Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to start with an email I received yesterday from Terzi, a constituent living in my electorate of Petrie. The subject line is 'Enough is enough'. Terzi says: 'The north side has been neglected for too long. How does the south side have at least three major highways heading into the city and the north side does not have one in the third-largest city in Australia? The Gateway bypasses the city. For the last two days, I have not been able to leave my home, as the traffic has been banked up for hours. It takes me 30 minutes to travel three kilometres to get to the train station. The journey from Carseldine to the city only takes about 25 minutes. The north side of Brisbane has had some of the biggest population growth in the country. Where do you think all these people are going to drive? It's absolute chaos every day.'

Terzi and 100 others who have contacted me since Saturday are concerned about the Linkfield Road overpass in the suburbs of Carseldine and Bald Hills in my electorate of Petrie. The overpass sits at the heart of a heavily congested feeder road. Along with the member for Dickson, we secured funding from the Australian government to fix it in 2018, at least four years ago. The coalition government committed $100 million to upgrade and improve the capacity of Linkfield Road and the overpass of the Gympie arterial interchange. This was 80 per cent of the funding. As people know, all roads are built by state governments, and in this case it's built by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. Last Friday a forklift on the back of a truck punched through the bridge over the Gympie arterial road, and now there is a huge gaping hole in the Linkfield Road overpass impacting traffic in every direction. Right now people will be stuck in traffic on their way to work.

This wouldn't be a problem if the Queensland Labor government had acted in good faith for the people of Brisbane's north to use the $100 million. Instead, they have delayed and put it off. They're not spending money on infrastructure. In 2021, last year, I wrote to the Queensland minister, Mark Bailey, on 6 August, 21 September and then again in late November, asking him to bring forward the construction, from a 2023 start for an October 2024 finish to this year. He wrote back to me on 3 December and said, 'No, I won't do it and I won't put in sound barriers.' Last night Colin and Jenny Stafford wrote to me as well and said, 'Luke, why are we putting money into fixing that up? Why not just invest in the new bridge straight away?'

This is a real issue. I've secured $100 million for Linkfield Road overpass at Carseldine, $800 million for the Gateway Motorway upgrade and $120 million for on- and off-ramps at Griffin and Murrumba Downs, and the Queensland Labor government can't start one of those projects. It's not good enough for a fast-growing city in north Brisbane.