Federation Chamber: Infrastructure in Moncrieff and Greater Gold Coast

I thank the member for Lalor for bringing this motion forward because I love talking about what we’ve done to deliver for infrastructure across our great nation. It is our government that has delivered critical infrastructure across urban and rural communities throughout Australia and that continues to invest in the future of our country.

Since 2013-14 we’ve committed a total of $175 billion in infrastructure, with over 700 projects delivered or under construction, and investment across our infrastructure pipeline has averaged over $8 billion a year since 2013-14, a significant investment in infrastructure across Australia.

The government has spent over $12 billion on land transport infrastructure investment in the 2020-21 financial year alone. In 2021 the government achieved over 95 per cent of this historic and ambitious infrastructure investment.

The Morrison government has delivered a $126.6 million funding boost for stage 3 of the Gold Coast light rail, the project which is bringing the government’s total investment for stage 3 to $395.6 million and is boosting local jobs, investment and transport connections across my electorate of Moncrieff, with six kilometres from Broadbeach to Burleigh. It is the federal government that is funding the majority of that project.

Ten years ago jumping on a tram on the Smith Street motorway at Griffith University, my own alma mater, and hopping off in the heart of Surfers Paradise was simply a pipedream, but today the Morrison government has made it fact. It’s made it happen; it’s made the impossible possible.

The light rail will benefit many generations to come and those tourists who will soon be back on the Gold Coast—I won’t go into that argument here in the Federation Chamber now but I’ll save that for later in the day. I want to stick to infrastructure, not the failings of the Queensland government.

This is an extraordinary achievement in a year with a challenging delivery environment, including natural disasters such as floods and bushfires, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. This represents the biggest spend on land transport infrastructure investment in Australia’s history and is over $2 billion more than the previous high, set by the LNP of course in 2016-17, of $9.3 billion.

It’s our government, the Morrison government, that will continue to invest $110 billion over the next decade in the land transport infrastructure investment pipeline. Expenditure this year is forecast to be even higher, at more than $14 billion.

These investments form part of the government’s economic recovery plan and will secure Australia’s world-leading economic recovery by delivering nation-building infrastructure projects, meeting our challenge of increased road usage on our highways and getting Australians home sooner and safer.

As the former Deputy Prime Minister used to say, instead of sitting in the traffic looking at the bumpers in front of you, you’ll get home safely to play with your family after work. Kids will get home from school, and you’ll be there sooner and safer thanks to our government.

I want to talk about the Coomera Connector stage 1, the upgrade of the M1, which is currently appalling. The M1 will be receiving $750 million in federal government assistance to build that connector to make sure that Gold Coasters get back to Moncrieff sooner and safer. It’s currently in the planning with development phase activities having been approved, and an enabling works contract was awarded just this month, November 2021.

The Morrison government is committed to delivering a future driven infrastructure plan to cope with Australia’s growing population, and nowhere is it growing more than on the Gold Coast. We’ve had 100,000 southerners move up to the Gold Coast for the beautiful weather, the beautiful water and the beautiful sunshine—

An opposition member: And you.

Ms BELL: Thank you. I’ll take that interjection from those opposite. They have moved up to Queensland for all of the reasons I just outlined. We need to make sure that we deliver the infrastructure that we need for a growing city, and that’s what the federal government has been focused on.

Some other upgrades include the Bruce Highway, Cooroy to Curra, section D. As a Queensland MP, I’m excited that Queenslanders will reap the benefit of that. There’s also the upgrade between Daisy Hill and the Logan Motorway.

For those who are driving from Brisbane to my electorate of Moncrieff, it’s the federal government who are paying for that upgrade, near IKEA at Logan, to make sure you get home sooner and safer.