House debates

Monday, 22 February 2016

Statements by Members

Groom Electorate: Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, Truss, Mr Warren

1:41 pm

Photo of Ian MacfarlaneIan Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on my favourite topic—the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing—but also to pay tribute to one of the great proponents of that crossing: the member for Wide Bay. Last week, we again announced even more money from the Commonwealth in relation to futureproofing the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing. The crossing, as we know, has been funded in the main by the Commonwealth government for some $1.4 billion, and we had to wait till the coalition got into government to do that. I see the member for Moreton sitting at the table. He knows how badly the Toowoomba region needed that range crossing, and it took a coalition government to build it. They sat on their hands for six years. But I am not going to be distracted by that.

Along with the half-million dollars to futureproof a potential half-cloverleaf, it again was just another tick in the great contribution that the member for Wide Bay has made not only to infrastructure in the Groom electorate but right across Australia. It was 32 years ago when I first sat next to the member for Wide Bay when we were on the state council of the Queensland Graingrowers Association together. At the beginning of my public life, he was already well into his. Our paths have tracked along that way, but there is no doubt that his contribution to this place and Australia has been enormous.