Country transport blueprint is only bad news

The NSW Farmers’ Association is concerned that the Sydney transport blueprint not only contains no plans to improve regional transport, but appears to also penalise farmers and country people.

NSW Farmers’ Association President Charles Armstrong says the 10-year, $10 billion plan includes funding gathered from a new levy on heavy vehicles, which will obviously unfairly impact on country people.

“To expect farmers to pay for improvements to city transport when they register heavy vehicles necessary for their business is ludicrous,” he said. “The irony when the roads country people drive on could often be described as goat tracks is great.

“We are eager to see more detail, but we believe that vehicles registered for on-farm use should be exempt from an additional levy, and we expect the Minister to acknowledge the necessity of this for on-farm production.

“Country people are set to gain nothing from this announcement. While we understand the need for improvements in our growing cities, even basic maintenance is being ignored west of the divide.

“We will be seeking an urgent meeting with the State Government to discuss this issue in the hopes that this huge impost for farmers has merely been overlooked, and can be rectified immediately,” Mr Armstrong concluded.