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3/120 Gardens Drive, Willawong QLD 4110 that the flood resilient upgrades along the Bruce Highway had stood up to January’s deluge.

“Flood resilience is one of the three major scopes of the current $13 billion Bruce Highway Upgrade Program, and the flood resilient projects we have delivered have stood up to the test of months’ worth of rain hitting Central and North Queensland in just a few days,” said Bailey.

“At 1679km long the Bruce Highway is a massive stretch of road, and there’s no denying we still have work to do, but it’s clear we are delivering and have a credible plan for the future,” he said.

“Our future plan for the Bruce includes flood resilience improvements on projects like the 26km long Gympie By- pass project, the 15km long Rockhampton Ring Road, the 9km long Tiaro Bypass, and the almost 30km of flood resilient stretch being delivered as part of the Townsville Ring Road and Townsville Northern Access projects, just to name a few.

“But we know the North Queensland coastline usually cops it worst in summer during the wet and cyclone season, and that’s why we’re building a second Bruce Highway from Charters Towners to Mungindi which was bagged by the LNP when we announced it in 2020.

“The Inland Freight Route [or ‘Second Bruce’] will provide a genuine alternative to keep supplies coming into Central and Northern Queensland communities during the wet season or a cyclone.”

Mahon said it’s great to see plenty of money being spent on the Bruce, but he’d like to more investment in the Inland Freight Route.

“And we need to see it spent sooner rather than later, but we also need to be thinking the same way on the Pacific and the Hume going through NSW. We need to change the perspective and the posture of planning to achieve the target of developing as promptly as we can at least one strategic corridor around the country that is all-weather.

“When you look at the scale of investment, you’re going to have to spend a lot more money to make all-weather for rail. The cheaper option is for road freight.”