Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The federal Labor government is investing a record $8.5 billion in Queensland as part of our Nation Building Program to renew and expand the state's road, rail and public transport infrastructure—more than twice the amount that the Howard coalition government spent over a similar period of time. The two best examples are in my area, the Ipswich Motorway and the Blacksoil Interchange. The Ipswich Motorway at its height has 100,000 vehicles a day travelling on it between Ipswich and Brisbane, and at its minimum about 80,000 vehicles a day. For three federal election campaigns the coalition has campaigned against the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. Indeed, in October 2009, the Leader of the National Party in this place said that he would stop construction of the Ipswich Motorway, putting at risk 10,000 jobs in this vital arterial road in South-East Queensland, vital not just for Ipswich and Brisbane but also for the Lockyer Valley, Toowoomba and the Somerset region.

The coalition has voted against the funding for the Ipswich Motorway every single time I have been in the chamber when a bill has come up providing funding for it. I put this to the coalition members now: with $155 million for the final part of the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway in the Nation Building Program, will they vote against it yet again? There are members in this place from Queensland who know very well how important the Ipswich Motorway upgrade is, and of course we will see what they make of this.

But there is also the Blacksoil Interchange. The coalition for 11½ years refused to upgrade the Blacksoil Interchange. It is the gateway to the Lockyer Valley, to Ipswich and the Somerset region. We have committed—and we did in the last federal election campaign—$54 million, with $16 million put in by the state for this $70 million project. The Council of Mayors of South-East Queensland put it as one of the seven magnificent projects that they wanted funded in South-East Queensland, yet the coalition did not have one shadow minister come to my seat in the last campaign. They refused to make a commitment to fix the Blacksoil Interchange. They have refused to make a commitment since the election about fixing the Blacksoil Interchange. They steadfastly ignored it.

The hopeless LNP candidate against me at the last election started putting protest people in the Blacksoil Interchange during the campaign, yet not one dollar, not one cent, from the coalition was put towards it. We have made that commitment in this budget. The Ipswich based Queensland Times said on line: 'Budget delivers $54 million for Blacksoil', and in the paper: 'Dangerous Blacksoil Interchange to be given overhaul. Ipswich set to benefit from budget funding'. And the Star as well: '$54 million for Interchange in budget'. This is how important it is. The LNP members in this place should finally have the courage and determination to front up to the Leader of the Opposition and tell him how important road funding is in South-East Queensland. They have voted against bill after bill after bill which provides it.

And it is not just that: let us have a look at the Roads to Recovery funding. Let us just show how little the coalition considered our region was worth. Let us have a look at the Somerset region in my seat. The whole of the Somerset region is in the electorate of Blair. For the 2007-08 Roads to Recovery program to help local councils there was $357,234. What have we done? We have nearly doubled that. We have committed $653,317 in this budget.

It is no secret that the Somerset council are not my best friends. The deputy mayor ran against me in the last election as the LNP candidate and it is stacked full of LNP supporters and members. They have in fact publicly criticised me on numerous occasions. But I say this: those people, those LNP members, who were campaigning for the Blacksoil Interchange in Somerset, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley did not have the commitment and the guts to actually convince their leadership to support this commitment, make it, campaign on it, and even vote for it. Let us see what the LNP members do on the Ipswich Motorway and the Blacksoil Interchange when these budget bills come into the chamber.