Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King gives update on Great Western Highway upgrade funding

Relations between the Albanese Government's Catherine King and NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway have evidently thawed because they appeared together at a funding announcement near Forbes on Tuesday.

It came less than three months after Mr Farraway and Deputy Premier Paul Toole lashed the Federal Government after it delayed Commonwealth funding for two sections of the duplication of the highway from Lithgow to Katoomba.

Mr Toole said at the time the Labor Government had punted the highway duplication's "start date off into the long grass", while Mr Farraway said contracts had been "torn up", 3900 jobs had "effectively been put on hold" and "we're none the wiser if Labor ever plan to back us in building this highway".

Questioned on Tuesday about the Commonwealth money for the highway duplication (more than $2 billion for the east and west sections that had been committed in the federal Coalition's May 2021 budget), Ms King said the money "remains on the table" under the new government.

"But what I want to see is the entire corridor planned out," she said.

"Obviously, the State Government has a proposal on the table for the middle section of the Great Western Highway [a tunnel from Blackheath to Little Hartley that currently has State Government funding but still needs Federal Government funding to go ahead].

"I want to make sure if we are building the Great Western Highway, we do it once. We don't have to keep going back.

"But it should be a corridor project and we'll continue working with the NSW Government on that."

As she said in October, Ms King also said the money allocated to infrastructure projects had to line up with the capacity to deliver the projects.

"We're also wanting to make sure that, given the capacity constraints that we are seeing across the board at the moment, that we are delivering funding for infrastructure projects in line with when projects can be delivered," Ms King told reporters at the announcement near Forbes.

"What we saw for the previous government was year upon year of substantial underspend of the infrastructure money from the Federal Government, because we could not get that money out the door - because they were not able to put that in line with the delivery timelines of state governments.

"What we're trying to do is to make sure that we actually get these projects in line with that delivery timeline.

"Now, some of the Great Western Highway money has been released. We have released some of that and we're seeing some early work starting on that and we will continue working on that.

"Sam [Farraway] and I will continue working on that.

"But my plan is that we should see the entire corridor planned, decisions around the funding for the entire corridor. But the Commonwealth $2 billion remains on the table."

Asked if the money was ready to "roll out the door", Ms King said: "Yes, that money is available. It remains in the budget."

The NSW Government announced last month that the contract for the Medlow Bath section of the highway duplication had been awarded and "major work" was due to start as soon as March.

Separate to that, early works have started for the upgrade of Coxs River Road as part of the west section of the highway duplication between Lithgow and Little Hartley.

Ms King was questioned about whether early works should be starting if the whole project, including the tunnel, wasn't yet funded.

"Regardless of when the project starts, services are going to need to be moved, so that's really those early works that are standard for major projects," she said.

Ms King said the federal funding for the east and west sections of the highway "was a commitment that we made, to fund those".

"A proposal has been put forward for the tunnel. There's no money available for that and I understand the NSW Government will need to work that through," she said.

"But our commitment has been to fund the two ends and that's what we've committed the money to. But we think the entire corridor needs to be planned out so that we're ensuring that when we start the project, we actually finish it rather than trying to build it in sections."

She said the Great Western Highway upgrade from Lithgow to Katoomba is "a project that certainly is needed".

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