Bruce Highway - Speech to Parliament

Whether you are a teacher in Proserpine commuting to Calen for work, whether you are attending a medical appointment or chemotherapy treatment in Mackay, whether you are an aged person wanting personal care in Proserpine, whether you are attending a Rugby League match in Bowen, whether you are going to the cinema and watching a movie in Bowen, whether you are hauling cane between Mount Ossa and Kuttabul, whether you are a tourist travelling from Seaforth to Airlie Beach or whether you are a student going to school from Hampden to Marian, you travel the Bruce Highway—what some are calling a goat track, a road, a National Highway. 

 It is my local road. When I travel it each and every week I, along with many other Queenslanders between Rockhampton and Townsville, am five times more likely to die. Motorists using Queensland’s major highway are five times more likely to be injured or killed in a crash than those driving on any other major carriageway that links Sydney and Melbourne. Fatal crashes this year to date are 165, which surpasses 2023 figures. 

In the TMR program and operating region of Central Queensland, which is my region—the Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday region—we have had an increase in fatalities of 64.7 per cent since 2023. Twenty-eight people have lost their lives. In North Queensland, my colleague the member for Burdekin’s region between Mackay and Townsville and further north, we have seen an increase of 55 per cent. 

The Bruce Highway has a two-star rating in the electorate in which I reside, as well as in my neighbouring electorates of Mirani and Burdekin. The peak bodies of QTIC, the Queensland Trucking Association, LGAQ, RACQ and QFF, along with many others, are calling for greater funding for the Bruce Highway. Those opposite—regional members, Far North Queensland, North Queensland and Central Queensland members of the Labor Party—have failed in their obligation to advocate for their community to the federal Labor government, which has cut its share of funding to Bruce Highway upgrades. It is shameful, disgraceful and costing lives. 

When it comes to road closures, across our region the average is now 71.8 road closures for 140 days annually. Every day I drive that road I see two to three near-misses. I have a young teenager on his L-plates. We drove to Airlie Beach last weekend. There were three near-misses in a two-hour drive. This Labor government should be ashamed of itself.