The Queensland State Government’s ‘rail revolution’ has been exposed as a ‘fail revolution’ today with the revelation of a $1.835 billion underspend on the Sunshine Coast.
Federal Member for Fairfax, Ted O’Brien slammed State Labor’s commitments for ‘new rail projects’ as daylight robbery.
“State Labor’s so called ‘rail revolution’ is a political con-job that will rob Sunshine Coast residents of a pipeline of desperately needed infrastructure investments,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The Sunshine Coast is focused on three rail projects in particular and Labor is short-changing us on every single one.”
- $1.6 billion on a 50:50 split towards a new $3.2 billion heavy passenger rail line between Beerwah and Maroochydore to be built ahead of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The State committed $0.
- The former Federal Government budgeted $390 million on a 50:50 split towards Stage 1 of the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade. The State committed only $160 million.
- The former Federal Government budgeted $5 million on a 50:50 split to redesign Stage 2 of the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade to allow for full duplication to Nambour. The State committed only $1.25 million.
“Governments have earmarked nearly $2.163 billion to transform rail services on the Sunshine Coast, yet only 7 percent or $164.25 million comes from the Queensland Government and the remaining 93 percent or $1.998 billion comes from the former Federal Government.
“This is despite rail being the responsibility of the State Government,” said Mr O’Brien. “It’s an utter disgrace and a whopping slap in the face to every Sunshine Coast resident.”
“If the Queensland Government matched our budgeted commitments to Sunshine Coast rail, the total pipeline of investment would be nearly $4 billion,” said Mr O’Brien.