Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question. I always love visiting his part of the world. Queensland's beautiful beaches are ready made, but we do know there's work to do on the roads and rail across the state, and our government is delivering.

For decades, it's been clear to anyone who's sat in a traffic jam next to Movie World that a north-south alternative to the M1 is required. Over 210,000 vehicles routinely use the M1, on the busiest days, between Coomera and Nerang. I'm pleased to share that the fix is here; the Coomera Connector is coming. The new four-lane, four-kilometre section of the Coomera Connector, which will be inventively named the M9, will provide a vital alternative route to the M1 for locals between Coomera and Helensvale. I look forward to opening this much-needed project with my good friend Minister Brent Mickelberg and the member for Forde next week.

I'm proud to be working with Brent on our $7.2 billion investment in the Bruce Highway, with construction already getting underway. The beef roads, where work has finally started—we've finally got that project off the ground, upgrading key cattle freight routes across Central Queensland. Construction on the Rockhampton Ring Road, which we had to put millions of dollars more into to deliver because it was short-changed by those opposite—only Labor is delivering the Rockhampton Ring Road and the Mackay Ring Road, two massive projects being delivered by a federal Labor government in partnership with the Queensland government.

Planning is underway for rail improvements between Logan and the Gold Coast and for better rail links to the Sunshine Coast, where work is already underway on upgrading the rail between Beerburrum and Nambour. Minister Mickelberg and I also worked with the Brisbane City Council to deliver Brisbane Metro, and all three levels of government are now collaborating on the business case to see it expanded even further.

It's a new way of doing business between federal and state governments. We actually work together. I know that is a foreign concept to those opposite. We work with our state colleagues. When those opposite were in government, they didn't just fight with each other; they also antagonised the states. They called Western Australians 'cavemen'. They talked down premiers who disagreed with them. They cut funding to key projects like Brisbane's Cross River Rail. Really, it's been only a Labor government that's really invested significantly in Queensland. We know Cross River Rail has been going well. This prime minister invested in it as infrastructure minister. Those opposite froze indexation to road maintenance, leaving potholes all across our national highway network—decades worth of potholes that we're now having to clean up. This government is building the infrastructure that Australians need and fixing up the mess left by that divided opposition opposite.

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