Barnaby Proud of Bypass

At Walcha Show: Ross King president of Walcha Show, Dylan Wilson a shearer formerly from Walcha and Barnaby Joyce Member for New England.

LAST night during a debate between Barnaby Joyce and Tony Windsor which was broadcast on Sky News from Tamworth, Mr Joyce listed the Scone bypass as one of his achievements during the last three years.

Joel Fitzgibbon the current federal member for Hunter said the claim is ridiculous as it is not even in his electorate and wants to know why the overpass has not been built yet.

“In the three years since the federal government funding was secured they have not spent one cent building the overpass,” said Mr Fitzgibbon.

“Let’s get Barnaby to check if the money is still there and if it is get to work building the overpass,” he said.

“The federal government committed $45million three years ago and the state government was supposed to match it, but where is their money?

“Instead the RMS has come back with five or six options, introduced so many complexities into the equation and I think they will end up spending nothing,

“Of course they could do both the bypass and the overpass, but they haven’t spent one cent on anything yet so I doubt they would spend money on both

Tony Windsor, independent candidate for the electorate of New England said he would be visiting Scone next week to discuss the issue, but also questioned how Mr Joyce could make such a claim.

“He might like to flesh out how he has achieved that, my understanding is nothing has been built,” said Tony Windsor.

Mr Joyce has been contacted several times for comment on the Scone bypass issue, but as yet has not had the time to respond.