Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have great news from my electorate of Blair. Four community and sporting infrastructure projects in Ipswich City and the Somerset region have just received more than $19.8 million in joint funding under the $1.8 billion South-East Queensland Liveability Fund, contributed to by every level of government. Most the funding will go to upgrading the Redbank Plains Recreation Reserve and expanding the Tivoli Sporting Complex with extra rectangular playing fields, with $830,000 for stage 1, and to the Kilcoy Streetscape revitalisation project. There is over $800,000 for stage 1 of the Lowood Futures Strategy. This is a terrific example of what we can achieve with all levels of government working together.

Unfortunately, this is something Ipswich City Council seems to have forgotten after the council launched a political campaign called 'We Can't Wait', attacking the state and federal Labor governments over infrastructure during the weekend that the LNP in Queensland had their convention. The fact is that political attacks from the LNP mayor of Ipswich don't amount to political advocacy; it's political aggression. The Ipswich residents who contact me are poorly served by it. If Ipswich City Council wants funding for key infrastructure projects from other levels of government, here's a tip: how about engaging constructively with all levels of government before launching costly, ratepayer-funded political campaigns against the other levels of government?