Press conference, Nerang

MEAGHAN SCANLON: Welcome to the Gaven electorate, wonderful to be here in Nerang this morning. Anyone who lives on the Gold Coast knows how frustrating it is to be in congestion on the M1, and that’s why we’re committed to building the second M1. There’s been already one million hours of work on the second M1, and today I’m really pleased to see those early works happening all the way down here in Nerang. This is the most southern section of the second M1, and a really vital part of connecting our city in the future. This was a key election commitment that I made, and so I’m so pleased to see work underway on this really, really important project for a growing city like the Gold Coast. Of course, this is in stark contrast to the LNP, who mothballed this project when David Crisafulli and all of those Newman government ministers were around the cabinet table and they cut $100 million of critical roads funding, that’s not what a growing Gold Coast needs. It needs investment. That’s why we’re getting things done. It’s why we’re doing what matters for this city by keeping everyone moving. Thank you. 

BART MELLISH: Cheers. Thanks, Meaghan. It’s great to be here today in the Gaven electorate. And also to have the Federal Minister, Catherine King, up here, a great supporter of Queensland. Look, this is a great milestone for the Coomera Connector project, the second M1. So we’re right here at just about the southern tip of the project, where just this week, we have put out tenders for the main construction contract for this part of the road. So this is an outstanding project, which is essentially– on the corridor here, we’re connecting the third largest city in Australia with the sixth largest city in Australia. We’re doing that in a variety of ways. We’ve got Logan to Gold Coast Faster Rail project; we’ve got M1 upgrades; and we’ve got the second M1, the Coomera Connector project, which we’re kicking on with today. This is– as our city continues to grow, we need future proof roads, that can handle the growth that’s happening in this part of the country, the growth that’s happening in this part of Queensland. The Gold Coast, and the northern Gold Coast in particular, is a great place to live. More people are moving here, and we need to cater for them. So, it’s really fantastic to have the Federal Minister here, our delivery partner in this project. And really great to have local member Meaghan Scanlon here so that we can kick off this project, in terms of getting it out to tender for the southern stage. From Nerang here, crossing the Nerang River, up to the Smith Street turnoff. This is an outstanding project. I can’t wait to keep coming down here and announcing more great projects for this growing part of the state.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much Bart, thanks. I’m Catherine King on the Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. Thanks, Meaghan, very much for having us in your electorate today. And I know alongside Bart, we’re pretty excited about this project. The Coomera Connector, some 16 kilometres of road. There’s going to be about 700 workers on that. The site office has only been open for a week. So, for the media, this is your first opportunity to have a look at what’s going to be a really substantial project. $1.5 billion from the Albanese Labor Government, $1.5 billion from the Miles Government as well. 

This is a $3 billion project. It’s a pretty substantial investment in, not just a road, it really is about what this road brings to this community. The connections, making sure commute times are faster. I think it takes about ten minutes out of the commute time overall. But in particular, making sure that we’re improving the connectivity of communities. This is an incredibly fast-growing community, and we know that we want more housing. We want more people to be able to live in this beautiful part of the world. So investments like this are important. We made sure that this project, there– obviously there are cost pressures being experienced right the way across the country and in fact, right the way across road projects and rail projects across the world at the moment. Supply chains have certainly led to increases in that. And we’re very pleased to be able to provide some additional funding for this in the– this project in the budget to make sure it will go ahead. 

These are the sorts of partnerships we want with state governments. The Queensland Government has been a terrific delivery partner when it comes to our road infrastructure in particular. We look forward to continuing to work with them, but want to thank very much, in anticipation of the magnificent construction workforce that will be on this project. These are important jobs to our communities. It’s important that there are small and local businesses that are getting the benefit of these projects. I know that we’ve got a few women on site as well, and we want to see more women in the construction industry as well. A lot of reform happening in this sector, but really pleased that we’ve got some of the workforce that will be benefiting from this project also here today.

I’m happy and Bart’s happy to take questions. Did you want to start with Bart, or do you want to start with me? It’s up to you. 

JOURNALIST: While you’re there.

CATHERINE KING: Yep. While I’m there. Lovely. Okay.

JOURNALIST: So, $3 billion for 15 kilometres. Is this one of the most expensive roads in the country? 

CATHERINE KING: No, it’s certainly not one of the most expensive roads in the country. Road projects, it depends. You know, obviously when you’ve got services to move, you’ve got complex environments to work in. A lot of legacy projects, some of the city projects can be pretty complex when it comes to that. We’ve got a bit of greenfield site here, which is a good thing. But certainly, this is an important project, but it’s certainly not the most expensive road project in the country. 

JOURNALIST: Speaking of partnerships between the state and federal governments, why has the Federal Government changed the funding ratio for the Bruce Highway from 80/20 to 50/50? 

CATHERINE KING: Because we want to see more investment in the Bruce Highway, and we want to make sure that we actually leverage the Commonwealth funding to make sure we get more projects out in the regions. That’s why we’ve done that. We have not cut a single dollar. In fact, the Infrastructure Investment Program, the pipeline, has grown. We’ve put billions of dollars more here in Queensland. But we want to make sure that as the Commonwealth has started to do, which we did under the Albanese, when he was Minister Albanese for Infrastructure, the Commonwealth has now started to fund other things. When we first came to office, a long time ago now, we weren’t funding public transport, for example. We weren’t engaged in funding heavy rail, or light rail, or active transport. The Commonwealth is now investing more, and more, and more in infrastructure projects, and we want those partnerships to continue. We’ve now got over $125 billion in our infrastructure investment pipeline, and we want to see more projects. And that partnership with state governments, that risk sharing with state governments is very much an important part of that. It allows us to leverage the contributions that we’re making into more projects out in the regions. 

That’s all?

JOURNALIST: Still on news of the day stuff?

CATHERINE KING: Yes, of course. 

JOURNALIST: Has Rex reached out to the Federal Government for any funding support? 

CATHERINE KING: So certainly I’m– I just did a stand-up in the city just before to talk a little bit about this. So my department has now met with the administrators. We will expect that they will have a series of requests to the Federal Government in relation to that. It is incredibly important that we keep regional aviation. And I’m pleased that regional aviation services have been able to continue. And the administrators have said that will continue to happen as we go through administration.

We will consider those requests very seriously. We’re serious about making sure those regional services are there, and administrators have already talked to the government about that. But we will also take our time to make sure we don’t do what the previous government did – threw millions of dollars at aviation without any conditions attached; threw millions of dollars where we didn’t have guarantee of workers’ entitlements, we didn’t have guarantees around making sure that there were continuing to be regional jobs, and we didn’t have guarantees around continuation of regional services. We will look at this expeditiously, but we will also look at this carefully. 

JOURNALIST: Is funding on the table? 

CATHERINE KING: Certainly that is one of the requests I’m sure they will make of us. They’ve got a number of short-term requests. So, yesterday they requested that I talk to airports about the continuation of services into our major airports, I did that yesterday. I’m sure that they will have a number of requests. But, of course, the administrators were only appointed last night, they’ve got a big piece of work to do to get across every aspect of the business and its subsidiaries, and they’ll continue to talk to government. My department has already met with them and will continue to do that over the days ahead. Remembering that it did take some time before, for example when Virgin was faced with these circumstances, it did take some time for these issues to be worked through. 

JOURNALIST: Is there a point at which the government would step in and take an equity stake in the airline? 

CATHERINE KING: Again, nothing is off the table. We are certainly very interested in, you know, making sure that whatever investment we are asked to make that there is some conditions around that that we look at, making sure that regional services are continued and that they are available and are therefore people. We know how important they are. There are some communities where Rex is the only airline that flies into those areas. But we’re also wanting to make sure that, you know, in return for any money or anything that the government does do, that we do have that guarantee around service; that workers are also looked after; and that we continue to have decent regional services across the community. Thanks, everyone. 

BART MELLISH: Any for me?

JOURNALIST: Just on the Bruce Highway. Minister, what’s the state government doing, particularly in the north of Queensland, to improve safety along that stretch of road? 

BART MELLISH: Yeah look, we’ve got some fantastic projects on the Bruce Highway - right up and down. We’ve got $4 billion just in the forward estimates over the next four years, and we’ve got an increase in contributions going forward. From the north of the state we’ve got projects like Cairns, Southern access, going further south we’ve got the fantastic Rockhampton Ring Road project, which I was at with Minister King just a few months ago. That’s an outstanding project that’s delivering, I think, 17 kilometres of new Bruce Highway, essentially. We’ve got Goorganga Plains near the Mackay region. Coming further south we’ve had some really great additional lane projects north of the Pine River as you’re coming from Brisbane to Sunshine Coast. 

We are upgrading significant parts of the Bruce Highway and we always will be. This really is, you know, the backbone of our state and there will always be a bit more to do in partnership with the Federal Government on this important road.

JOURNALIST: Is the state government considering any financial support for Rex? 

BART MELLISH: In terms of Rex, my priority, one of my focuses on this is– so the department runs a number of regulated aviation routes in Queensland, Rex operate five of those. And we’re talking to really diverse communities, we’re talking that these flights go to really diverse communities from Mount Isa to Winton Doomadgee, Birdsville, like that, so I’ve asked my director general to work closely with Minister King’s department. And also potentially speak to the administrator about these regional communities that do need their connectivity, they do need these air services. They are remote communities in some instances, so I want to make sure these communities aren’t left behind as part of this process. 

JOURNALIST: Can you talk about what’s at risk if these communities miss out on flights? 

BART MELLISH: I’ve spoken to local member Robbie Katter, Member for Traeger, just yesterday morning on this. Some of these communities they can get cut off during wet season in particular, some other ones are very remote in terms of road or rail. They really are a lifeblood, some of these air services into them, so I really want to see, as the administrator works through this process, that these communities are not left behind. 

JOURNALIST: All right. We’re talking a lot about those regional communities, we’re keeping them up and steady. What about those city locals that have also lost their jobs and people like that? 

BART MELLISH: Absolutely, and Minister King has addressed that as well. It is important that, you know, a number of workers in the aviation industry, I know they had a really tough time during COVID. As a member on the north side of Brisbane near the airport, I’ve met with dozens and spoken with dozens of workers who really did cop a really tough time throughout COVID in terms of their job security, in terms of their hours and other issues. So, people in the aviation industry, you know, it’s a difficult job at the best of times. at times like this we’re really looking to see, in conjunction with the Federal Government, what support we can offer going forward. 

JOURNALIST: I’ve got to ask is, are you aware of any cost pressures that could cause this project to blow out again? 

BART MELLISH: Well, yeah, there’s no doubt in the current state, national, international infrastructure market that a lot of projects are under cost pressures. This project, you’ll be aware of recent cost pressures on it. We’re able to partner with the Federal Government in terms of, meeting that cost increase. this is a great project. It needs to happen.

I’ve done a lot of work, my director general has done a lot of work going forward in terms of what we can do to manage cost pressures; what we can do to make sure that when we’re talking about the costs of these projects, when we are talking about the contracting arrangements, that we can really be keeping a tighter rein on costs and making sure that when we commit to projects, when we commit to costs, that we are confident that we can meet those. 

JOURNALIST: Can you talk about what will happen on the site? Because I take it it’s a floodplain - you’re going to have to build up some soil; eventually, you’re going to put a bridge across the river there. 

BART MELLISH: There’s no doubt that the Coomera Connector is a complicated project - a number of river crossings further north on stage one north and stage one central. There’s significant piling works that we see through some of the old cane land there and, essentially, on floodplains. Further south here, some of those challenges are not quite as pronounced as at the northern end but, you know, of course the landscape here, there’s significant rock blasting that needs to occur and rock drilling - I’m probably getting the engineering terms a bit wrong there. But significant project that we need to connect in with the rest of the road network. There’ll be active transport, active travel that goes with it as well, great connections to the station just here - Nerang station here as well. So, stage one south from Smith Street motorway down here, over the Nerang River, into the Gaven electorate, it’s a really great project. I can’t wait to see it progress into the future. 

JOURNALIST: Are we any clearer on what the full 45-kilometre corridor will cost? 

BART MELLISH: In terms of future stages of Coomera Connector, we’re having those discussions within the department, within government. We’re probably a bit off in terms of there’s a lot of work to be done before we’d arrive at those sort of estimates. 

JOURNALIST: And finally, 50 cent fares come in on Monday. How are preparations going on that one? 

BART MELLISH: Fifty cent fares, everyone I talk to is really excited about it. So, across all of Queensland what people will see from August 5 is maximum 50 cents to get anywhere on the TransLink network. So, a range of preparations we’ve done – 50 extra buses we’ll have providing sweeper bus services essentially, so a number of bus operators throughout the state will be able to utilise those. In terms of down the Gold Coast here, we’ve got two extra trams we’re able to offer as part of the Gold Coast light rail, so increasing frequency. 

Through stage one, stage two, stage three, this has been an amazing success, Gold Coast Light Rail, and the ability of it to beef up, to really ramp up due to 50 cent fares is a great way to manage some of this. We’re doing a lot of other back of room, I suppose, thinking about how to manage it as well. There’s a lot of preparations that have got underway.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks, everybody.