The Premier needs to keep her election promise to be a Premier for all Queensland by giving the Sunshine Coast its fair share of funding for infrastructure.
Connecting the Sunshine Coast with better public transport and better roads is absolutely critical. Speaking in Parliament recently, I asked the Premier to match the Federal Government’s commitment of $390 million to duplicate the railway line from Beerburrum to Nambour which will help unlock the public transport bottleneck from the Coast to Brisbane. The State also needs to provide its share of funding to fix the Bruce Highway bottleneck between Caloundra and Pine Rivers and to upgrade the Sunshine Motorway.
Thanks to our Federal Government LNP colleagues Ted O’Brien, Lew O’Brien and Andrew Wallace, we’ve just seen $2 billion in Federal Government funding provided in the Budget for the Sunshine Coast.
I also asked the Premier to fix the dangerous and congested section of the Sunshine Motorway at the Mooloolah River Interchange with a new road link to the hospital in Kawana and to provide funding for the Entertainment, Convention and Exhibition facility in Maroochydore, starting with the business case.
The Sunshine Coast is the only major centre in Queensland that does not have a facility of this kind which would help deepen our economy by supporting the tourism market for business event and conventions.
Rockhampton Council received a $2 million state government grant to develop a business case for their proposed $30 million new gallery and I am asking the Premier to provide the funding for our council’s application for its business plan for the convention centre, so a proper plan for funding and operating this centre can make a reality.
