Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to stand in this place and speak about the terrific beginning to the year of 2019 for my electorate of Forde. It's been just a couple of weeks since the Prime Minister was last in my electorate. At that visit, I had the pleasure, with the Prime Minister, of announcing a $50 million investment in the upgrade of interchanges on the M1 motorway at Yatala and at Pimpama, commonly known as exits 41 and 49. Along with that there is a $30 million investment for new works on the Mount Lindesay Highway.

Congestion on the M1 causes daily frustration to thousands of commuters between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Heavy traffic not only causes problems for our residents; it also has an adverse effect on our region's businesses. Congestion holds us up from getting to work, getting kids to school and doing day-to-day business in our community. Anyone who uses the M1—and I certainly do, as it's a key road in my electorate—knows how frustrating it can be sitting in that traffic. With Logan's population expected to grow to more than 452,000 people by 2031 and the Gold Coast's population expected to grow to more than 798,000, congestion on the M1 is only expected to get worse. We've seen in Infrastructure Australia's priority report today further recognition of that fact. So this funding is more important than ever. This commitment of $50 million to exits 41 and 49 adds to our existing commitment to the M1 of over $1.2 billion that is dealing with projects at the Gateway, M1 and M3 merge at Eight Mile Plains and, following on from that, the section from Springwood to Daisy Hill and also the southern part of the M1 on the Gold Coast, from Robina to Varsity Lakes and Varsity Lakes to Tugan.

The investment of $30 million into the Mount Lindesay Highway is critically important because that road is becoming increasingly busy, not just from commuter traffic but also from freight traffic. What's happened out on the Mount Lindesay Highway is that the state government has built two new satellite cities out there, in Yarrabilba and Flagstone, but not spent the money necessary to provide the public transport and infrastructure networks to accommodate those growing populations.

Importantly, this coalition government understands the importance of investing in our roads to keep up with the pace of a booming population. We believe in being smarter and more forward-thinking in our investment, rather than seeing taxpayer dollars wasted on Labor's often expensive and quick-fix solutions. With Forde being one of the fastest growing electorates in Australia and with a large economic hub at Yatala, the Yatala Enterprise Area, on the northern Gold Coast, these developments will improve the local economy, deliver more jobs and, more importantly, provide a safer journey for motorists. And this is not only important for mums and dads taking kids to school in the morning; we see the growth of business and the growing freight task coming in and going out of the Yatala Enterprise Area. When we were there making the announcement, the number of B-double trucks and more general trucks going past were testament to that.

I'm pleased to say that, since 2010, through working hard with my local community and with their support through our Fix the M1 petition, we've succeeded in getting funding of over $1.2 billion for the M1 and over $46 million for the Mount Lindesay Highway.

See this speech in context