PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (12:45): As I read the motion, I couldn't help but wonder if the Albanese government and I even share the same Australia. This motion calls on us to applaud the government for infrastructure investment that supposedly supports growing communities, improves road safety, boosts productivity and connects us all. Well, clearly, they haven't stepped foot in the electorate of Lyne.

In fact, I don't think they've stepped foot in real regional Australia for a very long time. If they had, they wouldn't be so quick to pat themselves on the back. Now, I haven't sat back quietly and let the government roll over the Lyne electorate.

I've been proactive with this government. Last year, before the budget, I spoke to our councils, communities, sporting organisations, service providers. I prepared a pre-budget submission.

I gave the Treasurer this comprehensive pre-budget submission outlining the infrastructure needs in Lyne. And let me tell you, it's a long list. I know a lot of people who, frankly, would like to see politics stripped out of the debate on infrastructure, but I'm going to say that the coalition did put a lot of funding into regional infrastructure and made progress.

But there is a long tail of work to do: roads, bridges, water and sewerage, infrastructure that enables housing, sporting facilities, community infrastructure, disaster resilience, mobile blackspots. The problem for regional Australia is that the Labor government has basically brought funding to real regional Australia to a standstill. There's nothing flowing.

What they are delivering are projects that we committed to—I've got the member for New England here, who was a coalition minister—like the Outback Way, the M1, the Pacific Highway. In a couple of weeks, when that opens, we're going to have a dozen-plus Labor members standing there saying, 'Geez, what a great job we did with the M1!' Well, where did the funding come from?

When did the project get committed to? Who signed the contracts? It was the coalition government that did that.

This should be a project where we all stand up together and show Australians that we can do nation-building infrastructure across governments. But, no, of course not. We won't see that.

We'll see Labor ministers and Labor members stand up to claim all the credit. Well, frankly, I think that does government and governance a disservice. And there are lots of roads in the Lyne electorate that we need funding for.

The Prime Minister promised us that he'd govern for all. He even went up to the Lyne electorate after the floods last year. He saw the devastation at the Bight Bridge.

He saw the devastation to communities. I met with the general manager of MidCoast Council only last week. They are more than $150 million out of pocket.

There's $65 million of community infrastructure that they can't get funding for under the changes to the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. And they can't get $75 million for water and sewerage that was broken during that flood. Let me talk about some of the other roads in Lyne that desperately need funding.

There's the Bucketts Way intersection with the Pacific Highway. There are near misses there almost every day. We need a grade separated interchange.

This shouldn't be a debate. We don't need a long, drawn-out business case; we need to get on because people's lives are at stake. It's the same at Medowie Road and the Pacific Highway.

There's been a huge amount of development in Medowie. It's outside my electorate, but a lot of people from my electorate work at Williamtown or down in Newcastle or Raymond Terrace, and they use these roads. They're desperate for funding for grade separated interchanges.

Houston Mitchell Drive up near the road out to Lake Cathie too has seen near misses and deaths, yet nothing. I know, as a former roads adviser, that we need the New South Wales state government to start prioritising these intersections and stop playing political games with people's safety. I also want to talk about King Creek Road and Oxley Highway, an intersection I use all the time.

Only recently I spoke with the father-in-law of a young girl who died at this intersection. It is a black spot that should be the No. 1 priority. The No. 2 priority should be the Failford Road and Lakes Way intersection.

Can we get the state government to focus on these roads? No we can't. We can't.

We just get continuing political games. It's time. We need a government, a coalition government, to roll up its sleeves and invest in our regions.

(Time expired) The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Wilkie ): The time allotted to this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.