A WAR of words erupted over funding for the Mount Lindesay Highway in the Queensland Parliament this week following the release of the 2019-2020 budget.
In response to the budget, Scenic Rim MP Jon Krause said there was "precious little" new investment in the Mount Lindesay Highway.
"After four years and four months and 25 out of the past 30 years in government, you would think they could have put something more substantial on the table for the highway than what they have," he said.
"There was no new construction on the highway announced in this budget - just recycled news and a drip feed of bandaid solutions."
Logan MP Linus Power fired back shortly in parliament during the early hours of this morning.
"I heard the member for Scenic Rim make the totally outrageous claim that there was no spending on the Mount Lindesay Highway in this budget," he said.
"I simply could not believe that he could make that claim with a straight face when he must know the budget is delivering $45.7 million this year into the Mount Lindesay Highway.
"The member for Scenic Rim must pretend not to see the roadworks currently underway at North Maclean and South Maclean. He must drive past them somehow blind," he said.
"He must be thinking back to the LNP budgets. They were the ones that delivered absolutely nothing that exists today north of Jimboomba on the Mount Lindesay Highway.
"The only piece of services they delivered in investment between Browns Plains and Jimboomba - the $800,000 - is now being removed as we build the North Maclean safety project."
The $45.7 million in the budget will fund 60 per cent of the $74 million required for four lane road widening projects between Rosia Road and Stoney Camp Road in Park Ridge South and Camp Cable Road and Johanna Street in Jimboomba.
These sections of road would be lifted on the right-hand side to reduce flooding.
Mr Krause said a significant amount of funding over a four year period was needed to plan for more efficient upgrades.
"That is what I will continue to lobby for, because after three decades of growth and development our region deserves better for its major road artery," he said.
"I have been lobbying in the media and with the government for them to get on with planning to fix the Jimboomba bottleneck, where we see four sets of traffic lights over just a few kilometres.
"Cars turn on and off the highway and Jimboomba State School students cross the highway, so it is a major choke point."