Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Swanson, I'm pleased you're here today because I'm actually going to talk about an intersection, although not one that we have in common. It's one at the other end of my electorate of Lyne, and that is the intersection of the Oxley Highway at Wrights Road and Lake Road, which is one of the most congested intersections on the Mid North Coast. It's the major arterial link to the Port Macquarie Base Hospital, to the port CBD, to industrial and education precincts and to surrounding residential areas. The growing Hastings Valley population and increased traffic volumes have placed very significant pressure on the corridor.

Despite $4 million in funding being provided back in 2022 by the coalition government to finalise planning, the Albanese government cut the funding, and the project remains stalled. Even with constant calls from council, state and federal representatives for this to be corrected, every budget since has neglected to allocate a single dollar to the project. There was even a petition of more than 10,000 locals' signatures presented to the New South Wales government on the issue, yet we're still waiting.

There is now a further attempt under way in the community to get the ball rolling through its submission campaign via the New South Wales Transport 'Have your say' portal. This is not the place or the issue for governments to play partisan politics, so I ask the government to provide the funding that was taken away to enable the project to get moving, to address the critical corridor and to address the congestion on the Mid North Coast at Wrights Road.

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