Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One year ago today, the member for Fairfax and I stood up in Maroochydore and announced the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken on the Sunshine Coast: $1.6 billion committed by the then coalition government towards a total of $3.2 billion to build 37 kilometres of rail line from Beerwah to Caloundra and Kawana and then terminating in Maroochydore. This is a project that would have changed—and will change—the lives of nearly half a million people living in South-East Queensland. We made that commitment. It is not the Commonwealth government's responsibility to fund rail, but we—the member for Fairfax and I—worked assiduously for six years. We dragged minister after minister up to the Sunshine Coast to show them how gridlocked the Sunshine Coast has become with our burgeoning population. As I said, 12 months ago we were able to make that announcement, prior to the last election, with $1.6 billion being committed to Sunshine Coast rail. It was a great day—an amazing day.

But what's happened since then? Twelve months have passed, and what have we heard from the Labor state government? Crickets. There have been absolute crickets until today. Today, because this issue ended up on the front page of the Courier Mail, the Premier was pressured into coming out and coming clean as to what her government is going to do—whether they're going to meet the federal government halfway and fund their $1.6 billion on their asset, owned 100 per cent by them. And she's come out today, according to the Courier Mail, and said, 'Well, I'm not guaranteeing anything.'

This is not a nice-to-have project; this is a must-have project for the people of the Sunshine Coast, just to be able to move around. We can't keep adding lanes to the Bruce Highway. We can't keep adding lanes to already congested roads like Caloundra Road, Kawana Way Link Road and Nicklin Way. All these roads are absolutely at their capacity. We need mass transit. We need heavy rail that goes to the coast. This is a project that has been on the books for more than 20 years. We have a dedicated corridor, the CAMCOS corridor. It's been allocated already. There would be minimal resumptions. All we need is for the state Labor government to get on board and match the $1.6 billion that the coalition offered. The state LNP are on board; they've committed. We've even been able to convince the Labor federal government to keep the $1.6 billion—and all credit to the infrastructure minister for having done that. I just hope she keeps to her word. But this is a project which is absolutely vital for the people of the Sunshine Coast.

Every moment that this Queensland Labor state government delay this project, the costs are continuing to rise. The Labor state government cannot come in and argue seriously at the end of this year, when they get their so-called study done, that the costs are too high. By the end of this year, they will have delayed this project for more than 18 months. What that has done is drive costs up, and that is in no small part due to the Labor state government's best-practice industry conditions, which Master Builders suggest are driving the costs of infrastructure up by more than 30 per cent. Why? Because it is the government cosying up once again with the CFMMEU, looking after their mates in the CFMMEU, driving prices up for the taxpayers in Queensland and nationally.

Mark Bailey, you can throw as many stones at me and Ted O'Brien as you like—sticks and stones, as they say. Why don't you grow up, do your job, get this job done for the people of the Sunshine Coast instead of continually looking after your constituents in Brisbane? There's more to Queensland than Brisbane, Mr Bailey. How about you invest some money in regional Queensland, where the real people are.