Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a number of occasions I have raised the need for a proper truck and traffic management plan in and around the Sunnybank district in the electorate of Moreton. The failure of the state government and the Brisbane City Council to properly put a plan in place means that large interstate trucks are simply finding their way through suburban roads.

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a disgrace.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a disgrace—the member for New England is quite correct. They come up from his electorate and find their way through my electorate at all times of the day and night. I am in debt to Mrs Toohey from Beenleigh Road at Sunnybank Hills who has written to me about the instance on Monday 23 April. She said:

At 4 am ... a large semi with a long container, travelled from the direction of Coopers Plains to Jackson Road round-a-bout, went around the round-a-bout, and back towards Coopers Plains. It travelled slowly, braking all the while. The noise was extremely loud. Because of darkness, I could not see the company.

The problem is that the trucks that are travelling at all hours of day and night in both directions to and from Bradman Street, Gay Street and Jackson Road—areas of light industry in the electorate of Moreton—have to have the direction that a traffic management plan would provide. Truck drivers need to know the way in, the way out, where to go and where not to go. The extra noise, pollution, congestion and distress they are causing to local residents are unreasonable.

I renew my call on behalf of Mrs Toohey and other residents in and around Sunnybank Hills, such as Mr Lawton, Mr Richardson, Mr Woodford, Ms Cahill and Ms Stevens, for some direction. Some of the companies that are offending local residents include Toll, BlueScope Steel, JPH, Linfox and Marr—big companies that should know better. But, in defence of those big companies, without a proper truck and traffic management plan in the Sunnybank district, how can they do anything else but use the road in front of them? It is about a bit of bitumen rather than direction, and we need the Queensland government to do better.

Likewise, Ms Soden from Ipswich Road at Moorooka has written to me, thanking me for my successful efforts to minimise the effects of heavy vehicle traffic on other roads in the electorate of Moreton. But now, after living in the inner city section of Ipswich Road all her life, she has seen in recent weeks an influx of intrusive and constant noise caused by vehicles’ loud engine brakes and rumbling. She has now reached the point where she is not inviting friends to her house on the weekend for fear of disruption from heavy traffic. She has seen this in recent weeks, and it is has happened because the Queensland government have banned trucks above the weight of 4.5 tonnes along the Brisbane urban corridor, Granard Road, Riawena Road, Kessels Road and Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road. Despite promising local residents that the government would be sending them on the southern Brisbane bypass to the Logan Motorway and Gateway Motorway, trucks are simply finding their way. Now Ipswich Road at Moorooka is wearing the pain that other parts of my electorate have worn. Again, a proper traffic management plan for the south side of Brisbane would solve the problem—over to the state government to act.