BALL IS NOW IN BRISBANE’S COURT ON M1

MIDWAY through our magnificent Games, there are some who are already pondering the long-term benefit for our city.

Putting aside the pain many traders are feeling as the hoped-for Games dividend failed to materialise, the Gold Coast will emerge a long-term gold medal winner.

There can be no argument these Games have transformed our city. Our light rail network headlines an impressive array of new public buildings that will greatly enhance the lives of Gold Coasters, including the Aquatic Centre, the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, the Carrara Sports and Lifestyle Precinct, the upgrade of Bundall Road, the Athletes’ Village – which will be modified into a mixed residential and retail development – and the laying of fibre optic cable for free wifi in key city areas.

Then there’s the private sector which, encouraged by the public legacy projects, has unleashed a massive capital injection. The number of cranes dotting our cityscape is testament to the commercial boom this event has helped unlock.

But there remains one large and ugly elephant in any room where our legacy is discussed – our broken and lamented road connection to Brisbane.

The M1 is perhaps the most pressing road project in the nation. The failure of our political leaders to properly plan and budget for its expansion to match population growth along its corridor is a scandal.

So Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has perfectly timed his announcement of $1 billion in federal funding for key upgrades of the M1.

Because no discussion of the way forward for this city can begin without a fully funded long-term plan to fix the link to Brisbane.

Today there is a billion dollars on the table, available virtually immediately.

The ball is now firmly in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s court to match this funding and get on with it.

What we don’t need is another political brawl over the level of funding by each tier of government. We just need this road fixed – now.

The problem comes down to funding. There never seems to be enough cash to build the roads we need.

When talk about funding arises this week, consider this: It cost $951 million to expand 43km of the M1 to six lanes in a project that was completed in 2001.

That’s approximately $22 million per kilometre. Even that was more than double the original budget of $451 million that was put forward by the Borbidge Coalition.

Those costs are dwarfed by today’s projections. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s election pledge last November to upgrade 10km of the M1 between Varsity Lakes and Tugun, for instance, would work out at $100m per kilometre.

What other good or service has inflated by 400 per cent in the past 20 years?

Gigantic corporations have formed which, often in an unholy alliance with militant unions, gouge the taxpayer to deliver them both juicy margins.

This model, like the M1, is broken. Both need to be fixed urgently or our city will stagnate and any legacies of the Games will be blunted.