Motion on North West Infrastructure in Parliament

Federal Parliament this week debated a motion on the future of a North West rail link. The debate followed the news that money previously provided to the New South Wales for a study into the West Metro was returned by the New South Wales Government.

“It is vital to keep this important missing piece of infrastructure in the spotlight,” Mr Hawke said. “We must keep pressure on all levels of Government to achieve real solutions for our local community.”

“While the Federal Government has committed funding for rail in other parts of Australia, New South Wales has been ignored.

“The Federal Government has previously been able to come up with $91 million for the New South Wales Government’s West Metro—money which was returned when New South Wales Government did not go ahead with this project—yet we struggle to get a single dollar to start work on desperately needed services in the North West.”

Mr Hawke said inadequate transport infrastructure was inhibiting the economic prosperity of North West Sydney, and the lack of a North West railway contributed to the Mitchell Electorate having the highest incidence of car ownership in the nation.

“The New South Wales Government’s repeated failure to commence construction of a North West railway is leading to more cars being funnelled onto local roads—roads that are already heavily congested.

“While I am encouraged that the New South Wales Coalition intends to construct a North West railway should they be elected in March next year, I had hoped that the Federal Government would announce funding in some form in the May Budget, but it seems that the Government continues to ignore our local community’s needs.”

Mr Hawke said it was galling that we continue to have our urgent transport needs either delayed or not met while of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds have been wasted or misspent on projects such as the Home Insulation program or the Building the Education Revolution.

“The Federal Government has squandered billions of dollars—imagine what could have been achieved in our local community? There is a simple message for the Federal Government—stop wasting money and start injecting funds into communities such as ours.

“I will continue to work for a North West rail link, I will continue to stand up for better infrastructure for the North West Sydney community,” Mr Hawke said.