Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

For too long now, my community, the people of my community and businesses of my community have wasted hour after hour after hour in traffic on the M1, because the LNP could not care less about them. So imagine my surprise when I saw on the Notice Paper that the member for Forde was the one moving this motion. I thought that there had been some kind of typo. I thought that there had been some kind of mistake but I checked and, no, it really was the member for Forde who was leading with his chin by moving this pathetic little motion. This member of all members moving this motion of all motions is a characteristically feeble attempt to shift the blame for his own lack of influence over infrastructure funding.

If they want to talk about infrastructure and they want to talk about Queensland and they want to talk about neglect, let's talk about Queensland and infrastructure and neglect. And let's us talk about the M1 freeway because that is a symbol of what this government thinks about my community in Logan City and the surrounding suburbs. This is a symbol of the member for Forde's total inability after seven years as a member, four of these years in government, to trouble the scorers whatsoever when it comes to some kind of commitment to the M1 freeway in my community.

I know a bit about the M1. I worked out that I have lived for almost all of my life within a kilometre or two of the freeway itself at Underwood, at Rochedale South, at Springwood, at Daisy Hill. I remember fondly one of my first jobs delivering pizzas for Eagle Boys up and down the freeway, in and out of Logan Central, Woodridge and Kingston, in and around Marsden, up north into Rochedale South, Rochedale, Underwood and all of those suburbs. So I would like to think I know a little bit about that freeway, getting off and on between exits 19 and 23 where I have lived for almost all of my life.

And I am proud to have taken to the last election a $168 million commitment to fix the Gateway merge southbound, a commitment that I made with a great local champion in Des Hardman. We made that commitment at a community forum hosted by Bill Shorten in Beenleigh, and I am proud that we did that after all that consideration and all that consultation. I am proud that it has been Labor that has invested in the Logan stretch of the M1—$312 million when we were last in government—because I know what it means to the families and businesses and our community. So does our chamber of commerce, so does our local council, so do our local members like Mick de Brenni, Shannon Fentiman, Cameron Dick and all of those terrific local representatives. So does Minister Bailey and Premier Palaszczuk. So does Senator Murray Watt, Anthony Chisholm and all of our senators but, most importantly of all, our community knows how important the M1 is.

What a contrast when you look at the record of those opposite: not a cent delivered in upgrades in the Logan stretch of the M1 in the four years they have had in government. That is not a disappointing record. That is not an underwhelming record. It is not a record at all. There is no record whatsoever to speak of and so, instead we get this half-baked announcement made in the dying days of the 2016 election, trying to pretend that a fifty-fifty split with the government will get it endorsed when they knew and we knew—everybody knew—that that commitment was just designed to paper over their lack of attention and their lack of commitment over so many years. No amount of motions, no amount of pathetic motions, like this will cover up for that fact. Is it any wonder that the member for Forde has slunk out of this chamber? Having moved the motion so courageously, gotten up and read out from his prepared notes, as he always does, he has slunk out of here. He has gone missing from this chamber like he has gone missing from the community in Logan City. It is pathetic.

Enough is enough. We need to see work start in those key upgrades, particularly the Gateway M1 southbound merge. As was reported last week in two good local papers—the Logan Reporter and the Albert & Logan NewsLabor has committed to support any compromise between the state and federal governments which sees work underway on this important stretch of freeway, because it has gone on long enough. We intend to play a constructive role in fixing the LNP's mess, because every minute wasted is a stunning illustration of the lack of influence of those opposite on the M1, particularly the member for Forde. He is not in here moving a motion about federal investment, because of Labor's proud record outlined by the member for Grayndler—things like that terrific investment out west, towards the member for Oxley's electorate and the member for Blair's electorate, which came after so much advocacy from both of them and the former member for Oxley. The member for Forde was too ashamed and too embarrassed to move a motion about federal funding.

I say to the member for Forde: get on and do what you are paid to do. Stand up for our community, who deserve better than your feeble and fumbling ineptitude and your sneering disdain for them and for our suburbs. (Time expired)

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