Premier shifts M1 blame
Palaszczuk says tight PM a major roadblock in bid to fix traffic problems
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is the greatest obstacle to progress on fixing the M1.
Asked at a press conference in Southport yesterday whether the State Government could do more to ease the congestion crippling the motorway, Ms Palaszczuk suggested her hands were tied.
“We’re putting a lot of money into the M1 but let’s remember I have had to fight Malcolm Turnbull every step of the way to get fair funding for Queenslanders, to get fair funding for the M1,” she said.
The state and federal governments in March agreed to upgrade a stretch of the M1 from Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes from four lanes to six after a two-year battle over how much each would pay.
The need for further upgrades looms large as an issue at the upcoming State election, with Coomera MP Michael Crandon calling for urgent upgrades to northern exits and the LNP raising the possibility of building a duplicate road.
Ms Palaszczuk said spending a week governing from the Gold Coast recently had helped her party to recognise a number of other election issues in the region.
“Of course there’s stage three of the light rail ... the completion of the track has happened from the second stage,” she said.
“We’ve got the transformation after the Commonwealth Games ... we have a growing population on the Gold Coast and we want to make sure that we continue to get the flights here to benefit tourism but also to continue to grow the economy.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the Gold Coast had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state thanks to local infrastructure jobs and she wanted to see this continue.
The Premier said she was “very concerned” the LNP would enter into a coalition with One Nation should the election not go Labor’s way.
A shock poll at the weekend suggested One Nation would capture 18 per cent of the vote.
“I do not want to see investment in Queensland put at risk by a coalition of Tim Nicholls and One Nation,” she said.
“We have the Commonwealth Games coming here in just over six months time. What message do we as Queenslanders give the rest of the world that we want to see the chaos of Tim Nicholls and Pauline Hanson?”
Ms Palaszczuk sought to dampen down speculation that the election could be called as early as today, hinting that two key pieces of legislation need to be passed by Parliament before it would be called.
The two Bills are workplace health and safety reforms to create the offence of industrial manslaughter and the proposed security of payment legislation for subcontractors.