THE HON. LUKE HARTSUYKER MP - ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER:
Well, good morning ladies and gentlemen. It’s a great pleasure to be here with Melinda Pavey, the Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight and local Member for Oxley and our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, on what is a great day for the Pacific Highway project.
We’re seeing safer motoring. We’re seeing shorter travel times. Very important issues, increased connectibility for regional and rural Australia. It is a boon for projects, for towns along the route. It is a great news story. It’s my great pleasure to introduce our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to talk a little bit more about the project and the benefits of the project.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks Luke, it’s great to be here with you and Melinda, good morning. Luke is doing a fantastic job as part of our Ministry and of course as the Federal Member.
Now, this is a great example - as we were discussing Melinda earlier - of the collaboration between the Liberal Government, the Liberal-National Government in New South Wales and the Liberal-National Government in Canberra on the Pacific Highway.
It wouldn’t have been possible without having the Coalition in power in both state and federal.
But we’re seeing here with this opening, of this section of the road into Kempsey, what we’re seeing is the $230 million project funded jointly by the state and federal governments. Of course, that is then going to be followed shortly thereafter by a much larger section, $820 million section down to the Oxley Highway which is being funded two thirds by the Federal Government, one third by the state government. That will open later this year too.
So all of these upgrades of the Pacific Highway, all of this duplication which will be completed by 2020, has had the impact over time of reducing the travel time from Hexham to the border by two and a half hours. You can see of course, as we’ve seen that chart that Bob showed us earlier, what it’s meant in terms of lives saved. You see that trend of accidents is coming down, fatalities is coming down. We want to get it to zero. That’s the target. So the target is to get all of this work completed by 2020. We’re on track to do that. The $5.6 billion of Federal investment and the aim is to have no fatalities on this road. This type of duplication we’re talking about here is vital in that regard.
You can see it’s saving lives already.
There’s also a big jobs story; 15,000 jobs created directly and indirectly by the Pacific Highway Upgrade project. I was just talking to the Mayor who was talking about how there’s much more demand for industrial land, commercial land, development in Kempsey and you can see that in every community and centre along the Highway. After all, distance – as we were discussing earlier – is measured not in kilometres, it’s measured in minutes. It’s a question of time, so if we can improve the infrastructure so people can get from A to B more quickly, that brings those places together. It increases the business, economic, social opportunities from that investment.
So Melinda, it’s great to be here with you, great cooperation between my Government and yours led by Gladys Berejiklian. Look forward to your remarks as well.
THE HON. MELINDA PAVEY - NSW MINISTER FOR ROADS, MARITIME & FREIGHT:
Thanks very much Prime Minister. A pleasure to be here.
Another step in the journey. We’ve got this section now going in both directions – one lane albeit at the moment - but in another four to six weeks we’ll get the median strip work done.
Also just acknowledging the work that is going here for this beautiful rest area. Having these rest stops are incredibly important, with another one on the other side of the carriage way.
It is transforming our region, it is transforming local lives, this project. We’ve all lived through too many accidents, too many stories and it is just an incredibly statistic that in 1996 there were 45 people that lost their lives on this road, 22 last year. But this year we are already trending nine below what we were at the same time last year.
So it’s having a significant impact on safety, on efficiency, but also bringing our communities on the Mid North Coast closer together and opening economic development opportunities that we’ll be working on as local members, both Luke and myself, to ensure that we get both new industry and new jobs coming to this region, which is what we need into the future, as this highway continues its’ epic journey further north.
155 kilometres to go now between Bilgola and Ballina and it will be all be dual carriage way by 2020. An unbelievable feat and as the Prime Minister has said, would not be possible if not for the good cooperation of our two governments working together to build infrastructure and look after regional New South Wales and regional Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
Very good, thank you. Do we have some questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how would you sum up the benefits of the highway upgrade to the communities?
PRIME MINISTER:
Safety, above all, lives saved. Nothing more precious than that.
Also it improves every amenity of life. It means people can get to work, they can get to their businesses, they can get to school, they can visit each other more quickly and more safely.
I mean Bob in his welcome to country, spoke so eloquently about what the Pacific Highway was like in 1959, when he had to get onto ferries to cross rivers. It seems like a bygone era, but there is still work to be done and we’re getting it done.
This has been a long term nation-building project.
Melinda said earlier collectively the Pacific Highway upgrade is the biggest infrastructure project since the Snowy. Of course that will be followed shortly by Snowy Hydro 2.0 which is another piece of nation- building infrastructure that we look forward to working with the New South Wales Government on.
So, this is life-changing, life-saving. It’s growing the economy, it’s improving the amenity of not just the people who live on the Pacific Highway but the millions of Australians who use it to travel the breadth of this great country.
JOURNALIST:
Have you heard many stories from others recollecting and knowing of some of the tragic accidents we’ve seen particularly in this region and in these parts of the highway?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well every accident is a shocking tragedy. The numbers today, while much reduced, are still far too high. That is why I pointed to that chart and I said: “That’s the target – zero.” Zero, That’s where we want to get to. They’re heartbreaking.
JOURNALIST:
If I could just ask on another subject?
PRIME MINISTER:
Sure.
JOURNALIST:
Is the government aware of allegations that the former ABCC chief had breached Fair Work Act before he was formally appointed, and will you support Labor’s calls for an inquiry into that appointment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the litigation that is referred to was public knowledge, so that’s the first point. Secondly, it obviously had to take its course. Thirdly, Mr Hadgkiss became the ABCC Commissioner by virtue of an Act of Parliament, because he was already the Commissioner of the Fair Work Building Commission which then transformed into the Australian Building and Construction Commission and given obviously stronger powers and the ability to levy greater fines. So, he transitioned into that new role by virtue of a Act of Parliament.
JOURNALIST:
Were you briefed on the AFP operation to extradite the Ibrahims and co-accused?
PRIME MINISTER:
Operation Veyder I’ve been kept closely advised of. In fact I was down at the AFP Headquarters not so long ago, congratulating the AFP team. They’ve done a fantastic job in keeping us safe. The Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales Police and all the state and territory polices and our other security agencies work tirelessly to keep Australians safe.
There is no place for ‘set and forget’ in national security.
That’s why we are constantly upgrading our security apparatus.
That’s why I’m bringing out federally our domestic security agencies together into one department of Home Affairs.
It’s why we’ve had eight traches of security legislation through the Parliament to give our police stronger powers.
It’s why Melinda’s government in New South Wales has done the same, Gladys Berejiklian and I were at the most recent COAG and we agreed to strengthen our counter-terrorism laws.
We’re having another COAG shortly, later this year, focused again on counter-terrorism. We pull together seamlessly, always to ensure that we keep Australians safe.
The case you refer to, Operation Veyder, has disrupted a massive international criminal conspiracy. I want to thank the authorities of the United Arab Emirates for cooperating in the extradition procedures that have ensured these men have been brought home to Australia to face trial.
JOURNALIST:
Were our military aircraft used to transport the men home?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can’t comment on that.
JOURNALIST:
What is your message to the community about the same-sex marriage vote?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, vote. Make sure you fill in your survey. About half of them have been delivered and the aim is to have the balance delivered by the end of this week. Make sure you fill in your survey.
Lucy and I will be voting ‘yes’ and we encourage others to do so, but respect absolutely the right of those to take a different view and respect their different view. But above all, have your say.
Luke and I went to the last election promising all Australians would have their say. The Labor Party frustrated that in the Senate, but we’ve been able to do this through the postal survey. So we encourage every Australian to have your say, Lucy and I will be voting ‘yes’.
JOURNALIST:
What was your response to the vote ‘no’ sky-writing over Sydney this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s a matter of public discussion, people are entitled to express their view. You know, if you want people to respect your point of view, you’ve got to be prepared to respect theirs. You know, we are the most successful, harmonious, multicultural society in the world. Why is that? Because it’s founded on mutual respect.
That is the most important thing in this debate and I know there will be some unpleasant things said by some people, there always are. But you know what? Most Australians are filled with good sense and understand the importance of that mutual respect.
Thanks a lot.
[ENDS]