MERYL SWANSON, MEMBER FOR PATERSON: Well, good morning everyone and welcome to the M1 here at – well, we’re kind of at Tarro at the moment, but it’s on its way to Raymond Terrace. But what is most exciting is that the people of the Hunter and the people of New South Wales and the Eastern Seaboard of Australia are going to be on their way within 48 hours on this magnificent piece of road infrastructure. Success has many parents, but let me tell you, Labor has delivered this road. And I cannot wait for the people of Australia to be driving on it in less than 48 hours. It’s been coming for around 20 years, and we’ve all been working towards this day to have it officially opened. It’s opened under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and we were just reflecting – I’ve been in this job ten years, and I think I’ve spoken in Parliament about this officially about 40 times, and I’ve mentioned it many more times.
And I remember saying when I first got the job, I said 'the M1 is terrible. It's terrible at Hexham. It's just a choke point between Sydney and Brisbane. It needs to be fixed.' And he has backed this project in every step of the way. And I want to also mention Minister Catherine King. She came here and said 'we're going to fast track it.' It’s one thing to make a promise, it's another thing to deliver it. And that big group of people behind us, those workers, 70 per cent of them are from the Hunter. They've delivered this project not only on budget, but over 12 months early. When do you hear that? Especially in construction in the last few years. We've done it. The rubber is going to hit the road. It is an awesome day. And I want to thank my state counterpart, Jenny Aitchison and Kate Washington as well. It's a big team Labor effort, but it's a big effort for our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you and I can't wait to be driving on it. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to welcome the Prime Minister as well. Thanks, PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Meryl. And congrats to you. You've been a champion for this road, as have the other locals who are joining us here today. Sharon Claydon, the Member for Newcastle. Tim Crakanthorp, the state Member for Newcastle. We have Kate Washington, the Member for Port Stephens. And of course as well, Jenny Aitchison, who's also the Minister, along with Minister King as well.
This will make an enormous difference, and I've been very passionate for my entire political career about fixing the Pacific Highway. My name is Anthony, I'm named after my cousin who was four years old, who died on the Pacific Highway just before I was born back in 1963. And the tragedies that have occurred on the Pacific Highway, up and down, is something that drove me to be very passionate about fixing the Pac Highway. And we put in $7.6 billion of infrastructure upgrades including just north of here to Taree. The projects like the Kempsey Bypass, T to E, up further north. All of the projects that made sure that the duplication of this highway was turned into something that some people thought would never ever happen into now a reality. So, that when this road opens in less than 48 hours, we will have no traffic lights all the way from Melbourne right up to Coffs Harbour. And later this year you'll be able to go to the Queensland border.
And I want to pay tribute to all those locals who've campaigned, particularly here in the Hunter. I want to thank all the workers who've delivered this project on budget or under budget and more than 12 months ahead of time. For infrastructure projects, that is a remarkable achievement, and this road will make an enormous difference. Everyone who's ever driven from Sydney to Brisbane or locals in this area will all know that this choke point that occurred when you got to Hexham and Heatherbrae and these areas was something that was a real issue. This is good for productivity, it's good for freight, it's good for people travelling on this road, but it's also great for locals because what it will do is make sure that it separates out the highway from local roads, which is good for road safety. It's also been great for jobs. 70 per cent of the workers who worked on this project, worth about $2.4 billion, an 80:20 split from the Commonwealth to the state government, have been locals. And as well as that, the local suppliers as well, who've supplied the works that have gone in here, has made an enormous difference.
The Hunter has an incredible future. This comes just a couple of weeks after I was at Tomago, announcing with the state government to make sure that that facility will continue to drive aluminium production, which will make such a difference. It comes on top of the state government's commitment to build trains here in the Hunter. We want manufacturing here, we want jobs here, we want a strong economy here. And we're working with the Minns Labor Government to make sure that that occurs. This will be a great day on Friday. I am so proud the work that we have done. I'm unashamedly an infrastructure nerd. It's been my concentration in the 30 years in which I've been in public life, because I know that it is good infrastructure that drives our economy, drives productivity, and that is precisely what this project will do. I'll hand to the Infrastructure Minister, Catherine King.
CATHERINE KING, MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE: Thanks very much. It is fantastic to be back here with both state and parliamentary colleagues, but also the Prime Minister who basically started this project off when he was Infrastructure Minister the last time we were in government, and I'm so proud that now gets to cut the ribbon on what is an amazing project here on the M1. As the Prime Minister has said, once Coffs is open towards the end of this year, depending on the weather, you will be able to drive from the Victorian border to the Queensland border with no traffic lights at all. This takes out five sets of traffic lights, but of course removes a really significant pinch point that has been the bane of the local community for some time, but really does provide that connection right the way through to the Queensland border and of course through to Victoria.
I well remember Meryl and I standing under the bridge in 2019, when we weren't in government, saying this project needed to be fast tracked. We then had to wait, unfortunately, until we got into government in 2022 and we came and turned the sod in 2023 to get this project actually started. It has taken Labor governments to actually deliver this project and that is what we are doing for the Hunter right the way across the board. Whether it is the Singleton Bypass – again, another significant piece of infrastructure for this region that will be open again hopefully this year, depending on the weather, we're pretty close to doing that as well – Muswellbrook starting as well. Really significant investments in infrastructure through the Hunter, and of course our investments in the future of high-speed rail. I really do want to congratulate all of the workers here. Well over 2,700 workers supporting local businesses, 70 per cent of them here. They have done an amazing job. It's a piece of infrastructure to which they and their families can be very proud because residents will be driving on this for many, many years to come. And it's a great day for the Hunter and I can't wait to see, I'm sure Meryl is going to post a video of driving along. Not her driving while she takes the video, I'm sure, but driving along this magnificent piece of road on Friday when it opens and I really hope every single Member enjoys that experience. I'll hand over to Jenny.
JENNY AITCHISON: Thanks, Catherine. Look, what a historic day to be here. It was way back in 1928 that the highway between Hexham and Tweed was proclaimed State Highway Number 10. And in that time since then, 98 years, we have bypassed 30 towns. This was always one of the most difficult with Coffs Harbour because of the terrain. We have a 14-kilometre bypass here that goes in this massive viaduct, three and a half kilometres over the Hunter River. A significant engineering feat. The workers, the 2,700 workers who work on this site are part of an amazing transformation of our national highway. The genesis of this project, the Pacific Highway upgrade, started with that horrific crash in 1989, those two horrific crashes where 57 people died. This is about improving the safety, first and foremost, of this iconic and vital infrastructure for our nation.
We know that until that Pacific Highway program started, with Labor government signing in 1996 to commence this upgrade, we wouldn't be here today. And as the Prime Minister and Minister King have both said, this languished on the books in New South Wales and was ignored for over a decade. It took that federal contribution, that 80 per cent injection, to actually get it moving. And what we see today is a project that is well ahead of time. If you look at the signs all around us, they say due to be completed in 2028. Well, it's 2026, and here we are. In 48 hours, we'll be driving on it. I'm incredibly proud of the work that every single one of the workers here has undertaken to ensure that we got to today ahead of schedule.
I'm really grateful to our communities who have worked with us to enable us to get that work done. These projects are not easy. They have a massive disruption. But people could see the promise of this. Hexham has been the bugbear. You go down to the Transport Management Centre on any long weekend, and this is the intersection that all of them are looking at and trying to work out how we're going to get people through. Any flood – in those terrible floods last year, it was taking an hour to get that few kilometres down the road. This will be a massive game changer for our region. 25,000 cars use this on a normal day, but we know during those peak times it's even more. We know this will help to relieve a lot of that congestion around the surrounding areas, particularly in Thornton, which has really suffered from having to take up the load of not having this road done in time, which it should have been.
I'm so grateful to the Albanese Labor government, the Minns Labor government and all of my colleagues across the Hunter who have advocated for this infrastructure, the workers who have done it, as we've said, 70 per cent of them here, local, 99 apprentices and trainees have learnt their trade on this job. That's an incredible legacy for them.
I want to thank our Aboriginal elders and our communities here to who have engaged with us on the project. It is important that we acknowledge they are the knowledge holders of our nation's trading routes and our journeys and places of meaning. And without them we would not be where we are today. I want to thank everyone and I'm going to pass over to Kate.
KATE WASHINGTON: Thanks, Jenny. And good morning, everyone. I know that this is a project of national and state significance, but on behalf of the people of Port Stephens, can I just say, woohoo! The Hexham bottleneck is gone for good. Honestly, this is just, it has been the bugbear of our community for so long and I know it has impacted so many other people from across the state. And the country. But literally locals spend so much time travelling this stretch every single day to go to work, to go to sporting events, to see their kids go and play footy. This is going to make a massive difference to the daily lives of locals here in Port Stephens and across the Hunter. So, we are super excited. We were all gritting our teeth with the 2028 end time on this project. Now that it is 2026 and we are standing here opening it, it is just a remarkable feat. So, I'm really grateful to the Albanese Government, Minns Labor Government, Minister King, Minister Aitchison and all of my federal and state colleagues. We have been working together on this for some time and to see it happen now, it's going to be an enormous game changer for the Hunter, for Port Stephens.
And honestly, we are taking off here in the Hunter. There are so many good things happening and this M1 was a critical part of the puzzle that we needed to make happen. And thanks to all of the people that are around me now, but particularly the workers behind us. That has been an incredible achievement. I want to thank my community for their patience through the construction period. But big, enormous gratitude to the workforce that has made this happen on budget and well, well ahead of schedule. My community could not be more grateful. Thanks so much.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the [INAUDIBLE] took place back in 1989 after a terrible bus crash. Made recommendations of which in 1996, the Commonwealth came in and put a lot of money into the Pacific Highway. Obviously, we've reached a milestone at the moment with this particular project at Coffs Harbour. But there are several major intersections up the Coast requiring an injection of funds. Will you be committing more funding to the Pacific Highway upgrade in terms of building those six or seven interchanges that are required to be built?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, with respect, the fact is between 1996 and 2007 there was $1.3 billion put into this road. We put in, in the next six years, $7.6 billion. Over half the time, we put in six times the funding, because it took the election of a Labor government to actually get the real investment through. And we continue to be major investors. We brought forward additional funding for this project. We brought forward as well the funding to make sure the Coffs Harbour Bypass was able to be completed. We'll continue to invest in infrastructure. I'll ask my Minister if she wants anything to add. But once we get the Coffs Harbour Bypass open, then that will be traffic light free the whole way through from Melbourne right through to the Queensland border. So, where there have been issues such as Banora Point, T to E, the whole way down the Coast. The area north of Coffs was a big issue as well. Around Woolgoolga up to Arrawarra. All of this road, I know every inch of it. And under my Prime Ministership it will certainly always be looked after, including the choke points.
MINISTER KING: Thanks very much for the question. First, we're celebrating an incredible milestone here and that substantial investment that has come again started under Prime Minister Albanese, finished under Prime Minister Albanese. It's a terrific tribute. We get requests from state governments. As you can see with this project in particular, we work very closely as the delivery partner, as the co-investor for infrastructure. We get requests from state governments. If there are further projects, which there always are – I want to build everything all at once, all the time. We'd love to be able to do that. But there are always requests from state governments. They go through our usual budget processes, and we'll consider those as they come forward. So, if there are further projects that need to come forward either from the Queensland Government, on the Queensland side, from the NSW Government or from the Victorian Government, we of course will consider those very seriously as part of our budget processes.
JOURNALIST: A few questions to you, Prime Minister. Did your office identify the Marrickville Golf Club for funding as part of the major and local community infrastructure program?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I answered this on the ABC before. The fact is that the Inner West Council own the golf club. There were three grants given to my electorate. One of those was for the Leichhardt Women's Health Centre. That's a women's health centre that's been there since the 1970s. It's on the corner of a residential street in Leichardt. They've been providing services to women, health services, for 50 years. It's aged. What that funding was about was for assisting the upgrade of that. The second grant was for St Vincent de Paul for a refuge for women and children escaping domestic violence, for the upgrade there. The third grant is for an Inner West Council owned golf club that's been there for a very long period of time. And what that golf course does is, it's a community facility. But importantly, because it's really old, they have septic tank, it's on a flooded area on the banks of the Cooks River and when it rains, raw sewage goes into the river. It's been something that's been identified as an issue for a long period of time. We're funding it, we're fixing it. That's what good governments do.
JOURNALIST: But, Prime Minister, these, I understand, were an invite only grant, so was it you or your office personally that recommended this project?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. It was an election commitment, an election commitment that we're delivering, because we're a good government and when we say we'll do something, like this road, we bring forward funding. And you know, the ABC have been told this, they've chosen not to report it in the way in which the facts are there. This is a par 62 local golf course which is used on some days. They use it to close off the first fairway because people go and have picnics by the river. There are – as the ABC has reported, I did campaign to keep the golf course available because I didn't want that really important space, of which there isn't enough in the Inner West for people to enjoy amenity. I make no apologies for that, like I make no apologies for supporting the Greenway project and other projects in my electorate.
JOURNALIST: Just on another matter concerning the Hunter. You just approved the Central Queensland Mine extension. Does this mean anything in regards to the Hunter Valley HVO proposed extension?
PRIME MINISTER: No. It means these things are all done on their merits. Thank you. We've got to get on.