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

Last night, the Treasurer handed down a wonderful budget, one that is underpinned by three LNP, or Liberal Party, core philosophies—fairness, opportunity and security. One of the most important things that my electorate have been telling me since I was elected in July of last year is that they need, and demand, better infrastructure on the Sunshine Coast. I was very pleased to see that, last night, the federal government delivered in spades on that very issue: $530 million for priority upgrades between the Pine River bridge and the Caloundra interchange, and a $120 million upgrade to the Deception Bay interchange. That is $650 million on the Bruce Highway that will go directly to assisting Sunshine Coast locals driving to work in Brisbane and driving home at night. These much-needed infrastructure upgrades are an absolute godsend to many locals who spend hours in what we call the Bruce car park.

But it does not stop just there. There is $182.6 million in targeted safety upgrades up and down the Bruce Highway. That is on top of the almost $1 billion that this federal government is spending on Bruce Highway upgrades between Caloundra Road and Sunshine Motorway. This is an absolutely unprecedented amount that the federal government is spending on the Sunshine Coast. The $530 million and $120 million upgrades to the Bruce Highway are part of a package—a package that cannot be implemented until the Queensland state Labor government gets off its backside and implements and completes a planning study that Mark Bailey has been sitting on for such a very long time. For about the sixth time, I now call upon him—again—to release that planning study. Let's get it out and let's get this highway upgraded.

Another great advantage of an announcement from last night is a $10 billion national rail program to fund transformational rail projects between cities and regions—regions like the coast. That is $10 billion that the state Labor government can access to fund the duplication of the railway line. This is a great project. It is identified by Queensland, built in Queensland. It needs to be funded. (Time expired)

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