Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Prentice, as somebody who, I am sure, proudly represents many areas around Brisbane, you can understand and share my concern around the Bruce Highway as you head north. I know you love the capital city, but I think it only gets better as you head further north. It is incredibly important that we have a Bruce Highway that is planned for generations to come. Everyone wants to move to our part of the world. And I cannot blame them. I think it is the best place in the world. But it is important that governments plan for that long-term growth that our region will see.

We have made a significant start in that space. The federal government is spending $6.7 billion upgrading the Bruce Highway. I think that is an important initiative. I think that is something that should be congratulated. It was not easy to get to that point, particularly in a difficult budgetary circumstance. Of that $6.7 billion, over $3 billion is being spent upgrading the Bruce Highway between the Pine River and Gympie. As you drive along the highway, you can already see those works happening. Most of the intersections are getting a very significant upgrade.

But I think it is important that we have that longer-term vision and that we plan for that next stage. That is why, I am really excited to say, I am working with many colleagues in this place to have that vision for South-East Queensland around the Bruce Highway. I have joined forces with Mal Brough, the member for Fisher to my north, Peter Dutton, to the south, Luke Howarth, a little bit further down; and Senator James McGrath, who represents all of Queensland, to launch our Boost the Bruce campaign. This is about that next stage—that long-term vision to Boost the Bruce. I think this is a very exciting thing.

As part of this campaign we have managed to secure $8 million from the federal government to begin that design and planning work so that we know where those upgrades are and how much they will cost. For what it is worth, we think that some of the really important things include increasing the number of lanes from the Sunshine Coast down to Caboolture, where there is already an increased number of lanes. Also, at King John Creek, it often floods on that stretch, and the highway becomes cut off. That is a pretty remarkable thing to happen not far north of Brisbane. Flooding has caused huge dramas. We want to see the highway lifted at that point to mitigate that flooding risk. And, obviously, where the highway comes into the Gateway Motorway, a real bottleneck occurs at that point. This government is already spending over a billion dollars in upgrading the Gateway Motorway. I think that will make a big difference, but inevitably there will be that bottleneck as we connect to the Bruce Highway. Across those initiatives we have put $8 million on the table for the design, planning and engineering work so that we can get a costing around how much that next stage, large-scale upgrade for the future of the Bruce Highway will cost.

I think that is easy to say that the responsibility for this simply falls to politicians, but of course we live in an environment where there are budgetary constraints. I have always said that when more people speak up it is more likely that we will have an outcome, so my colleagues and I are calling on locals to go to www.boostthebruce.com.au and add their names to the petition calling for this vital upgrade to the highway. If we all speak up, I think we can make this the No. 1 infrastructure priority for Queensland, certainly South-East Queensland, and that is incredibly important.

We want to do this in a bipartisan way as well, or at least extend the arm of bipartisanship. I do not want to make a political point of this, but it is a reality that, with the new state Labor government in Queensland not proceeding with asset sales, we have lost $8½ billion worth of investment. They are currently developing an infrastructure plan. That is money that could have been spent on projects like this. I met with Mark Ryan, the local state Labor member. He has also committed to lobby the state Labor government for these funds, because with these long-term-vision projects we should try and rise above the political fray and actually get something done. I think the state Labor Party have put themselves in a difficult situation to do that, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and let's all call on each other to do this.

These highway initiatives in metropolitan areas are usually funded fifty-fifty state and federal. Outside of the city it is eighty-twenty. I commit to lobby this government, and any government of the day, for that 80 per cent funding in our area. I think it is important that the state government puts forward the other 20 per cent. So get behind our campaign and go to www.boostthebruce.com.au.