Gulaptis buys into Pacific Highway funding stoush by way of a Dorothy Dixer and gets caught out aiding a political deception

On 7 May the NSW Nationals Member for Clarence, ‘Steve’ Gulaptis, was reported in The Casino Times:

STATE Clarence MP, Chris Gulaptis, (pictured) today condemned Federal Labor for cutting $2.3 billion out of the Pacific Highway in its budget.

"I'm very disappointed to see that Federal Labor has walked away from an agreed 80:20 split on the Pacific Highway funding and cut vital funding from the Pacific Highway," Mr Gulaptis said.

Not content with that piece of political mischief, on 9 May 2012 he rose to his feet in the NSW Legislative Assembly and asked this preordained question of his leader:

My question is directed to the Deputy Premier. How does the Federal Labor budget break the Prime Minister's promise to complete the Pacific Highway upgrade by 2016?

One small problem for the Clarence MP is that records apparently show otherwise according to The Sydney Morning Herald:

Mr Baird and Mr Gay produced a letter from the former Labor transport minister, David Campbell, to Mr Albanese in 2009 saying he would ''undertake to seek a 20 per cent NSW government commitment to the additional funding''.

But Mr Albanese said: ''My reply to NSW was to reject minister Campbell's proposal for an 80-20 funding split. On the 29th of January I wrote back to minister Campbell and I said … I was very disappointed about the decision [of the NSW government] to reduce its funding further.''

This is not only confirmed in Andrew Stoner’s convoluted reply to Gulaptis according to the NSW Hansard of 9 May, but by letters published on 10 May 2012 in The Sydney Morning Herald.

These show that a federal government offer was retracted because NSW failed to act in time and one additional funding amount being made available was part of the stimulus package in response to the global financial crisis - see below.

It would appear that any hope of anything like a permanent 80:20 or 83:17 funding split in New South Wales’ favour was only ever alive in the mind of the NSW government of the day and, it was swiftly disabused of this notion.

Indeed, in 2009 the NSW Government agreed to reconsider its Pacific Highway upgrade contribution levels at a future date and, in light of that promise and in recognition of nationally hard economic times the Federal Government was more than generous when it came to monies for specific upgrade sections granted to the state.

NSW by its own admission paid only 10 per cent of the total cost of the completed Glenugie section and paid nothing towards the Kempsey By-pass section due to be opened next year. Yet Mr. Gulaptis has stated to North Coast media that these works were undertaken in an 80:20 funding split.

Mr. Gulaptis needs to realize that he first duty is to the truth and not to his party. He also needs to remember that political whoppers will almost always get found out.

NSW Minister for Transport's 2009 letter to Canberra

Federal Minister For Infrastructure's 2009 letter to NSW Government