Independent Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott has expressed his shock over a “blame game’ that has taken place after a deadly highway crash in Urunga.
Mr Oakeshott says NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay and Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser have admitted failure on their patch by laying blame for a horrific accident at Urunga on an MP whose electorate is more than 100 kilometres away.
“For Mr Gay to blame the state of a road on an independent MP, whose electorate is 130 kilometres away, is extraordinary, Mr Oakeshott said.
“I accept this is a time in politics when independent MPs are blamed for just about everything, but this is absurd.
“A roads minister, of all people, should understand the sensitivity of a fatal accident on any road, but this left-field attack on Channel Nine news seems to indicate that even respect for grieving families is gone from NSW politics.
“It also implies an admission of failure by the roads minister to fix the road in question any time soon.
“For the record, I have never asked for any money from one north coast project to be directed to another. That applies to all issues.
“My job, which I do as hard as I can, is to lobby for projects in the electorate of Lyne that need attention.
“I believe that hard lobbying work is the job of every local MP, and I will continue to do it, and continue to chase local results.
“For the National Party to then take the next step and accuse me of being party to redirecting funding from Urunga to Port Macquarie is wrong, and deserves no further comment in light of the recent fatal and horrific accident, other than the very obvious message of “fix the road’.”
