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

In 2007, the National Party turned the first sod on the Bells Line of Road expressway. This kicked off a golden age of broken promises, delays and funding raids on a fast road over the Blue Mountains that all major parties are guilty of. The Bells Line of Road expressway was abandoned by the National Party when city people objected. So much for standing up for the bush! When they had the chance to build it, they squibbed it—12 years in power in New South Wales, nine years in power federally, and nothing's ever been built. Then, when it came to power, the current government grabbed $2 billion that the previous coalition government had allocated to the Great Western Highway, and we never saw it again.

Not one of these major parties has any vision for an expressway to Sydney—not one. The federal National Party, for all its talk, has not put forward any plans for an express road to Sydney. They are going to be out of power for years and have been reduced to a complaints desk. The state and federal Labor parties have no plan either. While the major parties dither, the traffic jams from the Central West to Sydney are worse than ever. Country people deserve better than this. We demand better from the major parties. We demand an expressway to Sydney.