House debates

Monday, 15 March 2021

Adjournment

Queensland: Infrastructure

7:34 pm

Photo of Phillip ThompsonPhillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Why is it that, every time the Queensland Labor government wants to build a project, we can't get the outcome that the community wants? We, as elected representatives here, in other places and in state and territory governments, come to these places to represent the views of our communities and fight for their needs, but there's one word that the Queensland Labor state government doesn't seem to understand or even know: consultation. They don't consult the community on their plans; they tell people what they want instead of asking what they need. Recently, in Townsville, we've seen this with a massive social housing development that's going on. It was slammed through with whatever design the government department wanted—the local state members didn't even know what the plan was—all under the guise of a state election.

Now we're seeing it again with the Townsville Northern Access Intersections Upgrade. This is a major project, worth more than $100 million, and the federal government is putting in more than 80 per cent of these funds. It's a key upgrade that duplicates the Bruce Highway, to the north of Townsville, between Veales Road and Pope Road, including the building of a new bridge over Black River. Tragically, too many people have lost their lives on this road. It's been a hotspot for crashes because the intersections have not been up to standard. So it was very good to see the contracts signed for the design phase earlier this year, because we all thought it would be a safer road—safer for our young people, safer for people to drop their kids off at school. But, under the dark shadow of the state election, the Queensland Labor government put up on its website the map of the design of the road, to tell the community what it had come up with, but requested no feedback, and the beginning of local submissions fell on deaf ears.

Of course, when you duplicate a major highway, it requires thought to be given to crossings to the other side of the road and overhead. Most of us are familiar with the traffic lights and overpasses, but instead this design has two U-turn facilities. It was when residents of Black River saw these designs that the emails and phone calls started coming in. The U-turn facilities mean that people turning onto the road but needing to travel in the opposite direction will have to move to the right-hand lane, checking that there's no fast traffic approaching from behind, and get into the far-right, U-turn lane before it's too late. It just doesn't seem safe.

This has been a major cause for concern for residents for quite a while in multiple community meetings that have been held at the location. Close to 100 people have attended and raised their concerns. I couldn't find one person who was happy with this design. I couldn't find one person who felt that they had had their consultation or had their voice heard.

One of the biggest players in this area is the Black River Pony Club, with its members. This is a thriving community of families who love horses and horseriding. During the week and on the weekends, the highway is flooded with horse floats. These are difficult to manoeuvre in the best of times, but now the members that go to the pony club will have to do sharp U-turns that are going to make it much more difficult and quite dangerous.

I know that highly qualified engineers and designers have been involved. I know that there are design standards and rules that govern road lengths and stopping distances, but still my constituents are telling me they don't feel confident about driving on this road or about letting their kids drive on this road. They say they'd rather have the road stay the way it is. So I can't just sit back and not raise their concerns with the people who make these decisions.

The decision-maker in this case is the state transport minister, Mark Bailey, because this map was uploaded to the website just before the state election. Minister Bailey has not responded to any concerns. He has not written back to anyone. He has not spoken to the residents. We started a petition that went to the Queensland parliament, requesting that our voices be heard. I call on the state Labor minister to do the right thing: listen to the community concerns and act upon them. I invite him to come back to Townsville and speak with locals. Give them the respect they deserve. Give them the voice they must have.