Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the council of south-east Queensland mayors to Canberra, once again, for their annual visit. As someone who has lived in Ipswich all of my life, I am committed to South-East Queensland. One in seven Australians live in south-east Queensland and for the past 10 years 20 per cent of the economic and employment growth in this country was in south-east Queensland.

While they are here, the infrastructure Prime Minister—as he likes to call himself—can have a listen to the mayors of South-East Queensland. One of the projects he can think about is the Darra to Springfield rail extension to Redbank Plains. It is the biggest of the fastest-growing suburbs in Ipswich. That is $180 million. The Brisbane Valley Highway upgrade from the Blacksoil Interchange, built by a Labor government with funding that we put in—$54 million—is upgraded to the Brisbane River to help the towns of Fernvale and Lowood. It is $45 million. The Cunningham Highway upgrade from Yamanto to Willowbank, helping RAAF Base Amberley and the aerospace precinct, is $270 million. The Norman Street Bridge project, across Ipswich, will help flood resilience for my community, which has suffered major floods—three in the last difficult biblical generation. That is $250 million.

They could also get started on the Ipswich Motorway's Darra to Rocklea section, which the coalition said they would match the funding for. We built the Dinmore to Darra section of the Ipswich Motorway. It was built and completed under a Labor government—$2.8 billion. The Abbott government said they would match the funding for the last stage and have done nothing about it since the last election. (Time expired)