Toowoomba Bypass Forum
8th February, 2013
Mayor Paul Antonio, my federal parliamentary colleagues Bruce Scott, Senator Barnaby Joyce and Ian Macfarlane, Hon. John McVeigh, Trevor Watts, Ian Rickuss and Ray Hopper, Councillor Margaret DeWit, President of the Local Government Association of Queensland, Mayors, Councillors, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.Thank you for the opportunity to speak at your Forum this afternoon, which I understand is being held to galvanise support for the Toowoomba Bypass.
At the outset, I can tell you the Coalition is a long time believer in the importance of the Toowoomba bypass. We did all the preliminary work when last in government, we committed funding to it at the 2007 and 2010 federal elections - but we were not elected. Third time lucky!
I know only too well from my discussions with your local Federal Member Ian Macfarlane and from my own frequent travels up the range how important this project is to you.
It has well and truly been placed on the Coalition's radar, and your local council representatives, many of whom are here today, make that point very clear.
The Toowoomba Bypass is a vital link for western Queensland and for interstate freight to the north and south and its construction will reap benefits for the Toowoomba community and freight productivity.
Since the early 1990s a variety of transport reports have identified the need for a second range crossing.
However, crossing the Great Dividing Range from Toowoomba to the Darling Downs has a longer history dating back to the mid-1800s when Gorman's Gap was discovered with the help of a convict recaptured after living with local Aboriginal tribes for over a decade.
Gorman's Gap, Queensland's oldest gazetted road, was a vital supply line for early settlers in Darling Downs.
Today, Toowoomba is at the epicentre of what is still a vital freight route.
The city has always been a key logistics centre.
Toowoomba lies at the crossroads of the Brisbane-Darwin and Brisbane-Melbourne freight routes. The Gore and Warrego Highways were identified as key routes in the AusLink corridor studies carried out by the previous Coalition Federal Government. It also connects the New England Highway, an important state highway.
Thankfully, it no longer takes three days to travel a mere 12 kilometres as it did in the nineteenth century but the twenty-first century has certainly brought its own challenges, not only for Toowoomba but for the broader community of South East Queensland and the efficient movement of freight.
As you would all no doubt be aware, the former Coalition government provided funding for planning studies and land acquisition in 2001 and 2005 for the second range crossing and in 2006 $10 million was provided for the pilot tunnel and the development of a business case. This case was completed in 2008 and finally released in 2009 and looked at possible public private partnership options, costings and other matters.
Since then, with the election of the Gillard/Rudd Labor Government, progress towards the construction of the Toowoomba Bypass has stalled, with no funding being offered for the project.
While we have a Government and a Minister grandly espousing a 'nation building' agenda, Australia has spent $2.5 billion installing and removing combustible roof batts, $16 billion on overpriced school halls, begun the biggest infrastructure project in our history, the NBN, without a cost benefit analysis and sent stimulus package cheques to deceased estates.
The Business Council of Australia estimates that only 14% of the Government's stimulus spending went to productivity enhancing infrastructure.
Building the Toowoomba Bypass is a priority for the Coalition. We fully appreciate that it is vital not just for your community but for Queensland. It will improve freight efficiency and productivity, it will address serious road safety concerns and will improve the amenity of Toowoomba.
The second range crossing has strong support from the community, with a petition with over 26,000 signatures being tabled in the parliament in 2009 by Ian Macfarlane. It has the support of the LNP State Government, the RACQ and is on the 'Magnificent Seven' priority project list put forward by the Council of South East Queensland Mayors. And, I can confirm, that it continues to have the strong support of the Federal Coalition.
We will provide $700 million in funding to have the project built if returned to government at the next election.
Last year Tony Abbott publicly committed to project as one of a short list of road project priorities for the Coalition and today I can confirm that pledge to you.
At the 2007 and 2010 elections the Coalition committed funding for the construction of the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
Over 6,000 trucks travel through the main streets of Toowoomba every day. The business case completed in 2008 forecasted that freight movements would double between 2000 and 2020.
The business case also found that the accident rate for heavy vehicles on the current crossing is 15 times higher than that for the Warrego Highway to the east. Between 1992 and 2008, there were 13 fatalities on that same stretch of road.
Not to mention the amenity benefits for local residents, businesses and community groups and the advantage of having an alternative on the not infrequent occasions that the existing road is cut because of accidents or landslides.
Because of the design necessary to address gradient and topographical issues, the project is expensive, with an estimated cost in 2008 of $1.75 billion if a construction programme was scheduled between 2010 and 2013.
I understand that the LNP Government has completed an updated business case and provided that to Infrastructure Australia which updates costings, traffic forecasts and new potential design options, in line with their undertakings at the last state election.
While I acknowledge the budgetary crisis with massive deficits and debts to be repaid, these truly productivity enhancing projects just need to be built and I look forward to working with Ian Macfarlane, Premier Campbell Newman and Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson, the council, the private sector and the local trucking industry to make sure that this project is built as soon as possible.
As the original business case said, each year this much needed project is deferred will increase its cost by about $100 million.
Your local Federal Member Ian Macfarlane has staked his political future on securing funding for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and I look forward to working with him to finally see this project come to fruition, honouring his commitment to Toowoomba.
It is also worth noting that the construction of the inland rail from Melbourne to Brisbane will also have huge cost benefits for Toowoomba and the Darling Downs.
In that respect, the Coalition has been, and remains, a fervent supporter of the Inland Rail Project. We have been from the start.
The former Coalition Government commissioned the North-South Rail corridor study to examine the freight flow along the route and identify the best route.
This study indicated that rail's share of Melbourne-Brisbane freight market would more than double from 30% to 67% to 2029 with an upgraded coastal corridor and the new inland rail corridor.
In 2007 the Coalition took the next step in commissioning a scoping study for the project but with the election of Labor in 2007 the study was delayed and not released until July 2010.
Since then Labor has not spent a cent on developing to project and has only allocated $300 million between 2014 and 2019 to the project, well short of the expected construction costs.
I firmly believe that the inland rail is a truly nation building project that would provide great benefit to our freight network, business, as well as the regional communities along the route, the biggest of which is Toowoomba.
The 'steel Mississippi' will cut transport time from Melbourne to Brisbane to around a day, it will improve access from the inland to our ports and improve access for our farmers, miners and manufacturers to the local, national and global market.
More generally, rail provides the opportunity for an efficient and safe mode of freight transportation and with our freight task set to dramatically increase over the next few decades we must make the investment in our rail industry now to ensure its future viability as a reliable alternative to road transportation.
As we know, over half the cost of constructing the inland rail is the section from Toowoomba into Brisbane. However, I am buoyed by increasing interest from the private sector in this project as a means to move larger quantities of freight, particularly coal, to our ports - particularly Brisbane.
Improving safety and efficiency of our national highway network will increasingly depend on our ability to improve our national rail network.
Beyond the inland rail, rest assured that my colleague Bruce Scott in Maranoa has not let me forget that there is much needed work to do on the Warrego Highway. At the last election the Coalition made commitments to undertake necessary safety works on the Highway and I hope to be able to say more about the Coalition's plans for the Warrego closer to the election.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to address your Forum today. I look forward to continuing to work with Ian Macfarlane, Bruce Scott and my other Coalition colleagues to address the key infrastructure challenges facing Queensland and Australia.
It is vital that we ensure our infrastructure is geared towards meeting the growing demands of our economy.
The cost of providing the necessary infrastructure may be high, but the cost of inaction is higher.
Thank you.
[ENDS]
