Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ipswich is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, so we need to invest in local jobs, infrastructure and services to meet out current and future needs. To that end the federal budget contained tens of million dollars in funding for infrastructure, industry, flood resilience projects, health and veteran services, and community and sporting facilities. Within that there is a focus on long-term infrastructure to support our growing population as well as some more immediate flood recovery and resilience projects. Firstly, there is support for a high-priority transport infrastructure project to support our growing city, and that is the last section of the Ipswich Motorway. There's $12.5 million for planning works for the final stage from the Oxley roundabout through to what we used to call the Centenary interchange. I know you and I, Speaker, as the member for Oxley, have advocated for a long time on the Ipswich Motorway. This is money that has been requested for planning purposes by the Queensland Labor government, and I'm sure that Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark Bailey, the Minister for Transport and Main Roads, and the Deputy Premier with responsibility for state projects, Steven Miles, will be supportive of that money going towards Queensland government projects. That final stage of the Ipswich Motorway, on which 100,000 vehicles a day travel between Ipswich and Brisbane, is absolutely crucial for the electorates of Blair and Oxley and surrounds as well.

There's $3.4 million to complete a detailed business case for the Ipswich to Springfield rail line. This has been requested by the Ipswich City Council and also by Springfield City Group, along with many people and organisations such as the chambers of commerce in Springfield and Ipswich. Once the rail link is completed, it will link the suburbs between Springfield, Redbank Plains, Ripley and Yamanto, which account for 70 per cent of the growth in Ipswich, where the population will grow from just under 250,000 now to about 550,000 in the next two to three decades, and 70 per cent of that growth will be in that southern corridor. This is important funding, and I know the Ipswich City Council is undertaking an options analysis that's only just started. This is above the $2 million we committed and it is part, of course, of the city deal that the Ipswich City Council negotiated with the former government.

We're delivering and we have delivered $3.4 million. I know that the Ipswich City Council has considered that it will cost about $10 million to plan the business case, and you and I, Mr Speaker, have advocated for that rail link for a very long time. It's important for our constituents as well. We saw just how many people have come to Springfield as a result of the linking of the railway to Springfield Central which, by the way, is the home of the Brisbane Lions. I look forward to the Brisbane Lions being able to play football there and I would urge the AFL to think about the grand final of the AFLW being located at Springfield. That would be a terrific venue for the grand final of the AFLW.

But there's also money in the budget—I think, critical money—to upgrade the Ipswich Showgrounds. This is the main evacuation location for Ipswich. I have been critical of Ipswich City Council—and I've said this to the mayor—because there should have been more evacuation hubs at places like Goodna and Rosewood and Karalee and elsewhere. But the $4 million we're giving to the Ipswich Show Society is crucial, with $1.5 million of that being under our Disaster Ready Fund. The previous government not having used the Emergency Response Fund, we're going to put $200 million a year towards projects like this. I look forward to that money going to the Ipswich Show Society. This will be important for flood resilience and recovery.

I'm working with the state LNP state member for Moggill and the LNP councillor for Pullenvale. I'm urging the federal government to think about allocating money for a similar type of project for Mount Crosby State School because the people of Mount Crosby currently get cut off every time there's a big flood. Even though they're in Brisbane, they are isolated. They're my constituents, and I think that is crucial. The $3 million we provide to the Ipswich City Council will be towards the Bremer River and tributaries under our urban rivers program. That's crucial in terms of flood recovery and resilience, water quality and environmental values in our urban waterways. There are important creeks that go into the Brisbane and Bremer rivers, like Woogaroo Creek and Bundamba Creek, so we'll work with the Ipswich City Council to put $1 million towards this particular project as well. But this is absolutely crucial. We haven't even got flood gauges in some of these places, so I am very pleased to see the support of this government for the people of Ipswich.

House adjourned at 20:0 0