Seven key roads have been added to the National Land Transport Network.

The inclusion of these roads on the national network is recognition that they will play an important role in the nation’s continuing economic development. They will now have access to Federal funding.

The roads approved for inclusion on the Network are:

• Western Motorway (M4) (NSW) – from the intersection with Westlink (M7) at Eastern Creek to the intersection with the Great Western Highway at North Strathfield;


• Townsville Ring Road (Queensland) – bypass route for the Bruce Highway to the south and west of Townsville;


• South Road (South Australia) – extension of South Road from Sir Donald Bradman Drive to the Southern Expressway;


• Great Eastern Highway (Western Australia) – from Kooyong Road to the Roe Highway via the Great Eastern Highway bypass;


• Karratha Dampier Road (Western Australia) – from Burrup Peninsula Road to the North West Coastal Highway, and then to the Great Northern Highway;


• Bunbury Port Access Road and Stage 1 of the Bunbury Outer Ring Road (Western Australia) – Bunbury Port Access Road from Estuary Drive to the Bunbury Outer Ring Road (Stage 1) which will extend from the Boyanup Picton Road to the South Western Highway (south); and


• Tasman and Brooker Highways (Tasmania) – from the Midland Highway to central Hobart and to Hobart airport.

Central to the Government’s nation building agenda, and essential to Australia’s international competitiveness, is the national road network.

Although the national network accounts for only 3 per cent of Australia’s total road length, it carries 15 per cent of all traffic and 18 per cent of the country’s freight – and the demands on it are predicted to grow significantly in coming decades.

That’s why the Government has announced a $24.2 billion roads budget for the period between 2008/09 and 2013/14 – a record amount of Federal funding and double what the previous government spent over a similar period of time.

Our much larger roads budget will fund routine maintenance as well as upgrades to poorly designed and congested sections of the network – which in turn will lower transport costs, cut travel times, reduce carbon emissions and saves lives.