Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the fact that the minister has been to my electorate on a number of occasions. He will be quite familiar with some of the issues that I want to raise. The first issue is the Warrego Highway, for which you as a government committed some $55 million in this round of AusLink. The first tranche of that is about to be constructed. I am not quite sure how long, but it seems to me that, in dealing with Main Roads in Queensland, some of these processes seem to be truncated and very frustrating. But Amby Corner is the first tranche to be rolled out. I would be interested to know whether there is sufficient money in that to also deal with the bridge at Mitchell on the Warrego Highway. There is also a commitment to passing lanes east of Dalby. There is increased traffic, particularly carrying grain and coal along there. The coal goes to power stations in the east. The traffic is enormous—traffic that used to be carried on rail. It is now on the Warrego Highway and it is causing enormous problems for the day-to-day traffic, notwithstanding the increased traffic as a result of the coal seam methane development.

The other highway I was interested in was the Landsborough Highway. A large part of it goes through the member for Kennedy’s electorate, and the electorate currently of the member for Flynn, which will be part of a redistribution into Maranoa. I would be interested to know whether you have had any contact with Minister Wallace in Queensland. I understand that there is a road alliance group based at Longreach and the minister has committed some $70 million to road projects in that region. I think the deal he is trying to strike with you is whether you have $70 million to put on the table as a matching grant for roads in central western Queensland.

A particular point I would like to raise as well is the bridge over the Barcoo. It is on the Landsborough Highway and is the major arterial route to Darwin and back down to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It is in dire straits. It desperately needs money. I think it cannot wait for any other program. It desperately needs rebuilding. I will be interested in your comment in relation to the Barcoo bridge.

The other one is the enormous amount of flood damage that has occurred in my electorate. I understand from the main roads office that there is some $100 million worth of road mitigation work that has to happen as a result of that massive flooding in western Queensland. A lot of these roads have only been patched up and are still in dire need of that flood damage money. I will be interested to know whether you have had any contact with the minister in Queensland and whether that $100 million will soon be available to go towards the repair of those highways as well as the outback roads as a result of the damage that has occurred during the flooding in western Queensland.

Finally, another one that I sent you a note about the other day which is making national headlines is the Birdsville Track, which was subject to massive flooding earlier in the year.

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