Prime Minister, Minister for Defence Industry, Minister for Industry Science and Technology
Photo: AAP Image/Tim Marsden
THE HON STEVE CIOBO MP, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY: It’s terrific to welcome the Prime Minister here to the Gold Coast again, now Australia’s sixth largest and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. We are here for a major infrastructure announcement and I’m not going to pre-empt what the Prime Minister is about to say, but I think everyone knows where we are going with this.
This is a significant investment that builds on the multi-billion dollar investment that the Liberal and National Government has made here on the Gold Coast from infrastructure through to health services through to education, record funding for tourism confidence that is driving our construction industry. All of this dedicated to growing the number of jobs here on the Gold Coast.The Gold Coast is also the small business capital of Australia, this is the place that the Liberal and National government are absolutely focused on making sure that we grow small and medium businesses, that they have the confidence to keep investing and the confidence to keep employing more Gold Coasties.
So it’s a terrific pleasure to welcome the Prime Minister here, day one of his tour through Queensland and part of the very strong commitment of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and of the Liberals and the Nationals to our investment here not only on the Gold Coast but indeed throughout Queensland. So over to you ScoMo.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Steven. Karen it is great to be here with you and Amanda as well and Steven to be here in your part of the Coast. It is day one of the run through Queensland today and we are here backing Queenslanders. We are here listening, we are hearing what Queenslanders are saying to us and particularly here on the Gold Coast and we’re getting on with it. We are doing, we are listening, we are hearing and we are doing here in Queensland, for what Queenslanders say are their priorities. And what we are here to announce is $112 million for Stage 3 of the Gold Coast Light Rail.
As Steven has said, this has been a multibillion-dollar project and the Commonwealth now will have invested and committed over half a billion dollars to this project since when it first commenced. This is a very significant investment. There is no greater investment that I am aware of in light rail by the Federal Government anywhere else in the country. What that says is two things; we get this is the right transport solution for the Gold Coast and where there is a good plan and strong plan to deal with the congestion-busting needs of infrastructure, then we are there. We show up and we back it in. This is a plan for the Gold Coast and it is a plan that we are backing in as a National Government. That is essential to ensure that the services and the infrastructure in place to support the population growth, that we are seeing here on the Gold Coast. This is a growing city. This is a bold city. This is an ambitious city with people who want to go ahead, start businesses and see the growth that has improved their lifestyle and that has improved their way of life and creating jobs for thousands of young people here on the Gold Coast. Which is exactly what we want to see. This is a real go ahead place and it needs go ahead infrastructure. That is why we are here, going ahead with our investment in the Gold Coast light rail Stage 3.
As usual, it’s going to require the partnership at all three levels of government. That partnership has existed for the first two stages and you have got to keep going. So we would welcome the contribution from both the state and local government to make sure we can keep this project going. It is going to create real opportunities here on the coast for jobs, some 2,400 jobs in the construction alone. 16 minutes to connect from Broadbeach down the Burleigh and that provides the next great iteration of this city-shaping piece of infrastructure here on the Gold Coast.
But it is part of our broader plan for Queensland. Over $20 billion in infrastructure projects all recommitted or underway since we first came to Government and that will continue to be rolled out, because Queensland needs the infrastructure to support its population, to maintain the high standards of living that Queenslanders work hard for. That is why I am here today with my colleagues to back that in strongly for the Gold Coast.
Now, Karen Andrews the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology knows a thing or two about how jobs get generated, but she is also a great local member. I will ask her to say a few things about what this means for the Gold Coast.
THE HON KAREN ANDREWS MP, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Thank you Prime Minister and the Coalition Government is absolutely leading the way with transport infrastructure here on the Gold Coast. We led the way with the $1 billion announcement for the upgrades to the M1 and we are leading the way today with $112 million to upgrade the light rail, take it further south from Broadbeach through the Burleigh. I have long supported the light rail going from Broadbeach all the way through to Burleigh. The issue remains as to where it will terminate at Burleigh and I call on the State Government and the local council to make sure that they consult properly with the community to make sure that the light rail meets the needs of the community, both for our residents and also for our tourists here on the Gold Coast.
The Gold Coast is a different city to every other city in Australia because we are a linear city, we don’t have a central CBD with everything radiating out from it. We are a linear city predominately north-south and we need to make sure that our transport infrastructure is designed and suitable to the needs of our localS and of our tourists here on the Gold Coast. I’m delighted that the light rail is being extended through to Burleigh it will make a significant difference to our tourists and our locals it will ease the burden on the M1 and everyone knows on the southern part of the Gold Coast there are some major bottlenecks there. We are fixing that, we led the way and we are now leading the way with light rail. It’s a fantastic announcement.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. Amanda, the Senator for Queensland this is part of a big infrastructure investment for Queensland as well, so Amanda do you want to say a few words?
AMANDA STOKER: Good morning everybody. It’s wonderful to be part of a team in the Liberal National Coalition that cares so much about infrastructure. It’s a big word but what it means is very real. It means more money in your pocket because you’ve job building the thing. It means better memories for the tourists that come to this town, spend their money having good times together. It means getting home sooner, getting home safer, more time parents, more time with kids and that is where the rubber hits the road with infrastructure. It’s one of the reasons we are so committed to busting congestion here and throughout the state and I commend the team on the project.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Amanda, happy to take some questions. But this is how you deal with population pressures; you build the infrastructure the cities need and you plan for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you are obviously on this bus tour. Any announcements during his tour, are they going to offset by cuts elsewhere or higher taxes, how are they funded?
PRIME MINISTER: These are all fully funded, this particular investment is fully funded under the Budget I announced in May.
JOURNALIST: The M1 has been mentioned already a couple of times, is this sort of masking the issues there or is this going to complement it?
PRIME MINISTER: You need both of these working together. You need to invest in roads, you need to invest in rail. That’s why I talked about the light rail being, I think, a very sensible and clever way to deal with the transport needs here on the Gold Coast and it’s success over some years I think demonstrates the wisdom of that approach. That’s why you keep backing it in. If something Is working well you should back it in and that’s what we are doing here. This is working and we want it to keep working and we want to extend it’s effectiveness and extend it’s positive impact, on not just the Gold Coast but how it impacts more broadly on the region. Because it means the Gold Coast city will function more effectively with this infrastructure.
When I was Treasurer, I initiated a review by the Productivity Commission about what were the most important things you could do in the Australian economy to lift productivity. And one of the things they said, one of the most important things they said, is to make our cities more effective, make them more workable and them more liveable and that’s what this does. This is an investment in the productivity of South East Queensland and that’s why I think it’s such a sensible investment and one to do in partnership with the State Government and with the local council who have been partners on this project to date and big partners and I would expect that they would continue to be big partners to realise the full ambition of this important infrastructure.
The M1 absolutely, as Karen said, you are not going to get to site quickly in your ute if you are stuck in traffic or if you are running a van doing deliveries, you are not going to meet your targets each day if you are caught in traffic each day and you not going to get to work on time or get home on time to spend those precious moments you get with your family. That’s why we have also stumped up on the M1 and we’ll continue to do that with the budgets going forward.
JOURNALIST: There is no business case leading into this project, however why have you chosen this time to announce it?
PRIME MINISTER: Because you have got to, I think, show the commitment about where the project is going in the future. The homework still has to be done and the homework will be done on the project to make sure you execute it in exactly the right way. It’s not unlike what we are doing up in Townsville on the pipeline. The homework still needs to be done on the fine details on the project and its’ costings and all of that. But you have got to tell people where you are going.
Why I’m here in Queensland this week, is to say we know where we are going with Queensland. We have been listening carefully to Queenslanders particularly through our wonderful team of LNP members up here in Queensland. Whether it’s Entschy right up in the north or Karen in the south or David Littleproud out in the west, we have got a wonderful team right across the state who have been advocating the case for what Queensland needs for it’s infrastructure to grow and be successful in the future. So we have been listening, but more importantly, we have been hearing. We have been hearing what Queenslanders are saying and that is why we are doing. We’re here today, we are here to ‘do’.
JOURNALIST: Queensland’s Transport Minister has said the $112 million that this is a sixth of what this proposal is expected to cost and that it’s the smallest amount he has seen contributed to a project like this.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is the largest single investment of a Commonwealth government, a light rail project anywhere in the country. So, at the end of the day, Queensland Government is still responsible for infrastructure in Queensland. That is actually their day job and that is what they need to be involved in and supportive of. The Commonwealth has been showing up here to the tune of over half a billion worth of investment in this project and this adds to that today. I think that is an extraordinarily large commitment from the Commonwealth over the life of this project. Of course the State Government is going to fund the majority share of these projects. That is their job, that is what they are elected to do. They are elected to build this infrastructure. In fact, in many parts of the country, this sort of infrastructure is being built solely by state governments who haven't made any call on the Commonwealth Government to invest.
So we have turned up here because we think it’s very important to the city of the Gold Coast and the productivity of this city and the liveability of this city and its future success. So we are here, we have turned up the invitation is for them to show up too, for Stage 3. Thanks very much, great to be here on the Coast.