Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack says the Labor Government is not delivering on its pledge to put $250 million into the further duplication of the Barton Highway.
Mr McCormack said, although surveyors may have started some preliminary work in the past few days, earthworks should have already been started.
“Murrumbateman is the epicentre of where residents and commuters are pleading to the Federal Labor Government to keep its commitment to the Barton Highway,” Mr McCormack said.
“The Member who represented this area before the Australian Electoral Commission redistribution put it in the Riverina electorate, Kristy McBain – who is now the Minister for Regional Development no less – said on 29 June 2020 during the Eden-Monaro by-election campaign that she won, that Labor would spend ‘$250 million to make the Barton Highway duplication a reality’.
“Her predecessor, Mike Kelly, with now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese beside him, also pledged to spend $250 million to duplicate the Barton Highway.
“Where is the money?
“When I was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, I committed $150 million which delivered the recently completed duplication of the Barton Highway from near the New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory border to the Tallawong Road intersection.
“So far, Labor has only committed $25 million in March this year for planning works. It has been in Government for more than a term. Earthworks should have already started but, instead, all this Government has done is stall infrastructure projects to conduct a self-indulgent 90-day infrastructure review that took more than 200 days to complete, which only delayed the roll-out the Coalition was delivering – costing jobs and contracts for what? For Labor’s cheap political pointscoring.
“This project is needed now – no more delays and shoddy accounting.
“This about delivering tangible outcomes for people, it’s about road safety, not political posturing and broken promises.
“Even the Labor candidate for Riverina at this year’s election said the overall national result, with Labor winning another term, meant that ‘the Barton Highway duplication can continue on unimpeded’.”