BRAKE STUCK ON M1 OFFER
LAST night’s Federal Budget has set the scene for an election, with a $24.5 billion infrastructure spend a key element in a package aimed at wooing and making life easier for Australians.
For the Gold Coast, $1 billion of that infrastructure commitment is on the table for work vital in keeping the traffic flowing on the M1.
Indeed, it has been on the table for some time, promised by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in response to heavy lobbying – especially by the Bulletin – for governments at federal and state level to stop playing politics and just fix that road, which is the vital artery linking the Gold Coast to Brisbane. Opposition leader Bill Shorten has also promised $1 billion to fix the M1 if Labor wins the federal election, so with both sides of politics on board federally, that leaves the State Labor Government the odd one out.
Everyone wants the M1 upgrading under way except the Palaszczuk Government, with the Premier and State Main Roads Minister continuing to play games with the funding formula.
It is ludicrous that in the face of a billiondollar offer, this State Government keeps looking the other way.
The danger for the Gold Coast lies in how long Canberra is prepared to quarantine that offer, before shrugging and shifting it elsewhere.
Despite this, and even though the M1 upgrading would make life easier, it cannot be framed as the overarching solution to busting gridlock in the long term. Despite the magnitude of the funding the Federal Government has set aside, this really is only a band-aid solution to the Gold Coast’s and the southeast’s transport dilemma.
Three elements are critical to Gold Coast growth and prosperity – the M1, light rail stage 3, and a second motorway.
The trams have to run south to Burleigh and on to the airport if Gold Coast commuters are to embrace public transport in numbers that make a big difference; and an alternative to the M1 for the commute to Brisbane is vital.
That billion-dollar commitment therefore is not gold plating. The work it will fund – upgrading the southern end of the motorway and dealing with congestion in the north around Eight Miles Plains – is long overdue and has to happen now to prevent growth stalling and our city’s economy being paralysed.
Southeast Queensland transport services are limping and getting slower. If the State Government does not co-operate, it risks the wheels seizing completely.
Our nation is huge in area and despite immigration, remains relatively small in population, so it is critical that a solution is found to reining in the astronomical costs of delivering transport infrastructure.
There should be no gentle acceptance of costs in the order of the $50 million required per kilometre to build our highways. Common sense needs to prevail at all levels, including with delivery of materials and labour.
With road construction costs outstripping all other areas, the national economy could be crippled, given Australia’s reliance on long-distance commuting, on the resources sector and on the transport infrastructure necessary for these.