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

I want to speak tonight about a motorway up in my electorate which has often been regarded as Queensland’s worst national highway—that is, the Ipswich Motorway. There have been some media reports which have misconstrued the Rudd government’s position in relation to the Ipswich Motorway. The Ipswich Motorway is the main arterial road from Brisbane, and approximately 80,000 vehicles a day travel along it. It services Ipswich, which has 150,000 people. In the next 15 years another 150,000 people will be added to that, and there will be great growth in the Lockyer Valley as well as in the old Boonah shire.

For those interstate who do not quite understand where Ipswich is in relation to Brisbane, it is about where Parramatta is in relation to Sydney, and Toowoomba is about where the Blue Mountains are. The Ipswich Motorway leads from Brisbane to Ipswich and veers off to the Logan Motorway down to the Gold Coast. It keeps going to the south, going into the Cunningham Highway, which goes down towards Warwick and into western New South Wales. It veers off to the north, up to the Warrego Highway, which goes from the Brisbane Valley up towards the South Burnett region. As I say, it goes along the Warrego Highway towards Toowoomba and western Queensland. So those from interstate can see how important that motorway is. It is a vital link between Ipswich and Brisbane, and also for other parts of Queensland and also western New South Wales.

For 11½ years the Howard government did very little in relation to the Ipswich Motorway.

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