Federal Budget support missing in action for City of Moreton Bay
Published 20 May 2024
City of Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery has expressed dismay at the lack of support for the City in the Federal Budget.
“While the previously announced funding for the Bruce Highway, the Linkfield Road Overpass and the Pine River Bridge Upgrade is certainly welcome, this is ultimately just a top up to fund projects that have been on the books for some time.
“Of course, there needed to be funding assigned in the budget, with costs rising so rapidly in construction, but this is old news.
“There is just no foresight. City of Moreton Bay has a critical need for new infrastructure that will unlock land for housing.
“The Federal Budget claimed to have a solution to ease infrastructure bottlenecks and better connect essential services to homes such as roads, water and power, and called for an increase in housing supply. But not a dollar has been even offered to City of Moreton Bay for this purpose.
“Yet, we have 12 greenfield growth fronts and developers waiting in earnest to bring housing to market.
“We have presented to Ministers, been part of delegations to Canberra, spoken regularly to MPs and Senators and worked in the background advocating to keep City of Moreton Bay front of mind but we have been ignored.
“Even the loan funding already committed in the SEQ City Deal for Waraba is tied up in bureaucracy, when we have put forward ideas to fund Buchanan Road, that will support the growth of Waraba.
“We are the third largest council in Australia. Infrastructure investment and planning, will transform City of Moreton Bay, opening up land to cater for our rapidly growing population currently at 500,000 people and expected to grow to 800,000 by 2046.
"It's all well and good to keep making band aid fixes to the Bruce Highway, that runs right through City of Moreton Bay, but as we grow, we need east-west arterial roads that open up growth fronts and take locals off the Bruce Highway.
"Instead, it seems both Governments are not listening and are committing South East Queenslanders to even more congestion than what we see on a daily basis.
“Without a pipeline of funded catalytic infrastructure, including key projects such as Buchanan Road and the Bruce Highway Western Alternative, alongside a serious commitment to public transport in our city, the ability to create a functioning, liveable city will be threatened.
“We’ve done the planning, we know what we need to manage this impending growth, and the fact of the matter is that land can’t be developed without infrastructure.
“Council can’t keep taking the unsustainable cost-shifting that other levels of Government are pushing on to local ratepayers when Councils only receive 3% of tax revenue.
"The lack of response in funding to the enormous growth challenge we face is quite frankly inadequate and a snub to Moreton Bay locals.
“As South East Queensland’s fastest growing city, we need Governments - both State and Federal - to realise the significance City of Moreton Bay has across housing, liveability and employment growth.”