According to the interview, John Cobb’s experience to Black Spots will______. [o

Interviewer(W)Jamie Briggs(M)
W: Welcome to our show. Have you heard the saying that driving is the most dangerous thing that most of us will do in our lives? So what can be done to make it safer? I think we all know an intersection or a stretch of road that is dangerous and needs to be fixed. Well, there’s some federal money available through the Black Spot funding program. Jamie Briggs is an MP: he’s also the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Welcome, Jamie.
M: Thanks. New South Wales has appointed John Cobb as the chair of the Black Spot consultative panel, and many of your listeners know John is a very experienced parliamentarian.(1)And, John knows transport needs very well in New South Wales, and he brings a level of experience to the Black Spot committee, which will ensure we get the best value of money that we want, but also improve our productive capacity on important metro but also, importantly, regional roads.
W: Today we’re broadcasting not just to the Riverina, but to the southwest and the southeast of the state. People in the regions will know these roads, and know that there are issues with some of them, what can they do if there’s a bad stretch of road? The council knows about it, but what can they do?
M: Well, look, in respect to this program, the Federal Government runs the Black Spot Program. It’s a $60 million program a year, spread across the states. Obviously, New South Wales gets a good share of that.(2)What people can do with their local government particularly is to identify black spots which have had a crash history, where there have been incidents over the last two or three years. They can identify those black spots to the committee, they don’t need all that much information, and they can fill it out themselves. The local government body gets used to getting the best outcome, and then the committee makes the considerations, what are the best value projects. Projects can be up to $2 million in federal contribution. The state and local government can put in more, of course. Black spots usually mean that we’re not getting the best value, particularly in regional areas, that we can get from the roads. So this program can really make a big difference in that respect.
W: And the funding was specifically set up, but if there was an intersection or a stretch of road, with a crash history, that it would be addressed?
M: Well, that’s right, and it was a funding program set up initially by the Howard Government, and has continued since that time, and it’s got a great track record. It’s got a terrific economic outcome, economic history, and it’s also got a really important contribution to our safety performance of many of our metro and regional roads. And many of your listeners will know well that there are many local roads which carry heavy amounts of freight, and contributions to our economic development, which are unsafe at times. And, as economic activity increases in our region, we need to fix those to ensure we get the best value.
W: Is that part of the difficulty too, that the roads and bridges weren’t designed for some semi-trailers, let alone B-doubles?
M: Well, indeed, in respect of bridges, during the campaign, the Coalition announced a program specifically to deal with bridges, and that’ll be something that the Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss will be shortly talking more about. We will have a specific bridge program to upgrade bridges in regional areas. And, your listeners in New South Wales know that those bridges which were, as you say, built many years ago, are now carrying significant loads, which we want them to carry.
W: Well, what do you want our regions to do?
M: We want our regions to do better, we want our regions to be sending more of our high quality primary produce to ports to get onto ships, to export overseas, and to do that we need the most effective road network.(4 - 1)And the Australian Government’s committing to spending significant amounts to upgrade major roads, in Sydney, for instance, we’re committing $1.5 billion, as part of the WestConnex proposal, which has an impact on our freight capacity, of course, getting our stuff to airports and to ports.(3)But this program, while it’s small, makes a significant contribution to our regional development because it ensures we get productive capacity on many roads which are suffering from substandard infrastructure. And, what I’ve asked John Cobb to do is to lead this committee and get the best value for the money that we allocate each year.
W: Should the business sector, businesses that set up in certain areas be asked to help fund roads?
M:(5 - 1)Well, indeed they are on some occasions, and part of the challenge the country has, as both state and federal governments deal with Labor’s debt is to increasingly find ways to attract private sector investment. Sometimes that’s through pricing.(4 - 2)The private sector is involved in the WestConnex project, and is incentivized to be involved. So, of course, in that instance, it’s attractive to both federal, state governments, but also the private sector, and(5 - 2)we’ll increasingly be looking at ways to attract private sector investment into our important economic infrastructure.
W: All right, it’s time to end today’s program. Thank you, Jamie. Thanks for talking with us.
M: My pleasure.