Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Delays to the work with the Blacksoil Interchange intersection of the Warrego and the Brisbane Valley highways have caused motorists and residents aggravation, hindered further economic development and put lives at risk on a daily basis. The previous state Labor government opened tenders on 14 January 2012 for this project. We delivered by June 2012 our $54 million for what was then a $70 million project. The project in the interim has been delayed by the state LNP government in Queensland and has blown out to $94 million.

The new LNP state member for Ipswich West, Sean Choat, promised the Queensland Times in June 2012 that the project would be under construction, then he said September 2012, then December 2012 and then he said sometime in 2013. In his most recent newsletter he had the temerity to say a blatantly untrue statement that work on the Blacksoil Interchange is underway and is expected to be completed by April 2014. Anyone who goes there can see that that is absolutely not true. Indeed, he deliberately delayed the project on the basis that there needed to be another access point for a service road. I have never been opposed to that and, in fact, I was quite critical of the Ipswich City Council for its failure to fund and to construct an extension of Bayley Road for the purpose of the local residents who live in the Pine Mountain area. The extension of Bayley Road to the Pine Mountain Road would solve the problem of a second access route while Eleazar Drive was cut off under construction of the Blacksoil Interchange.

On 6 March this year it surprised me to hear the backbencher for Ipswich West, the LNP state member, announce that the Fulton Hogan construction company would get the contract to do this particular work. There was no notice given to the federal government, the primary source of the funding, and there was no announcement from the Queensland LNP state minister, Scott Emerson, the Minister for Main Roads and Transport. Indeed, if Fulton Hogan have construction of this project I am pleased, because they are one of the six companies in the Origin Alliance who did the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway, which was the $1.76 billion project funded by the federal Labor government. It was done on time, under budget and was certainly a great effort for the people of Ipswich.

There was particular community consultation when the previous design of this project was undertaken, but these questions need to be asked and have not been answered. How much will the new project cost? What is the timetable for construction? What inconveniences for motorists will there be? What is the final design? When will it start? When will the upgrade be completed? I look forward to answers to these questions; none of which have been given by the LNP state government. It is important that residents know the new design, that they not be kept in the dark and it is important that we, the federal Labor government, be told the answers to these questions by the state government.