On Monday, Prime minister Kevin Rudd will visit Wollongong. It will be the first visit in his eighteen months in office - and he will meet with a carefully selected - invitation only - group from business and the trade unions.
This will be pure politics. The given agenda will be jobs, but it seems certain that what he will not hear is the litany of reasons why this neglected part of Australia can not meet it's potential.
There will be no plan to drag the Sydney/Wollongong rail line out of the steam age era and introduce a fast service linking these cities, despite an ever growing commuter stream bringing it to capacity.
There is no urgent plan to upgrade the Princes highway - the only means of servicing the towns linking Wollongong and the Victorian border. Every now and then the region is thrown a bone - a few dollars for patch-up work, but a divided highway is not even proposed for later this century.
Then there is the F-6. Money is being spent to provide transport corridors to the north and west of Sydney, but despite a reserved route existing to St Peters there are no plans to extend a southern expressway into the state capital.
Wollongong is constantly told it is important, but not important enough to be on the list of expenditure to improve services.
Yet Port Kembla is being expanded to clear services Sydney doesn't want - but without any thought or attempt to improve rail and road movement to clear this added freight.
A case in point - Picton road ! Another " El Cheapo " patch-up job when what is really needed is a divided, dual carriageway to clear heavy transport to western Sydney.
No doubt the prime minister's meeting will be a carefully orchestrated media event, but most citizens of this region will not be holding their breath and waiting for an announcement of development plans for road and rail.
The problem is that this area solidly votes Labor. When the Liberal Coalition is in office it doesn't spend money here because there are no votes to be gained. When Labor is in office - it doesn't have to - because they have the vote anyway !
The needs of the area are an unwanted message shunned by both sides of politics !
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