STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator CADELL (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (13:36): I want to talk about the Great Western Highway and the lack of conversations we're having about the troubles on the way out there. Currently, the Central West remains the only major New South Wales freight region without a dedicated highway and connection to Sydney. That isn't good enough.
It's not good enough for our people. It's not good enough for the people out there. Prior to 2022 there was a plan.
Works were done from Hartley going out on a dual carriageway. There was a plan to go over a lot of the dual carriageway, a lot of the roads, from Katoomba to Medlow Bath and from Medlow Bath to Blackheath. That was funded with both the New South Wales government and the federal government committing funds, but it was cancelled shortly after this government was elected in 2022, and people were left with a road to nowhere.
Many of you will have seen that the Lolly Bug at the bottom of the mountains there in Little Hartley has been isolated by the roadworks, without any benefit from what's going on. We've also seen, of course, Mitchell's Causeway and the problems caused by a causeway built back in the convict times. That was so important to Australia, carrying those big trucks, carrying everything down there, and there is no federal support for that going forward.
It is time to give these people what they're asking for. The communities, the councils, the people and the businesses of the Central West deserve an investment. They deserve some certainty.
They are lobbying. They are around this place asking for nothing more than a fair share. Restore what was getting done.
They want us to assist in fixing Mitchell's Causeway. They want to deliver a third lane at Mitchell's Causeway so the trucks don't block that section when they have to turn there; to complete the missing dual carriageway sections, as I raised before; and to fund the long-term solution that was on the books when we got here. It is a massive build.
I don't pretend it's not. But to say these people don't deserve it, when we're building the Western Sydney Airport and hoping that becomes a freight hub for the future, and we have a region just over the mountains that cannot get their products there, is a ridiculous situation. I support the Central West.
I support the councils. I support the businesses. We should be giving them what they need.
It is infrastructure that is needed. It shouldn't be cut like the Inland Rail was.