The Mid-North Coast NSW Business Chamber believes the release of the second six-monthly Pacific Highway Report Card confirms the 2016 completion date target has been dumped.
The NSW Business Chamber advocated for the release of six-monthly report cards as a way of increasing accountability for the long overdue road upgrade and they congratulated the NSW and Federal Governments for having taken up this accountability challenge. “I’m bitterly disappointed that the second Pacific Highway Report Card proves that our hopes of a 2016 finish for the Pacific Highway upgrade have completely evaporated,” said Kellon Beard, Mid-North Coast NSW Business Chamber Regional Manager.
“The section in the first Report Card called ‘Achieving the 2016 target’ has been renamed in the second Report Card ‘Finish-ing the job’ — the clearest indication yet that ‘finishing the job’ is a long way off.
“The community is not interested in the blame game between the State and Federal Governments over Pacific Highway funding. We just want to see the Pacific Highway upgrade finished as soon as possible, with a sensible funding agreement between our two governments.
Mr Beard said the NSW Business Chamber’s original proposal for the Pacific Highway Report Card included a requirement for the Prime Minister and Premier to personally sign off on the report cards as a way of ensuring their personal responsibility for the project.
“It’s time for the Prime Minister and NSW Premier to take a personal stake in finishing the Pacific Highway upgrade. Both the State and Federal Governments talk about the importance of the Pacific Highway and the horrendous death toll, but they are failing to deliver on their promise to finish the upgrade by 2016.
“Cheap political point scoring by both governments is not the solution to fixing the Pacific Highway — a mature discussion with a funding agreement is the solution we are all looking for.
“Even the fact that we are being updated on construction progress for the six months ending June 30 in the last week of October highlights the very point that the Pacific Highway completion is slipping in priority for both governments.”
