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

Deputy Speaker Scott, I know you spend a lot of time coming through South-East Queensland and so will be particularly interested in this motion. I have moved:

That this House:

(1) opposes the Queensland Government's plans to cut local bus services in South East Queensland;

(2) notes that these cuts will:

(a) affect many vulnerable residents that can least afford it—seniors, pensioners, part-time working mums and dads and students …

They will particularly affect people who are ill and have to travel to the QE2 hospital, the PA Hospital or the Mater hospital. The motion also asks the House to support better public transport in Queensland.

I put this motion to the House in the context of the announcement by the Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, in July last year, of a review into TransLink's South-East Queensland bus network. I flag up-front that I have a bit of a conspiracy theory about this, and that is that it is a precursor to the selling off, the privatisation, of bus transportation. The Labor Party has a long, proud history of making commitments to public transport. However, the privatisation agenda of the Newman government has to be seen to be believed. The reality is that bus networks are not super viable. During peak hours they are, but, during the off-peak times, particularly when seniors travel, or when people who are ill need to go to hospital, bus companies do not make a profit. My understanding of this review is that it will be a precursor to privatisation.

I will be interested to hear the contributions of those opposite on this motion. We have already seen a bit of a north-south divide when it comes to public transport in Brisbane. The Labor government is committed to looking after trains, buses and roads, particularly on the south side of the river. One of the first things that I made sure happened, going back to 2004, was the Elizabeth Street rail crossing initiative down in Beaudesert Road, something that the member for Wright would travel through pretty regularly. There used to be a wait of up to 13 minutes. Then we secured federal government funding to make sure that the boom gates were taken off Beaudesert Road, and that freed up transport all the way down to Beaudesert and beyond so people were not sitting there waiting. We all know that if you are sitting for 13 or 14 minutes at a boom gate you are not using your time productively and it is not good for business and it is not good for environment, with cars pumping out carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide—and diesel engines running at that low speed put out more diesel particulate matter, which is carcinogenic. So it is always good to have public transport and roads working as efficiently as possible.

With that in mind, I wrote to the transport minister, the Hon. Scott Emerson, who is one of the few state MPs whose electorate includes areas both north of the river and south of the river. He shares quite a few suburbs with me. I asked him: what can we do to make sure we have public transport in Brisbane operating as efficiently as possible? Obviously buses are part of the campaign, but it is also about making sure our rail crossings are safe. I have two of the worst level crossing locations in Brisbane. In fact, I refer to an article in the Brisbane Times that rated the 10 worst level crossings in Queensland according to train drivers, and two of them—one is at Rocklea and one is at Coopers Plains—are in my electorate. Interestingly the one at Coopers Plains—I looked at the speech by former member for Moreton Gary Hardgrave to see if he had made any comments on this and in his first speech he said, 'I will fix this intersection'. That was back in March 1996.

With that in mind, I wrote to the Hon. Scott Emerson, the Minister for Transport and Main Roads, and pointed out that two of the 10 worst Queensland crossings are in my electorate and would there be funding available. And he said: 'Yes. The state government does believe in introducing grade separations to remove level crossings.' He said, 'In fact, we're doing it at two locations in Brisbane'—both on the north side—'Robinson Road at Geebung and Telegraph Road at Bracken Ridge'. Both of these are on the north side. In fact, I quote from his letter. He said:

If you would like to upgrade the level crossings in your electorate, I would welcome you securing Commonwealth government funding.

It is a letter from Scott Emerson, so it is worth something. Although I have seen when a letter from him does not necessarily mean that it will result in anything. I notice that he wrote to the federal government seeking money for the big public transport infrastructure that the City of Brisbane is calling out for, something that will benefit my electorate, something that will benefit the north side, the electorate of Brisbane. As we reach rail capacity at the South Brisbane Grey Street Bridge in three years time, this will impact on trains all the way to the Gold Coast, all the way to the border basically.

An opposition member: There's no money.

It is interesting to see: Scott Emerson requested $750 million from each level of government, and built into that an agreement of fifty-fifty funding for the availability payment for the private sector financially for the project—just to alleviate those concerns about there not being any money available. So our transport minister, Anthony Albanese, responded saying, 'Yep; tick. We'll do all of those things.' They asked for funding principles, we agreed to every single one of the funding principles. Every single one. But then Scott Emerson went into the cabinet and was rolled by the Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney. He was rolled by Jeff Seeney. I will quote from the letter that Scott Emerson wrote to the transport minister, Mr Albanese. He said:

Once I have your confirmation of the funding principles, it is my intention to seek cabinet approval to engage with the market to confirm the constructability and validate the business case estimates. I will also instruct my department to develop an MoU between our respective departments to detail arrangements moving forward.

A direct quote from the letter from Scott Emerson saying, 'We're keen to do this.' He was saying, 'I'll be out there fighting for it'.

Infrastructure Australia, that body well-respected on both sides of parliament, has said that it is its No. 1 priority. It will benefit the people in South Queensland, and South-East Queensland and my electorate of Moreton in particular. Without it we will be moving towards gridlock not just because of rail but also because of roads. Once the trains reach capacity—they cannot pull any more train seats out of the trains going all the way to the Gold Coast; you cannot have people standing for an hour or an hour and a half going to work in Brisbane. I am not sure if that is what those opposite are suggesting, but the federal opposition leader has said, 'No, no, we won't fund any urban public rail project. We will not fund it.'

However, I thought, 'Wait a minute: in 2010 didn't the opposition leader commit to funding a rail project?' I looked into it and, sure enough, as long as it was a rail project on the north side, not the south side, he was happy to find money for it. But then, when it comes to 2013 we have a different story. Sadly, the people in my electorate are suffering because of this failure to commit to public transport, both to the bus network and to the trains. The reality is the Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Scott Emerson, could not give a quicker flick past when it came to this TransLink South-East Queensland review.

We will see in the next couple of weeks how the Lord Mayor responds to these cuts to services that have already been flagged as impacting particularly the people of Acacia Ridge—a suburb that is crying out for public transport. It is an elderly suburb with a Labor councillor, so maybe it is not a voice that is being heard in the council chamber like it should. The reality is, despite Steve Griffiths great efforts, the people of Acacia Ridge are going to be shafted by the Lord Mayor and by the transport minister, Scott Emerson.

See this speech in context