The residents along Armidale Kempsey Road and the greater Armidale community must be feeling a strong sense of Déjà vu in the lead-up to this election. In the lead-up to the 2019 state election, the outgoing National Party local member promised the transfer of Armidale Kempsey Road to state government control as part of a coalition election promise, and $4.5 million to address some immediate repairs.
Fast forward to now, and not one kilometre of road in the whole state has been transferred, and Armidale Kempsey Road continues to be plagued with closures.
"With the former member spending the last four years dodging the community and parliamentary scrutiny on it, and the heir apparent Mr Moylan nowhere to be seen either on the issue, the community can expect another 2 years of disappointment and lack of access if, the national party are elected again to represent Northern Tablelands," said Ben Smith.
"Armidale Kempsey road is a critical piece of road infrastructure in the Northern Tablelands electorate and for it to be continually being closed for the last 6 years is just unacceptable," Said Ben Smith. 'When my upper house colleague Mark Banasiak was elected in 2019, he visited the area on several occasions speaking to the residents with me and immediately took action on the issue, lobbying the government and applying scrutiny in the Regional Transport committee he was deputy chair of.'
The National Party Regional Transport ministers and outgoing local member spent four years making excuses and avoiding delivering on commitments to address the issues with the road. With Mr Marshall failing to front up to frustrated residents along the road on multiple occasions.
If the community doesn't want more of the same and wants action on the road then they need to vote for positive change, and that's what SFF represents, "Said Ben Smith.
"If elected, I will work with my upper house colleagues and the new government to make fixing the Armidale Kempsey road a key priority." Mr Smith said.
