The Hon Catherine King MP
Press conference, Bruce Highway
GLEN KELLY: Well, this is a great honour today as the Member for Mirani. It's my honour to welcome today, we have our Federal Member, Infrastructure Minister, Catherine King. We have our state transport minister, Brent Mickelberg. And it's an honour to have our two colleagues here, Donna Kirkland from- member for Rockhampton, and our member for Keppel, Nigel Hutton. Today is a big announcement today on the Bruce. The Bruce Highway. The Bruce Highway is the busiest highway in Queensland, and today's announcement is going to be very welcome to the electorate of Mirani, as Mirani has 400 kilometres of the Bruce. And today's announcement is going to go a long way into supporting the area of Mirani. Thank you and I'll welcome Catherine King. Thank you very much.
CATHERINE KING: Thank you. Well, look, it's terrific to be here today. Can I thank very much my state counterpart, Brent Mickelberg. This is the first press conference we've done together, and this is a great partnership on the Bruce Highway. Back in January, Prime Minister Albanese, and I announced the $7.2 billion to fix the Bruce after a significant campaign by the RACQ. And I thank and acknowledge that David is here with us, and all of the communities along the highway. Matched then, or put in by $1.8 billion by the Queensland state government, and we are getting on with it. We are getting on with fixing the Bruce.
Today we're announcing that we're releasing $300 million for the first stage of projects. 23 projects, 16 of them are shoulder widening, dividing the road, making sure that we're putting those safety improvements in place. And then a further number of projects are the planning stages of the next tranche. We've got the Bruce Highway Advisory Committee is meeting in Rockhampton today. Brent and I will both be meeting with them to work through what are the next stages of projects. We want to get this done. This, of course, the $9 billion safety program is in addition to the money that is already being spent on the Bruce Highway, over $10 billion of major projects that are already underway. And today, we're announcing some additional money for some of those. 200 million to deal with some cost pressures that have occurred again on the Rocky Ring Road, and Minister Mickelberg will talk a little bit about those, but making sure that we didn't have to reduce the scope of the Rocky Ring Road in any way, but putting that additional money in from the Commonwealth to make sure that full scope of the project is realised.
We’re also- finally, we've got some agreement on what the projects are under the Beef Road corridors. This is a $500 million program between the Queensland Government and ourselves. So 38 million is being released for that today. And then some further money being released for the Rockhampton to Gladstone corridor projects. But this is a really good day for the Bruce. What we're trying to do as a joint government initiative is to really fix this road. We know that its safety is not up to scratch. We hear it every single day, and the fact that 41 people lost their lives last year alone is way too many. A single life lost is too many, but 41 was certainly something that we were highly concerned about, hence the commitment. So really what we're trying to do here is improve the safety of the Bruce substantially, lift it from where it is two star to at least three star. If we can get it higher, we will through road safety treatments, but really concentrating on the worst bits first. And that's what these projects do. And I want to thank very much, Minister Mickelberg, for working so closely with ourselves to really get this first tranche $300 million released, for getting on with it. The work has started. I think you'll see workers on the road either today or in the coming days actually getting on with these projects. I'll hand over to Minister Mickelberg and then we'll take some questions.
BRENT MICKELBERG: Thank you very much, Minister. Well, it's an absolute pleasure to join here today with the Australian government delivering on our commitment to better the Bruce Highway. We made it very clear over the last four years and through the recent election campaign that the Bruce Highway was one of our key priorities as a new Queensland Government, and it has been a tremendous privilege to be able to partner with the Australian government to deliver these critical works on the Bruce Highway. Nine billion dollars over the next six years to fix those worst parts of the Bruce Highway. And work has started today. We have workers on site now working on that early works package. So $300 million of funds, which has been released already, and they're getting on with the job to address those immediate priorities.
As the Federal Minister mentioned, we have the Bruce Highway Advisory Council here in Rockhampton today, our second meeting of the Bruce Highway Advisory Council, which has local representatives from up and down the Bruce Highway in every single region that the Bruce Highway passes; key stakeholders like the Queensland Trucking Association - we've got Gary Mahon here from the Queensland Trucking Association, who you'll hear from soon; the RACQ - David Carter from the RACQ as well. This is a body by which we can consider what needs to be done to address the Bruce Highway and prioritise the work across the Bruce Highway. We know there is considerable amount of work that needs to be done on the Bruce.
As the Federal Minister mentioned, over 40 lives were lost on the Bruce Highway last year. That is simply unacceptable. We're committed to ending that toll which impacts Queenslanders every single- nearly every single week we lose a Queenslander on the Bruce Highway. That is simply unacceptable, and we can and must do more to make the Bruce Highway both safer and more resilient and more reliable. And that's our commitment today. We've got a broader package of works outside this $9 billion program, projects like the Rockhampton Ring Road and others, and we're committed to getting on with the job of delivering those projects on time and on budget. And it's an absolute pleasure to be able to join with the Federal Government to kick off those works on the Bruce Highway here today, and hopefully we'll see many more projects over the next six years delivered under this program. And I just want to thank the Federal Government for their commitment. It is a testament to being able to deliver for communities that we can work together to deliver a very considerable investment in Queensland's major road network, of which- I think about 62 per cent of Queenslanders used the Bruce Highway in any given year. Many people use it every single day, including myself. I know the work that needs to go on the Bruce Highway, and we're committed with getting on with the job of delivering that.
I'll hand over now to Gary Mahon from the Queensland Trucking Association to talk about what it means for Queensland's trucking industry.
GARY MAHON: Thank you, ministers. We’re absolutely delighted to be here today to see and acknowledge the state and federal ministers working together in partnership on what is the most critical road in the state as far as we're concerned. It is the spine of the state in terms of road freight resupply, but it also has significant safety implications for everybody who uses that road. As far as we're concerned, the safety improvements obviously are essential, but we also need to remind that other treatments that go to the sustainability of this route are vitally important as well. Overtaking lanes, you know, bridge treatments, bridge replacements, wide centreline marking and all of those treatments need to be dealt with together because we also have a situation unfolding right now in Far North Queensland where it's cut off yet again. So Far North Queensland right now is fully cut off for the second time in about five weeks. So when you look at that section between Townsville and Cairns, it deserves a fair bit of remedial treatment as well, and it needs to be sooner rather than later. I heard the word unacceptable used before. It is unacceptable in today's day and age that Far North Queensland has to live with being fully cut off more than twice a year. So if this event goes on up North Queensland the way it's going, we could be in the order of 14-odd days where Far North Queensland cannot be supplied with daily normal replenishment. Supermarkets, hardware, pharmaceuticals, people getting to medical treatment, and all of those things that go with daily life. So we're delighted to be endorsing this program of works. We're even more pleased to see the state and federal governments working so closely together. And as a third point, to have that being done within the next six years is even better. So that will make a material difference to regional Queensland in a very quick space of time, and we couldn't endorse that more strongly. Thank you.
BRENT MICKELBERG: Thanks, Gary. Hand over now to David Carter from the RACQ.
DAVID CARTER: Thank you. And I'd also like to start by just endorsing a lot of Gary's comments there. It's great to see federal and state governments working well together to sort out a problem that is significant for all of Queensland. The Bruce Highway needs work. It needs a long term program of work. The $9 billion commitment is a terrific signal from both governments about how important this road is. The package of works that's been announced today, the $300 million of funding, allows for projects that are ready to go, that Main Roads have identified as ready to go, to start and get going on lifting the safety on these roads. There are so many places where we can improve from two stars to three. There's no shortage of work. This allows work to commence now and more work to be done on the next phase of those projects that can be done as well.
We also need to acknowledge, as RACQ, the great support and collaboration we had with Gary and the Queensland Truckers Association, with the Farmers’ Federation, with the Local Government Association of Queensland, the College of Surgeons, and indeed the tourism industry as well in this conversation about the importance of fixing the Bruce for the benefit of all Queenslanders, which is really- as Minister Mickelberg just said, this road is vital to all of us here in Queensland. So it is a very good day to see money actually hitting the ground now, to see the work commencing, and we look forward over the next six years or so to see this $9 billion spent well and safety on the Bruce Highway improved significantly.
CATHERINE KING: Thank you. Happy to take questions. We'll start with me or with-
JOURNALIST: Catherine [indistinct]…
CATHERINE KING: Yes, of course, of course.
JOURNALIST: Gary just touched on Far North Queensland, with the flooding event up there. Will you make flood proofing work a priority as part of this package?
CATHERINE KING: So separately to this package, there's already- I'd have to check the figures, but there's already a couple of billion dollars allocated to the Bruce Highway in Far North Queensland, including, I think, [indistinct] that's yet to be allocated to a specific project. We'll work, obviously, with the Queensland Government about how that money is to be spent on the Bruce on some of those bigger projects. Obviously, as part of our disaster recovery arrangements, we have now built in that we will build back better rather than just replacing what is existing. So obviously, around that particular area, there was some flooding earlier in the year. We're still working our way through those disaster arrangements with the Queensland Government about what we do. But obviously, as we continue- as we do the safety work, we want to continue with those projects that are already existing within the pipeline to make sure we actually get some substantial improvements to the movement particularly of freight and people around the state.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it's good enough that regional Queenslanders, particularly in the north, has continually had their lives and businesses disrupted by the state of the highway?
CATHERINE KING: Well, again, this is why we're putting this investment in. This is a $9 billion investment on top of the $10 billion worth of projects that we're already delivering along the highway. In particular, what we've tried to do with this package is to look at not down south, but really look to central and north because they are the areas where the road is at its worst, and that's why we're concentrating on those areas with these projects.
BRENT MICKELBERG: I might just touch on that [indistinct]…
CATHERINE KING: Yes, sure. Of course.
BRENT MICKELBERG: Just in relation to the flooding in the north, obviously, we had a significant event about six weeks ago I think it was. And we had the Prime Minister and the Premier on the ground at Ollera Creek, which was washed away, and the commitment from both the Prime Minister and the Premier, as the Federal Minister alluded to, is to build back better. So we're focused on building in flood mitigation and improvements to capacity where we can, where we need to rectify damage. For example, at Ollera Creek, we're going to build that crossing back better and build flood resilience into it.
Now, will we be able to make the Bruce Highway completely flood-proof? No, it's built on a floodplain, but we can certainly reduce the impact and the incidence and the severity of the flooding that occurs in places like Ingham. And right now, the Bruce Highway is cut again at the Seymour Bridge, and as Gary spoke about, so too are the inland routes. So we need to be looking at all aspects of the routes, north and south, in North Queensland. So whether that is the Kennedy Development Road, the Hann Highway, the Bruce Highway, we need to be building in resilience wherever possible, and we're committed to working with the Federal Government to delivering just that. And I think you've got a unity ticket from the Prime Minister and the Premier of Queensland to deliver better roads and more resilient roads, both on the Bruce Highway and on our inland routes as well.
In relation to this package, though, one point I wanted to make. So this $9 billion, every single dollar of this package will be spent north of Gympie. None of this money will be spent in the south east. It will address critical concerns, safety issues from Gympie through to Cairns, and I think that's a really important point to make. We know that those sections of the Bruce Highway are where the safety issues are greatest. And while we have flood impacts closing the Bruce Highway, so too do we have serious motor vehicle crashes which also closed the Bruce Highway, and this money will go a long way to reducing some of those instances.
JOURNALIST: Minister, you're here today to announce stage one works. Where will that work begin?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, there's 16 projects up and down the Bruce Highway. [Indistinct] So we actually inspected one of those sites yesterday, south of Tiaro, but there's also works to the north of Townsville, south of Townsville, in Central Queensland here as well. We can provide you a map incidentally as well for your story subsequently. So the 16 early works packages, this is about getting on with the job of those areas where the work had already been done, the design work had been done. And we know there's a critical need. Things like turning lanes off the Bruce Highway and onto the Bruce Highway, wide centreline, widening the shoulder, addressing the pavement where it is in a particularly bad state, these are projects that we could get on with the job of delivering straight away, and we have workers on site right now delivering those projects.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us a bit more about the committee meeting today?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Yeah. So, one of the tasks I was given by the Premier was to re-establish the Bruce Highway Advisory Council. We had our first meeting in Townsville before Christmas. And one of the other tasks I was given was to seek 80-20 funding from the Federal Government. I'm very pleased that the Australian Government have come to the party and provided 80-20 funding for this package of $9 billion on the Bruce Highway. It's a welcome investment, and it's a recognition of the fact that we needed to invest in this critical road for Queensland's future.
Look, the committee meeting today will actually be considering where we can best target the spending for the balance, the $8.7 billion of the balance of this program. There are many, many works that need to be done up and down the Bruce Highway. My department, the Department of Transport and Main Roads, have done a considerable amount of work over many years working out where those critical needs are. And today we will be discussing - the Federal Minister and myself and committee members which, as I said, includes local representatives, people who use the Bruce Highway for all sorts of different reasons, whether they're truck drivers, a local representative here, her mother was tragically or was seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash on the Bruce Highway - and so people are invested in making sure that the Bruce Highway is safer, more resilient and more reliable. So, today's meeting we will be discussing how we can best roll out these funds. And then the Federal Government and the Queensland Government will work collaboratively to get work started as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: So, how important is it having everyday Queenslanders who have been impacted by the Bruce on that committee?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, I think it's incredibly important to have local voices informing government policy wherever we can. And I was- one of the things I wanted to see when we re-established the Bruce Highway Advisory Council is to ensure that all sections of the Bruce Highway are representative- represented. So, whether that's the Sunshine Coast right through to the far north, there's our local representative from every single one of those districts on the Bruce Highway Advisory Council.
They all bring a different approach and different challenges. The challenges on the Bruce Highway in my part of the world, on the Sunshine Coast, are fundamentally different to the challenges in the far north and in North Queensland, or here in central Queensland for that matter. And I think it's really important that those who use the road every single day are listened to and that we take their views into account. Now, industry is a big part of that. Queensland Trucking Association, the RACQ, Local Government Association of Queensland, they're really important stakeholders and they're all members of the Bruce Highway Advisory Council as well. But so too are those local voices, because they bring a different way of looking at the problem. And they bring lived experience of having to drive the Bruce Highway every single day, in many cases.
JOURNALIST: Minister, specifically in Paluma, near Townsville…
BRENT MICKELBERG: Yes.
JOURNALIST: …these residents have been taking three hour detours for a month now. Can you reassure them it'll be fixed soon?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Look, we've got massive issues on the Mount Spec Road, which is the road to Paluma. Considerable impacts as a consequence of the flooding and the rain associated with the event six weeks or so ago in the north. It is going to take a considerable amount of time to rectify those, the damage to that road. We're committed to working with the local community to support them through that process [indistinct], but the reality is it will take time. We have had significant landslips and, as a consequence, the road is currently not safe to be able to traverse.
However, that's why we appointed a local disaster coordinator in Andrew Cripps, and I've been working with both Andrew and the local member, Nick Dametto, local state member Nick Dametto, to ensure, one, that the community is informed, and two, to ensure that we get those works completed as soon as possible. But it will take time. The damage is very, very considerable and- but we're committed to ensuring that we both address the immediate concerns of reopening the roads for locals so they can get to and from home and to and from work, but also ensuring that we build in resilience in the long term so that we don't repeat the same mistakes of the past.
JOURNALIST: Two questions. How much has the Ring Road project in Rockhampton blown out to?
BRENT MICKELBERG: So, the Federal Government have committed an additional $200 million today, and the federal minister may wish to speak to that. Look, my focus as the new Transport- Queensland Transport Main Roads Minister is to deliver this project. And far too many projects have run over budget and over time here in Queensland for too many years. And I have a very clear directive from the Premier, which is to end that. And part of that is getting on with the job of finishing the projects that are in train now. Another part is ensuring that we address the drivers that are driving cost overruns.
Rocky Ring Road has exceeded budget again and that is unacceptable, but by the same token we're focused on delivering the project. It's an important project that will deliver benefit to, not just people from central Queensland but all road users who traverse through this part of the world. It's a safety improvement. It takes trucks off the road through the Rockhampton CBD, where we've got schools right now, and I think 26 odd sets of traffic lights off the top of my head. It's an important project that must be delivered. My focus is delivering that project now.
We were on site earlier this morning actually having a look at one of the bridge- bridges at the northern end. They were going to do a concrete pour this morning but they've been interrupted as a consequence of the rain. But we're just focused on delivering the project now that it's well advanced, and ending the blow-outs that existed under the former government. Minister, so you want to add anything to that?
CATHERINE KING: No.
JOURNALIST: When will it be delivered?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, we're focused on delivering the project. The initial- so there's two packages of works effectively at either end and the last package is for the centre which is for the bridge. We're focused on ensuring that it's delivered within the existing time frame. So at the moment, we're working to a time frame of around 2029. However - and it is a complex project, I'm not going to shy away from the fact it's a complex project. What we need to ensure, though, is that what we deliver reflects what the community needs, both here in central Queensland, and more broadly as a key spine of Queensland road- Queensland's road transport network.
JOURNALIST: When will the funding come through for the [indistinct] project?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, Federal Minister, I think that's included in this batch as well. I might let you talk to that.
CATHERINE KING: Yeah. No, I think it is. Yeah.
BRENT MICKELBERG: So, I understand that's actually included in these announcements from the Federal Government as well.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us anything more about the beef corridor works?
BRENT MICKELBERG: Yeah. Look, the Queensland beef corridors initiative is a tremendous initiative which aims to build capacity and reliability into some of our inland routes which are traversed right through central Queensland here. So, it's a partnership between local councils, the state government and the Federal Government. Minister King will probably like to speak to this, and Glen might like to talk to it given much of it sits in his electorate as well. But it's a really important project that will both boost capacity for the beef industry, hence its name. But it's also about building resilience and capacity into the- those regional interconnecting roads, roads between Moranbah and Emerald and Rockhampton, and to the south. These are critical roads that should have been invested in and need to be invested in to unlock both productivity from an economic perspective, but also connect regional communities. I might…
CATHERINE KING: Yeah, sure. We'll get you a full list of the projects that have been announced under the beef roads corridor. But really, what this has required is for the local councils to work with TMR and the Queensland Government to decide where exactly the money is going to be spent.
So, we've signed off on the release of $38 million today to start a range of projects, small and large, across that network. We know that, increasingly, our large freight vehicles are travelling on these local roads and that whether it’s weather, that it’s the weight of vehicles, that it’s the volume of vehicles we’re seeing erosion on those roads. And really this is designed to strengthen, widen, make sure that our freight routes for your magnificent beef industry here, which is the best not only in the country but in the world - my hometown of Ballarat will be upset that I've said that, there are beef producers there as well - but nothing quite like up here. We recognise this is the beef capital for a reason. But making sure that that fantastic produce can get to market both within the country and outside, and so that $38 million.
But that's really meant that we've got now local government all working together with TMR to identify where the money is to go. And that's released today, and we'll get you the full list.
BRENT MICKELBERG: Glen might add to it.
CATHERINE KING: Yeah.
GLEN KELLY: Yeah, thank. Well, thank you, Minister, for acknowledging the beef capital of Australia. It means a lot to me, actually. But no, the development package is very important to the electorate of Mirani because of the amount of produce that does come out of there, whether it be beef, or grain. And the May Downs Road is a very important part of that development project. It's- we're sort of talking up to, I think in a couple of those regions in the electorate of Mirani, 50,000 head of beef cattle coming out of two feedlots. I mean, this package is very welcome into this region of ours, of Mirani, and certainly looking forward to councils and the state government working together to make sure that where these issues are in these roads are done correctly. Because I'm a big believer in of a little bit of time goes a long way, because we only want to do these things once. And I think with this development road package it's going to be so important to the electorate of Mirani. Thank you.
BRENT MICKELBERG: Any other questions?
CATHERINE KING: You're done. Lovely. Thank you.