How we'll win west of Sydney - Herald Sun

Source: The Daily Telegraph

THE $9 billion WestConnex motorway project will need to be redrawn to include an extra motorway link to the CBD for the O'Farrell government to secure federal funding if Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wins the next federal election.

Despite having promised $1.5 billion for WestConnex, Mr Abbott said this money would now be contingent on the government committing to building the missing M4 East extension that was scrapped from Premier Barry O'Farrell's motorway plans.

In the first interview of the election year, the Opposition Leader revealed part of a strategic battle plan to win western Sydney seats.

At the heart of it is an infrastructure plan that would require the government to also build the long-awaited M4 East extension from Strathfield to the city by tunnel - first proposed more than 10 years ago.

The inclusion of the M4 East would add at least $3 billion to the project, with no suggestion as to how it would be paid for.

"I lived in Emu Plains in 1986 for a year and caught the train into the city on numerous occasions," Mr Abbott told The Daily Telegraph.

"On numerous occasions I was forced to drive into the city. It was a nightmare when I drove in ... 27 years later we still don't have an expressway from Strathfield to the city. It's not good enough.

"The WestConnex project is still evolving but we'll ensure there's an expressway-standard road from the west to the city as part of our commitment. It has to be in there.

"In government, we'll make sure these issues are addressed."

The commitment to the M4 East was not the only new policy Mr Abbott was prepared to offer the people of western Sydney, who he described as the "pulse of modern Australia".

Defending the Howard era of tax cuts and family payments, Mr Abbott said his contribution to the hip pocket would be axing the carbon tax while keeping tax cuts and benefits.

He identified infrastructure as a key pitch to the two million western Sydney residents who held the fate of the election outcome in their hands.

Mr Abbott said he was confident of winning back at least three seats in western and southwestern Sydney. Lindsay, Greenway and Banks, all on narrow margins.

"Western Sydney is about cost of living, job security and infrastructure," he said. "People of western Sydney are down to earth, practical and aspirational. They've been neglected and they sense in their bones the Labor Party is a stinking patronage machine."Mr Abbott refused to commit to a position on a second airport in Sydney, despite the job growth it would create.

But he repeated his commitment to restoring $60 million to Customs and $50 million to bringing back community crime prevention programs to help stop spiralling gun crime.

Mr Abbott's pitch to the west comes ahead of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's national address today in which she is expected to focus on job creation and improving skills as a major priority for Labor.