LABOR NEEDS TO BACK CITY

TODAY we will see if the State Government, in the driver’s seat for light rail, pushes the green light for more funding.

This state budget for the Gold Coast has to be all about congestion busting – and not just on our roads. Our emergency departments, unlike others which are improving in the state’s southeast, continue to be full as they battle through the increasing demands that come with a ballooning population.

The courts are the same. We need a Supreme Court to reduce the waiting lists and prevent cases being sent to Brisbane. Our cop shops, particularly in the fast-growing north, are the same. Residents waiting too long at Coomera, Pimpama and Ormeau after break-ins and hoons burning up their streets.

But it is transport – the Pacific Motorway, the second M1 between Nerang and Stapleton, along with the trams to Burleigh – where an immediate judgment can be made on the Palaszczuk Government’s commitment to the Coast.

The Bulletin reported last November that 86 per cent of residents surveyed for a light rail extension business case support stage 3A to Burleigh and 91 per cent back stage 3B to Coolangatta. On the back of the overwhelming support, the newspaper was told the state project team had been moving faster than ever on designing the next stages of the tram track for the project.

Since then the trams have been caught in the same political funding debate which delays M1 upgrades.

Now there is no doubt Cross River Rail will be the centrepiece of the Government’s infrastructure spend. The project is critical to reducing the Coast-Brisbane trip, creating more space on trains and removing cars on the M1. Treasurer Jackie Trad has vowed not to slow progress on the $5.4 billion project out of fear it could be viewed in the regions like the Coast as another Brisbane gift spent to help her win her marginal inner city seat.

But somewhere in the budget today will be the forward spending for light rail stage 3A. If the Government has decided, due to the negotiations with the Commonwealth, not to show its funding hand here, it must at least commit to fast forwarding a project strongly supported by council and taxpayers. The Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce, in a report in today’s newspaper, as a priority wants the Government to finalise its funding arrangements for light rail and the M1.

The 2019 Major Projects Pipeline report released in March found the Coast was lagging behind Brisbane and other regional centres in terms of major project work planned for the next five years.

Our city has $900 million committed in funded work, which compares to $6.7 billion for Brisbane, $3.4 billion for Mackay, $4.1 billion for Ipswich-Toowoomba-Logan and $1.4 billion for the Sunshine Coast.

The Coast has more than 600,000 people. We have to accommodate an extra 14,600 each year. We remain a key employment engine room with tourism, education, construction, small business and our booming film industry.

Labor needs to see beyond the Glitter Strip, fund the infrastructure this newspaper continues to campaign for, and view the Gold Coast not as a seaside suburb of big brother Brisbane.