00:00The Tongara Road is a car park for the local community.
00:03Good morning everyone, thanks for getting here for this very exciting announcement.
00:08My name is Caitlin McInerney and I'm standing as the candidate for Labour for the seat of
00:13Kiama in our upcoming by-election. In 2023 when I stood we knocked on hundreds of doors in this
00:21part of the world in beautiful Albion Park, Talambar and Calderwood and the number one
00:27concern people had in this area was the traffic chaos. It was adding enormous stress to people's
00:33lives, making it difficult to get kids to school, kids to early learning, grandparents making it very
00:38difficult for them to come in and help and really the number one message to me was we have to end
00:44the traffic chaos in Albion Park. As part of that in 2023 the Minns Labor Government was, I was
00:52successfully in securing the Minns Labor Government putting additional funding into the Tripoli
00:56Way extension, $20.4 million at that point in time. I'm really pleased to say that money has
01:03gone to council ensuring they can get on with the work of delivering this road but we knew there
01:08was more work to do. An additional $20 million for Tripoli Way which will bring the state government's
01:14contribution to $40 million. There's also a significant contribution from the local council as well
01:19for one of the most important thoroughfares or potential thoroughfares in the entire state.
01:25If you look at the statistics here, 6,000 additional homes have been added to this community in a
01:32very short space of time without anywhere near enough infrastructure spend from the state government
01:37to make life easy and bearable as a result of the massive increase in population. I want to say
01:43clearly that I understand that there's a degree of scepticism when it comes to promises that are made
01:48during by-elections but the truth of the matter is there's still a great opportunity for governments
01:53that listen to understand what's going on on the ground and try and fix them when we're told what
01:58the problem is. I'm ecstatic about this announcement. We're getting on and doing the Tripoli Way extension
02:05as we speak. It's been a conversation since 1961 and frankly it's getting towards gridlock here.
02:13That part of the city is fulfilling most of the state's housing accord. There's a new Calderwood
02:19school going out there and of course as the premier stated he got locked in traffic today as well and it held him up.
Comments