Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland—Minister for Regional Transport and Roads) (19:20): As the year draws to an end, I reflect on the Government's achievements in my community of Maitland and more generally across regional New South Wales. Our Government came to power in March 2023 with four key priorities for government: housing, getting essential workers back into our regions, getting the energy road map back on track and debt reduction. We have been making headway on all of those. Before we were elected in 2023, we had more teachers resigning than retiring and teacher shortages, and that was leading to a loss of teaching hours for students and a lot of missed classes. We had lost over 12 per cent of our nursing workforce. Record numbers of police were leaving the profession without enough recruits to fill the gaps, and regional communities like Maitland and across the Hunter felt that the hardest.
What has the Government done to arrest that change? We have doubled the incentives for health workers in the regions. Some 2,000 health workers have taken up that incentive and are now working in regional hospitals. We have had a 10 per cent increase in staffing at Maitland Hospital since the 2023 election. On top of that, we have had funding come through for the Maitland integrated community health and mental health service at the new Maitland Hospital site. The 24/7 emergency short-stay unit opened, which is really taking the pressure off our emergency department. We have had 2,000 applications for new police officers. The paid study for recruits at Goulburn has been a game changer in getting people to look at mid-career transitions. Police who have been in other jurisdictions can now transfer to New South Wales at the same level. That takes away the ceiling where they had to go down the ranks in order to move.
We have made 16,000 teachers and support staff permanent across the State, and we have seen a 24 per cent drop in cancelled classes. We really are hitting our goals. We are also investing in people through skills training, with direct support to local councils to hire new apprentices. That is 1,300 apprentices across every council in New South Wales, which is a $252 million benefit. Even in my portfolio of Transport, 69 regional transport apprentices and trainees started in the last tranche. We have three TAFE Centres of Excellence across New South Wales. We just announced one in the Hunter region. It will be a $60 million investment that will really help people in my community. We have 100 new preschools, with 49 in the regions. Two are in Maitland, one at Gillieston Heights and one at Tenambit, and the preschools are part of the redevelopment of those schools.
Gillieston Public School has been committed for redevelopment. There have been massive improvements since I came to Parliament in 2015. I still cannot believe it when I say that in 2015 the boys toilets at the school had a dirt floor. That was how ancient and poorly maintained the school was. The redevelopment will be fantastic for it. Huntlee preschool, primary school and high school are coming, which will relieve school loadings on Rutherford Technology High School in the west of my electorate. We are putting $5 million into essential maintenance for schools because the backlog was really impacting schools.
We have delivered on our promises for local roads across regional New South Wales. The bridge-raising project at Melville Ford Bridge is going ahead. Maitland received $2.5 million from the New South Wales Regional Road Fund. Funding from the Fixing Country Bridges Program and the Regional Roads and Transport Recovery Package and money from council all went into the Melville Ford Bridge. Works will be completed late next year. For a bridge that used to go underwater every second year and is now a major feeder road for our community, that is really important work. We also have the duplication of the Thornton Rail Bridge and half a million dollars in funding for a shared path on Raymond Terrace Road at Thornton.
Last week, $5 million was allocated to the Taylor Avenue and Haussman Drive intersection from the latest round of the State Voluntary Planning Agreements funding program. Widening the M1 at Raymond Terrace and Hexham Straight—the big one—is a massive multibillion-dollar project that will have significant benefits not just for my community but for the State. It will help to relieve one of the major bottlenecks for holiday traffic. I see Mr Temporary Speaker smiling; it impacts on all of us who live anywhere near the coast. I thank my electorate office staff, Peree, Jacqui, Gio, Ray, Phil, James and Judy and any others who have worked as casuals. They have helped look after my community while I am in Parliament representing them.
TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Michael Kemp): I am also pleased to see the construction at Hexham.
