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

The people of South-East Queensland, particularly Ipswich and the Somerset, deserve to know the attitude of the coalition to the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway. The Ipswich Motorway takes about 100,000 vehicles on its busiest day and 80,000 on the least busy. What was the policy of the coalition government towards this? When they were in power for 11½ years, they did nothing. There was inertia and inactivity. For three election campaigns in a row they campaigned against the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. At the last election campaign my LNP opponent was equivocal. I am not sure whether he was in favour or against.

We know that in October 2009 the shadow minister for roads, the member for Wide Bay, said in parliament that he would shut the construction of the Ipswich Motorway down between Dinmore and Goodna. Last night we had a bizarre performance from the hopeless, hapless and helpless shadow minister where he was advocating instead of the Ipswich Motorway upgrade that he would build the Goodna bypass. It is not a Goodna bypass at all—it links back into Goodna. What he did not say was that every council in South-East Queensland supports the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. In fact, the state conservative coalition opposition supports the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. Campbell Newman supports the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. But here in this chamber last night the shadow minister said that he would not support it. He advocated a Goodna bypass instead. What he did not say is that the Goodna bypass would cost more than twice as much as the Ipswich Motorway upgrade. So you do not have an $11 billion black hole in the coalition's costings; you have a $15 billion black hole in the coalition's costings. That is the reality. That is what they said.

We have allocated the money. They voted against the money for the Ipswich Motorway upgrade for the Dinmore to Goodna section. We have allocated it. In fact, in the last budget we put $155 million towards finishing it by the end of 2012. But those opposite now say, 'No, we will not support that. We will shut construction down, put thousands of jobs at risk and spend $4 billion,' because that is what the Queensland Department of Main Roads thinks it will cost to do the Goodna bypass. It is 10 kilometres of road, crossing the Brisbane River four times potentially, but there is no off-ramp through the leafy suburbs of Ryan because those opposite do not want people from Ipswich going anywhere near them. The reality is that those opposite will not support the people of Ipswich. They will not support the farmers and small business operators. They put the people of Ipswich and the Somerset at risk—the farmers and the small business operators. Those opposite let them down for 11½ years.

Then there is the Blacksoil Interchange. We have committed $54 million in this budget. For 11½ years those opposite opposed it. Every conservative politician in Queensland supports it, but those opposite will not put the money towards it. They did not do it for 11½ years. It is typical of the coalition. Their failure on road infrastructure in South-East Queensland is evident in their opposition to the Ipswich Motorway upgrade and their opposition to the Blacksoil Interchange. (Time expired)