10/03/2026

The congestion chaos at one of Port Macquarie’s most critical entry points continues to grow worse with every passing month. Local Federal MPs Pat Conaghan and Alision Penfold are renewing their calls to have the solution urgently scoped and funded.

“The Wrights Rd and Lake Rd roundabouts leading into Port Macquarie’s Health and Education Precincts have long been flagged as the area’s worst and most dangerous bottleneck. Which is why the State and Federal Coalition Governments had jointly awarded $5 million to finalise the planning for a viable solution in 2022,” Mr Conaghan stated.

“But in 2023 with the change of Government, that funding decision was reversed by Labor at both a State and Federal level. Despite continued unified calls from Council, State and Federal representatives for the funds to be reinstated, every successive annual budget handed down by Labor has neglected to allocate a single dollar to the project.

“Alison and I take every opportunity we can while we are here in Canberra to remind the Ministerial teams that our beautiful coastal electorates are rapidly growing with every passing year, and we need this fixed not only to address today’s issues, but to plan for the projected population influx.”

Ms Penfold voiced her frustration at the continued lack of consideration shown at both a State and Federal level.

“An official NSW Government Petition with over ten thousand individually signed submissions was lodged in September 2025 through the joint efforts of Robert Dwyer, Michael Kemp, Business NSW, Pat and myself. That’s ten thousand residents from Port Macquarie, Wauchope and Kempsey who took time out of their day to physically visit a participating local business and sign on the dotted line. And yet, we are still waiting for action,” Ms Penfold stated.

“The Federal teams are deferring to their NSW counterparts as the decision makers, essentially saying ‘we can’t greenlight it unless they do first.’  And the only answer we are getting from the NSW Minister for Roads is ‘we have a plan to make a plan’. That simply isn’t good enough. We needed a solution yesterday.”

Both local Federal MPs are calling for residents fed up with the continued lack of funding to make a submission to Transport NSW via the ‘have your say’ portal.

“I know that we have asked our community for their input on this issue many times before, but we need to keep up the fight and keep up the pressure leading into the budget announcements for the upcoming financial year,” Mr Conaghan said.

To make a submission, residents should visit www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/sritp/north-coast, head to the ‘Pin on the map’ section and ‘Add Marker’ to the map at the Wrights Rd or Lake Rd Roundabout.

“Taking 2 minutes to enter your submission could be the tipping point to seeing this dangerous bottleneck finally addressed. Let’s band together like the tight knit community we are and get this done once and for all,” Ms Penfold stated.