Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

In our Northern Australia paper we announced another $700 million for roads—no doubt some of it also in the honourable member's electorate—including $100 million for beef roads. This is a government that is getting on with building roads.

The restoration of the fuel excise indexation was a key budget repair measure. The agreement reached by the parliament to pass this legislation will mean that there will be more money available for Roads to Recovery. Indeed, the Roads to Recovery program will be boosted by $300 million in the next financial year, beginning in just a few days, and by $800 million in the following year. That will be over a billion dollars in each of those years for local councils to spend on roads and streets of their choice—roads and streets that can make that last-mile connection from the school to the town, for the produce to the market, for people who want to go to the hospital or daily services. These are important local projects, and this commitment that has been made now through the fuel excise indexation will provide work and road projects not just in the big cities but also in regional communities.

Indeed, in the honourable member's electorate, the announcement of the expanded Roads to Recovery program means that the councils in Capricornia will receive almost $45 million from the Roads to Recovery program during the five years that it covers. We have got an increase, therefore, of $15.5 million to spend on vital local roads. That is good news to the people of Capricornia, but it is good news that will be repeated in every federal electorate in Australia as there is more money for local roads and more money to fix those last-mile local issues.

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