View the recording of this speech here
Record of Proceedings, 11 June 2025
The Labor government failed the Scenic Rim
electorate on the Mount Lindesay Highway over its long 30 years out of the last 35 in government. What we need for the Mount Lindesay Highway is a plan for upgrades between Jimboomba and Beaudesert, but Labor left us with no plan—no plan at all for any improvements or upgrades on that stretch of the highway. There was no funding to even do the plans, especially between Cedar Vale and Beaudesert. It did its so-called 10-year plan about seven years ago, but Cedar Vale to Beaudesert was always left out of the planning envelope under those opposite. That is why at the election last year the LNP committed extra funding to plan for this stretch, and we are getting on with the job right away with an extra several million dollars in funding to put in place plans for upgrades, for improvements, for safety initiatives that need to be done on that busy stretch of highway between Cedar Vale and Beaudesert that was constantly left out of the equation by the Labor Party.
The record shows that it is only because of the coalition in Canberra and particularly through the strong advocacy of our local federal member Scott Buchholz that significant upgrades have been done on the Mount Lindesay Highway. These are the $75 million upgrade around Stoney Camp Road which was significantly funded by the federal government; the $95 million upgrade underway at the moment in Jimboomba, significantly funded by the federal government when the coalition was in office; and the $20 million upgrade around North MacLean, again significantly funded by the federal government when the coalition was in office. It is clear to say that without that funding backed by the LNP and the coalition, there really would have been not much work done at all in the last 10 years on the Mount Lindesay Highway, so we thank the coalition when it was in government in Canberra for that funding and we hold the Labor government to account for the fact that it did not put in place any plan for that stretch between Jimboomba and Beaudesert, and that is what we are getting on with the job of doing right now.
I want to know: where is Albanese and the Labor government in Canberra now? Like Scott Buchholz and the coalition put money on the table for the Mount Lindesay Highway, will the Labor government in Canberra do the same and cough up the funds to do the upgrades that need to be done all the way down to Beaudesert and into the Bromelton industrial area? I call on the member for Logan and the other Labor members in the region to get on the phone to Albo in Canberra and to get money on the table for the Mount Lindesay Highway, which is part of the National Highway network and which we have seen through the coalition government there can be upgrades made to when the government in Canberra gets on with the job of putting its dollars on the table for that upgrade.
Recently the Deputy Premier visited the Scenic Rim council in Beaudesert to talk about infrastructure needs and planning issues. I thank the Deputy Premier for his reassurance to support council when it comes to dealing with planning issues and with infrastructure issues. Council now should be assured that it has the state on its side in dealing with those pressures in our growing region of Scenic Rim and that it can address those issues into the future