So it was more than a little curious to see Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis assemble the media on Wednesday to launch a petition to have voters’ desire for a new bridge over the Shoalhaven heard in Canberra. 

Also puzzling was the fact the launch featured T-shirts, corflutes and a dedicated website, all assembled at considerable cost and effort. 

The question many are asking is: Why is a petition necessary when it’s been obvious for years the voters of Gilmore have been clamouring for a better river crossing and associated intersections?

Surely, Mrs Sudmalis has already been forceful in her representations to the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and the Infrastructure Minister. The Gilmore MP is expected to beat a path to their doors and make such a nuisance of herself that funding the bridge is a given. That’s what effective representation looks like.

If she has indeed being doing this, how has she found the time to put together a slick campaign that does little more than drive a wedge between herself and her state colleagues? 

And why has she done it just three weeks after standing shoulder to shoulder with her state colleagues Shelley Hancock, Gareth Ward and Andrew Constance, saying everyone was working together? What changed in that three weeks? Or was this petition and campaign planned some time ago, as the new website, T-shirts and corflutes suggest it must have been?

This childish point-scoring over highway funding needs to end. It is unacceptable two levels of government run by the same Liberal Party can be at such odds. 

In contrast, in the NSW Legislative Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, we saw refreshing bipartisanship over the issue of Princes Highway funding. Gareth Ward presented a Matter of Public Importance, calling for co-operation between the federal and state governments and a fair funding arrangement for the highway. 

His speech was commended by the Opposition’s Wollongong MP Paul Scully. If only that spirit of co-operation was demonstrated by Mrs Sudmalis, we might see progress.