State needs to fund Hamilton Plains
June 10, 2019: The key commitment I want to see in the State Government Budget to be handed down tomorrow is funding to fix flooding issues at Hamilton Plains on Shute Harbour Road in the Whitsundays.
With $29.6 million nowallocated federally under Roads of Strategic Importance, the remaining 20 percent of the funding required needs to be allocated by the Palaszczuk StateGovernment.
Shute Harbour Road through Hamilton Plains is a state-managed road, and even though the residents of the Whitsundays who rely on this road to get to and from schools, doctors, hospitals and the airport have been crying out for action to boost flood immunity, their calls have fallen on deaf ears.
That’s why I went in to fight for a commitment under the Liberal National Government’s Roads of Strategic Importance (ROSI) program.
I secured a commitment of $29.6 million, or 80 per cent of the funding needed to fix this road and this was announced in our April Budget.
We now need the State Labor Government to get on board and contribute the remaining $7.4 million so that the people of Proserpine and the Whitsundays can access key services during those times when we face weather events and flooding.
I was pleased to see the Minister for Main Roads Mark Bailey in Mackay last week announcing a $70m commitment to the Mackay Port Access Road.
This now secures roads funding to complete Mackay’s biggest infrastructure project, not only providing more jobs over the next six years, but this will create a strategic connection between the port and the Bowen Basin and Galilee Basin mining regions, as well as prime agricultural regions, to the west.