Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak about the campaign to widen the Hume Highway between Ingleburn and Campbelltown. The widening is not simply to deal with the increased commuter traffic, although it will contribute to managing the effects of urban growth in south-west Sydney. The draft AusLink Sydney-Melbourne corridor strategy indicates that, on the outskirts of Sydney, traffic levels currently exceed 80,000 movements per day, including 6,000 trucks, and this is expected to grow by two to three per cent per year, in effect doubling the traffic flow over the next 20 years. Sydney’s population is likely to hit five million over the next 25 years and 20 per cent of that growth is expected to occur in the south-west fringes of Sydney. The south-west growth centre will include new communities, providing homes for up to 250,000 people and approximately 10,000 hectares of employment land.

The economic case for widening the Hume Highway between Ingleburn and Campbelltown revolves around the establishment of intermodal terminals and their connectedness with not only the M7 corridor and other freight transport networks but also Port Kembla, which is set to expand and include the importation of cars under the New South Wales government’s three-ports strategy. Without widening the section of road between Campbelltown and Brooks Road, the congestion at this bottleneck will be exacerbated as a result of increased freight movements from the intermodal facilities around Ingleburn and Minto. The possible construction of another intermodal facility on the defence land at Moorebank will add further pressure to local road networks and, more importantly, the Hume Highway.

The draft AusLink Sydney-Wollongong corridor strategy indicates that the relocation of car importations to Port Kembla will result in 250,000 vehicles arriving annually. It is expected that at least 50 per cent of those vehicles will be shipped by B-double road transport to Minto or Ingleburn for pre-delivery inspection and distribution to retailers throughout south-west Sydney. For local job creation and managing the growth in freight transport between Sydney and Port Kembla it is important that the road be widened. This will allow for the expansion of Campbelltown based industries, with the associated growth of local jobs. It will also allow the benefits of the F5 to be fully realised. I hope some of the $22.3 billion earmarked in the budget for roads and rail finds its way to the widening of the F5. (Time expired)