Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to support the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. I see that the government are in fact picking up on a coalition policy, one that they, admittedly, did commit to prior to the last federal election and which they have copied in relation to Roads to Recovery.

In fact, prior to the last federal election, we committed, to an area that this bill will address under the government, $350 million to the Roads to Recovery program. At the time, in typical fashion, the now Prime Minister was out there—it was ‘me too’; it was always ‘me too’—saying they would also provide $350 million under the Roads to Recovery program if they were elected. So I am pleased to see that the government are honouring that commitment that it gave to the Australian people prior to the last federal election.

The Roads to Recovery program is very important. The $350 million under that program goes direct to local councils. It bypasses inefficient state Labor administrations. This money will go straight to councils whereby councils can determine where the priorities are in their area for local roads. I am sure that we have all seen the maladministration of many Labor governments. Every dollar which local councils receive under this program will be spent on roads, roads that are a priority in their own local community. Not only does that program deliver all of that money to the local council but, importantly, it upgrades roads that are a priority in those communities and creates jobs in those regional and rural communities, as well as in our councils. It is an important program.

It was originally initiated by a coalition government. I also have to give great credit to a former Deputy Prime Minister and former member for Gwydir, John Anderson. It was his initiative, knowing full well, as I did, that so many of those local shire roads out in our rural communities were beyond the capacity of local ratepayers to upgrade. They were not a federal responsibility nor a state responsibility and yet so much of our nation’s wealth originates in those rural and regional communities, whether it be from agriculture, mining—which I want to talk a little bit about in my contribution to this debate—or tourism. Those local roads are a very important part of the infrastructure of those local communities which create wealth in those local areas. I commend John Anderson, a former Deputy Prime Minister, a former Leader of the Nationals and a former member for Gwydir. He recognised the need and whilst he was in a position to do something about it brought forward Roads to Recovery. I am pleased it will continue under this government.

There are some definitional changes to the AusLink bill which will see the definition of ‘a road’ expanded. It will include some lay-off areas, not necessarily on the alignment of the road but to the side of the road which will create rest areas. Funding will come from the Commonwealth government for the establishment of these lay-off areas, rest areas, particularly for trucks. I note that there is $70 million in this bill that came from the federal budget last year to provide for this initiative. There is a very urgent need for some of this money to be allocated in many parts of Australia, but there is a particular need in my own electorate and that concerns a road just west of Mitchell. It is on the Warrego Highway, an AusLink highway, which links Brisbane right through to Darwin. It is a very important road; it is a national highway. But type 2 road trains so often use that road. If there is one way that the trucking industry and the freight industry can help bring down costs, it is by using type 2 road trains wherever roads will allow that to occur. Travelling from the west, perhaps even from as far west as Darwin, when you come to Mitchell you have to decouple your type 2 road train at that point. For the benefit of the House, a type 2 road train is a configured heavy vehicle, with three full-length trailers, carrying livestock or general freight. They could be refrigerated vans. A range of goods could be carried in this three-trailer configuration. But once they get to Mitchell, whether they come from the west or from the east going west, they have to couple up to or decouple from that three-trailer configuration.

About a month ago I had a call from a transport operator in my home town of Roma. He said, ‘Bruce, last Friday evening, out on the pad and as far west as another 80 kilometres west of Mitchell, there were some 128 trailers all in the process of decoupling, coupling or waiting to get onto the pad.’ Why were they out about 80 kilometres west of Mitchell? Because they could not come further east. If they came further east and they had to decouple, they would have to do it in the middle of the Warrego Highway and obviously that would cause a dangerous situation. Many of these trailers of course would be carrying drought-affected livestock that have come from as far west as Western Australia destined for the saleyards in Roma, another 80 kilometres further east.

So there is an urgent need for an upgrade of the lay-by area where trucks couple or decouple—128 trailers all costing money while they sit idle, with trucks as far as 80-odd kilometres west waiting to transit east so that they can get on the pad to decouple. This is a situation that I cannot support and that we have to do something about. I say to the minister: make sure that some of this money goes, as a matter of urgency, to this decoupling area just west of Mitchell, in the interests of efficiency, road safety and the welfare of livestock which often have to sit for hours while the trucks wait to get onto the pad to decouple before they travel further east.

Prior to the last federal election, the coalition government committed some $128 million to the Warrego Highway, from this point at Mitchell further east to Dalby, because we knew that upgrading our highways to see type 2 road trains travel further east, or pick up a point further east to configure their loads if they were travelling west, was going to reduce costs, which of course is good for the economy. Unfortunately, the current federal government committed only some $55 million for this highway. That will probably do the Mitchell to Roma section of the road, but it is the road from Roma right through to Dalby that is in urgent need of money being spent on it. That is why I call on the minister not just to put $55 million into this section of a very important national highway but to commit to the money, some $128 million, we committed to when we were in government.

The road between Roma and Mitchell transits the heart of the Surat Basin coal seam, one of the emerging powerhouses of Queensland. The number of trucks on that road daily is unbelievable and it has ramped up in the last 18 months, driven not only by exploration but by the higher price of oil. I have seen an exponential increase in the road traffic associated with the oil and gas and coal industries as this development has started to ramp up. For instance, just north of my home town, one oil company is planning to drill over 2,000 holes in search of coal seam methane gas. Further north, up towards Emerald, a similar number of holes are going to be drilled to prove up coal seam methane gas reserves. This requires trucks, drilling rigs, pipes and specialised equipment and it is putting enormous pressure on this section of the Warrego Highway. Of course, the development of the coalmine at Wandoan will put similar pressure on this road.

Where some of the coal seam methane gas has already been proven and is being sold into the market, at Braemar, just west of Dalby, there are coal seam methane gas fired power stations—very good clean energy sources; much cleaner than coal fired power stations—being developed. There is another one just near Miles. But, once again, the construction of these coal seam methane gas electricity-generating facilities requires infrastructure to be brought in. It is heavy equipment and has to share the road with tourists, commuters and local traffic, which has put enormous pressure on this road. That is why it is urgent that the commitment of $128 million to this section of the road that we, as the then federal government, made be matched by this federal government.

Tragically, in the last few years there have been some very serious and fatal accidents on this section of the road. That brings into our rural communities tragedy that could have been, I would suggest, avoided had this road been upgraded. This capital injection is long overdue and I would say to the minister: please, have a look at this section of the highway; it cannot wait until 2014 for another round of AusLink. The government should match the commitment of $128 million that the former coalition government was planning for and commit to injecting it into those roadworks as soon as possible.

Under a coalition government this construction would already have started; it would have started on 1 July. The $55 million that the government has committed to will not start until 1 July next year. I say that the road cannot wait that long and the communities cannot wait that long. And, of course, if we are fair dinkum about ensuring the future of our industries—whether it be the export beef industry or the export grain industry or whether it be the establishment of new coal seam methane gas fired electricity generation in the central Darling Downs area—this region desperately needs the money.

I will also touch on the second range crossing at Toowoomba, which connects Brisbane to the Warrego and Gore highways. The Gore Highway goes down through Goondiwindi into the Newell Highway and feeds through the central western regions of New South Wales, another part of the food bowl of Australia. The traffic that comes up from Brisbane splits at Toowoomba. It goes either to the Gore Highway or along the Warrego Highway. Daily in Toowoomba there are thousands upon thousands of trucks, transiting either to or from the Port of Brisbane, going through some 16 sets of lights. It is just not sustainable. We need federal funding to start the process of building a second range crossing. It is a very big project. In the last federal election campaign we committed funds—not matched by the other side of the House—and, if we had been successful, that money would now be deployed on work to build that second range crossing.

I just want to touch on the other imperative in relation to road funding and the importance of spending money in our regions. In Western Australia over the last 10 days we have heard Brendon Grylls, the leader of the Nationals over there, talk very strongly about the need for resources and funding which come out of the royalties from our regions to go back into the regions. I suggest that that is a very good policy which Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, should follow. I am certainly urging my colleagues in Queensland to adopt a similar process because the rural and remote regions of Australia are where the great wealth of our nation is being generated. However, as we have seen in Western Australia, royalties are stripping the wealth out of the regions, putting it into the capital cities and not providing anything back in the regions for social infrastructure, roads, schools and amenities, which would take the pressure off local governments that have to provide the roads and infrastructure. Of course, local governments have to go to their local ratepayers. In Queensland, with the enormous wealth and the potential for jobs coming out of the Surat coal basin—as well as taxation to come to Canberra—we have to see this money deployed out there now and not at some time in the future. We cannot wait for that, because all Australians are benefiting from this wealth; it is not just a few. Because of our balance of payments and because of the exports—whether it is rural commodities or mineral wealth—all Australians are benefiting from this wealth.

The importance of planning cannot be understated. That is why, as I said earlier, the money that we had planned to put into the Warrego Highway was all about planning for the future. I was out in the west of my electorate during the winter break. It was pretty chilly out there, too, I have to say. I went out onto the Adventure Way, west of Thargomindah in the Bulloo shire—right out to the South Australian border, in fact. Planning for the future and putting money into infrastructure means a lot to those communities. When we were in government, we committed some $10 million under the AusLink Strategic Regional Program. I saw what the local shire was doing with that money. They have now almost completed the sealing of the road from the Cooper Basin oil and gas fields right through to Innamincka. Once the South Australian government matches it on the other side of the border—and I am pleased to see my colleague here in the House, who I am sure will be able to talk about this as well—the Adventure Way, from Adelaide to Brisbane, will be a fully sealed road. That will be wonderful for tourism and, importantly, for the resource sector out there—the Cooper Basin oil and gas fields, and hot rocks power generation capacity. There will be enormous wealth. If there is one thing we should be doing it is investing in infrastructure now for the benefit of future generations. It is roads like that which will make a difference. Once again, it was the coalition government that planned for the future and put money into that road.

The other day, I was delighted to be able to drive on the sealed road west of Thargomindah almost through to Innamincka. I was able to do that because of the coalition government’s planning and funding of roads under the AusLink Strategic Regional Program. I mention this road because it was probably some 14 years ago that I identified the need for a bridge over Cooper Creek. There was not a road going to it or away from it, but strategically it was important. The difficulty was always going to be funding a road to an area where quite a substantial bridge over Cooper Creek was needed. Since then, of course, the road has been built to the bridge and away from the bridge. We have seen the economic activity out there benefit from the decision, planning and funding for the bridge over Cooper Creek. The other day the oil and gas industry up there had new pipelines being built, allowing greater exploration of the gas and oil capacity of that region. Once again, it was about planning for the future and putting infrastructure in some of the most remote parts of Australia. But it is in those remote parts where the great wealth of this nation is generated.

I just mention to the House that Bulloo Shire Council have done a magnificent job. I commend the work of the councillors and council workers. They do a magnificent job under fairly arduous and difficult circumstances, where they camp out for two weeks on a road gang to build roads. They are building roads in some of the great wealth-generating regions of our nation from which all Australians can benefit.

I notice that time is going to beat me, and there is a lot more I would have liked to have talked about. I support the bill, but I call on the minister to not be mean spirited and to use some of the surplus. Put money into the second range crossing now to complete what we would have done had we been re-elected. Put money into the Warrego Highway and do it now. Do not wait until next year to start this process. This money is going to the resource-rich area of Australia. All Australians are going to benefit from it and I call on the minister to act. (Time expired)

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