Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the New South Wales government announced their so-called Sydney Gateway project. This was the project that was supposed to fulfil the original objective of the WestConnex project of taking freight to and from the port of Botany. That was what was identified by Infrastructure New South Wales as the No. 1 priority when they did their first ever report after an audit of the needs of New South Wales infrastructure under the chair, Nick Greiner.

What we find now though is that, on top of the fact that WestConnex doesn't go to a port, to an airport or to the city of Sydney, their gateway project still doesn't go to the port: it stops six kilometres short. What we have now is a major project costing $17 billion after they said it would be $10 billion. And, on top of an additional $2.6 billion, it is a motorway to more roads. Because of the congestion around the Rozelle and St Peters interchanges, the government is now saying they'll require an F6 down to the Sutherland Shire. They require this Sydney Gateway project. They require another tunnel under the harbour, the Northern Beaches tunnel from the Rozelle interchange. This is a road to more roads and shows the lack of planning when it comes to this WestConnex project, which was paid with an advance payment from the Commonwealth of $1.5 billion.