Mr ANTHONY(5.27 p.m.) —I rise tonight to speak on a number of subjects, time permitting: first, some problems with subcontractors on road construction work in the electorate of Richmond and, second, an update on Coolangatta airport. One of the main achievements of the coalition, certainly in New South Wales, has been the enormous amount of money going into the upgrade of the Pacific Highway. There are a number of major projects happening right now on the far north coast.

One project that I would like to mention is the Brunswick Heads bypass. Around $21 million has been earmarked for this project and at the moment the bypass is half way through construction. Unfortunately, the chief contractor on the job, Civilcon, which was the successful tenderer about a year and a half ago with the RTA, has gone into voluntary liquidation and has appointed an administrator. The consequences are quite profound on some of the subcontractors that have been supplying Civilcon to date.

The Brunswick Heads bypass, as the name suggests, bypasses the town of Brunswick Heads from the Brunswick River down to near the turn-off to Mullumbimby. This bypass will add vastly to the economic environment of the region. I believe that the RTA and the New South Wales government need to reconsider the tendering process for road projects, because this is not the first time that this particular subcontractor has been caught. You would think that, if you were working on a government job, it should at least be on the premise that you would be paid.

In the situation with Civilcon, one of the subcontractors is Batson Sand & Gravel Pty Ltd, a very reputable company in the Byron shire. It employs over 40 people and is one of the largest employers besides the Byron shire council. Batson Sand & Gravel has been having a very difficult time due to the work required on EISs in the extraction industry and also due to the moratorium that Byron shire has put on any type of DA. Now the potential situation is that the company could be caught with up to a $260,000 non-payment by Civilcon, which is obviously being paid by the RTA.

This has been the second time this has happened to Batson Sand & Gravel in less than a year. The first time was down near Grafton when this company was working on the Heber Street flood mitigation works to raise the flood levee. On this project the manager was the RTA, the head contractor was Moreverk Pty Ltd and Lynx Construction was a subcontractor. Batson Sand & Gravel worked for Lynx Construction, which went broke. In that instance the Australian Taxation Office garnisheed the payments to Lynx from Moreverk and no subcontractors working for Lynx were paid. On that project this company, Batson Sand & Gravel, lost $28,000 while Moreverk were paid, the ATO were paid and the RTA got its road built. None of the subbies got paid.

The same situation may unfold on the Brunswick Heads bypass. They have a credit arrangement with Civilcon which extends for 45 days. The RTA do not pay Civilcon up to the same period. In this case, for 90 days they have had an outstanding amount of up to $260,000. The sad thing about this is that in some ways the members of the RTA knew of the financial difficulties that this company was involved in when another subcontractor contacted RTA in June concerned about the cash flow and liquidity of this company. However, it continued to trade.

One has to wonder whether there was an appropriate duty of care by certain members of the RTA or whether the whole process of monitoring the contract was deficient. As a result, whilst there is legislation in place in New South Wales which is meant to avoid this situation, the fact is that it is too loose. In many ways the government should be paying Civilcon faster, which is the case in many other road projects, so that they can pay their subbies faster.

As the legislation now stands, you are meant to sign a statutory declaration to say that you have made your payments to subcontractors. That is okay until the last payment—in this case where these people have been caught. The whole economy of the region has been put into a bit of a spin. The fines that the government has imposed are $200, which is inconsequential. Certainly the timing difference between the requirement for the lodgment of a statutory declaration by the head contractor stating that all subcontractors have been paid and the 45-day credit provision means that 90-day work can be undertaken without contravening the Statutory Declarations Act. Section 4.2 of the New South Wales government green paper on the security of payment requires government agencies to actively follow up on claims of non-payment made on their projects. The RTA response to non-payment of claims has directly contravened its policy on both the above projects.

I urge the New South Wales government and the RTA to ensure that this situation is resolved—that subcontractors are paid 100c in the dollar; that the Brunswick Heads bypass, which will save time and fuel, is completed; and that there is a better system in place. This company is now in voluntary receivership. Myrtle Gully was another project in which they experienced difficulty. The RTA was paying in advance because of this, and there is now Lake George.

We must also continue to pressure the New South Wales government to continue the momentum which is on a bit of a go slow now with the Brunswick to Chinderah motorway—a $220 million project, half of which is to be paid by the Commonwealth, just as half of the Brunswick Heads bypass has been paid. It is absolutely essential that this process be sped up. It has been quite some time now since the election. The irony is that the route will probably go back to being very similar to the one that was designed in 1994.

There are a lot of positive elements that could come out of such a route. One is the enormous fuel savings. Every day up to 15,000 vehicles travel up and down that section of the Pacific Highway, which is just north of the Brunswick Heads bypass. There is a four to one ratio between trucks and cars. Therefore, the saving alone would be about 39,000 litres of fuel per day, or 14.2 million litres per year. At 67c per litre, this works out to be a saving of $26,000 per day, or $9.5 million a year, to road users.

There has been a lot of discussion on greenhouse gases. This bypass will mean a reduction in carbon dioxide by 93.4 tonnes per day, or 34,000 tonnes per year. It is good for fuel, and it is good for reducing greenhouse gases. It will also save time—about 15 minutes off the journey to bypass the Burringbar Range. Most importantly, it will save lives because it will be a divided highway. A divided highway reduces the accident rate by up to 85 per cent. It is estimated that the deviation will prevent up to 130 accidents per year. With the average accident cost at $60,000, the Chinderah-Billinudgel deviation could save at least $8 million per year. I urge the New South Wales government and all those players to get moving to start to build it.

I have a quick update on what is happening at Coolangatta airport. Coolangatta airport is the sixth busiest airport in Australia. It is a vital part of the economy for tourism, but likewise there are many residents who live around the airport who are affected by aircraft noise and the traffic operations. A number of things have happened since the coalition has been brought to government. We now have full intersection take-offs for jets and we will have more with general aviation. The preferred runway status—which was detrimental to New South Wales with too many aircraft travelling over New South Wales vis-a-vis Queensland—has now been abolished. Noise abatement procedures have been put into place to get faster rates of climb for aircraft particularly taking off to the south, which affect up to 25,000 residents around the Tweed basin.

We have completed the noise monitoring review, which is very positive, although further work has to be done to get night time operations out of Coolangatta airport, particularly the mail planes. This is one of the main bugbears for people who live around the airport. Finally, the Airservices review has been running for sixth months. A final meeting of all interested parties will be in October. From this period on hopefully consensus will be reached on the allocation of flight paths, particularly over the southern part of Tweed Heads. Certainly there are principles that must be adhered to. We must get air traffic across the water as quickly as possible away from the bulk of the population. This may mean Airservices re-routing significant parts of the air corridor around Coolangatta airport, but this is absolutely critical.

Some individuals who have been very actively involved in the consultation process area include Billy Evans, Sid Cartlidge, John Moriarty, Bill Pinkstone, Jim Boydle, Frank Carvill, Trevor Stephenson, Rupe Granrott and others from Kingscliff and Fingal. It is hoped that we get a positive resolution which is absolutely essential for the residents of the Tweed. (Time expired)