Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition government promised to get on with the job of fixing up Queensland's Bruce Highway, and that is exactly what we have been doing. Recently I had the pleasure of officially launching a project that will make the highway safer in my electorate of Capricornia. Our government has spent $8.5 million to engineer two new overtaking lanes between Sarina and Koumala. We have delivered a new one-kilometre northbound overtaking lane and a 1.1-kilometre southbound overtaking lane 7.3 kilometres south of Sarina. This is great news for the local area, as more than 5,000 vehicles travel on this stretch of rural highway every day.

Keeping the Bruce Highway moving is vital for Queensland's economic performance. These new lanes will not only help to make the highway safer but also reduce time spent on the road by locals, visitors and our freight industry. The federal coalition government has committed $6.1 billion to fix up the Bruce Highway over the coming years. I thank the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss for his input into fixing up the Bruce. Sarina's overtaking lane project has been funded by the Australian government as part of its $175 million overtaking lanes program.