A federal Coalition government would be more generous on road funding than Labor by injecting $5 billion to complete the duplication of the Pacific Highway, according to the Nationals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Nationals leader Warren Truss will make this commitment today when he opens the party's federal conference in Canberra.
He will promise that a Tony Abbott-led Coalition government would restore the 80-20 funding partnership with the NSW government to speed the project.
An advance copy of his speech shows he will criticise the federal Labor government's promise to fully duplicate the highway by 2016.
''It has turned into just another broken promise,'' he says.
''Now Labor is saying any future money from the Commonwealth will have to be matched 50-50 by the NSW government, even though Labor paid more than 80 per cent of the cost of projects on the highway when Labor was in office in NSW.
''Labor knows that a deeply in debt NSW government cannot afford a deal like that.
''Today I am announcing that the next Liberal-National Coalition government will provide the funding to complete the four-laneing of the Pacific Highway all the way from Sydney to the Queensland border.
''On top of the $3.56 billion already included in the federal budget, the Coalition will redirect $2.08 billion, which Labor had allocated to the Epping to Parramatta rail line and which the O'Farrell government does not regard a priority, to guarantee the completion of the Pacific Highway. This new funding commitment brings the Commonwealth's funding offer up to the standard 80-20 ratio, and puts an end to Minister Albanese's phoney and discredited stand-off with NSW.
''It now means that every day [independents] Robert Oakeshott and Tony Windsor keep this dysfunctional government in office, is a day longer before the Pacific Highway is completed.''
This week the Coalition covered over its differences concerning foreign investment by introducing a motion into Parliament backing the sale of agriculture to foreign interests but demanding the government release its reasons for approving the sale of Cubbie Station to a Chinese led-consortium.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce has spearheaded the party's outrage over the sale of the cotton giant after it was assessed as within the national interest by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Today's speech does not mention Cubbie Station but takes a shot at the board, while emphasising the Nationals are not against foreign investment.
Mr Truss chaired a Coalition policy group that recommended a national register of foreign acquisitions and a lower threshold for board assessment of proposed farm and agribusiness purchases.
''For the Nationals, this is not an academic discussion, it goes to the heart of Australia's capacity to remain in control of our own destiny,'' Mr Truss will say today.
He will paint a grim picture of Australia's economy for National Party delegates.
''The cost of doing business is rising, but commodity prices are plummeting, our international competitiveness is in free-fall and business and consumer confidence has been shattered,'' his speech says.
''After two years of Julia Gillard's failures, the extreme dogma of the Greens and the sanctimonious grandstanding of the independents, Australians have had enough, the people want to cut Labor loose.
''Federally, we take great heart from the clean sweep that has seen Western Australian, Victorian, NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory elections emphatically choose Liberal-National governments.
''It is a domino effect that, federally, we have a responsibility to continue.''
Mr Truss will restate the Nationals' pledge to create a Regional Fair Share Fund to support local projects and deliver new facilities specifically for people beyond the capital cities.