Transport Infrastructure

 Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (8:48 PM) —I rise tonight to speak on the issue of transport infrastructure in my electorate of Mitchell. It is timely that I raise this matter here tonight in the House, because 2010 was the year that the long-promised north-west rail line for North West Sydney was to commence. Service was to commence in this month, according to the first initial state government promise in 1998. I do not need to remind the House that this promise has been cancelled, re-promised, cancelled and re-promised almost uncannily in sync with every state election. Now we have a timetable that has the completion of the north-west rail link in 2024.

Tonight I want in particular to raise the proposal of Mr Ron Christie. He has written an independent report that calls for an independent agency, Transport for Sydney, to be modelled on the successful Transport for London. It is important that the government, and particularly Infrastructure Australia, take note of this. With the worst government in New South Wales history, people in Sydney and New South Wales have completely lost faith in the ability of government to deliver infrastructure in key parts of our state.

My electorate of Mitchell has the highest rate of car ownership in Australia. That is because of the lack of transport options. It has the second highest proportion of couples with dependent children of any electorate in the country. It was one of the fastest growing corridors in Sydney. It still remains a very fast growth corridor. No government is proposing to put in any transportation options until 2024.

This has led to citizens, independent bodies, newspapers—including the Sydney Morning Herald and the Hill Shire Times—and other agencies, such as the Hill Shire Council, to form their own group, called the Build It Now Coalition. What this represents is a new thrust in New South Wales because government has failed in its job and in its fundamental responsibility. What we see in the Build It Now Coalition is a response to the abject and utter despair of the average citizen in New South Wales because the government will not deliver what it promises—especially in transport infrastructure. Of all the submissions that were put to the independent inquiry by Mr Ron Christie—more than 500 submissions—over 24 per cent were on this issue of the north-west rail line. About a quarter of all submissions to this independent body were on the single item of the north-west rail link. It is a vital and key piece of infrastructure for Sydney.

I want to note that in successive federal budgets since the election of this government and the formation of Infrastructure Australia there has been very little funding of any nature for infrastructure in Sydney. The much vaunted, much claimed and much talked about need to raise taxes, to raise capital and to invest in infrastructure has no application to every single resident of Sydney in every single seat in Sydney because there simply is no infrastructure funding for Sydney.

In last year’s budget we saw a meagre $40 million for a study for a western metro line from the city to Parramatta, which was to go right through the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government’s electorate, uncannily. But the incompetence of the New South Wales government knows no bounds, and that project has been cancelled as well. So the money had to be returned to the Commonwealth. The money provided in last year’s budget for a study for a western metro line through the minister for infrastructure’s own electorate had to be returned to the Commonwealth by the New South Wales state government.

And of course we all know of the absolute and utter failure of the New South Wales government to put a credible submission for infrastructure funding to the federal government in the first year of Infrastructure Australia. Here is a great new body of the federal government to deliver infrastructure in Australia—money on the table—but the New South Wales government fails to put even a credible submission together for any of that infrastructure money for Sydney.

I praise the work of the Build It Now coalition. The north-west rail link was supposed to open this year. We have a timetable from the Build It Now coalition which says that we can complete this by 2017. I urge the New South Wales government to do so, to get on with the job, to put proper applications in to the federal government and to seek all available funding to get this vital piece of transport infrastructure built for the residents of Sydney, north-west Sydney and my electorate of Mitchell.