Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Batman for his further question in relation to AusLink 2. It is true that there were differing agreements between each state and territory under AusLink 1. Those agreements were negotiated in the main by the senior portfolio minister. They took into account some variations and some concerns from the states. I believe that in AusLink 2 it would be preferable if we could have a uniform agreement. But there will always be cases—and you would never want to isolate yourself that there are not cases—where we could enter into a different funding arrangement for a different project.

That has been the case with the Goodna bypass. The Australian government has indicated that it will fully fund the $2.3 billion cost. The Queensland government made it clear that it was not their preferred option, but certainly I have spent a lot of time in Queensland recently and the support from the community there and the local federal members is very strong. I cannot see the rationale of widening an already choked Ipswich Motorway and condemning the motorists of that particular region to traffic chaos for many years to come. At the end of the day you only end up with six lanes of traffic where ultimately, by building this Goodna bypass or the northern option, you can end up with two separate roads, which means that you are not going to have the blockages that you would have here and that would deal with the very rapid growth in that region for decades to come. I believe that in the long term it is the right decision to make and the Australian government is very strongly supportive of that. The Queensland government have made it very clear that in this particular case they do not favour what I believe is the best option and that they would not support contributing to that project.

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