Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My community in the electorate of Fisher has suffered a great deal from the indecision and lack of leadership from the Queensland Labor state government. I am grateful to the member for Forde for giving me the opportunity to once again ask the Deputy Premier and her colleagues: when are you going to come to the party and do your bit to get the much-needed infrastructure that the Sunshine Coast deserves? My community is being transformed by its own success. We have new cities springing up around us, at the Aura development in the not too distant future, at Palmview and at Beerwah east. We have an exciting new CBD at Maroochydore. We have new medical facilities and an expanded airport. It is indeed an exciting time to live and work on the Sunshine Coast.

Last week, the respected Australian demographer Bernard Salt launched his report The activated city. If he is correct, we will see more than 200,000 people moving to the coast by 2040. We will have younger people, more families with kids and more people moving and working around our region. Axiomatically, an active and vibrant community of 550,000 people cannot thrive and prosper with infrastructure designed for 150,000. The people of Fisher know exactly what we need. We need an upgraded Bruce Highway from Caboolture to Caloundra—there was nothing about that mentioned by the member for Grayndler; we need a duplicated railway line all the way to Nambour—there was nothing about that mentioned by the member for Grayndler; and we need light rail on the eastern side of the highway—there was nothing about that mentioned by the member for Grayndler. In fact, the member for Grayndler did not mention one single thing that the Labor Party has ever done for Fisher. We also need upgraded local roads like the Mooloolah River interchange, Caloundra Road, Kawana Way and the Bells Creek arterial.

That is why I have worked closely with the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport to ensure that the Commonwealth government are doing all that we can. In September last year, we announced the long-awaited upgrade of the Caloundra Road-Sunshine Motorway project. This investment will cost $920.3 million, to widen the highway to six lanes as well as upgrade the Sunshine Motorway and Caloundra Road interchanges. Infrastructure spending like this pays dividends for our community. This upgrade alone will deliver a benefit to the Sunshine Coast of more than $4 billion in improved productivity. In total, the coalition have completed 10 projects out of our 10-year, $6.7 billion commitment to upgrade the Bruce Highway, but in my electorate we now urgently need an upgrade to the highway between Caboolture and Caloundra. We need to widen the highway between those areas to six or even eight lanes and we need to flood-proof the road between Caboolture and Steve Irwin Way. While other projects all over Australia progress through Infrastructure Australia's priority list, secure federal support and get underway, the missing link—the upgrade of the highway—has stalled. Why? Because the state Labor government are dragging their feet. It is trapped in the mire of the do-nothing Labor government's endless round of eternal inquiries and reviews. This must end today. So I ask Minister Trad: when are you going to fast-track the Bruce Highway planning study and let us get on with this critical upgrade?

We cannot rely on road alone. It is also vital that we duplicate the North Coast rail line. That same piece of railway line is 100 years old and has been untouched since then. The upgrade has long been promised by state Labor governments but they have never delivered. It was the LNP that finally came up with a firm proposal in 2015 to upgrade the line between Beerburrum and Landsborough. I have pursued this upgrade at a federal level since my first speech in parliament. I have had many constructive conversations with Minister Chester, but they have fallen on deaf ears at a state level. Not once has the state Labor government contacted Minister Chester and spoken to him about that upgrade. I ask Minister Trad: when are you going to pick up the phone and talk to Minister Chester and get this project happening and make it a reality? I ask the House to join with me in calling on the state Labor government to stop putting their union mates before the people of Queensland and get the Sunshine Coast the infrastructure it deserves. (Time expired)

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