Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the 2017 budget has ignored Queenslanders' calls for funding of the Cross River Rail (CRR) project;

(2) recognises that the:

(a) CRR project is urgently needed to keep pace with Brisbane's growing population;

(b) existing rail crossing over the Brisbane River in the CBD, the Merivale Bridge, is approaching full capacity; and

(c) CRR was declared ready to go by the independent experts at Infrastructure Australia in 2012; and

(3) acknowledges that the former Government allocated funding to the CRR project in its 2013 budget, only to have the current Government scrap the investment in its 2014 budget.

The biggest news out of the Queensland state budget is that the Palaszczuk government is building the Cross River Rail. I know there is a bit of competition for the biggest news. I just left a Friends of Tourism event here in Canberra, where there was a lot of enthusiasm and buzz in the room for the $176 million that is going up north to the Cairns Convention Centre. We had the member for Herbert in here today talking about the investment that the Queensland government is making in Townsville and the surrounding regions. But for me, the biggest news is Cross River Rail because, as the member for Griffith on the south side in Brisbane, I am very excited that finally someone is actually taking the bull by the horns and funding this incredibly important Cross River Rail project, which will help improve public transport and get more cars off the road. Whether you live in Wynnum, whether you live in Cleveland, it will get more cars off the road on your commute into the CBD.

The Palaszczuk Labor government—and fair play to them—were utterly sick of the Turnbull government for failing to fund this project. The Turnbull government and the LNP have failed Queensland repeatedly, so now the Queensland government has been forced to go it alone. But the best news of all on the Cross River Rail is that the Queensland government are going to start building this year. Thanks to this project, south side residents will save up to 14 minutes travelling to the city on the Cleveland line. It is a city-shaping project that is 10 years in the making and finally it will be delivered by the Palaszczuk Labor government.

There is no question the Prime Minister has let Queensland down by refusing to fund our No. 1 infrastructure priority. Cross River Rail is the key to transforming the public transport network, and the benefits will go far beyond the inner city. It will give us more frequent and reliable public transport options and it will create 1,500 jobs each year of construction as the project ramps up. It will also take around 18,500 car trips off the road each and every day, reducing congestion on our roads and ensuring that everyone can spend more time with their family and friends, and less time sitting in traffic.

Since the now Prime Minister ousted the member for Warringah to become the Prime Minister, he has sought to portray himself as a public transport enthusiast by staging frequent media stunts—a selfie on a train. I just think that is really patronising and disingenuous from a Prime Minister who had come from a government that had taken money off the table for Cross River Rail. This year's federal budget was this Prime Minister's chance not to just take those selfies but to actually do something, to invest in Cross River Rail to alleviate the congestion that threatens continued economic growth in Queensland. But once again we saw no action from the Turnbull government. This is how disingenuous they are: the Treasurer actually stood up and said that there would 'potentially' be funding for Cross River Rail—potentially. What was in the budget? Nothing was in the budget. Do not try to give you the impression you are funding Cross River Rail when you are not funding Cross River Rail; it is pretty simple, Treasurer.

The existing Merivale Bridge across the Brisbane River in CBD is approaching full capacity. I have lost count of the number of times Anthony Albanese, shadow minister for infrastructure, and I have stood up and given press conferences on the Brisbane River insisting on the funding for Cross River Rail. Without a second rail crossing, Brisbane's economic growth will actually be impacted significantly and so will Brisbane's capacity to create the jobs that will be needed for the future.

Infrastructure Australia approved Cross River Rail in 2012. It was funded by the former Labor federal government in 2013 under an arrangement that included elements of value capture. But the then Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, took the money off the table from the feds after the Liberals and Nationals won the 2013 federal election.

Ever since, the now Prime Minister has stalled on committing investment, and is now continuing to stall by creating this new IFU—the infrastructure financing unit; what a waste of time—within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which will sideline infrastructure Australia. IA is an independent body, not a body within Prime Minister and Cabinet. It is a body intended to take the politics out of infrastructure. It will also sideline the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. And it is all completely unnecessary.

By increasing the capacity of the rail network, Cross River Rail will not only benefit my suburbs in Griffith and the suburbs in suburban Brisbane; it will also benefit the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. The project is ready to go. It is time that the Prime Minister stopped stalling, got his act together and made some commitments. It is very unfortunate the Queensland Labor government is having to deliver this project by going it alone. This federal government should be ashamed of its failure to invest in this important economic infrastructure for our state.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

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

Here we go again, the Labor Party at every level is calling on more money so that inner-city seats relying on green votes can get a nice trip to work. Before I speak about this, I would like to point out some details to our colleagues on the other side of the room. It seems that even those who live in Queensland have forgotten a few things.

Brisbane is a city in Queensland that makes up a total of 0.9 per cent of Queensland's total land area. More than half of Queensland's population lives outside of the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane. That is a larger proportion compared with the rest of highly urbanised Australia. Coal royalties paid to the Queensland government are forecast to contribute almost $3 billion this year; 39 per cent of that coal comes from my electorate of Capricornia. Let's repeat that: Central Queensland is contributing a total of $1.17 billion in coal royalties to the Queensland budget. Why is any of this relevant? I say this because now the very people who have lobbied time and time again to stop the production of coal now want to use the royalties from that very coal to build a nice train line.

They want the sweat and tears of my electorate to keep supplying them with the lifestyles they are accustomed to. How dare you! How dare you stand there and say the people of inner-city Brisbane need a better train line to get to work. Here is a thought: how about instead of using a band-aid solution to fix growing congestion in Brisbane, get behind projects that would provide jobs in the region so they will not have to move away in the first place.

Just last week, REIQ revealed statistics showing that 3,500 people had left the Fitzroy catchment area in the last year alone. They are leaving because there are no job opportunities. You sit there and cry poor because your rail line is at capacity. Our Central Queensland region would be glad to have anything operating at capacity. The Queensland Labor government had an ideal opportunity to fix the mistakes of the past with assets sales in last week's budget. They had an opportunity to create real and meaningful jobs for Central Queensland in the budget. Central Queensland has become 'Division 9' to the capital, Brisbane. The working people of my electorate contribute to your Hunger Games. In fact, the Queensland Treasurer has stated that 15,300 additional bureaucrats will be employed over the next four years.

The state government has no decentralisation agenda, so these jobs are just going to end up back in Brisbane not with the people of Central Queensland. If we want real long-term employment, we need a state government willing to invest in industry, development and infrastructure. They give us a list of 31 things in the budget and act as if Central Queensland should be grateful! Should we be grateful for the 22,000 jobs that will be given to 15,600 inner-city bureaucrats? They are the ones who should show some gratitude that the coal revenue from Central Queensland has balanced the budget so that inner-city greens can take a nice train ride to their secure inner-city job while tapping away at their tablets, which are also made from mining.

But, no, the Labor Party will keep bowing to the hypocrisy, with no pathway to actually help workers. They want to keep the regions poor; they want to keep the people poor. Then they will ride in on their fast train and tell the working poor that we are not doing enough to help them. Here's a thought: how about we reduce the need in the first place by actually creating real and ongoing employment in the regions, particularly in my seat of Capricornia? Instead of crying poor over your train, how about you give a thought to the people who get nothing for the hard work that makes the city jobs possible?

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud to support the motion by the member for Griffith, a strong female Queenslander following in the tradition of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, who are doing their bit for Queensland. It is nice to have women from Queensland who actually understand what jobs mean. The Queensland Labor government are a team prepared to stand up for Queensland, not bury their heads in the sand like we have heard from those opposite; the Prime Minister, from New South Wales; and the Deputy Prime Minister, who deserted Queensland for New South Wales. The one-time Queenslander has gone missing in Queensland. He seems to be only concerned with ruining the APVMA with a strong flavour of pork. The one-time public-transport aficionado, Prime Minister Turnbull, is taking Queensland for granted, as we heard in the member for Griffith's motion. He is a bloke who is happy to annually catch his favourite 389 bus route in Sydney but will do nothing for Queenslanders who use public transport every single day.

The existing inner-city rail crossing over the Brisbane River, the Merivale Bridge, is at full capacity. We all know that. Prime Minister Turnbull knows it too, but he continues to ignore this fact. The four stations that are linked to it that are common across the entire train network—the Roma Street, Central, Fortitude Valley and Bowen Hills stations—are causing bottlenecks and scheduling nightmares.

The Cross River Rail was declared ready to go by the independent experts at Infrastructure Australia in 2012. It was the No. 1 project. The former Labor federal government allocated funding for Cross River Rail in our 2013 budget. It was supported by the then Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Scott Emerson, who was ready to go and stand alongside our Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese, at a press conference at Kangaroo Point, until it was cancelled by Campbell Newman. We still have the letter that Scott Emerson wrote.

Thankfully for Queenslanders, we now have a state Labor government who allocated in their budget $2.8 billion over the forward estimates to get Cross River Rail moving. In Queensland, our Labor government are committed to fully funding Cross River Rail to ensure that this critical project is built to drive growth across our whole economy. This commitment to advance Queensland includes an additional $2.6 billion over future budgets to complete the project.

The Turnbull government have had four years to stand up for Queensland. They are about to enter their fifth year of government. Frankly, Queenslanders are sick of the federal Liberal and National Party government failing our state. That is why Annastacia Palaszczuk and her team went it alone.

What do southsiders, particularly those who live in Moreton, have to look forward to? It will alleviate the bottleneck at Merivale Bridge and the four inner-city stations from Roma Street to Bowen Hills, and it will deliver an additional 19,000 public transport seats during peak hours. Of these extra seats, 11,800 will help travellers in Moreton. That is 8,600 seats for those who travel from the southside down to Beenleigh—through the member for Forde's electorate on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines—and 3,200 for those who travel from the west on the Ipswich and Springfield lines. Thanks to Cross River Rail, customers travelling on the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines to the CBD will save, on average, 15 minutes in their commutes, and the Ipswich line people will save an average of four minutes every journey.

With these additional services and capacities benefiting people in the electorates of Forde, Rankin and Moreton, travellers from all the way down to the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines will see an average of one train every 10 minutes, and commuters from the west on the Ipswich line will see one train every six minutes during peak times. Every single day, locals will reap the benefits of Queensland Labor investing in this project.

It also means that the public transport network will take 18,500 cars off main roads. That will help the Ipswich Motorway, Ipswich Road in my electorate, Beaudesert Road and the Pacific Motorway as well. And there will be jobs—we are the Labor Party; we believe in jobs—with 1,500 new jobs each and every year for Queenslanders. This is nation-building infrastructure that Infrastructure Australia recognised and the Palaszczuk government recognised. This will be a boost to the tune of $70 billion to the Queensland economy at a time when we need it most.

Sadly, the Liberal and National parties do not have the vision. They have all the vision of a caravan site when it comes to infrastructure, doing the right thing by our economy and investing in productivity. So I am proud to be a member of the Labor Party, a party that will always fight for Queensland, a party that works every day to advance Queensland. The Labor Party started in Queensland, and we will always do our best to protect our state. I commend this motion from the member for Griffith, and I look forward to joining southside locals on their faster, easier and more reliable public transport on our public transport network.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time being 1.30, the time allotted for this debate has now expired. We need to adjourn the debate for the next item of business on the agenda.

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00