Long-term fix needed for Coast traffic woes

MY State Budget day began the same way every work day begins for thousands of Gold Coasters – agonising over whether I’d make it to Brisbane on time.

Despite allowing two and a half hours for the 75km trip, I only just scraped in.

Transport within and outside of the Gold Coast is the most critical issue facing our city. Yesterday’s Budget attempts to address this in two key ways: transport infrastructure and job creation.

Previously announced funds to widen the M1 between Varsity Lakes and Mudgeeraba; work to expand our central arterial Bundall Rd and the connection of the light rail to the heavy rail are vital and welcome.

However, in the face of an exploding population, only the creation of local jobs – allowing more people to work where they live – can really tackle this problem.

The Government has moved on this by investing in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, and through their affordable housing program – but there is more they can do.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in her Budget speech yesterday said Queensland was “a decentralised state”.

If Labor hopes to erode the LNP’s hold on the Gold Coast, it could start planning to walk their leader’s talk and decentralise the government, too.

Tourism and Events Queensland is a logical place to start and the Department of Sport and Recreation also would be at home.

For the Gold Coast, the Budget will make sure the Commonwealth Games works – which it has to.

But it would be great to hear a Budget speech that looked beyond the next election cycle and to a multifaceted, longterm fix for the M1.