Cameron Dick says federal government needs to chip in 80 per cent for Bruce Hwy projects
The state government is adamant its federal counterparts will overturn a detrimental Bruce Highway funding decision despite repeated rejections from the Prime Minister.
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The state government is adamant its federal counterparts will overturn a detrimental Bruce Highway funding decision despite the Prime Minister and his infrastructure minister repeatedly rejecting the notion.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the state was “not going to change” its position on the need for the federal government to chip in 80 per cent instead of 50 per cent when funding Bruce Highway projects.
And he claimed the Prime Minister was open to the idea, and that the state was having “very productive discussions” between Premier Steven Miles and Anthony Albanese.
But Mr Albanese and his infrastructure Minister Catherine King have publicly ruled out reinstating the 80:20 funding split for projects on the state’s most important highway in recent days.
Mr Albanese, in Cairns on Thursday, said the federal government would reinstate the 80:20 funding split if Queensland “agreed to take away all funding for public transport, all funding for urban roads, all funding for projects … of housing and everything else”.
Mr Dick’s comments come as road safety experts call for speed limits to be reduced on sections of the 1700km highway where urgent upgrades are needed.
Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland’s Narelle Haworth said if the worst sections of the Bruce Highway couldn’t be fixed immediately then there needed to be a review of the speed limit.
“The Bruce Hwy is a road that is very unforgiving if you make a mistake, even just an honest mistake, then the consequences can be deadly, and that’s a challenge,” Professor Haworth said.
“One of the things that we are striving for in road safety is for roads to be forgiving, because we know that people will always make mistakes.”
Mr Dick said Transport and Main Roads “constantly reviews” speed limits on the Bruce Highway”.
“We’re constantly monitoring that. We’ll always look at that, but we need to be guided by experts, and so that’s what TMR does all the time,” he said.
Originally published as Cameron Dick says federal government needs to chip in 80 per cent for Bruce Hwy projects
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