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

The Ipswich Motorway linking Ipswich to Brisbane is a vital piece of infrastructure in South East Queensland. When last in government, the Labor government invested $2.8 billion to upgrade from Dinmore to Darra, creating and sustaining 10,000 jobs. The Ipswich Motorway in this section was designed, built and completed under the last federal Labor government. In our last budget in May 2013, we put money aside to kick-start stage 1 construction of the Darra to Rocklea section of the Ipswich Motorway. For three federal elections in a row, Liberal candidates running against me have opposed the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway. Indeed, in October 2009 the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Warren Truss, the member for Wide Bay, actually said in parliament that they would stop construction on the Ipswich Motorway. Before the last election, the coalition had a Damascus road conversion experience and said that if elected they would upgrade the Ipswich Motorway from Darra to Rocklea, and they said they would fast-track construction.

In the last week the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, attended the Oxley roundabout in the Darra to Rocklea section of the Ipswich Motorway with the member for Moreton, Graham Perrett. Milton Dick, the Labor candidate for Oxley, announced that a Shorten Labor government would match the Queensland government's $200 million commitment to stage 1 of the Darra to Rocklea section of the Ipswich Motorway from the Oxley roundabout to Suscatand Street—a fifty-fifty split. Why is this so important? It is because 85,000 motorists and 12,000 trucks use this section of the Ipswich Motorway each day. Infrastructure Australia has this as its highest priority. The cost to the Queensland economy in 2011 was $40.1 million, and it is fast rising.

After 1,000 days of inactivity, inertia and idleness by the coalition, for a second time, as The Queensland Times newspaper has reported in South East Queensland, the coalition has said that they will match Labor's commitment of $200 million for the Ipswich Motorway Darra to Rocklea section. The people of the western corridor have a right to be sceptical of the coalition on the Ipswich Motorway. Only the Labor Party has the unequivocal record, credibility and consistency to deliver this vital piece of infrastructure upgrade in South East Queensland. Only the election of a Shorten Labor government will do this job, and I urge the people of the western corridor to vote for the candidates in Moreton, Oxley and Blair with Labor Party tickets in their pockets and Labor values in their hearts—only that way will the Ipswich Motorway be upgraded.