View the recording of this speech here.
Record of Proceedings, 21 March 2024
Adjournment: Scenic Rim Electorate Infrastructure
We see the results of poor planning under this government all the way from 2015 until today. The results are a housing crisis, a road maintenance crisis, an Olympic crisis and a water supply crisis, as well as a crime crisis and a health crisis. Chaos and crises define this government, and this week is another example of it.
Canungra has borne the brunt of bad planning from this government, with development in the region seeing huge amounts of traffic going through Canungra each day, with no upgrades to the road network. For locals around Canungra, for businesses in Canungra, for families dropping kids off at school in Canungra and for visitors to Canungra, this is a safety and congestion problem that will not go to away. Main Roads and the government have simply buried their beds in the sand and wished the problem away. For years, together with council, I have fought to get Main Roads on the job to deal with these issues because fixing the traffic issues around Canungra must be put back on the agenda, along with making sure that housing and future planning for the region does not make the problem worse. It is clear that the current government will not do it, given their track record, but that is my commitment to the people of the region into the future. Water security for the area needs to be dealt with as well. I welcome the fact that Seqwater is looking at options now after many years of asking them to do that.
I hear about the Mount Lindesay Highway from the member for Logan, and it continues to suffer under this government as well. Last year the government kicked down the road plans for future improvements from Jimboomba to Cedar Vale and further south to Beaudesert. It was a tiny amount of money for planning—a few million dollars only—but the Labor government cut it in last year’s budget. That means it will be more years before those projects can be put on the agenda. The government should be putting up money for these plans because, in reality, the only upgrades that have occurred to the Mount Lindesay Highway in recent years are because the federal LNP government put the money on the table, and they made that work a priority.
Not that long ago, there were 20 police or more perhaps located at Beaudesert, possibly nearly 30, giving a good police presence in that town to keep people safe and proactively deal with crime. My lobbying saw a new police station built, but sadly under this government police numbers have fallen greatly and from Beaudesert through to Jimboomba and down to Kooralbyn and Rathdowney, there is now a shortage of police on the ground to deal with crime in a timely manner.
Recently I have had many reports about police not being able to deal with crime, and youth crime in particular, in a timely manner—not the way they should be able to. The way in which this government has overseen a massive drop in police is a disgrace. Everywhere in Queensland is suffering from it, but particularly in the Beaudesert district. They are weak on crime, they are weak on youth crime and police are voting with their feet because of it. It will only improve when Queensland shows Labor the door in 2024.
I congratulate our successful local government candidates Tom Sharp in the Scenic Rim, Teresa Harding in Ipswich and Jon Raven in Logan. I thank all the retiring and defeated councillors for their work and look forward to working with the new elected councillors.