Time for Premier to walk the walk

JANUARY 25, 2016: THE Queensland Premier’s talk of fast-tracking infrastructure projects in North Queensland is an absolute joke when two of the biggest job-creating projects, namely the Mackay Ring Road and the Haughton River Bridge replacement, are lost in a bureaucratic bog.We need more than rubbish talk from Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on fast-tracking these big projects, because the blame for holding up hundreds of jobs lies squarely with the State Labor Government.The Federal Government had already committed to fast-tracking funding for these infrastructure projects at my insistence; that promise was secured back in September 2014 from then Prime Minister Tony Abbott.Yet both the Mackay Ring Road and the Haughton River Bridge replacement projects are still languishing because the State government cannot move fast enough to get detailed design work done so construction on these projects can start.The reality is though, where there’s a will there’s a way, and I’ve written to the Premier requesting she get serious about dealing with the ridiculously slow bureaucratic processes in her departments.I will also be launching a petition to be distributed via newspapers and in letterboxes in the coming weeks calling on the Premier to remember Mackay.Labor leader Bill Shorten is also behind the eight ball in writing to the Prime Minister to ask for a fast-track of funding for Bruce Highway projects.I already secured fast-tracked funding for projects back in 2014 but the reality is they can’t be fast tracked while the State Government is dragging the chain. What Mr Shorten should be doing is talking to the Queensland Premier about dealing with the bureaucracy in her own departments.If the Premier demanded that the Department of Transport and Main Roads have the two projects ready for construction this year and allocated all appropriate resources to the task then it would happen.The time for action is long overdue, but if the Premier wants to talk the talk, she now needs to walk the walk and take action to get the projects going.