Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity in the last sitting week of parliament of 2018 to say to everyone in my electorate: thank you for your contribution to Australia over the last 12 months. To all of you, merry Christmas and a happy new year. I look forward to seeing you over the next couple of weeks—we'll still be doing mobile offices, and I'll be out in the community. From parliament, merry Christmas. Thanks for your contribution, and I'm sure 2019 will be great.

This year I want to just say, as well: thank you to those people that are working over Christmas—our Defence Force personnel; emergency services; health and aged-care workers; and public transport workers, both bus and train. I also want to thank all the volunteers in the Petrie community. There are so many people who volunteer week in week out. Perhaps you're retired or perhaps you're able to volunteer on the weekends, and there's so much that you do that contributes to our local community. I think of the SES over Christmas and services like the Breakfast Club at Redcliffe, Rotary and Lions clubs, senior groups that do a lot, youth groups and, of course, over Christmas, churches as well, who often give hampers to families that are desperately in need. Thank you for that.

This year, in 2018, we've been able to deliver a lot and get a lot done, particularly around infrastructure and transport. Back in 2013 the Liberal-National opposition promised a billion dollars to upgrade the Gateway Motorway, which is looking fantastic. There are six new lanes. It's almost done. There is final lane marking and pavement work to be completed, and the federal government has been assured that it will be finished by 31 December 2018, which isn't far away. That's on a state government website confirming this time frame. The state's transport and main roads department have let us know that.

We've also completed the Boundary Road overpass, for which there was an $80 million federal government contribution, up at Narangba and North Lakes, which is fantastic. There have been other local roads which I have been able to secure funding for which are now completed, including King Street and Victoria Avenue at Woody Point, Macdonald Road and Main Road at Clontarf, Victoria Avenue and Robina Street at Margate and the Mustang Street to Norris Road section of Telegraph Road at Brackenridge, where it has gone from two lanes to four lanes—two lanes each way. The Brisbane City Council are still doing a bit of extra work from Mustang Street down to the Gateway Motorway. I was also able to secure that the Moreton Bay Regional Council were upgrading Henry Road at Griffin, which was a shocking road, the worst in the electorate. Thanks to them for getting that done as well.

Next year there is more to be done. I've secured funding for the Deception Bay overpass at Deception Bay. That dodgy two-lane bridge will be torn down, and there'll be a new six-lane one with turning lanes like at Boundary Road. There's also additional black spot funding, rest areas and safety upgrades on the Bruce Highway and more local roads on the Redcliffe Peninsula that will be federally funded and upgraded. I've also secured a million dollars of CCTV to protect our community and keep our security strong right along the Moreton Bay Rail Link from Kippa-Ring station all the way through to Petrie, which is really important. We've also secured CCTV projects at Margate and at St Vincent de Paul at Margate, which is important. We're a growing community and sometimes that brings antisocial behaviour. Of course policing is looked after by the state government, and we're continuing to talk to them about perhaps a police beat for North Lakes. That was put forward at the last state election. I think it is desperately needed. The state government definitely needs to do a bit more there.

This year we've also pumped over $790 million into the Petrie electorate to make sure that aged pensioners are funded as well as ensuring carer payments, disability support payments and Newstart allowance. In relation to disability support, we've got 1,679 people on disability employment services. I want to thank those groups that are working with people, helping them find work, and everyone who came to my jobseeker boot camps this year. I'll be holding another one in March next year as well. Thanks again for your contribution. Happy New Year and we'll see you in 2019.