Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

To wrap up this series, the F3 to M2 is an absolutely vital project. It effectively will be the Sydney bypass. It means that vehicles can go from the south, head north via the M7 and M2 and on to what has been the missing link. It is a vital project. We sat down constructively with the New South Wales government and with Transurban and got this done. Without the federal government's $400-million investment, it simply would not have happened. The previous government did lots of studies but no action. On top of that we have the F3 upgrades we announced with the Prime Minister and the member for Robertson. It will make a huge difference to the Central Coast.

It appears that the Queensland state government is against investment in Brisbane because, in the budget they handed down yesterday, they failed to put any money into the Gateway North project at all. They have only put $5 million into the next section of the Ipswich motorway and they failed to put any funding at all into the Cross River rail project, which is absolutely vital in dealing with congestion. Indeed they have come up with quite an innovative plan.

A new rail crossing across the river would ensure that people not just in Brisbane but people on the Sunshine Coast and on the Gold Coast and everywhere in between could benefit. Four new rail stations were also envisaged. But after writing to us and making a number of requests—all of which were agreed to—and after exchanging letters in writing about this project, they walked away from it under pressure from the federal coalition.

The Queensland state government have come up with another unique and innovative plan. They plan to rip the seats out of the existing trains and make people stand on the train so they can squeeze more people in. I am sure they will have an employment project just like you see in Tokyo whereby people with gloves will be charged with pushing people, cramming them like sardines, on to the trains.

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