Time to bring a bit of Can-do to kickstart Queensland

In 2004 when Campbell Newman said Brisbane needed tunnels there was doubt. Now we’d be lost without them. We need more of this kind of forward thinking, writes The Editor.

Over the past six years, our great state of Queensland has become the land of the long maybe – a place where too much potential private investment is instead caught up forever in administrative purgatory.

Whether this frustrating truth that cripples investment certainty is the result of a deliberate attempt by the Palaszczuk government to avoid at all costs the crash or crash-through mania of the short-lived Newman administration or a bureaucracy that for some reason has lost its ability to get stuff done does not matter so much as the result: a state that is failing to live up to its enormous potential.

And we simply cannot afford another six years of the same. Queensland in 2021 finds itself in an enviable position. Our world-leading handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant we have never been a more desired place to live, work and play – and we are also seen a safe place in a world of chaos for investors to park their cheap cash. But there is no central plan for the future, beyond a glossy political propaganda brochure produced in the lead-up to an election that even the politicians themselves giggle at.

To make the most of the coming decade we need to be ahead of the curve with a clear vision of what will be required a generation from now, and with a detailed plan on how to get there. Without that we are destined to be looking in the rear-view mirror lamenting the opportunities we have missed.

Then Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman at the opening of the Clem7 Tunnel.

When, in 2004, the Liberal Party’s Brisbane lord mayoral candidate Campbell Newman drew a series of lines on a map and promised to construct a network of tunnels to ease future traffic congestion he was lampooned. Brisbane didn’t need tunnels! Fast-forward almost two decades and it is hard to imagine how bad a Brisbane commute today would be without them. This is the sort of visionary thinking we need today.

The opportunity presented by the 2032 Olympics bid pursued so effectively so far by the Palaszczuk government is massive. The Courier-Mail’s campaigning for and unwavering support of the bid has been based not on two weeks of sport, but on the fact an Olympics would be the catalyst for the delivery of transport infrastructure that would set the region up for the next 50 years. On what other occasion could you see all three tiers of government collaborating and committing to infrastructure spending with a set deadline?

But our hoped-for Brisbane Games is only one piece of the puzzle. As we report today, builders are warning that the cost of big projects in Queensland could rise by as much as 30 per cent due to new union-led industrial relations rules. The state’s otherwise buoyant property sector is meanwhile growing increasingly frustrated by years of delays and buck-passing over such important issues such as land supply. There are also critical skills shortages statewide at the same time as our jobless rate is second-worst in the nation, suggesting an urgent need for more targeted training.

State debt is forecast to soon pass $100 billion, and we are bracing for an expected population boom of interstate migrants – which will only further increase demand for property, infrastructure and services. There is clearly a critical and urgent need for a real plan that will deliver jobs and a better lifestyle for Queenslanders, new and old.

We also need to have that certainty and clear vision to ensure we can attract serious private and public investment – and that the red tape and lack of urgency holding back billions of dollars in investment across our construction, transport, resources and tourism sectors are cleared up and resolved.

These are the big issues our Build Queensland series over the next week will shine a spotlight on, and the questions we will seek answers to. The government must respond with more than just glib lip-service.

The Olympics bid is actually an example of the approach we should be taking more generally: to be bold and grab our early (in this case post-Covid) advantage and run as hard and fast with it as possible. Regret, after all, is powered by inaction.

And on that, it is time we put our state’s recent political past behind us and agreed that “Can Do” is not a dirty phrase. Instead, that is exactly the attitude that has driven our state’s successful development.

Surely, in a world of increasingly polarised political debate, one thing we can all unite behind is the truth that building Queensland is critical to ensuring the maintenance of our shared future lifestyle – and our state’s ongoing prosperity.