Western Sydney infrastructure missing out

Adjournment
Infrastructure
House of Representatives
1 July 2024

The infrastructure and transport budget has taken a massive hit thanks to the Albanese Labor government, and Western Sydney has lost out as well. The coalition found the infrastructure minister's 90-day review caused around $2.5 billion of infrastructure funding to be on the chopping block.

In May this year, the minister finally, after much time and many midnight press releases, made it to Western Sydney to announce fake new funding and money for projects at $1.9 billion. What the Albanese Labor government have packaged as 'new funding' is actually just relocated money to the same commitments that they had previously made.

In their first budget, the Labor government had actually committed to the funding and the projects that we had in the coalition government. Then, the minister decided that a 90-day review was required. Well, it was a lot more than 90 days, as we know, and those 90 days have caused delays with these infrastructure projects. The minister then started her cuts by taking away federal funding from the M7-M12 interchange, a vital new link to Western Sydney International Airport. But then it gets better: she took away funding after construction had actually commenced. Work was being done! Her Labor colleagues in the New South Wales government were absolutely gobsmacked by this.

In my own Western Sydney electorate of Lindsay, the minister more than halved funding for the Mulgoa Road stage 2 upgrade. So I have some questions for the minister that my community would like answered. Where has the $117.5 million from the Commonwealth for the Mulgoa stage 2 project gone? She put some of the money back, but she didn't put all of it back, and it's not being covered by the New South Wales government. Does that mean we're going to get half of the upgrade? Did the New South Wales government advocate for only partial funding, or did the minister hoodwink her Labor colleagues, like she did the Western Sydney community? From what can be seen in the New South Wales government's Western Sydney budget document, it's $230 million for Mulgoa Road stage 2. That was roughly what was committed to originally. So it's very odd that the project is continuing as is despite almost a quarter of the money missing. Unless the scope of the project changes, as I said, we'll get half a road. And, if that's the case, the Albanese government must front up to the people of Penrith and tell us what's going on. This is a vital project for my community, and people are getting really tired of the on-again off-again relationship the Albanese Labor government's having with us.

The Great Western Highway is another project in Western Sydney. It had $2 billion in funding ripped away from the new link going through the Blue Mountains to create easy accessibility for the central west to Western Sydney. Labor promised the people of Werrington, Cambridge Gardens and Cambridge Park in my community that, if they won government, they would fast-track the Dunheved Road Upgrade. We have now learnt that, once the tendering process completes, the project won't start construction until next year, and it will be two years behind schedule—from an early 2023 start to 2025. Why did the Labor Party make a commitment to fast-track a project that Penrith City Council said it could not fast-track? They made this promise in the election to buy votes.

The minister commissioned a Western Sydney transport infrastructure panel. It reported to the minister in April 2023. She didn't release the report until November 2023. Why didn't the minister release the report before the budget? Is it because she did not want to commit to implementing the recommendations of the expert panel? It seems like the answer is yes. The planning funding was critical to reviewing the need for upgrades to so many old semi-rural roads across Lindsay and across other Western Sydney electorates. The panel recommended that the original $15 million allocated be increased to $35 million because the planning project was high priority. Yet the minister decided to cut the funding altogether. Why didn't she listen to the expert panel on Western Sydney? It is so important to have these roads in place for the opening of the airport.

We have a lot of issues going on in Western Sydney, particularly because of these infrastructure cuts by the minister, and it's just not good enough. We need a government that takes Western Sydney seriously and wants to invest in our communities for the future.

Hansard - House of Representatives 1/07/2024 Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)