Jacqui Scruby: Pittwater MP declares she is ‘MP for Mona Vale Rd’ in first speech to parliament
In her official first speech to the NSW Parliament, the independent Member for Pittwater declares she will make the urgent upgrade of Mona Vale Rd one of her priorities.
Manly
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A push for a notorious northern beaches traffic black spot to be upgraded is set to ramp up after Jacqui Scruby, the new state member for Pittwater, declared herself the “MP for Mona Vale Rd”.
In her inaugural speech to NSW parliament, Ms Scruby vowed to continue her concerted lobbying of transport authorities to spend a promised $340m to make the whole of the major commuter link — which carries 40,000 vehicles a day — a four-lane road.
Only the section of the northern beaches’ portion of the route, between Ingleside and Mona Vale, is two lanes each way.
The section between Terrey Hills and Ingleside is still a heavily congested two lane road.
“I am not only the member for Pittwater but also the member for Mona Vale Rd,” Ms Scruby told parliament this week.
With her family, friends and supporters in the public gallery, Ms Scruby said she was recently shown a newspaper article from a 1966 edition of Pittwater News which reported the then Department of Main Roads promised that “in the next two or three years Mona Vale Rd will be a four-lane highway right through, and will later increase to six lanes”.
“It’s been a 60-year wait, and I am committed to making sure this becomes a reality,” Ms Scruby said.
Her declaration comes after the upgrade became one of the major points in her campaign to win last October’s by-election, after the resignation of the sitting Liberal MP Rory Amon.
Ms Scruby pledged to lobby the state government to complete safety improvements to the road.
Her pledge followed the government confirming, in September 2023, it had put the project on the backburner for at least two years even though money for the 3.4km upgrade — a four-lane carriageway from McCarrs Creek Rd, Terrey Hills, to Powder Works Rd, Ingleside — had been set aside in the 2022 state budget by the previous Coalition government.
The road works were halted despite the completion of the adjoining four-lane upgrade project — Mona Vale Rd (East), from Ingleside to Mona Vale.
In November last year, she coaxed NSW Premier Chris Minns to inspect the stalled roadworks in an effort to have the upgrade pause lifted.
In her speech, Ms Scruby also set out other parts of her agenda including a vow to advocate for local small and medium-sized businesses “ensuring they get their fair share of the concessions and subsidies”.
“I am committed to delivering for our public schools, to getting our athletes back running on the Narrabeen Track; to improving our privatised bus services and health care, including advocating for increasing pay for our nurses and our psychiatrists, and to ensuring long-promised footpaths, particularly on coast roads,” she said.
Ms Scruby said she would support housing for essential workers and protect Pittwater’s “biodiversity and beauty”.
She will also continue her push for cost cuts, efficiency improvements and independent audits at NSW local councils in the wake of the Northern Beaches Council’s quest to lift rates by 40 per cent over the next three years.
Click here to read Ms Scruby’s full speech to parliament.
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