Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) | Hansard source

And guess what? On Sunday it was finished, and we had the very first light rail tram leave Burleigh station at six am and head towards Brisbane, which was very exciting for my community, and I want to thank the former deputy prime minister for coming to the Gold Coast and for advocating so very hard for my community when he was the minister.

It is a significant milestone. The project was made possible through the combined funding and efforts of the Queensland government, the City of Gold Coast and the Commonwealth under the Morrison government. Despite Minister Watt's poor memory last Friday at the press conference, I will remind him that it was, as I said, the former coalition government who committed $395.6 million in total to deliver light rail stage 3. Minister Watt, it was not your gaffe-prone boss who actually committed that almost $400 million to Gold Coast Light Rail. Since my election in 2019, I've been a strong advocate for the project because I know how important reliable public transport is to our growing city.

The new light rail stage 3 will be tested this weekend with the Pacific Air Show on the Gold Coast. Of course, another great coalition government minister at the time, Mr Peter Dutton, who's no longer with us in the parliament, signed off on the first Pacific Air Show on those defence assets. I will be riding the light rail all the way to Surfers Paradise from Miami on Saturday—on Friday, probably, and on Saturday—to the Gold Coast Pacific Airshow. I look forward to that event.

What it does tell me is that the Gold Coast only wins when we have a coalition government and when we have a Liberal National Party government. The rest of the time, we are ignored by Labor governments. I say congratulations to all of those involved in Gold Coast light rail stage 3 for the launch that occurred just this weekend.

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