Emma Comer (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I spent the day doorknocking with Bisma Asif, one of the hardest-working state MPs in Queensland. We went out doorknocking to talk to locals, because we were both heading down to our respective parliaments at the start of this week and we wanted to hear about what's important to our constituents directly from them. Street after street, house after house, whether we were talking to Jenine or Paul or David, the Linkfield Road overpass kept coming up.

Under the former Miles government, the former transport minister Bart Mellish secured funding from the Miles government. He also secured funding from the federal government of $125 million for the Linkfield Road overpass. Since then the Crisafulli Queensland government have come into power. They have released their recent budget and this overpass funding is in limbo. We don't know when it's going to happen. Work started before the state election. What's happening now? Nothing. I challenge the current transport minister in Queensland, Minister Mickelberg, and Premier Crisafulli to take the south-bound exit off the Bruce, sit at that intersection, look my community in the face and say that a staged delivery is what they need. It's not just inconvenient; it's a risk to safety. I've sat at that intersection. You're there for up to 20 minutes and you're seeing other cars get sick of it and pull out in front of other cars. It's totally unsafe, it is unreasonable and my community deserves better.

And speaking of delays and increased costs, which is what's going to happen with the delays in this infrastructure, I'd like to talk about the Redcliffe Hospital expansion. Under previous governments—the Palaszczuk government and the Miles government—the work had already begun. The piling had been completed and we were ready to start putting the hospital up. I was driving past it on the weekend and I have to say I did see them actually do something. They covered the worksite in blue bunting saying 'delivering for Queensland'. If it didn't say 'Queensland', you would easily mistake it as being from New South Wales—the Blues—

An honourable member: Go Maroons!

I'll take that interjection; go the Maroons! The federal government is getting on with delivering health care for our communities. We've got the urgent care clinic at Deception Bay, we have the mental health facility in Redcliffe and we have 30 per cent of GPs now offering bulk-billing.

It's now time for the Crisafulli government to get on with the job, do what's written on the bunting and deliver for Queensland. We're not asking for too much. The community wants to get home safely on it's Linkfield Road overpass, to see a doctor or go into the hospital expansion. The delay in that is only exacerbating the costs and not meeting the needs of the community. I call on the Crisafulli government to deliver for Queensland.