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

This provides me with an opportunity to ask a question about the Ipswich Motorway. I note the shadow minister for roads actually raised the issue of Ipswich Motorway after 11½ years of doing nothing on the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway. Just before the 2007 election, those opposite came up with this expensive, ridiculous notion of a 10-kilometre alternative, the Dinmore to Goodna section, which linked back into the Logan Motorway. They allocated no funding for it. With respect to the Ipswich Motorway, there were 11½ years of inertia, inactivity and ignorance by those opposite. In fact, the previous speaker, the member for Wide Bay, was on the record in parliament, in October 2009, when the minister actually put it to him, saying he would stop construction on the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway, putting at risk 10,000 jobs across the whole project. That is the ignorance of those opposite on the Ipswich Motorway. I want to commend the minister for allocating $155 million in this budget for the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway, and I ask him to comment on the federal Labor government's proposal with respect to the Ipswich Motorway and also on community reaction to that. How does that compare with those opposite when they were in power?

The other thing I want to commend the minister for and ask questions in relation to is the Blacksoil Interchange. For 11½ years those opposite did nothing on the Blacksoil Interchange. That is an important intersection between the Warrego Highway and the Brisbane Valley Highway. There was absolutely nothing. There are the councils—the Toowoomba Regional Council, the Lockyer Valley Regional Council, the Somerset Regional Council and the Brisbane City Council. In fact, the shadow Premier in Queensland, Campbell Newman, is on the record advocating for the Blacksoil Interchange to be upgraded with a flyover. Those opposite did nothing for 11½ years with respect to the Blacksoil Interchange, but in the last election campaign the minister stood there with me and the state Labor member for Ipswich West, Wayne Wendt, at the Blacksoil Interchange and made a commitment that we would allocate $54 million and the state government $16 million for this $70 million project. I want to thank the minister for the commitment in this budget—the $54 million—and I want to ask him about the community reaction in relation to that and how that compares with those opposite with respect to this. My LNP opponent in the last campaign campaigned about this but made not one commitment. In fact, not one shadow minister came to my electorate during the whole of the last campaign, and there were no road funding commitments made by those opposite.

The shadow minister makes a comment about the Ipswich Motorway and the Blacksoil Interchange. The Blacksoil Interchange is the most important project west of the Ipswich CBD in terms of road funding. Those opposite have simply allocated no money. In fact, they voted and campaigned against, and consistently did everything they could to frustrate, the Ipswich Motorway upgrade from Dinmore to Goodna. With respect to the Blacksoil Interchange, did we hear one peep from those opposite during the whole campaign? In fact, I would like the shadow minister to know that my LNP opponent is on the record in the Queensland Times newspaper, contrary to coalition policy, saying he supported the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. Well, my predecessor campaigned against it, the shadow minister campaigned against it and you campaigned against it. That was your approach. Those opposite would put thousands and thousands of jobs at risk.

Minister, please comment with respect to the Ipswich Motorway upgrade on what we are doing about it and community reaction and with respect to the Blacksoil Interchange upgrade on what we are doing and community reaction. How does it compare with those opposite?

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