Member On Wrong Road: Alp Stalwart

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday April 22, 2008

DONNA SHARPE

ALP stalwart Fred Brown, 82, has put his 36-year membership with the party on the line.

Mr Brown has called member for Hunter and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon a career politician who is more interested in toeing the party line than looking after his electorate.

Mr Brown, who has been lobbying for the F3 link road since the 1980s, made the comments at a public forum in Kurri Kurri yesterday.

The Hunter Highways Missing Link Forum was held to push the Federal Government into making a commitment to the project, which would link Seahampton with Branxton.

Mr Brown said no ALP politicians attended the forum, with local members Mr Fitzgibbon, Kerry Hickey and Frank Terenzini absent.

He said the comments he made at the meeting would probably result in his sacking from the party.

"But getting this road is far more important than my membership in the ALP," Mr Brown said.

"Joel Fitzgibbon is a career politician who is pushing the party line instead of looking after his electorate. He has a safe seat now but by the time we finish with this the seat will be marginal."

Mr Fitzgibbon said he was told Nationals leader Warren Truss made no attempt to produce any documents to prove the previous government was committed to funding the project, when he attended the forum.

"Fred Brown has spent decades in the party fighting for workers' rights and social justice, now he says that $1.7 billion is not a lot of money for the Commonwealth. I see this as a lot of hospital beds, nurses, schools, aged-care and child-care places and it would be irresponsible of the new Government not to revisit the mid-1980s-conceived project to ensure it is the right solution," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"Fred seems to be deserting the very party that is winding back John Howard's unfair industrial relations laws."

Mr Brown said after the meeting he had not lost faith in the party but in some of its parliamentarians.

"People came up after the meeting and congratulated me," he said. "If the ALP does dismiss me I will be disappointed but getting this road finished is far more important."

Representatives from Hunter Business Chamber, Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore and NRMA representative Kyle Loades attended the forum.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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