ABC News Breakfast with Stephanie March

STEPHANIE MARCH: Let's return to our top story. The government's pledge to fix the dangerous Bruce Highway in Queensland. Joining us now is the federal transport minister, Catherine King. Thank you for joining us. Happy new Year. 

CATHERINE KING: To you as well, Steph, and to your listeners. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: Catherine King, can you tell us what exactly are you announcing today in Queensland? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, today we're announcing the single biggest ever investment from a Labor government into the Bruce Highway, $7.2 billion, in addition to the money that is already being invested in the Bruce Highway, some $10 billion to really get this road up to a three star rating.

At the moment, there are sections of this road that remain at one and two star rating, and that's the rating we use to say, how safe is this road? So, we know when you have grade separation, when you have barriers, when you take out some of the dangerous curves, that really does reduce the road safety risk of a road. And there are sections of this road, particularly up around the Mackay end, that are really still at one star. And we have seen, over 40 people last year lost their lives, and the increase in the number of people who have lost their lives and experienced serious injury on the Bruce Highway. And this investment will go to really lifting the road safety improvement and the productivity of what is the single biggest artery right the way through Queensland. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: As you say, this will bring the entire highway up to a three star rating out of a five star system. For some people, that might not be enough. They want more, overtaking lanes, things like that. Is this just a band-aid fix? 

CATHERINE KING: No, not at all. In fact, you get the biggest single road safety improvements when you increase the road from 1 to 3 stars. So what that means is you're putting in a wider centre section, you're putting in shoulder sealing, you can put in more overtaking lanes so that you know, when you do get people who are trying to overtake slower vehicles, they're not doing that in a risky way, and you put in more road safety barriers. And so the biggest single improvement you do get in road safety is from that 1 to 3. You do get some road safety improvement when you lift from 3 to 4. But really lifting a one star road to a three star road is what we're concentrating on. Of course, there will always be more to be done, but this is the single biggest contribution of any government to fixing the Bruce Highway and getting this done once and for all. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: As you're announcing today, the federal government is planning to chip in $7.2 billion. That's 80% of the 9 billion that is needed to upgrade the whole highway to a minimum three star rating. Why are you not asking the Queensland state government to stump up more? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, we've accepted the case that the Queensland Government both the previous Queensland Government and the new LNP Queensland Government have put to us that this road is quite unique when it comes to it, it is the really only major freight route through Queensland. It's seen increasing traffic volumes and in order to get this done, it needs the Commonwealth to step in as part of the National Land Transport Act, the national highway, to really partner significantly to get this road up to three stars. It will require contribution from the Queensland Government and they, of course, will be responsible for contracting, tendering and managing the budget for this and making sure that it stays on track and stays within the funding envelope that's been offered by the Commonwealth. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: And what's been the response so far from the Queensland State government? Are they prepared to stump up the rest of the money? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, that will be a matter for them. But we've had positive discussions again, both with the previous Queensland state government and the new LNP government, they know how important the Bruce Highway is for Queensland. We always do this work in partnership with states and territories, and we've had positive discussions with them so far. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: We're gearing up for an election this year. I think if it wasn't obvious to anyone, it's definitely obvious to everyone now, with the Prime Minister heading off on this multi-state blitz today. Um, cynics may say that this is a big announcement in a state where Labor needs to win seats at the next election. Is this pork barrelling in a state where you need to win votes? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, what I'd say really clearly is the way in which we have reformed significantly infrastructure investment. We've re-engaged Infrastructure Australia in the decision making process for the investments that the Commonwealth makes. We've actually worked really hard to make sure that we aren't actually making decisions about where infrastructure is needed based on, frankly, what the previous government did on the colour of the seats that it would go through. 

What we've done is looked at where do we need to lift productivity in the nation? Where do we need to look at things such as road safety, liveability and sustainability, and made sure we put our infrastructure investments in those and do that very carefully through both the budget and the mid-year economic financial outlook processes. For the first time, we're a government that actually receives advice from Infrastructure Australia about where we put the investment. And the Bruce Highway has been a long term issue that has needed solving. 

And if you look up and down that corridor, there are not a lot of seats that Labor holds or would expect to hold along that corridor. We're investing in Queensland. We're investing in the productivity of the entire state. And this project and this investment really will improve road safety for all of those communities along the highway. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: Labor's already getting hammered by the opposition for high spending during this current term. $7.2 billion, as we said, is a lot of money. Are you setting yourself up for more of this criticism? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, what we have been really at pains to do with the infrastructure budget is it is sitting at about $120 to $125 billion over a ten year period. We have kept our spending within that envelope. But what we have done by reforming the pipeline early on, taking those really hard decisions to look at where there had been pork barrelling, where there had been projects that had no hope of being built or had such significant cost overruns. We just couldn't afford to do them. We did that early work as a government really strongly involving the states and territories and working that through. We did a big review of that, and that has meant we've got money in the system going forward for new projects. When we did the review of the infrastructure pipeline, it basically told us that if we continued on the pathway that the Liberal Party had put us on, we would have to find over $32 billion just to fund the existing projects in the pipeline and no new projects. 

The reforms Labor undertook to this pipeline have kept it within its envelope, but made sure we can make new announcements going forward to invest in things like road safety for communities, whether they're in our suburbs or in our regional areas. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: And just quickly, as I said before, this looks and sounds and smells like the beginnings of an election campaign. Catherine King, can you put us out of our misery and tell us, is it going to be an early election, or are we going to be sitting through this, these types of announcements and these road trips until May 17th? What do you think? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, as you know, there will be an election this year. I don't think it will be any surprise to anyone. And of course, it will be a contest between a government that wants to build Australia's future, or more of the same from the Liberal Party that we saw really, that wrecked the economy, that Labor has had to absolutely clean up. And those investments we've made in Medicare and child care and dignified aged care. You'll see and hear a lot of us, obviously you do right the way through the course of the year last year, and it will be entirely up to the prime Minister when the election is called. But it will be no surprise to anyone that it will be this year. 

STEPHANIE MARCH: Well, I had to try. Catherine King thank you.

CATHERINE KING: Really good to be with you.