Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey has responded to claims made by Llew O’Brien regarding safer roads in the Wide Bay Region.
On Monday 6 February, the Wide Bay Federal MP addressed the House of Representatives, posing questions on why the region is not receiving more funding to improve road infrastructure.
Mr O’Brien claimed that the Wide Bay area has seen a major spike in road toll due to lack of funding going to road infrastructure. He also directly named Mr Bailey, questioning his competence when it comes to having road infrastructure works complete in a timely manner.
Mr Bailey has responded to these claims, stating that his office plans to spend more than $1.5 billion over the next four years across the region.
“The Palaszczuk Government has almost tripled the level of investment in Wide Bay roads and transport since coming to office, while the LNP cut $1.6 billion from Queensland’s road and transport budget,” said Mr. Bailey.
He said that his office was currently delivering upgrades to more than a third of the Bruce Highway between Gympie and Gin Gin, with major projects also happening in areas such as the Burnett Highway, Pialba Road in Torbanlea, and Brooloo Road in Gympie.
“The Queensland LNP’s record in the area is clear, when they were in government, they cut road and transport funding, whereas we have tripled investment in the Wide Bay,” Mr Bailey said.
“The projects we are doing in the region now we had to fight and fight and fight the failed Morrison LNP Government to fund,” said Mr. Bailey.
He went on to say that due to the rise in speeding, and drink and drug driving during the pandemic, we have seen a major change in behaviour on Queensland roads that has sadly led to a higher number of fatalities.
However, Mr. Bailey also mentioned that although the number of road fatalities across Queensland went up from 2021 to 2022, Wide Bay was an outlier in the trend and actually saw a decrease.
