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LNP kicks off poll countdown with $1b infrastructure plan

As the 100-day countdown to the Queensland election begins, the State Opposition unveils its first major promise, committing $1 billion towards infrastructure projects that includes extending Brisbane’s Centenary Bridge to six lanes.

Jul 23, 2020, updated Jul 23, 2020
LNP Maiwar candidate Lauren Day with Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, announcing the infrastructure plan they'll take to the election. Photo: ABC

LNP Maiwar candidate Lauren Day with Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, announcing the infrastructure plan they'll take to the election. Photo: ABC

Queensland’s Opposition has unveiled its first major election promise, committing to $1 billion in infrastructure spending if an LNP government is elected in October.

The first project would be a new $245 million bridge over the Brisbane River on the Centenary Motorway at Jindalee in Brisbane’s south-west.

LNP Shadow Treasurer Tim Mander said the projects would be fully costed and the state’s debt would not increase.

“All our funding promises will be fully funded,” he said.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the new bridge would bust traffic congestion for the western suburbs by increasing the number of lanes on the motorway from four to six.

“My number one priority is to create jobs,” she said.

“Now the LNP has a plan to stimulate the economy and drag us out of this recession and create a decade of secure jobs.

“For anyone who gets stuck in that traffic day in day out, they will know what I’m talking about.

“This is a major arterial into Brisbane.”

Ms Frecklington said the cost amount for the new bridge came from a business case conducted by the State Government.

“This is the business case that has been worked up by the Government but unfortunately it’s been sitting gathering dust under the Palaszczuk Government,” she said.

In 2017, the State Government committed $4 million for a business case for the new Centenary Motorway bridge.

It completed the case and last year put the design for the bridge out for tender.

Vow to end ‘wasteful spending’

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Mr Mander said the LNP would be “eliminating Labor’s waste”.

“Without trying we’ve already identified $1 billion [including] $527 million there from the overrun IT budgets with the programs they’re running,” he said.

“The decision to bring the prisons back into public hands is costing $100 million over four years, right down to the name changing of the Lady Cilento Hospital.

“All wasteful spending that is totally unnecessary.”

Mr Mander said there would be no cuts to the public service.

“There will be no cuts to the public service, I will say that a hundred times as will Deb before the election,” he said.

“There will be no forced redundancies with public service and there will be no cuts to public service [and] there will be no new taxes.”

The bridge extension would be constructed in the seat of Mt Ommaney, which the LNP won from Labor in 2012 but Labor won back in 2017.

Labor holds the seat with a margin of 5.8 per cent.

– ABC / Rachel Riga

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