BILL Turner

(Bulletin, September 24) asks two questions of me that are very easily answered.

The first question is how much of the transport infrastructure boom on the Gold Coast over the last four years via M1 upgrades, light rail and heavy rail investment is Palaszczuk Labor Government and how much is federal.

Put simply the heavy lifting on infrastructure on the Gold Coast has in fact been by the Palaszczuk Labor Government with the majority of funding coming from Queensland. We 100 per cent funded the heavy rail duplication from Helensvale to Coomera ($168m), the $25 million Exit 57 M1 interchange upgrade and the $160 million pre-games local road upgrade package such as the Gooding roundabout and Bermuda Street.

It was the Palaszczuk Labor Government that majority funded both light rail stages with state funding of $280 million for light rail stage two and $351 million for stage three to Burleigh from Broadbeach whilst securing hundreds of millions from the Council and the federal government totalling more than a billion in total.

We also majority funded Exit 54 at Coomera, started and finished in our first term.

After not a single new dollar went on to the M1 under the Newman LNP Government, it’s been the Palaszczuk Labor Government that landed funding deals with Canberra for major M1 major upgrades worth a total of $1.2 billion with one completed between Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes and the other well under way to build six lanes to Tugun from there. Again it’s the state government doing the heavy lifting here when M1 upgrades in NSW regularly get funded 80 per cent by Canberra.

Likewise we have landed $196 million in joint funding for interchange upgrades at Exits 41 and 49 on the M1 with construction to start soon on Exit 41 at Yatala South.

Of course, three quarters of a billion dollars from the Palaszczuk Labor Government is also now committed for the second M1 and we are optimistic Canberra will respond to our economic plan to recover from COVID with the second M1.

That brings total joint investment for roads and transport in the region to more than $5 billion under the Palaszczuk Government.

All this after not one new dollar for light rail, the M1 or heavy rail on the Gold Coast happened under the three years of Newman LNP Government cuts. Three lost years.

In relation to the second question, currently many northern Gold Coast residents have to get on and off the M1 necessarily to get to their workplaces on the Gold Coast when they would take a more direct route if they could.

The mini stage one for the second M1 planned by the LNP is just between Coomera and the Gold Coast Highway and doesn’t include the southern section from the Gold Coast Highway to Smith St and Nerang-Broadbeach Rd at Carrara like the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s plan for stage one.

The LNP plan prevents the option of direct access to multiple routes south.

Why do I refer to up to 60,000 vehicles being dumped on the Gold Coast Highway under the LNP’s policy?

Because that is the figure the LNP claims themselves as the number of vehicles their policy will take off the M1.

The puny 6km stage one commitment by the LNP only gives this second M1 traffic one option – the Gold Coast Highway and that incompetency would gridlock the old Gold Coast Highway.

Labor’s longer 16km commitment will give that traffic many options to disperse and will work.

Thanks to Bill for raising these two important issues. Only Labor has a record of investing in transport infrastructure on the Gold Coast and getting the big calls right. MARK BAILEY, QUEENSLAND TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS MINISTER