Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the state Labor member for Ipswich West, Jim Madden, and thank him and the Palaszczuk Labor government for their commitment to the Brisbane Valley Highway. Last Friday I attended the Geoff Fisher Bridge along the Brisbane Valley Highway, where I saw $1.65 million of rehabilitation work commencing, helping 3,400 local motorists around Fernvale and Lowood as they head into Ipswich.

As far back as 2013, I was campaigning on this issue with then Councillor Jim Madden, and I had the displeasure of getting correspondence from Mr Scott Emerson, who was then the Minister for Transport and Main Roads in the LNP government in Queensland. He told me in a letter to me on 13 June 2014 that my request for rehabilitation of this particular road was denied; it was not a priority. Then he wrote to me on 13 November 2014 saying that the Brisbane Valley Highway was only included to the extent of a one-kilometre section prioritised in the budget for 2014-15. There was no indication of when a further upgrade to the Brisbane Valley Highway would take place.

I commend the Palaszczuk government for starting this work. There is more work to be done. I thank Jim Madden, the member for Ipswich West, for his advocacy, and I thank the hundreds of people who signed petitions in the electorate of Blair to get behind Jim and me in this campaign.