House debates

Monday, 21 November 2022

Constituency Statements

Petrie Electorate: Bruce Highway

10:56 am

Photo of Luke HowarthLuke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | | Hansard source

Residents in the suburb of Griffin are victims of poor planning by the Queensland state government. Over 100 homes along the Bruce Highway on the north side of Brisbane will be bulldozed by the Palaszczuk government to make way for the Bruce Highway upgrades. These residents received keys to their home only a few weeks ago. Some of them, on the same day that they received the keys to their home, received a resumption letter to say that their home would be bulldozed. These people are first home owners; they're families that have worked hard, saved and settled young children into schools; they're families that have migrated to Australia. They are finally living in their first home or dream home. We encourage people to get out of the rent cycle and buy a home, and that reality now is being ripped out from underneath them.

After receiving the news that these families would be losing their homes, I doorknocked on each of those homes, and I listened to their desperation and their messages of grief and loss. It was heartbreaking. One resident wrote to me saying:

Devastated beyond words. The joy we felt when we received the keys to our first home has been completely shattered. We are a young family who saved and worked so hard to achieve the Australian Dream of owning our own home, and due to the incompetence, carelessness and lack of compassion of our State Government, we are set to lose everything. I walk into my little boys' rooms and just burst into tears at the thought that this will one day all be rubble.

It's a real disgrace what's happened there, and it comes down to a lack of planning—a lack of planning by the state government, to build infrastructure and allow all these homes to be built only to then knock them down later on because of their change of use.

The state government were originally going to build the Moreton Connector, and then they decided not to do that and to widen the Bruce Highway with additional lanes. The lies that the state government have been telling, that this is somehow connected to the on and off ramps at Griffin and Murrumba Downs, are completely untrue. The on and off ramps have additional lanes up to Anzac Avenue, but that is not why the homes are being resumed. They're being resumed because the state government has ditched the plans for the Moreton Connector. If the member for Murrumba and the minister, Mark Bailey—who I have called on to resign—had done the planning back in 2018 or even 2019 rather than leaving it until late 2021, the people of Griffin, Murrumba Downs and other areas wouldn't be affected.

The incompetence goes so far that down in Bracken Ridge in my seat, the state government built a new $6 million fire station which has got to be demolished as well. I will be fighting hard to get these residents compensation, and I'll continue to represent them hard.

Photo of Sharon ClaydonSharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.