Barton Highway Funding

Ms KATRINA HODGKINSON (Burrinjuck) [1.18 p.m.]: Late last year the NRMA named the Barton Highway as the worst highway on the AusLink National Network in New South Wales. This confirms what I have been saying for many years. I have analysed the crash statistics for all the federally funded highways in New South Wales—the Pacific, Barton, Hume, New England and Newell highways. For the four-year period 2000-2003 the Barton Highway had the second worst fatality rate per kilometre after the Pacific Highway. Since that time significant work has been done on both the Pacific Highway and the Hume Highway to increase the amount of dual carriageway road. I note that funding for duplication work on the Pacific Highway again figures in this year's budget. In contrast the Barton Highway has had no additional duplication work.

It is interesting to note that the accident rate on the Hume Highway has been progressively falling as more of that road has been duplicated. One significant danger spot on the Hume Highway, near Coolac in Burrinjuck electorate, has been allocated almost $68 million in this year's budget. Over the same period the accident rate on the Barton Highway has remained unchanged. In 2005 I said that I expected three deaths, 26 injury crashes and 62 tow away accidents to happen every two years on that highway. Sadly, since then my prediction has been proved correct. Most of the people who are dying and being injured on this road come from the Yass Valley or know people living there.

Last year 154 babies were born to families in the Yass Valley shire. A few years ago the New South Wales Labor Government closed the maternity ward at the Yass hospital, against the wishes of the Yass and district community. That means that about three times a week a woman from the Yass district, in labour, must travel the dangerous Barton Highway to access her nearest maternity hospital, in Canberra. Yass residents also use the Barton Highway to access medical specialist services and treatments such as dialysis and chemotherapy in Canberra. Many people work in Canberra, particularly those living in the Murrumbateman area. Each school day hundreds of primary and secondary students travel from the Yass and Murrumbateman areas into the Australian Capital Territory. Many of these children travel on school buses, but many also travel in cars with their parents. The safety of all of these residents is put at risk on a daily basis by the continued failure of successive governments to duplicate the Barton Highway.

I have been circulating a petition calling for the immediate duplication of the Barton Highway. To date I have submitted petitions to this Parliament bearing the signatures of well over 1,500 Burrinjuck electorate residents. At least 2,000 residents of the Australian Capital Territory and other parts of New South Wales who use the Barton Highway have also signed this petition. The Mayor of Yass Valley Council, Nic Carmody, who is also concerned about the need for the highway to be upgraded, said to me recently:

Deaths and injuries on the highway continue to occur. These are costly for the general community and painful for the local community as the victims are often local residents.

I have compared the Federal Highway to the Barton Highway. Like the Barton Highway, it runs from Canberra for a similar distance to connect to the Hume Highway. The difference between the two roads is that the Federal Highway is dual carriageway over its entire length. The fatality rate per kilometre of the Federal Highway is less than one-tenth of that on the Barton Highway. The Federal Highway also has a lower crash injury rate. The Barton Highway is a federally funded road, but the Federal Government allocates funding in accordance with advice received from State governments—advice that the New South Wales Minister for Roads, by his own admission, did not provide to the Federal Government last year.

I urge all members of this House to send a strong message to the Federal Government that the Barton Highway must be duplicated. The first step should be an immediate start to the Murrumbateman bypass. The Iemma Government, by ignoring our petitions for this much-needed Barton Highway upgrade, sends a very poor message. I call on Minister Roozendaal to ask his Canberra counterpart, Anthony Albanese, to immediately fund the Murrumbateman bypass. Both State and Federal Labor governments must act to stem the incredible flow of lives lost and damaged on this dangerous road.

Mr STEVE WHAN (Monaro—Parliamentary Secretary) [1.22 p.m.]: As Parliamentary Secretary and as a local member, I strongly endorse the need to duplicate the Barton Highway and upgrade its safety. However, I differ from the member in relation to the history presented by her. She is right in saying that the Barton Highway is a federally funded road, but over the decade or more of the Howard Government we saw no action and little criticism from her in this place about that Government's lack of action. For a long time that Government used internal disputes over the Murrumbateman bypass as an excuse not to do anything. Those excuses have now come to an end. I was pleased to note in the Federal budget a funding allocation to get the planning of this project underway and also that the project featured strongly in the State Government's infrastructure statement released last week.

I am disappointed that the honourable member misled this place by saying that the project has not been made a priority by the State Government when it clearly has been. The Barton Highway is a federally funded road and this Government supports the need to upgrade it. I will support the honourable member opposite in her calls for the road to be upgraded, as long as she occasionally tells the truth about it.