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June 12th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Australia’s deadliest stretch of road has become a political battlefield, with a row between NSW and the commonwealth jeopardising plans to turn the Pacific Highway into a dual carriageway by 2016.
The 16-year-old war erupted again on Tuesday when Treasurer Mike Baird announced in his second budget that NSW would pledge $1.5 billion over four years to the upgrade.
The trouble is Canberra wanted the state government to put in $3.6 billion over that period to match the federal government’s May budget pledge.
While Mr Baird made no mention of the Pacific Highway to reporters on Tuesday, NSW Treasury papers say the federal government’s insistence on a 50:50 funding split will lead to a $2.3 billion funding gap.
The commonwealth argues the equal funding partnership dates back to 1996, and says the 80:20 deal reached between the Rudd government and the former NSW Labor government in 2009 was a one-off stimulus measure.
Federal transport minister Anthony Albanese, who is named after a young cousin who died on the Pacific Highway, said the NSW government had let down voters.
“This is a betrayal of North Coast residents and all who use the Pacific Highway,” he told reporters in Canberra.
The 2016 deadline for the highway completion will probably now not be met, depending on the outcome of further talks between the two governments, Mr Albanese says.
With the commonwealth only committed to matching NSW dollar for dollar, some of the $3.6 billion earmarked for the Pacific Highway will instead go to other projects under the Nation Building Program.
“There are lots of roads and there are lots of premiers who want a co-operative relationship and want to engage in nation building,” Mr Albanese said.
Rail projects are another source of tension between NSW and the Commonwealth, with the state government pledging $3.3 billion over four years for the contentious North West Rail link.
The project to connect suburbs in northwest Sydney with Epping was rejected by Infrastructure Australia in May and the commonwealth has not committed any money to it.
The Gillard government went to the 2010 election promising to build an Epping to Parramatta rail link, on the condition NSW put in $500 million, but Premier Barry O’Farrell instead wants that money spent on the North West Rail Link.
The state budget also dedicated $1.4 billion over four years for the South West Rail Link.
Another $30 million is being put aside to begin planning for a new Sydney motorway, ahead of Infrastructure NSW releasing in September its 20-year plan for prioritising major projects.
Roads Minister Duncan Gay pledged that construction on a new motorway would begin by March 2015.
“We have a commitment to start on that missing link during this term,” he told Fairfax Radio.
But Opposition Leader John Robertson questioned how the $30 million pledge would see a motorway materialise within three years.
“It’s not going to see a single bulldozer turn a sod of dirt on any new road project,” he told reporters.
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