Funding reinstated as Rockhampton Ring Road campaigners’ fight continues

Start Rocky Ring Road campaigners are celebrating the reinstatement of $280m for construction work from next year but say they will continue fighting to ensure the “legacy” project is driven by local business and workers.

Tireless campaigners for the Rockhampton Ring Road have welcomed a deal which will see funding reinstated, however, their work continues to ensure the ‘legacy’ project is delivered by local industry.

Central Queenslanders have welcomed the news following a compromise struck between the state and federal governments which will involve Queenslanders receiving discounted power bills and the reinstatement of funding for the Rockhampton Ring Road.

The deal has secured $280m for construction work commencing in 2023 which will include the upgrade of multiple key connecting roads for the landmark infrastructure piece.

Grantley Jack, Jason Thomasson and Jack Trenaman from the Start Rockhampton Ring Road group in front of the newly painted silos at Parkhurst.

SMW CEO and Start Rockhampton Ring Road Group member Jack Trenaman said the project was way too important for the region to miss out and wanted to thank everyone who advocated and supported the grassroots campaign.

“If you have a look at the contribution from regional Queensland whether that’s the state or the federal coffers, we don’t ask for too much but we do ask for fairness and that’s getting this started and completed because that’s what was promised to us,” Mr Trenaman said.

But while the campaigner celebrated the funding and welcomes the upcoming visit by the Director General to Rockhampton on January 25 to detail a timeline for the project, he said there was still work to ensure the project was delivered locally to strengthen the regional economy for decades to come.

“Local content is a part of that, we’ve got to keep a very close eye on it because there’s plenty of skilled resources in Rockhampton and the greater surrounds to do this project ... we need to have it so its 80 per cent Rockhampton and what skills we don’t have we need to train on the job,” he said.

Jack Trenaman at Parliament House in Canberra as Rockhampton business leaders spoke to the media following a decision to delay the $1.1 billion Rockhampton Ring Road Project. Picture: Gary Ramage

“You will not increase the skill base or the volume of workers in the construction area unless its done through traineeships and apprenticeships and that needs to start now.”

Mr Trenaman said the vital project was “common sense” and will improve the safety and the efficiency of major roads and industries which rely on them in Rockhampton.

Keppel MP, Brittany Lauga told ABC Capricornia it was a win for the Central Queensland community, but it was hard fought.

“Once we get the ball rolling, it’s easy to get projects continuing but this one was a struggle to get that ball rolling,” Ms Lauga said.

“It’s really hard to find $700 million in extra funding; it’s a big bucket of money for a project that is Central Queensland’s largest project in our history,” she said.

Ms Lauga said the costing for the project had blown out from $1.1b to $1.8b.

Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry, Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce and Senator Matthew Canavan all threw their support behind the decision, but pushed for timeline clarification.

Ms Landry said she was ‘encouraged’ that both levels of government had made the decision to reinvest the funding from coal royalties windfalls back into the region that generated it.

“However, we would like a full funding schedule laid out, as there is a lack of detail around the announcement made by the Premier,” Ms Landry said.

“The Rockhampton Ring Road was a project we never should have had to fight for, the funding for such a vital infrastructure project should never have been delayed in the first place.

Senator Canavan said the Labor Party needed clarify when the ring road would be built.

“Until Labor slashed funding to the Ring Road in the budget, the trucks would have been taken out of Rocky by 2026. On Labor’s now amended timeline, we still have over 2000 trucks going through our town until at least 2030,” he said.

“Nothing in the announcement changes this end date. Cost blowouts do not slow down projects like the Cross River Rail in Brisbane, why is Labor making people in the regions be made to wait for decent roads?”

Rockhampton Mayor Tony Williams, Rockhampton MP Barry O'Rourke and Keppel MP Brittany Lauga with Federal Transport Minister Catherine King and State Transport Minister Mark Bailey.

On Tuesday Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King and State Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey visited Rockhampton where they gave more details on the $280 million agreement.

Rockhampton MP Barry O’Rourke said $12 million in early works ahead of construction had already begun.

“That's about moving gas lines, telecommunication, power lines, things like that, that are essential, and surveyors have been in doing the new road corridor, fences are going to need to be done all those projects,” he said.

“It is all happening.”

Mr Bailey said the government had been working with local contractors to try and reduce the $700 million escalation in costs.

“Barry and Brittany have been working with the local contractors and what they‘ve said to us is, what they’d like to see is a reprofiling of the project so that we have more local jobs for longer that would be a greater benefit for the local economy and community,” he said.

“So that's what we’re doing. We’re working with both the Department, the federal government for contractors to reprofile the project to maximise that local benefit.”

While an official start date is yet to be announced, Mr Bailey said the first phase of early construction would begin in the second half of next year.

“We've got a bit more work to do, working with the contractors and working out the profile,” he said.

“Obviously we'll be trying to get it going as quickly as we possibly can.”

Mr Bailey said details about where any out of town workers would stay during the project’s construction were still being worked out.

“One of the big costs in that additional $700 million was the cost of a very large workers camp,” he said.

“So by reprofiling we will see that reduced considerably and of course we‘re seeing a range of other workers on other projects will become available.”

Federal Minister Catherine King said once the project begins things wouldn’t go idle or stop for the Ring Road project.

“You don‘t stop and start a project…we will be working with the Queensland Government about how we actually phase the project going forward,” she said.

“It‘s very costly to stop a project. So our view very firmly is that this will just continue to roll out obviously, there’s work we need to do to make sure that we do get value for taxpayer money, right the way through this project.

“But we make sure that we work collaboratively with the Queensland State Government to get this project done.”