Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I like the member for Rankin; I think he is hilarious! For him to stand there and say what he said was disingenuous in the extreme. He was part of the staff of the then Treasurer a couple of years ago when the Treasurer's budget speech started with 'these four years of budget surpluses I announce tonight'. He was the bloke who wrote the speech! So for him to come in here and say that we are sitting here saying that there is money going to health and education is a little bit simplistic. I note he does replace the previous member for Rankin, Craig Emerson, and I do thank the member for Rankin for not singing, 'There will be no education and health wipe-out there on my TV'! That is one saving grace of having him here. No doubt we will see the member for Lilley try and explain his position. Maybe the member Lilley can explain those words about the four years of budget surpluses he was delivering that night.

On 7 September last year, Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister elect, stood up in front of the Australian people and said: 'Australia is now open for business.' Joe Hockey, the member for North Sydney and the then incoming Treasurer, said, 'Infrastructure must facilitate commerce.' In Townsville, in my area, in 2011, in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi, we saw a fantastic street project, a project which was about flood mitigation, pulled out of Townsville, for the funding to be shifted down to the south-east corner of Queensland by the then Labor transport minister, who was Townsville based as well. It is only now that we are getting that thing finished.

When it comes to all these things being their previous announcements, Labor have to understand that it is just like former Prime Minister Paul Keating spoke of the l-a-w law tax cuts; they were not e-n-a-c-t-e-d enacted. They were not enacted. Labor are very good at making promises, very good at making announcements, but it is about the f-u-n-d-i-n-g funding of them and the c-o-m-p-l-e-t-i-o-n completion and the d-e-l-i-v-e-r-y delivery of them. I say the words as well as spelling them for you.

When it comes to transport, when it comes to getting our goods to market, we must get these things organised. For those of you who do not live in North Queensland, what you must understand is that, every time there is a tropical depression off the coast of Queensland, in a lot of cases there is an immediate 25 per cent loading placed on all transport. That is because they know that, sooner or later, their trucks are going to be parked on the side of the road.

I was very happy after the 2012 election when Campbell Newman, the state Premier, got together with the federal opposition people to try and get a plan together to fix the Bruce. We have had the member for Grayndler come in here and tell us all about it, but it was all on 50-50 splits. What we have done in the time that we have been in government is do an 80-20 split, which is the way it should have been done, and $10 billion for road funding in Queensland on the Bruce Highway is a great start.

In my electorate we are now seeing Vantassel Street coming to completion. I have just opened the University Road upgrade, under the Black Spot Program, which is at the intersection of University Drive at Lavarack Barracks. We have announced the completion of Ring Road Stage 4. The Ring Road was, of course, brought in under the Howard government by the then member for Herbert, Peter Lindsay. We are fixing Dalrymple Road, which is a $20 million project. The state government actually fixed Blakey's Crossing. It used to be the Bruce Highway and it was an incredible link into North Queensland. It had never been fixed under any government, but the Campbell Newman state government, after taking my plan to fix it, finally delivered it. The Ring Road has gone to tender, and we have got more to come.

The big one in my region is the replacement of the Haughton River Bridge. The Haughton River Bridge is a shocking piece of work. It is very, very narrow. It has no guard rails. It would not pass anywhere. What we have to do now is put the planning in place to get it started and to get the farm buyback to straighten up the road so that we can get a bridge that actually stands up. I drove the Bruce Highway a couple of years ago—and I have spent a lot of time on the Bruce Highway—but I drove it with a critical eye. North Queensland has very little road verge and the worst bridges of anywhere in Queensland. It is something that we have to fix and it is something this government is fixing. I thank the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Deputy Prime Minister for actually getting these things together and putting rubber on the road when it comes to fixing these things. I thank the House.

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