Subjects: Federal Government roads funding update
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………
PRIME MINISTER:
Good evening. Few issues are more important to people in rural and regional Australia than the need for decent country roads. When the Coalition first took office we found that Labor was spending less on federal road funding than when they started thirteen years earlier. The Black Spots Program to make our roads safer had been terminated and many communities beyond the national highways were simply left off the funding map.
That’s why we set about changing things for the better and now of the Commonwealth’s road funding, which it controls directly, 90% is spent outside the capital cities. We’ve provided money for the Pacific Highway improvement between Newcastle and Brisbane so that by 2005 the road will be freeway standard for much of its length.
I can report to you tonight that work has just begun on replacing the deadliest stretch on the entire Pacific Highway with a four lane freeway between Tweed Heads and Brunswick Heads. At a cost of almost $350 million this is the largest roads project in rural Australia and delivers on our commitment to coastal road users.
To support other country areas we are funding roads of national importance such as the Great Western Highway, the Kidman Way, an upgraded road for the Port of Gladstone, the Geelong Road and the Pakenham Bypass. We’ve also reinstated the Black Spots Program which could reduce road fatalities by about four hundred over a decade. When you add this to a tangible commitment to building much needed bridges you will see that we are delivering on our promises to build the roads that Labor refused to fund.
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