Canberra cuts Qld projects but finds almost $2b for faster rail to coast

The Australian government will pour $1.75 billion more into faster rail between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and lift spending on other key south-east road projects as part of its long-awaited infrastructure pipeline review.

But funding for other projects has been pulled or capped, including a direct Sunshine Coast rail line and the M1 upgrades between Daisy Hill and the Logan Motorway.

The RACQ wants urgent intervention to avoid gridlock in south-east Queensland.Credit: Dan Peled

After federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King’s overnight suggestions in media that the plan had been worked through “with the co-operation of the states”, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick was blunt.

“This is not true. Our government has not and will not co-operate to support Catherine King’s cuts. The minister should retract this statement and retract these cuts,” he wrote on social media.

He later added King should “treat Queensland more like Qantas and less like Qatar”.

Under the detail published on Thursday, fresh scrutiny and planning will be applied to various Bruce Highway upgrades and more than 20 projects in planning will continue – with no final decision on construction costs. These include the proposed Centenary Motorway upgrade and Gympie Road study.

The SEQ City Deal will be the subject of further talks, while the commonwealth will contribute more funding to cover a projected blowout in costs for rail overpasses at Carseldine and Coopers Plains, and the Centenary Bridge upgrade.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had declared she was “not happy” with what she had seen earlier in the week and called on her federal Labor government counterparts to “do what’s right” for the growing state.

Overnight, she said she would send Deputy Premier Steven Miles and a delegation of the state’s mayors to Canberra this month to reverse the cuts.

The Queensland Farmers Federation and Queensland Trucking Association would also join the group bound for Canberra.

In parliament on Thursday, Palaszczuk called the cuts outrageous and suggested because the federal government collected 80 per cent of taxes it was only fair to ask that was reinvested in the state’s infrastructure.

“Queensland has the longest road network in the nation,” she said. “We are the most decentralised state. We are the fastest growing state.”

Miles and Dick followed their leader with harsh words for federal Labor on the floor of parliament, to jeers from the LNP opposition, which labelled the federal-state hostilities a “fake fight”.

Dick elaborated on his social media response to say the state government had, despite King’s requests, “steadfastly refused to recommend, suggest or agree to any project being cancelled”.

Miles said the state needed more and better infrastructure to keep up with population growth, and sought to paint the federal government and state LNP in the same light with plans that “could put all of this at risk”.

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