‘Priority’: Campaign to fix the Bruce gets more Wattage

Federal government frontbencher and Queensland senator Murray Watt has echoed the Prime Minister’s commitment to upgrading the infamous Bruce Highway.

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Queensland federal frontbencher Murray Watt has vowed to upgrade the Bruce Highway to the quality the state deserves, a day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the road should be up to the same standard as the Brisbane-Sydney route.

Senator Watt conceded on Wednesday there was work to be done to get the highway up to scratch.

But he asked voters to trust federal Labor to deliver on upgrades as it had in the past.

“Our priority is to invest to bring the Bruce Highway in its entirety up to an acceptable standard and then to keep doing more upgrades as time goes on,” he said.

“I think a highway that big is always going to need upgrades … I think one thing governments can be better at … is sequencing projects better, so that we can move workforces from one upgrade to the next.”

Senator Watt said there was no doubt cost increases and skill shortages in road construction was making it harder to get infrastructure rolling.

The federal government’s infrastructure review led to eight Queensland projects worth more than $200m being axed, with uncertainty on how and when nearly $9bn in Bruce Hwy spending will be rolled out.

Federal government frontbencher and Queensland senator Murray Watt

But another $2.5bn in federal money was pumped into existing projects to cover cost blowouts, including to get the Rockhampton ring road construction going.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick declined to reveal whether there would be additional cash allocated for the Bruce Hwy in the June 11 state budget.

“We will work through all those issues in the lead-up to the budget,” he said.

Mr Dick said the state government’s history meant Queensland voters knew who they could trust to fund the Bruce Hwy.

Mr Albanese on Tuesday declared the Bruce Hwy should be just in as good a condition as the dual-carriageway M1 that runs between Brisbane and Sydney.

Asked whether it would ever be that standard, Mr Albanese responded twice: “It should be.” He did not commit to providing more funding for the Bruce Hwy.

The Courier-Mail is partnering with NRMA Insurance and regional news mastheads across Queensland this year to drive positive outcomes through the Help Our Highway advocacy campaign.

The Bruce Hwy is the biggest carrier of traffic in the state.

It is also the longest highway in Australia at about 1700km – a distance equivalent to driving from Paris to Naples.

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