Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon as the shadow minister for transport. In doing so, I agree with the member for Moreton on one issue: south-eastern Queensland faces very high growth in traffic congestion. I also agree with him that we have to ease the freight congestion in the Brisbane urban corridor, just as we have to ease that same problem in other major cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, that face similar challenges. Unfortunately, the solution does not come wrapped in a single road project. The solution must involve a vision that integrates our ports, airports, intermodal freight hubs and the road and rail corridors in order for it to be a long-term solution. Nothing in the member for Moreton’s proposition actually addresses that requirement. I see only a poor attempt to justify a project that many of his colleagues in the Liberal Party do not support, including the member for Ryan, the state leader of the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman.

The Ipswich Motorway is a parking lot during peak hours. It should have been fixed years ago and would have been without the interference of the member for Blair. Let me remind members that the Labor Party supported the full upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway at the 1998 election, the 2001 election and the 2004 election. More importantly, as we face the 2007 election we remain committed to that project being delivered in full. The member for Moreton wants to shift the blame to the state government for the Ipswich Motorway mess. The truth is that he has not been part of the solution, as we went part of the way in 1998, 2001 and 2004. Now, at two minutes to midnight, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Mark Vaile, have suddenly found $2.3 billion to supposedly do part of the job. But that is not what the community wants and needs. They have come over the top of the community with a proposal to spend $1.2 billion more than the community’s preferred project needs—funds that could be spent on solving other problems in south-eastern Queensland.

The Goodna bypass will do nothing for more than six years to ease congestion on the Ipswich Motorway or improve road safety for the 100,000 commuter vehicles using it each day. On the other hand, motorists could be driving on sections of the upgraded motorway within three years. Further contracts were recently announced by the minister for transport and his counterpart in Queensland. Federal Labor does not want motorists to wait six years for relief when we could get it on an ongoing basis. They have already waited long enough because of the Howard government’s failure to match Labor’s commitment to upgrade the Ipswich Motorway in 1998, 2001, 2004 and, again, in 2007. The Goodna bypass provides no opportunity for staging, and motorists will not see any benefit until the bypass is opened more than six years down the track. That is why the Queensland government, the Ipswich City Council, the state Liberal leader, and the Liberal Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman, still prefer a full upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway and why a federal Labor government will seek to work cooperatively with them to achieve that outcome as soon as possible.

The upgrade will see the Ipswich Motorway widened to six lanes and a network of service roads established to carry motorists during construction so that more than 90 per cent of the route can be rebuilt away from motorway traffic. Once work finishes, the service roads will be used for local traffic to keep short trips off the motorway—a win for motorway commuters and a win for local communities, with better local roads. While the upgrade is being completed, federal Labor will be working with the Queensland government and local councils on a clear, long-term vision for easing congestion and separating freight corridors from passenger transport in south-eastern Queensland.

AusLink is about national infrastructure priorities and cooperative federalism, not the blame game pursued by the members for Moreton and Blair. A nation-building agenda for the transport infrastructure requirements of south-eastern Queensland is too important for the future of Australia to be squandered on pork-barrelling every three years by representatives of south-eastern Queensland such as the members for Moreton and Blair. They are the ones who are responsible for the delays in the upgraded Ipswich Motorway. They have contributed to unnecessary accidents and deaths through their inability in parliament to get on with the job. They are to blame because of their failure to adequately represent the needs of their constituents. They are clearly consumed with pork-barrelling and political survival rather than easing traffic congestion, reducing accidents and reducing fatalities. They stand condemned— (Time expired)

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