Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a disappointing speech from the member for Blair, with the apologies that he was trying to make on behalf of his state Labor colleagues. There were plenty of excuses why his state Labor colleagues in Queensland can't get on with the job, but in each of the examples he gave, or at least in most of them, did you notice how it was the federal government with money on the table for those infrastructure projects and yet here he was calling on us to hurry up negotiations with the state government? The federal government is the one with money on the table. You would think that the state Labor government would be falling over themselves to work with the federal government in order to get these projects done for local residents, but we don't see that as the case. He even managed to blame the delay of the Cross River Rail on the federal government. The last time I checked, it was a state project that Deputy Premier Trad said was fully funded by the state government. The only one delivering Cross River Rail, if that's the issue the member for Blair has, is the Treasurer of Queensland and the state Labor government.

It is important to tackle traffic congestion, and I completely agree with the member for Forde's motion. He gets it. He gets it in his local area, as I do in the Ryan electorate. It is the biggest issue for commuters and residents of the Ryan electorate, to tackle traffic congestion. It's not an end in itself, but it allows families to spend more time together. It allows them to jettison the frustrations of being stuck in traffic. It allows them to move freely around the area that they love living in and the community that they enjoy. Population growth will happen, particularly somewhere like the Ryan electorate, which is such a wonderful place to live. People love to live there. They want to move there. We want them to come. But we need to make sure that we tackle congestion in order to continue our lifestyle and our standard of living, which is why I'm so pleased that the Morrison government is investing over $100 billion in roads, rail and airports to ease congestion. They are investing $25 billion to improve Queensland highways, fix bottlenecks and build commuter carparks. In a city like Brisbane we have committed to a number of large and small projects. This government has contributed and put $300 million on the table for the Brisbane Metro project. This is a project that can revolutionise public transport in Brisbane.

The motion specifically talks about all levels of government contributing funding to tackle traffic congestion. But here we have another example of the Labor state government failing to support an infrastructure project. It doesn't require any funding from the state Labor government. Brisbane Metro is fully funded. It has $300 million on the table from the federal government and $700 million on the table from the Brisbane City Council. There have been over 200 meetings between the Brisbane City Council and the state Labor government, who just have to give it the tick and we will have a separated busway for the majority of the city and revolutionise public transport, and yet they can't even do that. The Treasurer, Treasurer Trad, has the time in her diary to buy houses on the Cross River Rail infrastructure area but doesn't have the time to give a tick-off to a project which is fully funded, by council and the federal government, that would revolutionise public transport usage in her own inner-city electorate.

In Ryan, through the $4 billion Urban Congestion Fund that the Morrison government has in place we're committed to removing some important traffic pinch points. It's as important to tackle the smaller local bottlenecks as well as the big projects. I heard and reflected on the Deputy Prime Minister's remarks in the chamber today about people being able to travel from the west of Toowoomba all the way through to the port without a single set of traffic lights. It is because of projects like the Legacy Way tunnel, which, again, are partly funded by the federal government and were initially committed to by the Howard government.

In Ryan, we have $25 million to tackle the Indooroopilly roundabout, working alongside the Brisbane City Council, who are committed to tackling congestion in our city. It is because of this federal funding that this project has been kickstarted after several years of design and land purchases. The $25 million on the table from the federal government has allowed this project to get moving, and public consultation is now open.

It was only last week that I was up there with Minister Tudge looking at the different design options and talking to local residents about them. I look forward to working with the Brisbane City Council to complete that project.

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