Editorial: Peter Dutton takes lead from David Crisafulli on Bruce Highway

The smart way to limit any political capital the Prime Minister may have won on the Bruce Highway would have been to immediately match the funding commitment, writes the editor.

Premier David Crisafulli with federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton

There are few things all Queenslanders agree on – even a few NSW expats still support the Blues – but it is fair to say we are united in our disgust at the state of the Bruce Highway.

The 1679km arterial road from Brisbane to Cairns links our major population centres, but only unites Queenslanders in a common state of fear and loathing.

It is outdated, unsafe and an embarrassment, as The Courier-Mail and our sister publications in the regions have pointed out in our Help Our Highway campaign.

Thankfully, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday committed to upgrading the entire highway to minimum safety standards – one of the stated goals of our campaign.

Premier David Crisafulli – not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth – immediately committed $1.8bn as well, effectively reinstating, for this project at least, an 80-20 funding model.

For Queenslanders who have waited decades for co-ordinated action on the Bruce, it appears their prayers have been answered.

With a federal election looming – probably in April or May – there is a very real possibility Peter Dutton may be the prime minister who will approve this funding.

Mr Dutton said on Tuesday the Prime Minister’s $7.2bn commitment made on the eve of the election showed he was panicking about losing more seats in Queensland’.

“The fact is this is an announcement which should have been made two years ago and not on the eve of the election,” he said.

Mr Dutton has since guaranteed funding, while his ban on CFMEU work will certainly lead to savings across the project.

No doubt Mr Albanese’s commitment was made with jobs for the members of powerful unions across the state in mind.

Mr Dutton’s welcome pledge came after days of Coalition members stating the party had not settled on the funding and wanted to review the upgrade plan.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor on Monday said the party wanted to see “the details’’ before matching Mr Albanese’s $7.2bn.

Mr Taylor’s stance suggested the Coalition would not simply go toe to toe with Labor on the highway but in doing so made it seem as though the funding would be up in the air until after the election.

But the smart way to limit any political capital the Prime Minister may have won would have been to immediately match the funding commitment, while reserving the right to tinker with the details if the Coalition wins government.

Mr Crisafulli copped some flak for giving LNP support to most of then premier Steven Miles’ increasingly desperate election commitments.

But the proof of the pudding was victory in October. It is good to see Mr Dutton take a leaf out of Mr Crisafulli’s playbook.

WHY YOU CAN’T BELIEVE ANYTHING ON META

It’s official. Truth is dead. For some at least.

Mark Zuckerberg, the rather nerdy boss of Meta – parent company of Facebook and Instagram – yesterday announced that the company would scrap fact-checking on its social media platform.

Mr Zuckerberg said Donald Trump’s second White House win was a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising speech’’.

He said it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram’’.

“So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content,’’ he said. “But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes.’’

And of course, the best way to avoid making mistakes is not to try in the first place.

Real media – like The Courier-Mail – is not only committed to telling the truth because it is the right thing to do, we are also beholden to defamation and libel laws. And at The Courier-Mail, if we make a mistake, we own it.

If we ran deliberate misinformation about – let’s say vaccines or chemtrails or aliens – there would be, quite rightly, hell to pay, not to mention irreparable damage to our credibility.

Not so with Meta.

According to Mr Zuckerberg, misinformation is the price you pay for free speech.

“Even if they accidentally censor just 1 per cent of posts, that is millions of people,” he said. “And we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”

The message to take out of all this is simple. Take everything you see on social media that purports to be news with a very large pinch of salt.

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