Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes:

(1) the importance of investing in infrastructure to improve Australia's competitiveness;

(2) that the Bruce Highway covers approximately 1,700 kilometres and is the major arterial connecting Queensland seaboard communities and economic centres;

(3) that Queensland and our nation cannot achieve full economic potential without a safe, reliable and efficient Bruce Highway; and

(4) that the Government is already delivering on its commitment to upgrade important sections of the Bruce Highway.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to use the Bruce Highway as the centre of my argument but talk in relation to the whole of the country. Our Treasurer, JB Hockey, was in Townsville, and we were talking about Townsville as the hub of the development of northern Australia. We were talking about why it is good for Townsville—good for our port, our airport, our north-west minerals province and our relationship with Papua New Guinea—and he said, 'That's all well and good, but when you're talking about the development of northern Australia, when you're talking about the importance of this region, please remember it is not what is good for Townsville, Northern Queensland or even northern Australia; we should be developing this because it is good for Australia.'

Improving the Bruce Highway is indeed good for Australia. If you are talking further about the development of northern Australia, you must look first and foremost at the west and north-west of Queensland. If we are going to do agriculture and improve our food bowl statistics and our role in providing food for the emerging Asian nations, the most important thing of course is water, then soil, then crops and then ports and access to markets. What we must do in relation to developing northern Australia is overlay these things. We must look at everything across the north of Australia—water, crops, soil, cattle, ports, access—and overlay the lot. That way you will narrow it down to what is important in the development of northern Australia. We must get our stuff to market, and having a safe, reliable Bruce Highway is very important to that.

The last time I drove the Bruce Highway was a couple of years ago now. I drove from Townsville down to Brisbane. I have done the trip a number of times—I am an auctioneer by trade and that was part of my territory. When you are doing it for work, you just do not notice it, because you are on the road and you are pushing through. When you are driving on the Bruce Highway as the member for Herbert, what you notice is the difference in the standard of roads. Clearly the worst stretch of road on the Bruce Highway, when I drove it last, was the stretch between Rockhampton and Miriam Vale. But North Queensland has the worst bridges in Australia. If you had a bridge in Sydney, Melbourne or on the Pacific coast somewhere that was routinely closed every night for seven days of every month for repairs and maintenance, it simply would not stack up. But that is what happens with the Silver Link Bridge in Ayr. The Haughton River bridge is probably the ugliest bridge in Australia. There is about a fag paper between you and the edge of the bridge every time you go across. People travel between Ayr and Townsville every day. When you come across, there is always a truck going the other way and you hold your breath as you go across. When you get down to the Sunshine Coast, it is three or four lanes wide with a nice big apron on the side of it.

You think to yourself that everyone says you cannot flood-proof the Bruce Highway. But my recollection is that the sea level on the Sunshine Coast is the same as the sea level in northern Queensland, so why can we not have roads that do not flood? As soon as there is a tropical low in the Coral Sea, businesses and food producers automatically start to jack up their prices because they know that their trucks are going to be parked on the side of the road for a number of days until the water goes down.

When we were talking with the state government about the roads in the 21st century and trying to repair the Bruce Highway, they were talking about the way that they had to look at safety first. I said when it comes to North Queensland you also have to go into flood-proofing and flood immunisation because it is pointless building more overtaking lanes if all it means is you are going to get to the flooded part of the road even quicker. We have to do these things at the same time. When it comes to building the roads of the north and looking after the Bruce Highway, we must ensure that we are developing a road that can stay open all the time. It is an honourable goal and something we should be pushing towards.

Whether it is a 50-50 split or an 80-20 split, whether roads are underway or whatever is being done, people in North Queensland do not care who is making the promise. All the people of Queensland care about is that it is getting done. They do not care whether it is being done by the state government; they do not care whether it is being done by Thiess; they do not care whether it is being done by John Holland; they do not care whether it is being done by Richard McDonald; they just want the road built.

The cost of manufacturing a road, the cost of production of road is getting higher and higher. We must look at driving our dollar further. What we must do all the way through is try and look at how we roll out tenders and the way that the tender process is done. Too often we find that the tender process is onerous for the smaller contractor. When organisations or government departments put through tender processes, the tender document is a couple of thousand pages long. The organisations or government departments turn the thing over and upside down, open it up and there is a figure there of $1.4 billion and another figure of $1.3 billion, so $1.3 billion gets the tender. At the end of a project they ask: did you have your trainees there? Did you have all of these things? And the contractors say no, not really. What are you going to do? You are not going to rip up the road. These guys continually go along like that. What we must do is make sure that the tender process is open to everyone to have a chop at it.

I see the member for Grayndler sitting opposite me and you will not find too many people who can argue about roads better than the member for Grayndler. No doubt you will quote me again because I did say in 2010 that the Labor government spent more than the Howard government on roads. What I have also said is that the Howard government spent more than the Hawke-Keating government. The Hawke-Keating government probably spent more than the Fraser government. The Fraser government could not have spent more than the Whitlam government—no-one spent more than the Whitlam government. We will spend more than the Labor government on the roads.

What we will do is try and make sure that we get better value for dollar. The member for Grayndler will obviously agree with me that the cost of a kilometre of road is getting astronomically expensive. What we do have to watch out for is that we are not just pulling projects away. The biggest disappointment in my time was after Cyclone Yasi and the floods of the south-east corner. The then Labor minister for transport allowed the funding for the Vantassel Street upgrade to be pulled in 2011. All of that money was shifted down to the south-east corner to help with the flood reconstruction. That was the thing that upset most North Queenslanders. It was an absolute crime because Vantassel Street is a flood prone road, so we shifted flood funding in North Queensland to go and help in south-east Queensland. It is getting done now. Ring Road stage 4 is getting done.

The greatest thing that will happen in this term and next term if we are re-elected is the Haughton River bridge. This term we will be going through site works and getting the road works done to realign the highway. When you come along the Haughton from Ayr, it is a big sweeping left-hand turn and across the most narrow of bridges. Twice during the last three years, that bridge has been a fag paper away from being shut down because it has been scoured so badly. It is a terrible bridge. It is a big, strong river, and we have to watch out with what we are doing there. We will be fixing that bridge and we will be replacing that bridge.

We have to address the costs again. We have to address the costs of road manufacture. We have to address the costs of why we are doing these things. We also have to deal with people's perception of what roads are. Some of us in this place were brought up in the country. When I was brought up—and I was brought up in a small country town; I was born in Quilpie and raised in Texas—you used to be able to just look forward on the highway and you would know when you were coming up to a stretch of bitumen because you were driving along the roads. Our perception these days is that we do not drive anywhere that is a dirt road. We go down the occasional footpath or the occasional driveway at people's places, but that is the only time we see a dirt road. So our expectations are a lot higher now, but that does not mean it is wrong.

North Queensland have about 0.8 per cent of the population of Australia, but we produce nearly two per cent of the country's GDP. If we are to develop the north of the country, if we are to get our goods to market, if we are to become the powerhouse that we fully expect, we must have the roads of the 21st century to push it through. I am pleased that we are in a position now where we are in an 80-20 split where the federal government will pony up the money, will make sure that the roads are built and will push forward with common sense. I know that the member for Dawson will also back me up here that the roadwork between Townsville and Mackay is integral to everything.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

(a) item (4) be deleted, and

(b) the following be inserted:

(4) the former Labor Government quadrupled funding for the Bruce Highway, and

(5) that the Member for Herbert stated in 2011 that 'I'll give Labor a pat on the back and say they have spent more in their four or five years on the Bruce Highway than we did before'.

I do that in order to put some reality into this debate. The reality is that, under the former federal Labor government, we increased infrastructure spending for Queenslanders from $143 per capita to $314 per capita. We quadrupled the amount of money that went to Queensland for infrastructure, and nowhere benefited more than the Bruce Highway.

The Bruce Highway is a critical highway. It is the main artery for traffic movement up and down the Queensland coast, serving dozens of dynamic towns and cities over the 1,650 kilometres between Brisbane and Cairns. It is important because Queensland is the only state in this nation where more people live in regional areas than in the capital. Because the Bruce Highway travels all the way up the coast, serving all of these coastal regions, it is surely the state's most important piece of infrastructure. That is why we prioritised it. We need this road to be safe. We also need it to be efficient, because the efficient movement of people and goods adds to economic productivity, which creates jobs.

For years, the Bruce Highway has been a critical political battleground, so today let us cut through to the facts. During the almost 12 years of the Howard government, the Commonwealth spent $1.3 billion on the Bruce Highway. During the six years of the Rudd and Gillard governments, the Commonwealth created investments of $5.7 billion. That is the undeniable truth. Despite the big-talking promises of the now Prime Minister ahead of last year's election, the record of what has actually been spent or committed rather than what has been promised proves that, while the coalition talks about the highway, it has failed to follow through.

During its time in office, the coalition slashed federal road funding by $2 billion. The fact is that actions speak louder than words. When it comes to the Bruce Highway, we certainly delivered, which was acknowledged by the member for Herbert on 5 March 2011. Indeed, in the unamended clause 4 of this motion as moved by the member for Herbert, it makes it clear, because he says:

… the Government is already delivering on its commitment to upgrade important sections of the Bruce Highway.

All of those sections that are underway are sections that have been underway as a result of the investment of the former government, investment of which I am extremely proud. Let us have a look at Townsville roads: $95 million for the port access road, completed; $55 million to duplicate the Douglas arterial, completed; $160 million to complete the fourth and final section of the city ring road; and $110 million to duplicate the Bruce between Vantassel Street and Flinders Highway. That comes on top of other investment into Townsville, including $16 million for the redevelopment of Flinders Street.

When it comes to other projects on the Bruce Highway, there are the upgrade of the southern approaches to Sarina; the construction of the new higher bridge over the Isis River that the former member for Hinkler regarded as the No. 1 priority. The former member for Hinkler acknowledged that it was the federal Labor government that delivered what the previous coalition government had not. There was duplication of section B between Cooroy and Curra, described by the former transport minister, who was also the local member, the member for Wide Bay, as the worst section of highway in Australia. It was fixed by Labor. There was a resurfacing of the Nambour bypass, elimination of 63 notorious black spots, 12 new and upgraded rest stops and construction of 11 additional overtaking lanes. That is what you can do when you quadruple the budget.

Projects underway include the construction of a new interchange at the intersection between the Bruce and Dawson highways; the Calliope crossroads project near Gladstone; the upgrade of the intersection between Bruce and Capricorn highways, known as the Yeppen roundabout; the upgrade of the southern approach to Mackay, flattening and straightening the Bruce Highway over the Cardwell Range; projects associated with the Burdekin road safety audit; upgrade of the southern approach to Cairns; strengthening of the bridge over the Burdekin; the straightening and widening of the Bruce Highway from Cabbage Tree Creek to Carman Road and across Back Creek Range; the straightening of the Bruce Highway just south of Gin Gin and upgrading the intersection with the Bundaberg to Gin Gin road; straightening and raising the Bruce Highway between Sandy Corner and Collinsons Lagoon; upgrading the Pumicestone Road interchange, including the construction of a new higher overpass over the Bruce; duplication of the Bruce Highway between the Cooroy South interchange and Sankeys Road, known as section A of that area.

Then there is further funding which has been committed in the budget: the Mackay northern access upgrade, the Mackay ring road, the Rockhampton northern access corridor, the North Queensland flood immunity package, Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway, Gateway Motorway to Caboolture, the pavement widening from St Lawrence to Bowen, the Cairns southern access corridor, the Bruce Highway south of Home Hill to north of Ingham, Cooroy to Curra sections C and D and the Black Spots Program.

These are projects Labor delivered, completed, projects underway and projects that were in the budget. There were no additional commitments from the former opposition, now the government, during the election campaign. The fact is that we quadrupled funding for the Bruce Highway, and that is consistent with what the Labor Party does in government. The Labor Party government is prepared to get on with the business of nation building. Those opposite last time they were in office cut the budget by $2 billion. This time around they are saying that new infrastructure spending will be dependent upon state governments privatising assets; that is what they are saying. They should listen to the Treasurer, but of course they tend not to listen to each other; they tend to engage in PR exercises. Yesterday we saw the extraordinary performance of the Prime Minister, with the New South Wales Premier, standing in front of a banner. The only thing that was new about that project was the banner. It was an old project that had been fully signed off by the former Labor government, the New South Wales government and Transurban for a road project in Sydney, the F3 to M2.

I am very proud of the work that we put into the Bruce Highway. A quadrupling of funding needs to be acknowledged as a major benefit to road safety and to improving productivity and the freight network. Yes, there is more to be done because the Bruce Highway is a very long arterial and it cannot be completed in a short period of time. There is no doubt, in my view, having travelled without media on the Bruce to have a look for myself, that there are major problems that require further upgrades. This requires the Commonwealth government and the state government—and the Newman government talked a big game prior to the election but have delivered nothing in terms of additional funding for the Bruce Highway since they were elected. They need to be held to account rather than let off the hook by the federal government, regardless of the political party in government federally. If you let state governments off the hook, you will see less investment overall.

We inherited a substantial infrastructure deficit. We set about ensuring that that deficit was dealt with, and that is why I am moving an amendment to the member for Herbert's motion, in order to make the motion more accurately reflect what has been the recent history regarding investment into the Bruce Highway.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment.

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always scintillating to hear the fairytales from the member for Grayndler—like Aesop's fables, Albo's fables—when it comes to the Bruce Highway. But I will give him this: he is one of the few members opposite who knows where the Bruce Highway is and can probably find it on a map. He said that he has driven it. He has probably seen a lot more of it than most of his colleagues, who may have seen a few bits of the Bruce Highway—probably from about 40,000 feet on their way from one photo opportunity to the next. The reason they fly to these photo opportunities is that none of them live anywhere near the Bruce Highway. That is the reality. The former minister spoke about Vantassel Street to Flinders Highway and it all being some sort of Labor achievement along with the Sandy Corner to Collinsons Lagoon upgrade in my electorate. The only reason those projects are on the table is that the Liberal-National coalition and I held the government to account when they were trying to pull both of those projects off the agenda.

The Bruce Highway, for the benefit of those opposite, is the main transport artery of Queensland. In all its glory, it stretches 1,700 kilometres from Cairns in the Far North to Brisbane in the south-east—1,700 kilometres and not one metre of it is represented by a member from the Labor Party. They need to ask themselves why that is. We speak of the Bruce as a highway running from the north to the south not because we live in the north but because that is the direction in which the nation's wealth is carried. We create the wealth in the north and the Bruce Highway delivers it to the capital cities in the south. It has been seen as one-way traffic, until now. The Liberal-National government are reversing the flow and are committed to delivering far and away the largest investment in transport infrastructure the Bruce Highway has ever seen. We listened to locals, councils, businesses, automobile clubs and safety groups like the Road Accident Action Group in my hometown of Mackay. We listened to the Queensland government and what they said was required to bring the highway up to scratch. We saw the Liberal-National government in Queensland commit an additional $1 billion over 10 years to the Bruce. And before the 2013 election, this Liberal-National coalition committed to investing $6.7 billion over 10 years to the Bruce Highway. That is in stark contrast to what the Labor Party put on the table—in fact, it was $2.6 billion more than the Labor Party's commitment. Since then, the Liberal-National government has reaffirmed its commitment and is getting on with the job of delivering its promises.

We are getting on with the job of fixing the worst spots of the Bruce Highway, including projects in my electorate like upgrading the dangerous Haughton River bridge in the Burdekin and fixing flood-prone areas like Yellow Gin Creek near Townsville and Sandy Gully near Bowen, where it only takes a cane toad to take a whiz on the side of the road for that highway to be cut. We are funding planning work on the Goorganga Plains in relation to a serious flooding issue that cuts off the Whitsunday Coast Airport from the Whitsunday Coast—an issue that the Queensland Labor government at the time did not even recognise existed in their 2011 report on the Bruce Highway. But locals were acutely aware of the problem.

The Liberal-National coalition know because we actually took the time to talk to them and to experience the Bruce Highway firsthand. In 2012, along with the then shadow transport minister and now Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and Deputy Prime Minister, I drove every single one of the 1,700 kilometres of the Bruce Highway. Our convoy included about 11 Liberal Party and National Party MPs, state and federal, who have sections of the Bruce Highway in their electorate. We spoke with locals to seek advice and to help us formulate a plan to fix the dangerous black spots, to fix the flood-prone areas and to fix the congestion.

One part of the plan is to ease congestion and get heavy vehicles off local roads with construction of the Mackay Ring Road. The Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government spent $10 million on a feasibility study on the Mackay Ring Road and then did nothing. The member for Herbert said to me just before that Labor always finds it easy to put ink on paper, but it is different to seeing bitumen on the road.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it is on paper, it is already built!

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it is already built when it is on paper apparently. The study finished in 2012-13 and then not one cent was allocated for the next financial year to actually start the project. Despite protests from the member for Grayndler, the fact remains that his budget put the ring road in the too-hard basket. That is not surprising, coming from the former regional affairs minister, representing an inner metropolitan Sydney seat, who decided that metropolitan Sydney was actually a 'regional' area deserving of 'regional' funding.

It is that basic lack of understanding—that lack of recognition and that lack of appreciation for real regional Australia and infrastructure like the Bruce Highway—that left the Labor Party caught short. We are getting on with providing the infrastructure and funding needed to ensure that this remains the engine room of regional Australia. (Time expired)

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am a bit of a ring-in here today for Mr Palmer, the member for Fairfax—

An opposition member: He was too busy.

He obviously retreated back home to lick his wounds after his not-too-successful stint on Saturday. That having been said, I am more than happy to speak about the Bruce Highway and the coalition's commitment more generally to infrastructure—

A government member: The Bruce Highway isn't in Perth; it is in Queensland.

I know that, but I am a member of the Australian parliament; I have an interest across Australia. I have a particular interest, as one would expect, in Western Australia, but I quite rightfully need to range across the full range of topics.

I was interested in the contribution from the previous speaker and the claim that Labor had just put pen to paper and not actually built. We are going to look at some of the Bruce Highway projects that indeed were completed by the federal Labor government during our last term: the duplication of the Douglas arterial road in Townsville; the upgrade to the southern approaches to Sarina; the construction of a new, higher bridge over the Isis River; the duplication of section B between Cooroy and Curra; the resurfacing of the Nambour bypass; the elimination of 63 notorious black spots; 12 new and upgraded rest stops; and the construction of 11 additional overtaking lanes. I look forward—as part of being on the northern Australia committee—to going up and admiring all these great works that were done under federal Labor. My colleague here will go through all the other projects that were not only planned but are also underway.

There has been an enormous amount of financial commitment made by Labor and an enormous range of infrastructure projects connected with the Bruce Highway that have been delivered—not just pen on paper but committed to early on in the term of government and then enacted. What we saw in the Howard years was a massive slashing of road funding, notwithstanding all of the language and—

A government member: How about the six lanes at Caboolture?

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You slashed $2 billion! You didn't do the Ipswich motorway; you did nothing like that.

Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mate, you weren't even here.

Mr Neumann interjecting—

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am quite happy to have my colleague the member for Blair here providing—

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I bet you are!

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to use this brief opportunity to explain how difficult it was to get money out of the Howard government for even very worth projects. There was a project that was initially called the Peel deviation; it was a deviation around the city of Mandurah. I think the analogy is clear. We started writing letters to the then minister back in 2001, as soon as we got in government, saying, 'We know this is a very big project. This requires a lot of long-term planning. It is not something that you're going to be able to immediately put money into, but we have a target of starting this project around 2006. We want to start a dialogue with you in 2001 so that by 2006 we can both contribute money to this very important project.' I tell you, it was like pulling teeth. They would write back saying, 'No, not interested. We're not going to talk to you about this.' As a model, dealing with the Howard government in the roads portfolio was a lesson on how not to develop federal-state relationships. We started off from a very respectful point of view, recognising their need to plan their budget over the longer term, but all we got was rebuff after rebuff after rebuff really for about three to four years. Then they could see that this was becoming a massive political issue and they started jumping up and down and demanded that it be done yesterday. (Time expired)

Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hoped to be following the member for Fairfax in this debate. I thought that here was an opportunity for the member for Fairfax and the member for Fisher, the two members who represent the greater part of the Sunshine Coast, to be on a unity ticket pledging our support for building a stronger Bruce Highway to support the economy of the Sunshine Coast. I notice the member for Perth leaving the chamber. I congratulate her on stepping in at the last minute, because at the last minute the member for Fairfax informed the opposition whip that he was 'too busy'. Our whip rang to ask about it and was told that the member for Fairfax had cancelled. So I thank the member for Perth for at least giving to the parliament the time that the member for Fairfax simply could not.

This is an issue that is pivotal to the success of the Sunshine Coast. The issue is whether the Bruce Highway, the lifeline between us and our international airport in Brisbane and our ports, and all of the goods that flow between the two, can be upgraded and what we as a community and as private members of parliament, regardless of our political persuasion, can do to get the money that we need to do that.

There has been a lot of discussion this morning about the past. The public is actually interested in the future. They want to know what is going to happen. There have been mistakes in the past. There has been neglect in the past. I know that my colleagues have already put on the table a rock-solid 10-year commitment of the coalition Tony Abbott-led government in partnership with Campbell Newman on what is the traditional 20-80 split to put in over $8.6 billion. The reality is that there are huge issues with the Bruce Highway that go to safety and to flood mitigation and there are issues that affect my community on the Sunshine Coast. In that area we have already committed an additional $1.4 billion.

It is not enough. Some of the planning that has been done up until now has not been adequate. Last Friday, I was in Brisbane with the department, going over this, putting together a working group with the federal and state governments so that we can get it right. Right now, $13 million is being spent on what is called the western service road near the Aussie World Ettamogah pub. Not surprisingly, some of my local constituents have been saying to me, 'Where does that road actually go to?' The reality is that it does not go anywhere. We spent $13 million and what we have done is remove one little black spot—which is important—just south of the Mooloolaba exit. But, with a bit better planning and rescheduling money, we could have continued that road on and, in doing so, given us better access to the Bruce Highway for the northbound traffic, taken some of the traffic off the road which comes back on to the main Bruce Highway to go to Mooloolaba and Maroochydore—practical steps. That is the role that I want to play, and that is what so disappoints me about the member for Fairfax not bothering to take the time to be here.

The Sunshine Coast needs all of its MPs to work together as one to make this happen. Neglecting their responsibility—and the member for Fairfax neglecting his responsibility—to take up the challenge that has been put by the member for Herbert to come and speak in the people's palace, the parliament, and have our say and express the desires, the needs and the aspirations of the people of Fisher and Fairfax is simply not good enough.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I am reminded by my honourable colleague, he is down to speak today but he is not here. I have not been out attacking the member for Fairfax, because I know that it is important that we work together. But, when we are given the opportunity to be on a unity ticket, sitting on opposite sides of the parliament, and to speak on behalf of our constituency, that is exactly what the public demand and that is not what has happened today when that opportunity has availed itself.

In the brief moment left to me I want to inform the people of the Sunshine Coast that the coalition government is committed to doing the work on the Mooloolaba and Caloundra exits and the Bells Creek interchange is underway. I am going to work with the community with the following priorities. To make sure that the loop road where the public currently have to cross when coming out of Mooloolaba to head north—which is dangerous and is inconvenient—is done quickly is our No. 1 priority. No 2: we have a big job-generating potential around Aussie World and the Ettamogah Pub and the thing that is stymieing that is the on-ramps and off-ramps to the Bruce Highway. That is my No. 2 priority. I might say that the buses that the public would travel on to go to that tourism precinct cannot go there today because of the on-ramp not being safe enough for TransLink. I want to get those things done now. I want to work with my colleagues to make sure that we deliver for the Bruce Highway today and into the future.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher talked about mistakes and the neglect of the past. There are a number of projects in Queensland that he could be referring to, such as the Ipswich Motorway and the failure of the coalition to support that and their vote against its upgrade repeatedly in this place; their vote against all the infrastructure projects after the floods in south-east Queensland and northern Queensland; their failure to support the Blacksoil Interchange and the Warrego Highway; projects in south-east Queensland; their ripping out of $2 billion from the roads and public infrastructure budget when they came to power in 1996; and their failure during that whole time in terms of the Bruce Highway—putting in only $1.3 billion across 12 years of their tenure in the context of a federal Labor government committing and actually spending $5.7 billion on the Bruce Highway. We increased the infrastructure spend per Queenslander from $143 to $314 per Queenslander. We committed $60 billion. There are projects all up and down the Bruce Highway—important projects for south-east Queensland as well as northern Queensland. It is important for jobs, productivity and economic development. Queensland is the most decentralised state in the country.

It is interesting and quite galling that the coalition should talk about infrastructure when in the time that I have been in this place they have voted against infrastructure spends in Queensland again, again and again when it comes to nation building. Again and again coalition LNP members in this place have voted against upgrades for important rail, road and port projects in Queensland. But this is not new. During the whole time of the former Howard government, during their 12 years in office, they did not fund a single public transport project in Queensland—not one. In contrast, there are the Moreton Bay rail link and Gold Coast Rapid Transit projects.

We have a very important project for all of Queensland, the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane. It is a very important project for all of Queensland and yet the coalition will not support it. The Brisbane City Council supports it, the Queensland government supports it, and the coalition has ripped away over $700 million committed for that particular project.

When it comes to the Bruce Highway, the coalition have form, because their colleagues and comrades in George Street, Brisbane, said they would spend $1 billion on the Bruce Highway. But guess what? They did not do that at all. In fact they have committed only a couple of hundred million across a few years. When we were in government our commitment to the Bruce Highway—and we took it to the last election—was greater and more short-term, in terms of bringing the funding forward, than the position the coalition took at the last election. Their money was off in the never-never. It was Campbell Newman and the LNP, in George Street, Brisbane—it was a great promise when in opposition, but when they get into power what did they do? They cut, cut and cut.

That is the case also when you look at the fiscal budget impact of coalition policies. There are projects they promised everywhere. Have a look at what they released before the election and then cut funding for. It is not just the projects for which they said they would do it but also for projects for which they hinted they might do it. In my area, and the member for Oxley's area and the member for Moreton's area, they claimed they would do that final section of the Ipswich Motorway. They matched Labor's rhetoric and commitment to the final section of the Ipswich Motorway—$276 million to kick-start the Darra to Rocklea section. Labor had committed and built $2.5 billion on the other parts of the Ipswich Motorway. But guess what? The coalition, as they have done again and again, whether they are in power in Queensland or nationally, cut the funding—just look at the fiscal budget impact of coalition policies. How much? About $65 million, not $276 million.

It is the same thing with the Bruce Highway—neglect and mistakes, as the member for Fisher talked about before. That is what they were guilty of when they were in government and that is what they are guilty of now. We will see when the people of Central, South-East and North Queensland get the funding they need and deserve on the Bruce Highway. We should remember one thing about the Cooroy to Curra section of the Bruce Highway. It is the section of the highway the member for Wide Bay used to talk about always, both in Queensland and down here in Canberra, but he could not get it done when he was the transport minister under the Howard coalition government. We started it. The section is done and the funding is committed. It is a classic example of why Labor and only Labor is committed to infrastructure in Queensland. (Time expired)

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise with a great deal of pleasure to support my colleague the member for Herbert's motion today. I choked a little when I listened to the contribution from the member for Blair, who was trying to suggest that all of these problems go back to the Howard era. Back in that time the funding from the federal government went directly to the state government, under Beattie and Bligh. As a member of the Howard government I remember expressing a great deal of frustration at the fact that we would allocate funding for a particular project and find that the state governments did not even have it on their priority list, let alone do any of the work associated with the planning, because at the end of the day it is the state governments that do the planning and enter into the contracts to do the construction. To give you a classic example, for years I was criticised by government for not doing anything on the Murray River section, which is down near Tully. They were saying it was all the federal government's fault that there was no money. I went to the Prime Minister at one stage and said, 'Let's call their bluff.' We actually allocated a very significant amount of money to the project, and the state government had to come back cap in hand and say, 'Sorry, we did not have that on our planning priority list for another eight years. If you want us to do it you are going to have to give us a million dollars to start planning it and another couple of million dollars to look at hydrology.' So there was no way in the world they could have done the work, even with the money that was allocated.

If you start reading a few headlines in the local daily newspaper for my region, the Cairns Post, on 31 August 2009 there was this: 'Bruce Highway a backroad killer'. I wonder who was in government then, I ask the member for Herbert. On 5 September 2009, less than a week later, the headline read 'Bruce Highway horror crash leaves town mourning'. These are the sorts of things we had when Labor was in government federally and in the state, so any suggestion that this has been a problem that has been created by us or by the Newman government is just an absolute nonsense.

More recently the tone of the headlines has been: January 2012, 'LNP will act quickly on Bruce'; April 2012, 'LNP moves on Bruce Highway'; July 2013, '$8.5 billion highway pledge Abbott 'fix' for Bruce'; October 2013, 'Road to a better highway'; and November 2013, 'Push to spruce Bruce'. So there has been an acknowledgement that there is now a focus.

Nationally, the coalition government is committed to delivering the biggest infrastructure agenda in Australia's history, through our $35.5 billion Infrastructure Investment Program. Of all the major projects under this program, I am extremely pleased to see that the Bruce Highway upgrade gets the biggest financial commitment of $6.7 billion. That is incredible, and it shows a very significant commitment from our side of politics.

When I have a look at this, additional funding will be required but I think that this is a very significant start. You have got an area of 1,700 kilometres between Cairns and Brisbane. It is the major arterial road connecting Queensland's eastern seaboard to economic centres. The North Queensland Road Alliance estimates that the Bruce Highway contributes $11.5 billion per annum to the Queensland economy and supports something like 60,000 jobs in North Queensland.

We have to say to you: Queensland government figures show that on average, every year, nine locations along the highway are closed for more than 48 hours due to flooding, and six of these locations are closed for more than five days a year. This causes economic paralysis in our region, and businesses that rely on road freight are stuck without supplies. It is absolutely critical that we make sure we get stuck into this and get the job done.

I am pleased to see that $700 million will be spent mainly in my area. That includes $300 million for the three stages of the Cairns southern access corridor—and some work had already started under Labor. Unfortunately, as is typical with Labor, they did not budget correctly so we have got to take money out to finish the job that they had committed to start but never put the money into.

There is also $385 million for the Edmonton to Gordonvale duplication, which is absolutely critical. Another area that we have to focus on, and I will continue to push very strongly for, is the second access to Cairns. We are certainly working with local and state governments who are prepared to listen and plan into the future, because it opens up opportunities, and I look forward to getting that— (Time expired)

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am a longstanding member of this House on the record as always congratulating any infrastructure spending, regardless of who it comes from or where it goes in Australia, because I believe in infrastructure, just like the Labor Party. I welcome this very belated commitment to infrastructure and, particularly to the Bruce Highway, regardless of who it is from. Even if it is from the LNP, even in Queensland, I still welcome it. It is just a pity they could not be bothered to do it when they were in government before.

The trend here is always the same: the coalition are only interested in roads and infrastructure when they are in opposition. In government they just talk about it. They have had plenty of opportunity. I recall when the Leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss, was the transport minister for a very long time. The Bruce Highway just happened to be the major road through his electorate, but of course it is only important when you are in opposition! Once they got to government and he was the minister, the LNP and the Liberals, and Warren Truss in particular, just ignored it. When they got to government, they slashed the infrastructure spending by $2 billion—very significant at the time—and it meant that nothing got done on the Bruce Highway, a great pity.

So now, when we get all these belated commitments and promises, I welcome them. I welcome them from Tony Abbott and the Liberals, but we are yet to see the colour of the money. Don't forget there are the slashes to come in the budget. Don't forget there is the Commission of Audit. So whatever they promise today, let's see what happens tomorrow. If it does come to fruition, I will welcome it. Why wouldn't you?

In government Labor delivered. This is an area where we spend. They can belly laugh—there is plenty of belly laughing on the other side—but the facts are the facts, not just what was in the last budget. We actually delivered over many, many budgets, unlike the never-never future commitments and promises from the Liberals. In fact, on the Bruce Highway, an unprecedented $5.7 billion was spent—more during the term of Labor than the whole term of the Howard government; real money spent on real projects.

Just in case people think I am making it up, let me list what we spent the money on: the duplication of the Douglas arterial at Townsville; the upgrade of the southern approaches to Sarina; construction of a new, higher bridge over the Isis River; duplication of section B between Cooroy and Curra; resurfacing of the Nambour bypass; elimination of 63 notorious black spots; 12 new and upgraded rest stops; and construction of 11 additional overtaking lanes.

Then there are projects currently underway, being done while we were in office when the changeover happened, though I am sure the LNP will try and take credit for them. The reality is that we funded them; they were started under us because we made the commitment. They include construction of a new interchange at the intersection between the Bruce and Dawson highways; the Calliope Crossroads near Gladstone; upgrade of the intersection between the Bruce and Capricorn highways, the Yeppen roundabout; upgrade of the southern approach to Mackay; flattening and straightening of the Bruce Highway over the Cardwell Range; projects associated with the Burdekin road safety audit, including the upgrade of intersections along Edward Street in Ayr between Queen Street and Jones Street and construction of two new overtaking lanes south of Home Hill; upgrade of the southern approach to Cairns; and strengthening of the bridge over the Burdekin.

I can imagine that on the other side they are getting tired and bored of me listing them, because it is a very long list of achievements under Labor. The list continues: straightening and widening of the Bruce Highway from Cabbage Tree Creek to Carman Road, and across Back Creek Range; straightening of the Bruce Highway just south of Gin Gin and upgrading of the intersection with the Bundaberg-Gin Gin Road; straightening and raising of the Bruce Highway between Sandy Corner and Collinsons Lagoon; upgrading of the Pumicestone Road interchange, including the construction of a new higher overpass over the Bruce Highway; and duplication of the Bruce Highway between the Cooroy South interchange and Sankeys Road, also known as Section A. The list goes on and on. These are the things that we did.

I am yet to see the list, the very short list, of the things that the Liberals are going to do, but I welcome it. I will not get political about it, I just want to see it done. I do not care who it comes from. The colour of your money is as good as the colour of anyone else's money. We want to see projects delivered. Please go ahead and deliver. I am from the western corridor of Brisbane, and we know roads, because for a long time the Liberals when they were in government refused to upgrade the Ipswich Motorway. They thought it was a project too far, too complicated, too expensive. It never would have been done. But the moment we got to government in 2007 we committed $2.5 billion to that road, and it was delivered under budget and under time—one of the best projects in Australian history, one of the biggest and most complex under full road conditions. We did that and I am really proud of that. It never would have happened under the Howard Liberal government. Today we would still be arguing over it. The reality is that Labor delivers on infrastructure; the Liberals promise it. (Time expired)

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the original motion moved by my colleague the member for Herbert, Mr Ewen Jones. The Bruce Highway is the single most important piece of public infrastructure in Queensland and in my electorate of Hinkler. Sadly, it was also the only Australian highway to be named recently as one of the world's most dangerous highways. The list of the world's worst roads was compiled by UK based Driving Experience and includes the likes of the trans-Siberian road in Russia, the Nairobi-Nakuru highway in Kenya and the Federal Highway 1 in Mexico. Also on the list is New Zealand's Skippers Canyon, and anyone who has been to Queenstown will be familiar with Skippers Canyon. It is single-lane dirt and rubble track that winds its way along some of the sheerest cliffs you will ever see. That is what Queensland's Bruce Highway has been compared to. Covering a stretch of approximately 1,700 kilometres, the Bruce Highway represents less than eight per cent of Australia's national highways but accounts for the almost a fifth of the country's road toll. As reported in the Courier-Mail, the RACQ predicts that up to 400 people will lose their lives on the Bruce Highway over the next decade if action is not taken.

That is why I am proud to be part of a government that is investing in a road that was sorely neglected by both state and federal Labor governments. We have committed $2.6 billion more than was promised by Labor. The coalition's Bruce Highway plan includes 16 existing projects and 45 new projects, bringing the total investment to $6.7 billion over 10 years. The package represents an 80-20 split between the Commonwealth and Queensland state government, putting an end to the unproductive and politically driven disputes between the various levels of government. This includes major upgrades and realignments, flood immunity improvements and strengthening and widening works. It also includes a range of safety measures to target crash black spots and provide additional overtaking areas and rest areas.

In my electorate, locals will share in about $1.1 billion in funding for safety and black-spot funding including those overtaking lanes. Eight million dollars will be spent to plan and acquire land for a heavy-vehicle bypass near Childers. One hundred and three million dollars for the upgrade at Saltwater Creek near Maryborough will also benefit Hinkler constituents, and just last month I turned the first sod on an $8 million federally funded project to upgrade the Bruce Highway at three intersections just south of Childers. More than 6,500 motorists, including many heavy-vehicle operators, use this section of the highway in my electorate every single day. Expected to be finished by the end of the year, the works will cater for those growing traffic volumes, especially during peak periods, by extending the dedicated right-hand turn lane at the Lucketts Road intersection and installing traffic signals at the Goodwood Road intersection. To cater for these new signals, the Butchers Road intersection will also be moved a short distance to the south to ensure that safety is maintained. The original scope of works involved the removal of a right-turn access at the Lucketts Road intersection in accordance with a 2010 coroner's recommendation. But, after listening to the community, we came up with an upgrade that will maintain all traffic movements at Lucketts Road while still achieving the desired safety outcome.

The Bruce Highway is the major artery connecting Queensland's coastal communities and the economic centres between Brisbane and Cairns. The North Queensland Roads Alliance estimates that the Bruce Highway contributes $11.5 billion per annum to the Queensland economy, and the highway is routinely cut off due to flooding at up to 33 sites. The 10-year Bruce Highway Action Plan produced by the Queensland government estimated that on average, every year, nine locations along the Bruce Highway are closed for more than 48 hours and six locations are closed for more than five days due to flooding.

If you are in the fresh food industry, 48 hours is a long time to be cut off from your markets. The two major industries in my electorate are horticulture and seafood. With no container port located nearby, refrigerated trucks are their only method of transport. The poor condition of the road is also damaging to the products themselves. Not only must growers battle high input costs like electricity, weather, pests, weeds and diseases, but also, by the time they get their soft produce—strawberries and blueberries—to market, they have also lost some of their profits due to potholes and wash-outs in the road.

While not physically located directly on the Bruce, the two major towns in my electorate are both dependent on the Bruce Highway for access in and out to the north and to the south. Bundaberg and Hervey Bay and all of the smaller communities in Hinkler rely on the Bruce Highway for medical transportation, particularly during emergencies. Tourists flock to the region each year to watch whales and turtles in their natural environment. The condition of the road is causing unnecessary wear and tear on vehicles and caravans, and the busiest shop in Gin Gin, which is in Flynn, is the tyre repair shop—every single week.

Imagine what could be done to improve the Bruce Highway with the $1.5 million per hour we are spending on interest to service Labor's debt. Queensland and our nation cannot achieve their full economic potential without a safe, reliable and efficient Bruce Highway, so we are delivering on our commitment to upgrade important sections of the Bruce. With any luck, within a decade the Bruce Highway will no longer be referred to by the Australian Automobile Association as one of the most dangerous roads in Australia.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to stress the importance of good governments investing in infrastructure that advances Australia's competitiveness and creates jobs for the future. The Bruce Highway takes its name from Stanley Bruce, one of the only two prime ministers in Australia's history who have lost their seats at a federal election. The other one, of course, is John Howard. The Bruce Highway does not run through my electorate, but it is obviously used by my constituents, and the community is well aware of the importance of delivering a safe, reliable and efficient highway—particularly one of my businesses, the Brisbane Markets, which distributes all the fresh fruit and vegies throughout Queensland; in fact, throughout Australia. It relies significantly on the Bruce Highway in bringing in produce that it can sell. Also, being married to a Cairns girl, I know the Bruce Highway very well, and I have friends in Townsville as well. In my time as a union organiser from 2000 through to 2004, I covered an area from Brisbane basically up to Rockhampton and Moranbah, so I spent a lot of time—too much time, in fact—on the Bruce Highway.

So I was horrified to see recently that it had been ranked as the world's 22nd most dangerous highway, and the fatalities are something that we on both sides of the chamber agree should be eliminated wherever possible. Obviously, those deaths are an economic cost and a horrible tragedy for families. This 1,700-kilometre-long highway represents less than eight per cent of our national highways but, sadly, accounts for almost a fifth of Australia's death toll, something that we should be doing all we can to change. Obviously upgrades are the way to do it. Anyone who has driven that highway knows—and I have seen this many times myself—that, if you are stuck going up or down the highway behind a couple of caravans or a couple of campervans of British tourists, or tourists from around the world, it can create problems. Overtaking lanes are obviously important. As people get frustrated—they may have goods to deliver—they make rash decisions.

Any time that that road is cut, due to floods or accidents, it damages the economic potential of the area. Sadly, the coalition has undelivered on its commitment to fund the upgrade of the Bruce Highway. I think we should change its name to the Never-Never Highway, because during the time of the Howard government, nearly 12 years, they spent only $1.3 billion on the Bruce Highway, even at a time when the transport minister had the highway going right through his backyard. That was a tragedy.

What did the Labor Party do? We committed nearly $6 billion over six years in government—most of it spent, some of it being spent now, with people putting shovels in the ground for Labor funded projects, as we have heard from the earlier speeches. Let us compare: the Howard government, $1 billion over 12 years, and the Labor government, $6 billion over six years. The pathetic response we have got from the state LNP government and the federal LNP government now is $6 billion over 10 years. I was an English teacher, but even I can do the maths there. It just does not add up. It is a typical example of those opposite supporting it in principle—but obviously infrastructure is all about putting a shovel into the ground and achieving a real result.

We have a self-declared 'infrastructure Prime Minister'—self-declared because he has not actually done anything except white-ant the NBN. We might as well call him the breakdancing Prime Minister. He does not do any breakdancing either. It has as much relevance as calling him the infrastructure Prime Minister. We have seen it time and time again. I had a look back at the first speech of my predecessor as the member for Moreton, back in March or April 1996, where he talked about upgrading the Coopers Plains rail crossing in the electorate. He said it was something that was going to happen, but then for 12 years nothing happened. Nothing happened at all. I think this is what we will see with the Bruce Highway—fine, noble sounding words but no dollars; fine sentiments but no people actually put on the ground to boost the infrastructure.

With a highway that creates so many deaths and that is such a route for tourists, for people going to work in the coalfields, for people holidaying, for people bringing fruit and vegetables down to the markets of Queensland and south-east Australia, we need to do all that we can to flood-proof it, all that we can to make sure that it is safe and all that we can to make sure that there are no more fatalities.

Debate adjourned.