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

NEUMANN () (): Last week, I was pleased to join the federal infrastructure minister, the member for Ballarat, and the Queensland transport minister, Bart Mellish, along with the state Labor candidate for Ipswich West, Wendy Bourne, to announce a joint $20 million budgeted funding commitment towards the business cases and planning for the vital upgrades along the Cunningham Highway in my electorate, including the Amberley Interchange and the Swanbank and Ripley interchanges.

The Cunningham Highway is a major national highway and freight route and a key commuter corridor in one of the fastest growing regions in the country. It includes the Amberley Interchange, which is a notorious blackspot and bottleneck during peak hours, partly because it's a main access point to the biggest Air Force base in the country, the RAAF Base Amberley. Tens of thousands of vehicles, including heavy vehicles, go through the interchange every day. Along with others, I've been advocating for a long-term solution to fix the Amberley Interchange and planning for the Swanbank and Ripley interchanges, which have traffic congestion problems. The local community has made it very clear that the previous interim plans and short-term fixes that were put forward for the interchange just won't work. Roundabouts and traffic lights simply won't work on a national highway.

The Amberley Interchange is getting upgraded. The Albanese and Miles Labor governments have listened and acted with $20 million of real funding—not an election promise—to look at real solutions for the interchange; to bust congestion; for futureproofing the Cunningham Highway, including options like a bypass, a flyover and highway duplication; and for the growing traffic congestion problems at Swanbank and Ripley. This is part of our $170 million budgeted commitment to the Cunningham Highway. Local residents I've spoken to, including the local Ipswich City councillors, have contacted me by text and by phone and told me they're very pleased with the announcement.

However, after calling for money for the Amberley Interchange, instead of welcoming this $20 million commitment, the LNP mayor of Ipswich has criticised the plan in the local media, mischievously and deceptively. I've told her—and she knows very well—that we need a proper business case for a long-term solution. It's never been done before. Still, she plays party politics and can't rise above it. She is happy to stand beside any LNP candidate for any business case pre-election LNP commitment. Interestingly, one of the first things the Ipswich City Council did when I secured $20 million in federal funding for the North Ipswich Reserve was ask for $500,000 for a business case before doing the redevelopment, which I was very happy to secure and to agree to and so was the Albanese Labor government. They also asked for money for a business case for the Ipswich-to-Springfield transport corridor, and we put in millions of dollars, along with the state Labor government. Have the council complained about that? Not at all.