute disaster. In the Hartley Valley and around our region, local businesses are being smashed. They're watching their customer traffic vanish, their bookings dry up and diversions destroy their livelihoods. From Lithgow to the Darling Causeway, the diversion roads are not built to carry the extra heavy traffic. It is a recipe for tragedy. The Great Western Highway is not fit for purpose.

We are done with the bandaid solutions in the forever roadworks. We are done with waiting and being told to be resilient. Enough is enough. I call on the government to immediately guarantee country Australia's fuel supply and provide a support package for all the businesses affected by this infuriating and entirely foreseeable failure of a bridge built by a convict chain gang in the 1830s. (Time expired)

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