State Opposition Leader Luke Foley has promised a Labor government would not allow the proposed F6 extension to run through Royal National Park.
Mr Foley made the commitment in his reply to the budget in Parliament on Thursday.
He also said a Labor government would move to list Royal National Park for World Heritage listing – a process which the NSW and federal governments began two years ago, but which appears to be bogged down in government bureaucracy.
Mr Foley’s promise came a week after it was revealed the state government was considering acquiring 60 hectares of the Royal National Park for the proposed F6 extension.
The alternative, according to an internal government report, was the acquisition and bulldozing of about 460 houses and 40 commercial properties between between Loftus and Waterfall.
Mr Foley said the Royal National Park was the second oldest anywhere in the world, after Yellowstone in the United States.
“The Americans wouldn’t entertain an idea as silly as this,” he said.
“Not even President Donald J Trump would plough a motorway through Yellowstone.
“As the party that built the finest national park system in the world here in NSW won’t have a bar of a toll road being carved through our state’s most visited national park.
“We will save one of the most special natural places on earth, the Royal National Park, from the Liberals.”
Opposition spokeswoman on the environment Penny Sharpe said the F6 extension plans were “produced without public consultation and highlights the Government’s reckless and destructive approach to the natural environment of NSW”.
“It’s clear that the such important landscapes need protection from the reckless assaults on our urban and natural environment which are the defining characteristic of this Government,” she said.
The Nature Conservation Council applauded Mr Foley’s commitment.
Chief executive Kate Smolski said Labor’s position on many environmental issues was in strong contrast to the Coalition’s performance since coming to power in 2012.
“[The Coalition] have gutted our land-clearing and conservation laws, wound back marine sanctuaries, and have no plan for reaching their own target of zero net emissions by 2050,” she said.
“If they bulldoze the Royal for a road project it will cement the Coalition’s reputation as the most anti-environment government in a generation.”
