Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary spray that was! My goodness. I've just gone onto the website of Atlas Network, and this is their vision; I'll quote it for the record:

The Atlas Network vision is of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where the principles of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets are secured by the rule of law.

What an outrageous proposition, Senator Whish-Wilson! As part of the general blurb you gave there, can I just say to my friends at the Institute of Public Affairs and the Centre for Independent Studies: what you're doing must be working. It must be working if you have a Greens senator getting up in this place and giving you such a spray. Keep doing what you're doing. When the people of Australia go to vote at the next federal election, they have every right to know the detail of the radical, extreme Greens' economic and social policies, because they'd have a devastating impact upon the Australian people. So more strength to your arm, I say.

Last week I stood up for the people of the Somerset Region and I called for an additional $20 million of federal funding for the Brisbane Valley Highway, and it appears as if I've inserted a stick into a hornet's nest. I want to be very, very clear: I am calling for an additional $20 million of federal government funding for the Brisbane Valley Highway. On 5 September 2024, Somerset Regional Council put out an announcement in which they called upon the state government to invest $84 million over the next four years to fix the notorious Brisbane Valley Highway. I want to quote from that press release from the mayor, Councillor Wendt. This is what he said:

Somerset is economically dependent on the Brisbane Valley Highway, a majority one-star safety-rated road that carries up to 11,000 vehicles per day.

…   …   …

The condition of this highway is deplorable.

I said in this place last week that I personally travelled the highway during a rainy day and felt quite vulnerable and very uncomfortable at certain sections of the highway. It needs to be fixed, and I call for an extra $20 million of funding.

When I call for an extra $20 million of funding, I'm referring to matching the additional $20 million of funding that was secured with the election of an LNP Queensland government. In that context, I tip my hat to the member for Nanango, Deb Frecklington, MP and the member for Lockyer, Jim McDonald, MP, who secured that extra $20 million of funding from the Queensland government. After that election, on 1 November 2024, the Somerset Regional Council said in their press release:

We recognise and appreciate the promise from the LNP to commit a further $20 million towards fixing the Brisbane Valley Highway and welcome this funding with a hope of more funding as time progresses, Cr Wendt said.

We have already secured $40 m through the SEQ City Deal to fix this notorious highway and this additional $20m will be very welcome.

In the next budget, I am calling for the Albanese Labor government to commit to match that additional amount of $20 million. Match it. Match the additional $20 million. I'm not talking about past funding under the SEQ City Deal, I'm talking about matching the additional $20 million of funding which the LNP state government put on the record and is committed to. Somerset Regional Council has said they need $84 million invested into this highway over the next four years, and we're only going to approximate that figure if the federal government matches the additional $20 million of funding which the LNP state government has promised. That's what I'm calling upon the federal Labor government to do.

Don't go to your drawer and picked out past pledges and commitments et cetera. Match the additional funding. Give them an extra $20 million to the council to invest in the Brisbane Valley Highway and fix that deplorable road. The people of the Somerset region are good people. They deserve for the Brisbane Valley Highway to be fixed. Fix this road.

On 27 January 2025, the Courier Mail published a story which revealed that Infrastructure Australia had written to the Queensland government with a proposed amendment to its infrastructure priority list. What did this proposed amendment to the infrastructure priority list indicate? It indicated that a number of projects absolutely integral to the development of the Ipswich region, in which my office is located, were to be cut from the infrastructure priority list. It included the Cunningham Highway upgrades between Warwick Road at Yamanto and Ebenezer Creek—I'll say more about that in a moment—the Ipswich city centre cross river project, the Ipswich Motorway upgrade between Rocklea and Darra and the Ipswich to Springfield Centenary Highway upgrades. These are all major infrastructure projects which the people of Ipswich deserve their fair share of, and they need these projects built as a priority, to accommodate the increase in population.

The Queensland government wrote to Infrastructure Australia and said this: 'As you know, Queensland is the most decentralised mainland state, the most disaster-impacted state and has the fastest growing population out of all Australian states. These factors mean significant infrastructure investment is required to meet the needs of our growing state, to connect and service our regional communities. Australian government investment will be critical to achieving these outcomes.'

Infrastructure Australia said: 'Infrastructure Australia is currently consulting on its infrastructure priority list and has worked closely with states and territories throughout this process,' et cetera. Well, I say that the people of Ipswich deserve their fair share of infrastructure. The people of Ipswich are sick and tired of infrastructure spending going down to Melbourne, Victoria and New South Wales. The people of Ipswich are being asked to accommodate huge population growth, but they are not being provided with the infrastructure spending to accommodate that growth.

I salute Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding, who said in relation to the removal of these key projects from the draft infrastructure priority list, 'This is an incredible ask of council and our community—one made even harder without the support of the Australian government.' I salute the mayor for standing up for Ipswich and I say to the people of Ipswich: I'm looking here at a photo which was taken at 9.11 am, 12 May 2018. It shows Scotty Buchholz MP. It shows the then deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack; the now Leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud MP; my friend and colleague Senator Stoker, who now serves in the Queensland parliament; and John Krause MP, the member for Scenic Rim. This photo was taken in 2018, and it's showing that the then coalition government put $170 million on the table back in 2018 to fix the Amberley interchange.

I ask the people of Ipswich: has the Amberley interchange been fixed? A coalition government put the money on the table. The people of Ipswich have had a Labor MP since 2007. For 14 out of the last 18 years, there's been a Labor state government. The coalition government put $170 million on the table back in 2018 to fix the Amberley interchange. Has it been fixed? No, it hasn't been fixed, just as the Mount Crosby interchange hasn't been fixed, just as the Brisbane Valley Highway hasn't been fixed. All of these infrastructure projects of key priority to the people of Ipswich and the people of the Somerset region have not been fixed.

The people of Ipswich and the people of Somerset have had a Labor MP since 2007. It might be time that they exercised their right at the next election to elect Mr Carl Mutzelberg as their newly elected LNP member and see if Carl can deliver the projects the sitting member has not.