Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 22 October there was yet another horrific fatal accident on the Pacific Highway in my electorate, which involved three trucks and two cars. The accident occurred near Macksville. The Pacific Highway runs the length of my electorate and most of that highway is undivided road. The people I represent are at risk every time they travel north or south in the electorate. We have local traffic mixing with heavy vehicles. It is a deadly combination. It is essential that governments redouble their efforts to complete the duplication of the highway as quickly as possible. There is a bipartisan support for the completion of this project as quickly as possible.

The federal government has let the New South Wales government off the hook in only requiring a contribution of some $500 million up to 2014. This compares to a federal contribution of $3.1 billion. We should be demanding dollar-for-dollar funding from the New South Wales state government and increasing the federal contribution to the road project if it is to be completed within a realistic time frame. Every year the completion date is revised further out into the future. The people of the North Coast deserve better. Highway 1 needs to be priority 1 at both the federal and state levels. Our towns need to be bypassed. We need to get the trucks out of our main streets on the North Coast of New South Wales. North Coast residents have been waiting far too long. The government needs to do better.