NSW: Combined ministries not too much for Campbell - Keneally

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2010
NSW: Combined ministries not too much for Campbell - Keneally

GOSFORD, NSW, April 14 AAP - A huge traffic debacle that left commuters stranded for
hours on a Sydney freeway is not a sign the roads and transport portfolio is too big for
one minister, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally says.

Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) chief Michael Bushby was stood down on Wednesday,
pending an investigation into why commuters were stranded for up to eight hours on the
F3 on Monday.

Former NSW police commissioner Ken Maroney has been appointed to head the investigation,
which will look into why a contra-flow system was not used to get traffic moving after
an accident blocked the road on Monday.

Ms Keneally said the incident was not a sign that Transport and Roads Minister David
Campbell's portfolio was too big.

She said there was no need to spilt roads and transport into two portfolios, although
they were separate ministries before Mr Campbell added roads to his responsibilities in
December last year.

"To date there's been no evidence to suggest that," Ms Keneally told reporters in Gosford
on the NSW Central Coast.

"To date, even the NSW opposition maintains that roads and transport should be an integrated
agency under the leadership of a single minister."

Ms Keneally said she had full confidence in Mr Campbell.

"I'm not going to pre-empt the outcome of any investigation but let me say this.

"David Campbell as a minister retains my support, my full support.

"He is delivering substantial policy and substantial outcomes for commuters, whether
they be in public transport or on our roads network.

"What has frustrated me, what has frustrated the minister and quite frankly what has
made both of us very angry is the fact that government invested in infrastructure here.

"Taxpayer dollars went into infrastructure, a contra-flow piece of infrastructure that
would have aided those very same taxpayers as they were stuck on the road on Monday.

"It wasn't used and we need to get to the bottom of why it wasn't used."

Ms Keneally again expressed her frustrations about the incident.

"What we saw on the F3 on Monday was unacceptable, it was inexcusable and for the motorists
who were involved in that, I only can apologise and pledge to them that we are going to
make every effort to get to the bottom of what happened and we're going to make every
effort to ensure that it doesn't happen again."

AAP sg/wjf/maur

KEYWORD: F3 KENEALLY

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