LABOR’S TIMETABLE — GYMPIE BY-PASS BY 2060
11th December, 2007
The recent Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) report which criticises the state of many of Queensland’s roads should be taped to Kevin Rudd’s office wall, Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss said today.
The report nominates the Cooroy to Gympie section of the Bruce Highway as the worst of Queensland’s roads.
Yet Kevin Rudd and the Federal Labor Government have announced plans to strip $500 million of the AusLink funding the Coalition had committed for four-laning this section of the Bruce Highway.
“The last plans offered by Mr Rudd suggested that only $200 million will be provided for the Cooroy to Curra section of the Highway between now and 2013 — and that includes maintenance. Under this funding plan, the Bruce Highway Gympie By-pass would not be completed until 2060 under a Labor Government,” Mr Truss said.
“This timetable is completely unacceptable to Queensland motorists especially in light of the AusRAP report. Mr Rudd must rethink his road priorities and endorse the former Coalition Government’s funding commitment to the upgrade.”
“Coalition plans for the upgrade were costed and included in our AusLink financial plans. The Bruce Highway upgrade need not and should not be delayed,” Mr Truss said.
The Coalition funding commitment put the Cooroy to Curra upgrade project on schedule for completion by 2020, but with Labor providing less than $50 million a year it would be at least 2060 before the project could be completed. By then, hundreds of lives would have been lost and traffic will be gridlocked through Gympie.
Mr Truss said Labor not only wants to flood the Mary Valley, now it wants to keep its road system locked in a time warp for more than 50 years.
The AusRAP report is independently prepared by the Australian Automobile Association with the support of the State and Federal Governnments.
Mr Truss acknowledged that the statistics used in the report are now two years old and that recent safety upgrades funded by the Federal Government had reduced the accident rate. However he said any delay in upgrading the road would be insulting to the people of Queensland.
ENDS
