George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're familiar with the great movie and movie series The Fast and the Furious, but in Queensland, when we talk about roads and the Palaszczuk Labor government, we move from 'fast and furious' to 'slow and spurious'. Here are two examples, both in the Whitsundays, in my electorate, even though the bulk of the funding is coming from the Morrison Liberal-National government. Both problem areas suffer flooding issues. There's money on the table, or in the bank account, and still we wait. There are serious flooding issues at Hamilton Plains, between Airlie Beach and Proserpine. Although it's a state road, in April 2019 I secured funding of $29.6 million under the federal government's Roads of Strategic Importance program. Now I find out that the Palaszczuk Labor government has picked the eyes out of that funding for another project on Shute Harbour Road, and we have no word on what they're doing, or when, to rectify the flooding issues at the Hamilton Plains.

There's another flood-prone stretch on the Bruce Highway at Goorganga Plains, south of Proserpine, which needs to be addressed. We've had $12 million available for a $15 million study to investigate planning and options. Just last week I learnt that the Queensland Labor government won't have a business case for this flood-prone area until 2022. It's definitely slow and spurious, not fast and furious, when it comes to Labor building roads in Queensland. How sad, how slow and how spurious.