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

Deputy Speaker, I have three issues to put to the minister. The first is in relation to the upgrade of the Bruce Highway from Vantassel Street in Townsville to the Flinders Highway. The minister would know of it: $110 million was announced in the budget for this project. It was certainly something that the government was going to remove altogether to pay for the flood reconstruction in Queensland, and only after campaigning by the Liberal-National coalition was it reinstated in the budget. That was a good outcome. I have written to the minister, and I believe that the Townsville City Council has written to the minister—and perhaps the minister has also received correspondence from the Townsville Turf Club—about some issues that the community have with the upgrade of that road. I am just wondering whether the minister is aware of that and what the minister is going to do about those concerns.

The second issue I refer to concerns the Bruce Highway. The minister and, I believe, the Prime Minister came to Rockhampton to announce a supposed $4.1 billion Bruce Highway package. We later found out that roughly $1.76 billion of that was already announced funding. This leaves around $2.4 billion to be spent over the next 10 years.

The Department of Main Roads in Queensland has a Bruce Highway action plan where they say that $6 billion over the next 10 years is needed for the highest priority projects on that highway. The $2.4 billion that you have allocated over the next 10 years is not even half of what is needed. The minister will probably respond that all of that $1.76 billion was announced after the Bruce Highway action plan came into effect, but that answer will only really fly if the $1.76 billion in funding that has already been committed out of that $4.1 billion is for projects that are actually contained within the Bruce Highway action plan. So my second question to the ministry is whether he can assure me and indeed the House that out of that $4.1 billion that has been allocated, including the $1.76 billion that has already been allocated, all of it is going to projects that are identified in the Bruce Highway action plan. The following question is, if there cannot be an assurance there, what projects are we going to miss out on? Will the Haughton River Bridge be something we miss out on, the upgrade of Sandy Gully near Bowen, the planning for Beganga Plains in the Whitsundays be something we miss out on?

In relation to the ring road, there was a visit by the Prime Minister on 24 April to Mackay and she announced that the ring road would be funded by the government. There were no details but she told reporters that in the budget the ring road would be included. We have got the budget before us and there is no line item mentioning the ring road whatsoever. There is no mention of the ring road in the budget. There have been indications made to journalists by the Prime Minister, by the minister and indeed by the Labor candidate in the electorate of Dawson that the ring road funding will be available in the 2013-14 financial year. I want a clear answer from the minister, a yes or a no: will the ring road funding be made available in the 2013-14 financial year?

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