Editorial: Bruce Highway funding a win for Qld

Today’s funding announcement for the Bruce Highway is a massive win for Queensland – and for the power of journalism, writes the editor.

Yet another motorist comes to grief on the Bruce Highway.

Monday is a significant day for our great state, with the announcement of an almost doubling of federal government funding for the Bruce Highway, both a critical and long-overdue win for Queensland.

The funding – which the federal government claims is enough to bring the entire highway up to a minimum three-star safety rating before we host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2032 – is a direct response to the Help Our Highway advocacy campaign The Courier-Mail launched last April.

The devil is always in the detail, but if this promise turns out to be true then Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Infrastructure Minister Catherine King deserve the thanks of all Queenslanders.

As our reporting in the campaign has revealed, almost half the Bruce Highway failed to achieve at least a three-star safety rating when last formally assessed in 2019. This is, of course, an outrage.

And since we revealed that grim statistic last April, every death on the highway has been able to be told through that tragic – and avoidable – prism, as almost all have been on those sections rated as poor when it comes to safety.

That campaign – which The Courier-Mail has led, in partnership with our regional mastheads and insurer NRMA – has been calling for a commitment for the entire Bruce Highway to be “finished”, in the sense that every single one of its 1679km is brought up to those minimum safety standards.

Ms King says the Main Roads Department has estimated the cost of doing so would be $9bn – and so once the state delivers its 20 per cent share ($1.8bn) this funding should be enough to get it done.

And on that point, it is good to see the Albanese government has put the political argy-bargy of the 50:50 or 80:20 funding split for national highways aside in this instance.

This campaign is about safety – not parochialism. It should also, therefore, not be about politics.

And so it is very welcome that this funding commitment is to the highway itself, rather than just those projects that could deliver an electoral pay-off at the election due in coming months. We urge the federal opposition – led, of course, by Queenslander Peter Dutton – to commit today to this extra funding should it take office at the election.

Monday’s announcement is also a reminder of the critical role that journalism plays in advocating for a better community. It is not too self-serving to point out that this would not have happened had it not been for the push that came from every daily newspaper in Queensland being in lock-step behind the Help our Highway campaign. As others have noted elsewhere, community-focused advocacy remains a trait unique to media organisations that employ journalists who live in the communities they serve. Fighting for a change we can all benefit from is something the social media giants and their airbrushed armies of so-called “influencers” will never do.

While an announcement worthy of celebration, there will no doubt be some fine print in what will be unveiled by the Prime Minister at Gympie this morning. We are not Pollyanna on this critical point.

But $7.2bn of additional funding on top of $9.8bn already committed is not to be sneezed at. The Prime Minister says it is the single largest investment ever into the Bruce Highway, and will be his biggest infrastructure announcement this year. This is a massive win, then, for Queensland – and indeed for the power of campaigning journalism.

SERIES REVIVED LOVE OF GAME

As the great Richie Benaud might have said, that was marvellous.

The five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series ended in Sydney yesterday, a rollercoaster of action and emotions in which the result wasn’t settled until the last hour.

In fact, probably the most surprising thing about the final day of a pulsating series was that Australia won by the seemingly comfortable margin of six wickets. Most fans were expecting a nailbiter, and although there were some fraught moments in Australia’s fourth-innings chase, in the end debutant Beau Webster provided the cool head to secure the victory.

The result means that Australia holds the trophy for the first time in a decade. And on top of victories over India in the World Test Championship and 50-over World Cup, it also secured bragging rights over an Indian side who do not like losing.

Indian legend Virat Kohli would have wished his final act in a Test match in Australia would have been a match-turning hundred. Instead he played up to the Sydney crowd’s taunts by turning out his pockets to show he wasn’t carrying any sandpaper.

Hardly a classy gesture but it perfectly illustrated the level of feeling in this series, which is now seriously challenging The Ashes as cricket’s ultimate grudge match.

Regardless of some needling, Aussie fans owe a debt of gratitude to this Indian side, for helping us fall in love with Test cricket again.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here