Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (17:00): I love to talk about regional roads because I know how important roads are to people in my regional community. Everybody is talking about roads, even Cliff Hofman, who is a year 7 student at Bomaderry High School. Cliff won the Raise Our Voice competition in Gilmore, and last week I read out Cliff's speech in the Australian parliament. And you guessed it: Cliff's topic was about potholes and how he wants the local roads in the Shoalhaven to be fixed. I couldn't agree more with Cliff. That's why, after a decade of neglect by the former coalition government, the Albanese Labor government is delivering record investment funding for regional roads.
Since coming to government, we've doubled the Roads to Recovery Program from $500 million to $1 billion. This has already been baked into the budget and will remain at a high level into the future. This is a significant change which will provide more funding to local councils. I know that, in Gilmore, the Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Kiama councils rely on this funding—and now it's increased funding—to help fix local roads.
What I like about the Roads to Recovery Program is that councils determine which local roads are to be funded under the program, and there are some beautiful and important roads that have been fixed and are set to be fixed into the future. Just last week Eurobodalla council staff sent me their list of roads for 2025-26, and I can say it is an extensive list of local roads that is benefiting from this program. Well done, Eurobodalla council. I know locals in the Eurobodalla shire will be eagerly awaiting and thankful for those local roads being fixed with additional funds.
Despite writing to Shoalhaven City Council in July this year, requesting to be provided with regular updates on the $40 million Shoalhaven local roads package—funding that I secured as an election commitment and delivered in the October 2022 federal budget—I remain disappointed that Shoalhaven City Council has not provided me with that information. I am bemused by how something so simple, to provide simple information direct to me and the public in a regular and transparent way, can be so difficult. I know constituents in Gilmore would like a simple description of each of the six roads to be fixed and the estimated timelines for each road and intersection to be fixed. It's not that hard. We pay our rates and taxes.
The good news is we've also significantly increased funding for the Black Spots Program. This is a great program, which we've increased from $110 million to $150 million annually, supporting more life-saving road improvements across the country. All local councils in Gilmore have benefited from this program, and it's great to see more local roads being fixed under the Black Spots Program thanks to extra funding from the Albanese Labor government. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program is also a fabulous federally funded program that helps local councils with projects such as roads, community halls, parks and sports facilities, bike paths and playgrounds, and it's terrific to see lots of great road and community infrastructure projects being funded in Gilmore under this program.
When it comes to the larger road infrastructure projects, which I have been fighting for, they are either in construction or finally progressing well. I'm proud to be part of the Albanese Labor government that is getting on with these important regional road projects. You can't miss the construction progress on the Jervis Bay flyover, which now has the concrete girders in place to support the new bridge. Pleasingly the new bridge is set to be open by mid next year, making the intersection safer, with the project set for full completion in 2027. This was made possible with $100 million in federal funding.
The Milton Ulladulla bypass is progressing well, with $752 million in federal funding. The Princes Highway duplication between the Jervis Bay turn-off and Tomerong is also progressing well, with $400 million in federal funding. And the Nowra bypass, after a decade of inaction from the Liberals, is in the early planning stage, with $97 million in federal funding. Whether it's providing more funding to help local councils with local roads or funding major roads projects, we're getting on with the job of fixing our regional roads.
