The Gympie Bypass opened quietly around midnight on October 15, six years after the former Coalition Government committed $930 million to make this $1.2 billion project happen.
The Bruce Highway through Wide Bay has seen a tragic toll of crashes and serious injuries, and the completion of the new bypass (Section D) means that one of the deadliest sections of the Bruce Highway has been transformed into one of the safest.
The new 26 kilometre realignment of the highway has delivered a significant safety upgrade of four lanes with dividers to separate oncoming traffic.
The next challenge is continuing the four lanes north of Curra. Funding for the four lane Tiaro bypass was secured in 2021, but both the Federal and State Labor Governments have dragged their feet, subjected the project to two separate reviews, and three years later we are still waiting for major construction to start.
Since the beginning of 2023 there have been 13 serious crashes and 6 fatalities on the highway in the Tiaro bypass footprint alone. These tragic statistics clearly demonstrate why the bypass needs to be fast tracked and why upgrading the Bruce Highway north of Gympie to four divided lanes should be a priority for all levels of government.
The reality is that if the section of our national highway between Gympie and Maryborough was in New South Wales or Victoria, it would already be four lanes.
The longer this project is delayed the more it will cost, the longer it will take to construct, and the longer it will take for plans to fill in the four lane gaps from Curra where the four lane Gympie bypass ends, to Tiaro, and then from Tiaro to Maryborough – and the longer lives will be at risk on this dangerous section of the Bruce Highway.
The skyrocketing cost of living is having a huge impact on household budgets, and housing affordability and housing availability remains a major problem for many Australians.
The Albanese Government’s $32 billion Homes of Australia plan has done nothing to address the immediate supply shortages and is falling short and won’t deliver on their promise to build 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029.
Recently, the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton launched the Coalition’s new housing policy, which includes a $5 billion program designed to fund the necessary infrastructure like access roads, water, power and sewerage to unlock and accelerate the supply of new housing developments.
The four year funding scheme will be available to State and Local Government, government owned utility providers and property developers, to fast track the hundreds of greenfield sites across the country that are ready for development but have stalled because of the lack of essential enabling infrastructure.
The housing industry has told us that recent changes to the National Construction Code, including changes to the energy efficiency standards and increased red tape, is adding an extra $60,000 to the price tag for a new home.
The Coalition’s Housing Policy will impose a ten year freeze on further changes to the Code, and work with industry to identify options to minimise the exploding costs linked to these changes, bringing the costs down for consumers.
The Policy also involves cracking down on the union corruption that has seen building costs driven up by 30 percent, and free up more than 100,000 homes over five years by slashing migration rates and imposing a two year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing homes. It will also ensure we have enough skilled and temporary visas for those who have the skills needed to support the local building industry and build the homes Australians need.
