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

We all know that in regional and remote Australia a good road network is vital for the safety of travellers and the efficiency of local industry to get goods and resources to market. A good road is something that our city friends and foes often take for granted. The coalition is literally bridging and paving the gap.

Following lobbying by the National Party, the federal government has a $6.7 billion long-term plan to 'spruce the Bruce', the biggest project agenda in Australia's history. Locally, more than $240 million in improvements have already been delivered to fix the Bruce in the Rockhampton-Livingston areas in the last three years, with more funding on the way.

The Bruce Highway is an important freight and transport corridor up the entire Queensland coast—effectively, a lifeline between Brisbane and the rest of the state, especially for places like Rockhampton, Marlborough and Sarina. With huge freight trucks, livestock carriers the issue of road safety is an important one. In Capricornia, on the southern side of Rockhampton, the Australian government has invested more than $210 million at Yeppen. The floodplain upgrade project passed its first test with flying colours, keeping the city's southern connection to the Bruce Highway open to all traffic during the recent major flood event.

We delivered the Yeppen floodplain upgrade, and it has paid huge dividends for the region. For the first time in Rockhampton's recent history, the city has not been cut off by major flooding on the Fitzroy River. The vast majority of businesses remained open, keeping millions of dollars flowing into the region and keeping jobs in place.

Thanks to the coalition government and the work of the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, this is just the beginning. The Australian government is fully funding over $200 million for black spots and overtaking lanes between Curra and Sarina, and over $117 million for black spots and overtaking lanes between Sarina and Cairns. The $166 million Peak Downs Highway safety works are being fully funded by the Australian government. We are contributing 80 per cent of the plans and corridor preservation for the Rockhampton ring road. We are providing $30 million for Rockhampton road train access—again, an 80 per cent contribution.

The Australian government has committed $60 million towards duplicating the road between Rockhampton and Gracemere, and our money is sitting there waiting to go. The Queensland government told us that they did not intend to start this project until next year. The Australian government is waiting for the project proposal report from the Queensland government to start upgrades to the Rockhampton northern access. The Queensland government has told us that they expect to commence the project in mid 2018.

We are ready and waiting to support a number of other projects that the Queensland Labor government cannot keep up with: the Peak Downs Highway road widening, Clermont to Nebo, in early 2019; the Capricorn Highway upgrade, Rockhampton to Duaringa, in early 2018; and the Bowen Developmental Road sealing, Collinsville to Belyando Crossing, in early 2019. There are three packages of work, sealing roads from Clermont to Alpha from early 2018 to 2019 and the Rockhampton road train access stage 2 in early 2018. With the Capricorn Highway overtaking lanes, Rockhampton to Emerald, the coalition government is waiting for the Queensland government to provide a proposed project report.

Queensland will have 10 projects funded under the Northern Australia Roads Program, and will receive around $223 million from the coalition government. We delivered a bumper deal for a critical road project, with up to $120 million now on the table to build the Walkerston Bypass. We locked in a $75 million commitment to the project last year and recently secured more as part of a wider road funding package for Queensland.

These projects were not empty election promises. We are delivering beyond our election commitments because we know how important this infrastructure is for the safety and wellbeing of the people of Capricornia.