Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Abbott government is building the roads of the 21st century and there cannot be a better example than Dalrymple Road in Townsville. The old Shaw Road crossing in Townsville was one of those things where we would have been happy to build a road of the 20th century to get this one done. In the lead-up to the 2013 election, when the Townsville City Council came to me with their wish list and said that they wanted the Shaw Road crossing and the causeway to be fixed, finally, I went to our people and I said to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister that this was a project we wanted in the future.

It is a $40 million project, of which the Townsville City Council told me they had half, and they were chasing the prospective Abbott government to provide the other half. Tony Abbott made the trip to Townsville and made the announcement himself on a Saturday morning. For those people who live in Kalynda Chase, Rupertswood, Rangewood, the fantastic suburb of Greater Ascot which is just springing up, and for a city like Townsville—a city of the 21st century—we need to do better than having these random roads that just keep on going under. You cannot have those sorts of entry statements coming to a city the size of Townsville.

I am pleased that the Townsville City Council had the forethought to push this with me. I am pleased that the federal government was able to commit the money to it. We are bringing the money down in this year's budget and hopefully we will commence work in 2014-15 and get this road finished once and for all. The people of Townsville deserve no less.