Perrett labels secret regional road cuts a ‘scare campaign’
GYMPIE MP Tony Perrett has dismissed as an ALP “scare campaign” the claim that the LNP will axe a planned $18 million upgrade of the Six Mile Creek Bridge between Pomona and Kin Kin if elected.
FULL LIST: Gympie court appearances today
The project is one of many the ALP is today alleging will be axed in order to fund the $700 million LNP election promise of a new Gold Coast highway.
FULL LIST: Where you can vote in the Gympie region
“Page 23 of the LNP’s own costings clearly states ‘$695 million (for the Second M1) will be funded as part of the $1.177 billion of Other Construction Projects in the Capital Program Update…” the ALP statement says.
WATCH THE REPLAY: Gympie candidates go head to head in local debate
“Head to page 17 of Labor’s Capital Program update released last month and you’ll see a line for $1.177 billion in the middle of the page,” it says.
“That $1.177 billion is joint-funding already fully allocated to regional roads projects – these ones.
“By their own costings, the LNP secret regional roads cuts plan will cut more than half of those 102 projects. Here’s a list of some of the projects the LNP will cut:
Shute Harbour Road in Airlie Beach - $25 million
Hervey Range Road (Townsville) - $8.9 million
Koumala – Bolingbroke Road sealing - $8 million
Flinders Highway (Townsville – Charters Towers) - $28 million
Flinders Highway (Julia Creek to Cloncurry) - $32 million
New England Highway (Yarraman to Toowoomba) - $13.9 million
Lawrie Street, Gracemere - $35 million
Carnarvon Highway (multiple projects) - $40+ million
Six Mile Creek bridge (Pomona – Kin Kin - $18 million
Steve Irwin Way, Beerburrum to Palmview - $18 million
May Downs Road sealing - $8 million
Burke Developmental Road sealing - $14 million
Monto – Mount Perry Road – $8 million
Mount Lindesay Highway - $75 million
Cleveland-Redland Bay Road duplication - $15 million
Kennedy Highway – Mareeba to Atherton - $37 million
Beenleigh – Redland Bay Road - $19.5 million
Tamborine – Oxenford Road (Howard Creek) - $10 million
Maudsland Road intersection (Beaudesert-Nerang Rd) - $4.9 million
Caloundra Road – Ridgewood Road - $3.75 million.
Mr Perrett dismissed the claimed cuts as a “frantic attempt at manufacturing a scare campaign on the eve of the election”.
“It is based on lies, from a desperate Treasurer that can’t and won’t deliver a State Budget,” Mr Perrett said.
“The Auditor General advised the Parliament earlier this year that he found a $5.4 billion underfund and backlog in the state-controlled road maintenance program.
“This Government is presiding over a road maintenance backlog because it doesn’t understand rural and regional Queensland. Everyone who drives on the roads knows it.”
