‘Horrific’: PM’s Bruce Highway pledge puts Wide Bay front and centre
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says parts of the Bruce Highway in the region will be a ‘priority’ in its new $7.2 billion funding package, but no clear time frame exists on four-laning another key section of the notorious road.
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The Bruce Highway between Maryborough and Gladstone has been named a priority by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his announcement of billions of dollars of new funding for the main road ahead of the election.
But the time frame on when drivers can expect four lanes from Gympie to Tiaro remains up in the air.
Speaking at a press conference near the new Gympie Bypass on Monday morning, Mr Albanese announced his government – which is headed to the polls in 2025 – will spend $7.2 billion on safety upgrades along the notorious highway, which has been labelled “dangerous” by drivers and the state’s peak motoring body.
The funding comes only days after two men were killed and a boy seriously injured in a horrific two car crash at Owanyilla on Friday, January 3.
Improvements earmarked for the road may include installing safety barriers, wide centre lines and audio tactile line marking, constructing wider shoulders, increasing run off areas, overtaking lanes and rest areas, as well as improving intersections, signage, and sight lines.
it is contingent on the Queensland LNP state government providing $1.8 billion for the projects, which are once again being funded under the old 80:20 federal-state infrastructure cost split.
This agreement was changed to 50:50 when Labor was elected in 2022.
It was the only infrastructure project which the federal government would revert to the equal split, Mr Albanese said.
In response to a question on whether there was funding or a timeline for upgrading the stretch between Gympie and Tiaro to four lanes, Mr Albanese said he had discussed the they key spots with state LNP Premier David Crisafulli on Sunday
“He certainly agreed Maryborough to Benaraby … was the first thing he’d identify as a priority,” Mr Albanese said.
He said the state government “already has a program that was worked out … the total expenditure of that was $9 billion to lift the whole up to that level three (star rating) of safety.”
“That’s where our $7.2 billion commitment comes from, but we want to roll out as much works as possible as soon as possible.”
The announcement under the looming shadow of the 2025 federal election was hard to ignore, but Mr Albanese said his presence in the Wide Bay, long known as a National Party and LNP seat and “not a target” showed he was “doing the right thing in the national interest”.
He said the figures connected to the highway, including 41 fatalities on the Bruce Hwy in 2024, as well as the two deaths at Owanyilla in 2025, were “horrific”.
He was joined at the announcement by Infrastructure Minister Catherine King, Transport Minister Murray Watt, and Treasure Jim Chalmers, who was brandishing a copy of the day’s Courier Mail spruiking the “Bruce to be fixed”.
The Courier Mail and its regional mastheads, including the Wide Bay’s Gympie Times, Fraser Coast Chronicle, and Bundaberg News Mail, along with the Sunshine Coast Daily, Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton Daily Mercury in Mackay, Townsville Bulletin and Cairns Post campaigned continually for major safety upgrades to the highway.
Gympie ambulance Officer0-in-Charge Wayne Sachs, a 50 year veteran of the service had been calling for the fixes for years and first met with Mr Albanese in his former role as Transport Minister in 2009, said the funding would save lives.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,,” Mr Sachs said.
“It’s nice to think maybe this area here was the catalyst for getting all that work done,” he said.
“Because they’ve seen the importance of it and they’ve seen the results of the Gympie Bypass where we’ve gone from an horrific number of fatalities to nearly zero.
He did wish the work had been done faster but “it all takes time”.
“As long as they start work and keep going, it will eventually get done and save countless lives.”
Wide Bay LNP MP Llew O’Brien welcomed the funding but said the section from Gympie to Maryborough needed to be a priority.
“With two lives tragically taken on our section of the Bruce Highway already this year, the beginning of 2025 was not the way Maryborough and Wide Bay wanted to start the year, and it’s not acceptable for any day of the year that lives are lost and put at risk from crashes on a substandard highway that is woefully inadequate in terms of its design, safety treatments, and carrying capacity,” Mr O’Brien said in statement released following Mr Albanese’s announcement.
A Right to Information request from Mr O’Brien to the Queensland state government in 2023 revealed a majority of the highway in the Wide Bay was only rated two stars.
Mr O’Brien said the 80:20 funding split needed to be returned to funding for projects beyond the highway.
“No-one can afford the years of procrastination and delay that this Government will cause with its funding cuts, which not only increases risk but guarantees tragedy,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Labor should reverse its funding cuts to the Bruce Highway and commit to 80:20 for future Bruce Highway projects, just as Peter Dutton has said we will do if the Coalition is elected to Government.”
“While I welcome any new funding that is announced today, the fact is it is long overdue, and unless it sets an open date for the four lane Tiaro bypass and outlines a timeline for the full upgrade from Curra to Maryborough, I fear lives will continue to be lost on our deadly section of the Bruce Highway.”
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Originally published as ‘Horrific’: PM’s Bruce Highway pledge puts Wide Bay front and centre
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