Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for his question. Since parliament last sat, the member for Ryan joined me to announce a terrific congestion-busting agreement with the Brisbane lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner. This agreement involves nine congestion-busting projects in the Brisbane City Council area, with a total federal commitment of $115 million. We agreed every single one of those projects would be underway in the next 12 to 24 months, with the first one starting at the beginning of next year.

One of the larger of the nine projects that we announced that day is one that the member for Ryan has been calling for literally for years, even before he became a member of parliament—that is, the notorious Indooroopilly roundabout. As the member for Ryan knows, this roundabout is actually one of the busier ones in Brisbane, catering for the over 100,000 cars that go through that roundabout every single day. Moreover, it is one of the more dangerous ones. Indeed, over the last five years, 34 serious accidents have occurred at that roundabout, many of which have involved hospitalisations. Our commitment is to completely transform that intersection, fix it up, make it safer and make it quicker for people to get across. We will also make it safer for pedestrians, because there will be dedicated pedestrian crossings across that very large and dangerous intersection as we go. This particular intersection project was mooted a decade ago. We are getting on with it. We are fixing it. It is this government which is delivering upon it.

These projects are part of the overall plan to build resilience and a stronger economy by busting congestion in our big cities. At the moment, avoidable congestion in Brisbane alone costs over $1.7 billion. It's over $25 billion across the nation. On top of these nine smaller-scale projects, we have 22 other smaller-scale projects across the Brisbane area. We've also got massive city-shaping projects well and truly underway, including the M1, $300 million for the Brisbane Metro, $200 million for the Ipswich Motorway and $800 million for the Gateway Motorway. All of these projects across Brisbane—indeed, across our nation—are designed to get people home sooner and safer.

No government in Australian history has put more money into infrastructure than our government has. Just five years ago we had a $50 billion pipeline. It was mooted then as the biggest in Australia's history. Now we have a $100 billion infrastructure pipeline. It's because we have a strong economy, and through this pipeline we'll make it stronger still. (Time expired)

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