The Berejiklian Government’s “complete and utter disregard for the urgent need to upgrade Appin Road’’ was on full display at a Budget Estimates hearing earlier this week, says Campbelltown’s Labor MP Greg Warren.
He says roads minister Melinda Pavey was unable to answer questions about how much money had been allocated to the Appin Road upgrade in the budget or the timecframe.
The government also refused to say whether the Liberal government would join NSW Labor in pledging to match the Federal Government promised $50 million to kick-start the upgrade.
When asked if Appin Road was a priority for the government, and when the public could expect the upgrade to be completed, the minister said: “there is no end of important roads in this state that we have a focus on.”
Macarthur Federal MP Dr Mike Freelander joined his state colleague Greg Warren in slamming the minister’s responses as “extremely disappointing’’.
They also renewed their calls for urgent action from both state and federal governments to upgrade the notorious road, which has claimed tens of lives.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“It is clear that the Government has no real intention to upgrade Appin Road,’’ says Dr Freelander.[/social_quote]
“At the 2016 federal election both parties announced $50 million for the upgrade, but only $5 million was committed in the Federal Government’s 2016-17 budget.
“We have seen no plans indicating what the government plans to do to upgrade the road, all we are seeing is a fresh coat of paint, and that won’t save any lives.
“Action needs to be taken now; we cannot risk the loss of any more lives,” he said.
Mr Warren said that the state government’s inaction on Appin Road was now getting “beyond ridiculous’’.
“Local residents are right to be outraged, because it is simply not good enough,’’ he said.
“Earlier this year the minister said we were looking at 20 years, and now she won’t even put a time frame on it at all – it’s clear that Appin Road is just simply not on the government’s agenda.
“This road has already seen too much tragedy, and the full upgrade is well and truly overdue – we simply can’t afford to continue waiting with nothing being done.”
Sue Gay
I was advised in about 3 years it will start
That’s probably the partial upgrade from the Gilead development.
This Road is a freight corridor, Appin school kids have to deal crossing this road every day, already it is very congested and dangerous. Why not a duplication of Appin Road before any development proceeds, it is called planning for the future.
This is interesting. The Labor party was in power for many years before this government and did absolutely nothing. It is easy to criticise but difficult to acknowledge that your own party both state and federal could have fixed this road many times over. I doubt the Liberal party will spend the money to fix up Appin Rd as safe seats get very little. So to both Mike and Greg. Give us a written guarantee that when your party gets into power they will fix up the road in their first term, and if they do not, that you will resign from parliament. Once we get that written guarantee then we might start to actually believe what you say.