It is no surprise that in a growing area like my electorate one of the single most important issues is the provision of transport infrastructure.
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No matter where you live in the Illawarra, chances are that we all use the Princes Highway through Albion Park Rail.
It is a notorious stretch of road, which in heavy traffic leads to massive congestion.
Cars and trucks move at a snail’s pace during peak periods.
Public holidays, like school holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year seasons are the worst times.
When the 2012-13 Budget was handed down by the NSW Government last June it announced with great fanfare upgrades to the Princes Highway at Gerringong and Nowra.
Interestingly, there was absolutely not a word said about the stretch of the Princes Highway through Albion Park Rail.
I raised this pretty important discrepancy in my media responses to the budget and in the Parliament.
A few days after my criticism was aired and published, almost as an afterthought, the NSW Government announced it was making available $100,000 to study the most appropriate route for the planned Albion Park Rail bypass. Never mind, of course, that a gazetted route for the proposed bypass has been identified for many, many years and has been included in the Shellharbour City Local Environment Plan.
Since that June 2012 announcement of the study, what have we seen?
For starters: nothing!
The $100,000 study hasn’t been completed. In fact, I’m doubtful that it has even been started. I say doubtful because I’ve been asking the Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, almost constantly for nearly 12 months for progress on the study, and he studiously refuses to directly answer my questions on notice.
Nonetheless, despite this arrogance, I’ll continue to ask questions about the study and when it will be completed.
Recently to staunch the embarrassment of the NSW Government, the Minister for the Illawarra in-waiting, my Parliamentary colleague, Member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, has taken to calling on the Commonwealth Government to fund upgrades to the Princes Highway including the Albion Park Rail bypass.
Despite 16 long years of every single Coalition spokesperson on roads stating that the Princes Highway is a state road and therefore the responsibility of the NSW
Government, this rhetoric has suddenly – and hypocritically – changed.
In fact, the change making the Princes Highway a state road was made by none other than the former Liberal premier, Nick Greiner, in 1991.
So I asked the Minister for Roads to tell me when the NSW Government asked the Commonwealth Government for funding to build the Albion Park Rail bypass.
The answer: never!
This is the type of political opportunism the electorate is absolutely sick and tired of.
The study is needed to begin the process of community consultation on the options for the most suitable route for the Albion Park Rail bypass.
I’m more than happy to debate the record of Labor in government on road infrastructure in the Illawarra.
But I think the frustrated motorists who use the Princes Highway through Albion Park Rail would be more interested in building this much needed bypass.
It’s time to complete the study so we can get to work on building the Albion Park Rail bypass.
Anna Watson MP is the State Member for Shellharbour.
