Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the Brisbane City Council unveiled its business case for the Brisbane Metro. It aims to improve bus travel times right across Brisbane by addressing a critical bottleneck across the Brisbane River. Unlike other major cities around Australia, Brisbane has a megacouncil with a strong track record of delivering the major infrastructure projects that our city needs. In Brisbane, the majority of commuters take buses, not trains. I would like to welcome to the chamber Councillor Bourke and Councillor Toomey from Brisbane City Council. I would like to congratulate the Treasurer for mentioning the Brisbane Metro in his budget speech as one of many nationally significant infrastructure projects that can be considered for federal infrastructure funding following the completion and assessment of its business case. The business case shows a discounted benefit-cost ratio of 1.9. That would compare very favourably with other infrastructure projects being considered around Australia.

The Treasurer also listed Brisbane's Cross River Rail in the budget and we eagerly await the further planning work on that project and its business case, promised by the Queensland Premier a few weeks ago. Ultimately, Brisbane will need further capacity for both buses and trains, so I commend the work of Turnbull government ministers in collaborating with other levels of government and supporting all proponents to work together and ensure that public transport solutions in Brisbane are both complementary and integrated.