Rockhampton
PM: I'm delighted to be here with my colleagues; Minister Albanese standing right here, CT - Chris Trevor, our candidate for Flynn, Peter Freeleagus who is our candidate for Capricornia, and Kirsten Livermore who is our Member for Capricornia, and we are here to make an important announcement about the Bruce Highway.
And that announcement is that we will be investing more than $4 billion in upgrading the Bruce Highway.
This comes on top of the $1.7 billion of investment we've already committed to this important road in Queensland.
Now local communities know the importance of this highway. They're the ones that are driving on it every day, with concerns about safety, concerns about travel time.
We understand those concerns and today we are responding.
We are standing here at the Yeppen crossing, just outside Rockhampton. And you can see around me the signs of work that are already in progress here.That's as a result of earlier commitments.
And I'm pleased to be able to announce for the people of Rockhampton and more broadly that today we will be adding to the work that is happening here with an up to $300 million commitment to raise the north bound lanes to create a 1.6 kilometre bridge.
That is going to mean that in times of heavy rain, when we've seen flooding in this region - and unfortunately it happens all too often - that with the extra height this will be more resilient in times of flood.
This makes a difference for the people of Rockhampton, but it makes a difference for people far further afield.
It makes a difference in Gracemere, it makes a difference for the people of Mount Morgan, for the people of Emerald, and the list goes on.
I'm very pleased to be able to point to this specific example of what will flow from the extra more than $4 billion that we are investing in the Bruce Highway.
But of course with an amount of money like that, there's more work happening than the work we're able to point to here, and I'll ask Minister Albanese to outline what will be happening up and down the highway as a result of this new investment.
MINISTER ALBANESE: Thanks Prime Minister. It is indeed a very proud day to be here for this very significant investment - the largest ever announcement regarding the Bruce Highway which is so important for regional Queensland.
As a result of this investment we will see further work up and down the highway.
We already today have more than 1,000 people on sites such as this one doing overtaking lanes, doing heavy vehicle rest stops, doing black spots programs, assisting with construction right up and down the highway.
As a result of this commitment there will be thousands of people gain employment fixing this highway, making it more productive and more safe, and that will be right up and down the coast.
Firstly in terms of Cairns we'll be able to upgrade the southern approach to Cairns - that's already begun.
But as a result of this, we'll have additional work on the southern access corridor, widening from four lanes to six, making a big difference in terms of Cairns.
In terms of further south, we have of course the work raising the southern approach to the Mulgrave River Bridge.
The Cardwell Range realignment is underway. As a result of this commitment we'll have Frances Creek and Cattle Creek will be able to have a higher level bridge with raised approaches.
Both north and south of Townsville the big issue has been access through bridges. And we will be able to fix not just there, but a range of other bridges including the Haughton River Bridge as well.
In addition to that, south of Home Hill, north of Ingham, we'll be able to have targeted works there in order to fix what has been a real black spot in terms of road safety.
Further south, work at Yellow Gin Creek, Sandy Gully and approaches, pavement widening from St Lawrence to Bowen.
Mackay importantly, we've funded the Mackay Ring Road study, as a result of this the planning work can occur and construction can commence on the Mackay Ring Road.
As a result of this, we also will be able to have a continuation of the upgrade of the southern approach to Mackay; that is occurring.
In addition to that, further south, we have work continuing including the Cooroy to Curra Section C and D. This follows the opening to Cooroy to Curra Section B last year.
As a result of that, that's a great example of the investment of this Government.
Promised, funded, built and opened during the period of the Federal Labor Government with Federal Government funding.
It's an example of what we've done in practice, the sort of work that you see around you here means we haven't just talked, we haven't just listened, we have acted.
And it has taken a Federal Labor Government to put in more than four times the funding in approximately the same period of time we're talking about that the Howard Government held office; 12 years, $1.3 billion.
As a result of our commitments today we're now up to $5.7 billion - including this $4.1 billion over a ten year period.
In addition to that on the Sunshine Coast, the Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway project will be able to be completed, and as a result of further - closer to Brisbane as well we have a range of works using smart infrastructure to make sure we get better use out of the existing infrastructure which is there.
We'll be sitting down; I'll be meeting with Minister Emerson this afternoon to discuss the precise timeframes for rolling out this package.
But what we will see as a result of this package is construction in the areas that have been identified as the most urgent and the biggest priority.
And here of course the bringing forward of $50 million into Nation Building 1 means that construction can commence on the Yeppen section for 2013, later this year.
There will also of course be works to the north of Rockhampton in terms of access as well.
But a comprehensive plan for the Bruce Highway that enables, because it's a ten year plan, it enables savings to occur because you can roll out the infrastructure in a targeted and orderly way.
And I certainly think this a great day for productivity up and down the Queensland coast, but most importantly this is a great day for road safety here in Queensland.
PM: Thank you very much to Minister Albanese for that description and I think you can see from that what a comprehensive plan this is.
A widening of the highway for the people of Cairns, better bridges for people in Townsville, a start on the Ring Road for the people of Mackay, the works here that we've described for Rockhampton, and then improvements too for the people of the Sunshine Coast.
This is an important announcement - a huge investment - for regional Queensland.
I'll turn now to Kirsten Livermore, the Member for Capricornia has been a long-time advocate for the work that we're not only seeing here today, but for the work that will follow.
KIRSTEN LIVERMORE: Thanks Prime Minister. It's great to be here today for this very important announcement with the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and my colleague the Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese.
And of course the two men who will be taking forward the fight for infrastructure in central Queensland; the candidate for Capricornia Peter Freeleagus and the candidate for Flynn, Chris Trevor.
We're here today because the Prime Minister and Anthony Albanese share my determination and have long shared my determination that we had to have a solution for this southern entrance to Rockhampton.
The Prime Minister was here during those floods of 2011 and she saw the scale of flooding that this community suffers in times of heavy rainfall when the Fitzroy breaks its banks.
And she saw what that means, the disruption that it can cause, to the entire central Queensland region, and indeed the entire coast of Queensland all the way north of Rockhampton.
So since then I've been working very hard and had fantastic support from both the Prime Minister and particularly from the Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese to work towards a solution for this problem area in Rockhampton and this link to the rest of central Queensland.
So I'm thrilled to know that we can now take the next step forward.
People can already see the work that's happening here as a result of our 2010 election commitment when the money was brought forward to make the improvements for the link from Gracemere, but very importantly to lift this Yeppen Bridge.
People are now going to see this work continued right up until we have the full bridge out to the Mount Morgan crossing, and that raised Bruce Highway coming from the south.
So this is a huge improvement. It means such a lot for the businesses of this region and the people, because during the 2011 flood event we saw businesses really going to the wall because they were cut off from their customer and supplier links.
We saw people who were unable to get into their workplaces, they were cut off for many weeks by flood waters from their workplaces in Rockhampton and it caused great hardship to this community and was a great economic disruption.
So I'm really pleased that Minister Albanese and the Prime Minister have listened to all of those problems, have worked with me every step of the way together with Terry Hill who is our local manager of main roads here in central Queensland to come up with this solution today.
And I know that Peter Freeleagus and Chris Trevor will continue on as these works progress to make sure that they're meeting their targets and really delivering this solution to the people of central Queensland. Thank you.
PM: Thanks Kirsten and thank you for all your advocacy on behalf of the people here.
I'll turn now to our Labor candidate for Capricornia, Peter Freeleagus.
PETER FREELEAGUS: Thank you Julia, and Minister Albanese. What a great day for Capricornia.
Jobs - that's what Labor is all about - it's about jobs.
It is not Tony Abbott that's come here today to deliver one cent to Capricornia and to Flynn, and not to Queensland.
Queensland is on the cusp of what we know is great. It is always great. It is sunny one day, sunny the next in Queensland.
And especially it will be sunny in a couple of weeks' time when we win State of Origin.
But what a great day for jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, infrastructure, and that's what Labor does, and Labor does very well.
Tony Abbott will never come close enough to what Labor does; creates jobs. And I'm sure when the news gets out there to our communities in Flynn and Capricornia and for every other Labor electorate in this state, they'll be having a toast at the table tonight because they know that their jobs will be secure and infrastructure going well ahead for Labor and for the great state of Queensland. Thank you very much.
PM: And I'll invite now Chris Trevor, CT, our candidate for Flynn to make some comments.
CHRIS TREVOR: Thank you Prime Minister, and thank you Anthony for coming back to central Queensland.
My dad was a train driver all his life and I was just about to talk about him. Maybe that was a sign. Who knows?
Firstly what a fantastic announcement we have here today for the communities of both Flynn and Capricornia.
And could I also thank Kirsten for her hard work and effort in attaining not only this project, but 15 years of hard slog for the people of Capricornia.
I'm sure Peter will serve the electorate of Capricornia equally as well.
This is a great announcement for Flynn because it will serve the communities of Mount Morgan, Gracemere, Blackwater, Emerald, and the other agricultural and mining industries throughout the community of Flynn.
It is such a critical piece of infrastructure that has been waiting for many, many years for successive governments to deliver. And finally Federal Labor has delivered it.
And I am very proud to be part of Federal Labor and part of a team that is delivering this critical piece of infrastructure to the communities of both Flynn and Capricornia.
Now I want to tell you a little story about how important this announcement today is to me personally.
Nearly 38 years ago to this day, my father the late Foo Trevor, and myself, pushed a Datsun 1000 from the start of where this new project is going to begin to the end of where this project is going to end through floodwaters, knee-deep, to get me to grade eight at Rockhampton Grammar School.
So this is personally a great triumph in the sense that no longer will parents and children have to push their cars - more modern than our family car these days - through flood waters on the Yeppen flood plain.
So dad, it took us a little while, but we got there, and I'm sure he'll be very proud to see Federal Labor - a staunch Labor supporter - I'm sure he'll be very proud to see Federal Labor delivering this project to the communities of Flynn and Capricornia.
Thank you again Prime Minister, I know it's very hot today so I won't keep talking. But thank you so much for coming back to central Queensland. Thank you Anthony - you're almost a brother to me.
MINISTER ALBANESE: Almost a local!
CHRIS TREVOR: Almost a local. And we see each other very, very regularly. I know you nickname me the serial pest in Canberra because I was constantly at your doorstep, never giving up in my fight for delivery of projects for Flynn.
But I wear that badge with some honour, Anthony, and I'm glad that you had the goodwill to nickname me the serial pest of Canberra.
PM: We're happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: How much of the money will be allocated in the May budget?
PM: For all of this money, for the more than $4 billion, this is ten years of works. It is a lot of work.
What you'll see allocated in the May budget is we've had our Nation Building 1 plan. You will see the money allocated for our Nation Building 2 plan, and that money in the budget period which is four years will be drawn down from to fund the works that we're talking about.
I'll get Minister Albanese to say something about his vision for Nation Building 2.
MINISTER ALBANESE: The Nation Building 2 program will follow what has been the largest ever investment in road and rail projects under Nation Building 1 in Australia's history.
And what we'll be outlining in the budget with funding allocated against including against the Bruce Highway, will be the Nation Building 2 framework across the forward estimates
Some of that we'll be bringing forward like $50 million from Nation Building 2 will be brought forward into Nation Building 1 to make sure that this project can start construction this year.
What we've done is had an orderly way, I particularly pay tribute to Kirsten and before her CT for the work that they did.
Kirsten argued strongly, she is serial pest mark two, argued for the study to happen. We did the study, we've done the work, we've done the planning, so that's why construction can be brought forward.
So we'll be bringing forward into Nation Building 1, that will be there in the budget and Nation Building 2 will be there as well in terms of all of the out years.
You'll see the increased funding that is there in this program. The third tranche of it will of course be Nation Building 3 because this is a ten year program.
But you'll see the sort of work including in the budget the $395 million, for example, that I announced last December for Cooroy to Curra next section; 395 from us, 395 from the State Government; that will also be there in the budget.
So this is fully funded. This has been worked through. This is proper planning, the way that infrastructure should be delivered. And that's why we're in a position today to make such a far reaching practical plan that can run and can deliver in terms of better infrastructure and these upgrades on the Bruce right up and down the highway.
JOURNALIST: Will any other cuts be needed to pay for this?
MINISTER ALBANESE: This is a part of Nation Building 2 that we have made provision for in terms of the budget.
So you'll see on budget night this is proper infrastructure spending. It has been budgeted for. We've made provision for it in past budgets as well.
We have had a very orderly and structured approach towards infrastructure policy development, taking on board Infrastructure Australia, looking at cost benefit analysis, looking at what the national priorities are.
And there's no doubt that for Queensland - this Bruce Highway represents 7 per cent of the national road network but 17 per cent of the fatalities on the national network occur on the Bruce Highway.
That is a priority. That's something that this Government takes seriously in terms of road safety.
But on top of that, of course feeding into this community from the areas that were outlined by Peter, Blackall, the mining communities, agricultural communities, this is also a productivity highway, driving the national economy.
So it is very important for both the economy, nationally, but also for road safety.
JOURNALIST: How much money is being allocated to the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine highway in this package?
MINISTER ALBANESE: The Sunshine Coast you will see as a result of this above $1 billion of expenditure in terms of the Sunshine Coast sections, both in terms of the area around Caloundra and Caboolture but also in terms of the Cooroy to Curra sections that remain.
Well over $1 billion of investment stands in stark contrast to - $1.3 billion from the former government over 12 years in spite of the fact that they had a bloke as the Transport Minister who is the current leader of the National Party who said the section of highway in his own electorate was the worst section of highway in Australia.
Well he was the local member, he was the Transport Minister and not one cent was spent on that section of the highway.
It's taken a Federal Labor Government to deliver.
JOURNALIST: The Caboolture-Caloundra highway is two lanes either way, it's riddled with pot holes, it's deteriorating. Are there any plans to upgrade it to six lanes?
MINISTER ALBANESE: That is in terms of the process; we're going to be sitting down and going through all of the detail.
We've outlined a substantial program; $4.1 billion. I might also say that the State Government have got to stump up as well. They can't just talk. They've got to actually act and allocate funding.
They asked for from 2012-13 they asked for a ten year program. They ran on that. We're actually delivering it, not just driving up and down the highway having a look.
I've done that as well I might say without cameras. I've actually done that in terms of sections of the highway; gone and had a look myself.
And I know that this highway needs substantial upgrades, but we're actually delivering real money for real projects that will create real jobs and will make a real difference here in Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you think of France's decision to pass the gay marriage bill?
PM: Obviously, the people of France and its Parliament have made a decision. That's a matter for the people of France and that Parliament.
JOURNALIST: What do you think of Kirsten standing down, or standing aside?
PM: I've known for some period of time that Kirsten was going to move to the next stage of her life.
I had a delightful opportunity last night to attend a farewell with some of our party members where we got to reminisce on Kirsten's personal and political career.
We're good friends; I'm going to miss her. I think this community is going to miss her because she has been such a great advocate for this community.
But I know for Kirsten and her much-loved family, it is going to bring the next stage of their life for them and I know too, that Labor will be well represented here by Peter Freeleagus.
Can I just make some comments before we go about school funding and school improvement.
Yesterday I stood in New South Wales with the Premier of New South Wales, Premier O'Farrell, and announced an historic arrangement for the 1.1 million school children in New South Wales and the generations of school kids to come.
The New South Wales Government has agreed with me that we will work together to invest $5 billion more in New South Wales schools, and we will work to improve those schools.
More empowered principals, better paid high-performing teachers, parents with more say in their local school, the spread of Asian languages, and interventions if a school is falling behind because I don't want to see any child falling behind.
I don't want to see any child left behind. I want every child to reach his or her full potential.
And I don't want to see our nation left behind because we aren't ready to seize the jobs of the future, the high skill, high paid jobs, because our schooling system has fallen behind the standards of our region and the standards of the world.
Today I'm standing here in Queensland and my message to Premier Newman is a very clear one: don't leave Queensland kids behind.
Don't let Queensland kids fall behind what's happening in New South Wales.
Every child in Queensland should get the benefit of the new funds and new ways of working that we are promising.
Now Premier Newman has raised some objections to what I'm trying to achieve for Australian schools.
I understand the budget decisions are tough. We've needed to take budget decisions.
He has also raised some concerns about our National Plan for School Improvement.
But I would say with some passion to Premier Newman, Premier O'Farrell, a Liberal, has been able to sign on to this plan. I don't see why there's any impediment to Premier Newman doing the same.
And I would say too, across the country to other premiers and chief ministers, look to what has happened in New South Wales and please, do not put the children in your state in a position where they will be falling behind.
I would say too to the Federal Opposition that their plan for cuts of $5.4 billion to Australian schools on average - half a million dollars for every school - that their plans to cut half a million dollars out of every school is not the right thing for our children or our nation.
I would say to the Federal Opposition that its endorsement of plans that would leave kids languishing in underperforming schools is not good enough for those children and it's not good enough for our nation.
It means that we wouldn't be in the top performing systems in the world, and we wouldn't have the ability to strengthen our economy for the future and to get the high skill, high wage jobs of the future.
So I've got a lot of work to do persuading premiers and chief ministers to come on board and do the right thing for children.
The community has got a lot of work to do too persuading their premiers and chief ministers to follow the lead here that has been established in New South Wales.
I look forward to the weeks between now and 30 June where I'll not only be talking to premiers and chief ministers, but I'll be talking too to parents and communities around the nation about getting their children the best education.
Thanks very much. Thank you.