Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Fairfax for the question. As I mentioned to the House yesterday, the Australian government is engaging in an ambitious plan to upgrade Australian roads and, in particular, to upgrade the Bruce Highway to four-lane standard at a cost of some $1 billion. Planning has been under way for this major upgrade now for 18 months or so in cooperation with the Queensland government and half-a-dozen routes have been identified for consideration for the new corridor for this road.

The honourable member asked me whether there are any alternative policies. There is one, and that comes from the Queensland government, who have been partners in developing these corridor strategies. Their alternative policy, announced last week, is to build a dam to flood nine kilometres of the road. Their policy is to flood the road that we are proposing to upgrade.

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