Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

It took a change of government to get this project well and truly underway in the electorate of Page.

I was also surprised when I read that the Leader of the Opposition had included amongst his top 10 projects for infrastructure for the Labor Party to fast-track the Pacific and Bruce Highway packages. Fast-track—when they were in government, they slowed it down! Their fifty-fifty funding proposal would have meant that the project would not have been completed until about 2028, another whole decade away, whereas we will be completing it in the term of the current forward estimates. The reality is that Labor intended to slow this project down, and their policy at the last election was to slow it down. Now we have the hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition putting it amongst his top priorities to fast-track it. He has already missed the boat. All of the money is provided and work is underway on the last major stretch. We will deliver this project by the end of the decade. For Labor it would have taken another decade.

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