THE federal budget has delivered no new funding for the Mount Lindesay Highway, says disappointed Logan Country Safe City Committee chair David Kenny.
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And the state’s peak motoring body, the RACQ, says it is disappointed the budget did not allocate more in to spending on road and rail.
Mr Kenny said $12.8 million listed among allocations for the Mount Lindesay at North Maclean was only part of the $20 million previously promised so amounted to significantly less of a contribution than expected.
Mr Kenny said he was more convinced than ever that Mount Lindesay Highway should be declared a national freight route to attract the federal funding which was needed to assist in its upgrade to allow better truck movement north and south.
“Here … we are being torn apart by greedy developers allowed to run roughshod over our council by state government and federal politicians who ‘fiddle while Logan country burns’,” Mr Kenny said.
He said calls for funding for a planned approach to Mount Lindesay Highway upgrades and the Salisbury to Beaudesert passenger rail had been ignored.
“It’s time to stop the blame game,” he said.
“It’s not good enough for state and federal politicians to sit around and blame each other over lack of funding for Mount Lindesay.
“Here’s a novel idea – why don’t they all sit down around a table, have a talk and nut out a solution as they were elected to do.”
The federal government’s budget delivered $1 billion for M1 upgrades at Eight Mile Plains to Daisy Hill and Tugun to Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast and $170 million to a dangerous stretch of the Cunningham Highway between Yamanto and Ebenezer, near Ipswich.
The projects were welcomed by Liberal MPs Bert van Manen and Scott Buchholz.
State Labor MP Charis Mullen said she was disappointed that there was no new funding for Mount Lindesay or the Salisbury to Beaudesert Rail.
Labor MP Linus Power did respond but has said he would continue to fight for Mount Lindesay Highway funding.
The RACQ said the said the budget used clever accounting to short change Queenslanders in transport and investment.
RACQ public policy chief Rebecca Michael said while the budget funded some key projects, Queensland had been fleeced out of hundreds of millions of dollars in road and rail investment.
“In the lead up to the budget, the government talked up its infrastructure spend, but for roads and rail, we’re about $400 million down on last year. This is made worse because it’s delivered 20 percent less than what it promised,” Dr Michael said.
“And with road fatalities in Queensland up 20 percent year to date, now is not the time to cut road funding in favour of a budget surplus.”
Dr Michael welcomed investment in Queensland projects that included the M1 and Brisbane Metro upgrades, investment in the Bruce Highway up 50 percent for Pine Rivers to Caloundra upgrades and the Gympie Bypass.
She was concerned the Urban Congestion Fund, one of the budget showpieces had no money allocated this year.
“The piggy bank really is empty on this one – $1 billion of the government’s budget for infrastructure is worth nothing unless it’s elected next year,” she said.
Dr Michael called on the state and federal governments to work together to ensure budgeted projects received the funding required to get these projects off the ground.
“We need the state and federal governments to ensure we don’t lose more time, funding and potentially lives by getting caught up in a political blame game. Let’s make sure every dollar budgeted is spent this year.”
Logan City Council campaigned in its formal submission to the federal government ahead of the budget for funding for projects that included an end to end plan for Mount Lindesay and construction of a Salisbury to Beaudesert Passenger Rail Line.
The council will now apply to a $5 billion pool of funds set aside by the government for road and infrastructure projects.
