Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of all the issues faced by Australia, few are more damaging to our country than the fiscal imbalance and ambiguous responsibilities between state and federal governments. There is no better example of this than the state of our highways, especially our federal highways. It is a national disgrace that our federal highways are a death trap that are of a standard that wouldn't pass muster in a Third World country. The accident a few weeks ago on the Bruce Highway near Gladstone is just one of the many tragic accidents and disruptions to people in regional Queensland. Not that it is confined to the Bruce Highway; the Newell Highway in western New South Wales is also in dire need of improvement.

I call on the federal government to abolish the current 80-20 funding of national highways and assume full responsibility for funding them. They should also empower the royal military engineers to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of federal highways. What better way to train apprentices, cut bureaucratic waste and start delivering real outcomes for the Australian people.