Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm calling on the state Labor government in Queensland to fund the Linkfield Road overpass at Bald Hills and Carseldine. This is in desperate need of an upgrade. I want to thank the people of Bald Hills, Carseldine and Bracken Ridge who have written to me calling for this upgrade. At the moment, it's a small, two-lane bridge over Gympie Road. It needs to go to a four-lane bridge urgently.

I've been fighting for this for at least five years now. I wrote to the newly appointed Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Mark Bailey MP, as well as to the previous state minister. In the last 30 years, since the National Party left government, we've had 25 years of Labor government, and nothing has happened with this road.

In relation to the Bracken Ridge Telegraph Road overpass, I wanted to congratulate former member Kerry Millard, and Brisbane City Councillor Amanda Cooper, because they did a significant upgrade there when the Newman government was in. Previously we had Gordon Nuttall as the state member for Sandgate, and he and others in Labor actually did nothing for years and years. This is a really important issue to the people in my electorate, and I want to let them know that I'm fighting for a full upgrade of the Linkfield Road overpass, not some sort of cheap fix. It needs to be done properly.

I also met with the former state member for Aspley, Tracy Davis, asking her to fully try and make sure that the state Labor government got that overpass funded, and once again they didn't. I have also written to and met with the Hon. Darren Chester MP, who is the federal minister, asking him to speak to the state Labor minister because we're just not seeing any funding from the state Labor minister in this area. It's been neglected for far too long. I want to thank Minister Dutton, the federal member for Dickson—because the people of Strathpine who use Linkfield Road are also being neglected by this not being fixed urgently.

This is very important. I call upon Mark Bailey to fund it in this year's state budget, the 2018 budget. I've also asked the state member for Aspley to go in to bat for this upgrade. It's very important. This will help the people who live in Bald Hills who travel along Gympie Road, heading into Bald Hills every day, as well as those people in Carseldine on Lacey Road, Raynbird Place, Highbridge Circuit and Macaranga Crescent. They would benefit from a proper four-lane overpass over the highway.

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