Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to share with the Chamber how the Morrison government's decision to fast track vital infrastructure funding is benefitting my electorate of Bonner. With our government's plan on track to create a strong and resilient economy, building the major infrastructure our country needs to grow and prosper is a vital part of that plan. Without this infrastructure, Australia would come to a stop. We need the roads to connect metropolitan and rural hubs, we need rail and trucks to move the freight and supplies that we rely upon every day and we need public transport to ensure we provide everyone with the means to get to where they need to go. This is why I was so pleased when our government announced plans to fast track $3.8 billion in funding earmarked for infrastructure to accelerate the projects we need to get up and running now to boost our economy.

Building infrastructure helps the economy in several ways. Firstly, it creates local jobs and economic activity throughout the construction phase. Secondly, it boosts productivity for local businesses by improving connections between locations. Thirdly, it saves people and businesses time by helping them get to and from work safer and sooner. Currently, one of the most important infrastructure projects in my electorate of Bonner is the upgrade of the M1 Pacific Motorway. This upgrade impacts thousands of constituents in my electorate, including the hundreds of businesses that rely on the connection to the Port of Brisbane, the industrial and business districts, and the gateway and the M1 Pacific motorways.

When the government announced funding to improve the M1-M3-gateway merge, it was a tremendous relief for so many people in my electorate who get stuck in the bottleneck on a daily basis. Local businesses would lose hours in productivity every week with drivers stuck in traffic, and commuters were frustrated as they had to leave home earlier in the mornings and get home later at night. And, quite often, our public transport drivers would have to plot their daily routes via rat-running back roads to stay on schedule, which also added to the peak hour congestion. I'm very pleased to share with the Chamber, thanks to this fast tracked infrastructure funding, major construction work on this bottleneck is nearing completion and planning is under way on the next stage of the project.

I have watched this project hit milestone after milestone and have happily updated constituents in my electorate who are keen to see the progress. Over the past two months, work on the new Underwood Road Bridge was completed and open to traffic, with the removal of the existing bridge completed in November. Throughout January we saw asphalt and line marking completed and permanent guardrails installed. Over the coming months, the new electronic lane use of signage, equipment and lighting will be installed, and, weather permitting, the project will be completed early 2020.

Thanks to the funding from the forward estimates being fast tracked, we'll see upgrade works continue. The next stage will ensure that this initial upgrade does more than just move the bottleneck down the road, with work planned to upgrade the M1 between Eight Mile Plains and Daisy Hill then Daisy Hill to the Logan Motorway. I would like to thank my Morrison government colleagues for providing our constituents with the new and improved M1-gateway merge, particularly the member for Forde. The M1 is one of South-East Queensland's busiest roads, and, once completed, these works will ease congestion for thousands of commuters on a daily basis.

Another major infrastructure project the Morrison government is helping to fast-track is the direct connection of the Inland Rail to the port of Brisbane. The Inland Rail project currently under construction will connect Melbourne to Brisbane. However, it currently terminates at Acacia Ridge, in Brisbane's southern suburbs. This means at the moment that freight earmarked for the port of Brisbane has to be trucked in on existing roads, unless this Inland Rail link is constructed.

Located in the northern part of my electorate of Bonner, the port of Brisbane currently sees 98 per cent of freight trucked in by road. In 2018 that was more than four million trucks, and it is forecast to increase to more than 13 million trucks by 2050. Thanks to the new infrastructure funding by the Morrison government, $20 million has been earmarked to ramp up plans for a direct connection between the Inland Rail at Acacia Ridge and the port of Brisbane.

By building this dedicated connection, we will have the opportunity to take up to 2.4 million trucks off our roads by 2035. This would make a tremendous difference to the people in my electorate of Bonner. Reducing major freight transport will take pressure off our roads and motorways, improve air quality and provide a cleaner means of transporting freight out of Brisbane and across the east coast of Australia. This is a fantastic forward-thinking and forward-planning project to ensure Australia has the infrastructure it needs for future growth in the region.

I am so pleased to be part of a Morrison government that has made infrastructure commitments worth $100 billion over the next decade, with a number of crucial projects fast-tracked to boost our economy and to deliver projects that we need now and into the future.

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