D Johnston’s letter (Independent, Thursday June 21) is a timely reminder of how abysmal Coalition Government (both State and Federal) funding for the Pacific Highway has been over the last 25 years.
When the Greiner Government was elected to power in February 1988, they immediately called a halt to work on the Pacific Highway, a situation which remained unchanged until they were unceremoniously removed from office in 1995. When the Carr Labor Government came to power in NSW in 1995, followed ten months later by the Howard-led Coalition victory federally, the State contributed $100 million per annum compared to only $60 million by the Federal government, a situation which remained until the Howard-led Coalition was removed from office in the 2007 landslide.
In the twenty-year period from 1988 to 2007, the National Party’s Member for Port Macquarie, Wendy Machin, and later their Federal Member for Lyne, Mark Vaile, had been fighting tooth and nail to gain increases in funding for the Pacific Highway but were summarily ignored by their respective “bosses”. Is it any wonder that they both retired early?
The incoming Labor Government’s eightfold increase in Pacific Highway funding, to $500 million per year, showed how pathetically inadequate the former Howard/Costello Government’s contribution had been.
I don’t agree with D Johnston that there are precedents supporting an 80:20 split in Pacific Highway funding, nor do I see any evidence that there has been an in-principle agreement to a 50:50 arrangement.
So why is it that a large majority of mid-north coast voters have been so confidently anticipating that the necessary funding to ensure the Pacific Highway upgrading would be completed by the end of 2016? We have to go no further than the Coalition’s 2011 campaign in support of Leslie Williams’ bid to be elected as the Member for Port Macquarie. Throughout Duncan Gay’s barnstorming visit to this area he repeated over and over, the Coalition’s “whatever it takes” promise to provide the extra funding to complete the Pacific Highway work by the 2016 deadline. The O’Farrell Government has abandoned its promise to provide the necessary funding, leaving Leslie Williams to suffer the same embarrassing situation as Wendy Machin and Mark Vaile.
Mike Dibbs
Port Macquarie
