Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Later today a billboard will go live in Rockhampton with the words, 'Start the projects, stop ALP politics; Rockhampton needs the ring road to proceed'. This has been organised by local Rockhampton businesses who are furious with the Prime Minister about his broken promise on the Rockhampton Ring Road. In 2019 Anthony Albanese issued a press release titled, 'Rockhampton Ring Road a certainty under Labor'. Mr Albanese also came to Rockhampton, spouting the fact that he had made an $800 million commitment to the ring road. Earlier this year, the state government went out to tender on the road, and many local businesses started gearing up to be involved in the biggest road project in regional Queensland. Those businesses have spent thousands of dollars, in the expectation that they could believe the Prime Minister's word. Last night they found out that the only certainty is that the Prime Minister will break his promises.

The Rockhampton Ring Road would have been a game changer for our nation. The Bruce Highway goes straight through Rockhampton, which means that all trucks going north and south get held up in the local traffic. You can easily be held up by 30 minutes or more at the wrong time of day. The ring road would have cut living costs for all, because it would have cut the cost of transporting beef, pineapples, bananas and other great Queensland produce to our shops. Now the government blames cost increases for their broken promise on the ring road—but how is it that only projects in regional areas of our country face the chop? This government is giving billions of dollars more to help Dan Andrews get re-elected, but it does not seem to care about the increasing traffic and the delays in our growing country towns. This is especially galling for the people of Central Queensland, as it is the wealth of our beef and our coal that props up this budget. And we don't even get a basic 'thank you' from the Prime Minister.

This morning Anthony Albanese claimed: 'I want to restore faith in our political system.' Well, Prime Minister, you do not restore faith by breaking faith with people. You do not restore faith by deluding them into thinking they can believe your words. Do what you had promised, and make the Rockhampton Ring Road a certainty.